According to a recent survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control, there are more than nine million American adults who rely on prescription sleeping aids to help them get the rest that they need. That is an enormous number that represents approximately four percent of the population, so it is incumbent upon sleep researchers and scientists to make sure that they have a good understanding of the impact that these drugs may be having.  There have been a number of concerns voiced about the potential side effects of these powerful hypnotics, including an FDA safety alert that was issued in 2013 warning of excessive morning drowsiness that was a risk with taking the standard dosage of drugs containing zolpidem, particularly for women. Since Zolpidem is found in some of the most popular sleep medications on the market, including Ambien, Ambien CR and Elduar, this raised immediate concerns for many patients and physicians alike, and another recent alert suggested that initial dosing should be adjusted on a number of sleep medications in order to minimize this impact. Continue reading →

A new study published in an online supplement to the journal Sleep has determined that there is a higher likelihood of suicide in the hours between midnight and 4:00 a.m. then at any other time of day or night. The first-of-its-kind data analysis negates previous understands of when suicide was happening in proportion to the number of people actually awake, and gives a much more realistic accounting of some possible causes and mechanisms of these fatal incidents. Continue reading →

A study published in the most recent edition of the journal Sleep asserts that when it comes to grades, sleep deprivation can be just as damaging as binging on alcohol or marijuana.

According to the results of a study conducted at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, you can predict how successful a student will be in a class and whether they end up dropping it based simply on how much sleep they are getting. The researchers analyzed data that had been collected during the 2009 American College Health Association National College Health Assessment, which involved over 43,000 participants. They found that even when they controlled for such factors as race, gender, health problems and work hours, sleep was the number one predictor for whether a student would drop a class.  Continue reading →

We all know that sleep is crucial to our quality of life, and even that lack of sleep can have serious health implications and lead to a higher risk of serious conditions, including obesity, cardiovascular problems, diabetes and stroke. But can lack of sleep actually kill you?

To get to the heart of the question, let’s take a look at the most basic sleep disorder, insomnia. Insomnia is a condition that afflicts millions of Americans – somewhere between 10% and 30% of us will likely experience insomnia at some point in our lives. Though we may think of any period of sleeplessness as insomnia, the condition is actually strictly defined as when all three of the following conditions are present:  Continue reading →

These days, shopping for a mattress can be as complicated as shopping for a car – and if you’re not careful, it can be just as expensive too. One of the most luxurious options available comes with bells and whistles that you may have never heard of – and that you probably don’t really need – but that doesn’t mean that you can’t dream… or dream on it. Continue reading →