Wenatex Blog :: Healthy Sleep for a Better Life

ScienceDaily (June 18, 2007) — Driving a vehicle requires coordination of horizontal eye movements and steering. Recent research  finds that even a single night of sleep deprivation can impact a person’s ability to coordinate eye movements with steering.
The study, authored by Mark Chattington of Manchester Metropolitan University, focused on six participants, who drove a winding route on a driving simulator. On the first day, they drove for one hour starting at 5 p.m. The subjects were kept awake the following night, and on day two, drove again at 5 p.m. for up to two-and-a-half hours. Their eye movements were monitored using a dashboard mounted eye tracker, and steering wheel movement was monitored through a precision potentiometer attached to the steering column.

The results showed that, in all drivers, sleep deprivation adversely affected their ability to coordinate eye movements when steering. There were instances of both acute and chronic reductions in the degree of coordination and in the time lead of eye movements over steering.

“The analysis of eye-steering coordination may provide a useful method of detecting when a driver is in danger of losing control of a vehicle due to fatigue, before the driver actually falls asleep,” said Chattington.

The amount of sleep a person gets affects his or her physical health, emotional well-being, mental abilities, productivity and performance. Recent studies associate lack of sleep with serious health problems such as an increased risk of depression, obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

An abstract of this research was presented June 11 at SLEEP 2007, the 21st Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS),

Experts recommend that adults get between seven and eight hours of sleep each night to maintain good health and optimum performance.

Persons who think they might be suffering from a sleep disorder are encouraged to consult with their primary care physician, who will refer them to a sleep specialist

Source: American Academy of Sleep Medicine (2007, June 18). Sleep Deprivation Affects Eye-steering Coordination When Driving. ScienceDaily

If you wish to understand  how to sleep better, visiting a Wenatex Sleep Seminar will help you. Book here:

www.wenatex.com.au

Until next time

Be wise and have fun

Juan

Research from the University of Chicago showed that sleep helps the mind learn complicated tasks and helps people recover learning they otherwise thought they had forgotten over the course of a day.

Timothy Brawn, a graduate student in Psychology at the University of Chicago; Kimberly Fenn, now an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Michigan State University; and Daniel Margoliash, Professor in the Departments of Organismal Biology & Anatomy and Psychology at the University of Chicago, very cleverly used video games with over 200 college students, to demonstrate that:

1.- When trained in the morning, subjects showed an 8 percentage point improvement in accuracy immediately after training. However, after 12 waking hours following training, subjects lost half of that improvement, when tested in the evening. When subjects were tested the next morning 24 hours after training, they showed a 10 percentage point improvement over their pre-test performance.

2.- “The students probably tested more poorly in the afternoon because following training, some of their waking experiences interfered with training. Those distractions went away when they slept and the brain was able to do its work”, Nusbaum said.

3.- Among the students who received evening training, scores improved by about 7 percentage points, went to 10 percentage points the next morning, and remained at that level throughout the day.

4.- “In this study, we showed that if after learning, by the end of the day, people ‘forgot’ some of what was learned, a night’s sleep restored this memory loss,” Nusbaum said. “Furthermore, a night’s sleep protected memory against loss over the course of the next day.”

5.- “The latest study has been expanded to show that sleep benefits people learning complicated tasks as well”, Nusbaum said.

Until next time, be wise and have fun.

J. Semo

Source from the University of Chicago

Some days ago I had the opportunity to spend some minutes with an eminence in Ophthalmology in Brisbane, Dr. John Harrison.
During our conversation he mentioned how obstructive sleep apnea  may affect our eyes in different ways.

Doing some reading, I found some comments from Dr Waller an Ophthalmologist of the Mayo Clinic in the US who mentioned the following: “… our understanding of the mechanisms that link these disorders is minimal,”. “However, the recognition of these associations is important for primary care physicians, ophthalmologists, and sleep physicians. For patients with OSA, a routine eye examination to evaluate for early signs of glaucoma, particularly in the setting of visual loss or change, should be recommended. Patients with opthalmologic diseases known to be associated with sleep apnea should be screened clinically for sleep apnea and referred to a sleep center if signs or symptoms are present.”

Here we have it… it seems that we are always coming back to the concept that sleep is our “Master Healer.”

Are you sleeping enough and in the right way? A visit to a Wenatex Sleep Seminar may give you some great tips of how to let yourself nurture by your “Master Healer”.

Let me know what you think.

Be wise and have fun

Juan

Women definitely don’t have it easy! PMS, the immense pains associated with child birth, enchanting the days and nights of our families, menopause and the list goes on.

If all this is not enough, menopause may be accompanied by unbearable temperature fluctuations… day and night… Or could it be something else?

In an issue of Harvard Women’s Health Watch, February 2008, it was reported that of 102 women with menopause 56% had hot flashes and 53% also experienced sleep troubles.  Although the study is very small it reiterates the need to understand if sleep difficulties could not be the origin of hot flashes in some women.

Talking from experience, I also know of men battling with sleep disorders also complaining about hot flashes…

This study can only reiterate the importance of ensuring that we all find the best possible sleep available.

So to the question….could a healthier sleep environment help menopausal women to achieve better sleep? The answer can only be yes!

Until next time

Be wise and have fun

J. Semo

Well, I am always keen to find new and “out of the ordinary” studies, but this one definitely came out of left field. Professor Gerhard Kloesch and his colleagues at the University of Vienna studied eight unmarried, childless couples in their 20s and they came to the conclusion that “When men spend the night with a bed mate, their sleep is disturbed, whether they make love or not, and this impairs their mental ability the next day…”

The interesting thing is that all the males that were tested reported that they felt better sleeping with their partners.  Nevertheless, measurement of their relation to hormones and physical abilities demonstrated that they were better having slept alone.

In relation to the females tested, although they also experienced disturbed sleep when sharing the bed, they apparently managed to sleep more deeply when they did eventually drop off, since they claimed to be more refreshed than their sleep time suggested.

I would like your opinion…. Do you think that  bed sharing really drains your brains?

Be wise and have fun

Juan

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Today, I received the latest newsletter from one of the most prestigious medical schools in the USA, John Hopkins Medicine, in which they discuss the latest advances in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of depression and anxiety.

The opening article was the following:

If you read carefully, you will see that the first question asked by professionals in relation to mental health is:

“Do you toss and turn at night, or wake up at 3 am unable to get back to sleep?”

This tells us two things:

1.         People who suffer from mental disorders generally suffer from sleep problems.

2.         People who suffer from sleep difficulties have a high probability of suffering from mental problems.

It concludes with:

“When your emotions cloud your outlook, interfere with your relationships, or affect the way you sleep at night and function during the day, you may be suffering from depression or an anxiety disorder.”

A friend of mine went spiralling into clinical depression and I remember that she was sleeping an average of 18 to 21 hours per day. The sad thing is that this continued until she committed suicide.

Do you have stories you would like to share? You can do it anonymously.

Until tomorrow be wise and have fun

Juan

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We know that, in the USA, over 100.000 road traffic accidents a year are due to fatigue. We also know that after two days of sleeping less then five hours each night, our coordination capacity is equal to when we experience a blood alcohol limit that will see us losing our driver’s licence. If we already know these facts, why don’t have laws regulating fatigued drivers? We do not tolerate workers impaired by alcohol, but we have no legal recourse if the impairment is due to sleep deprivation. Will we soon be asked by police officers to “blink” at a machine to find out how many hours we slept and if we are driving “under the limit”?

One of the major restrictions for law makers is the lack of scientific evidence to demonstrate poor coordination skills when we drive and the relationship with the hours we did not sleep. However, good news is on the way.  A scientific study performed by M. Chattington of Manchester Metropolitan University demonstrated that: “…driving a vehicle requires coordination of horizontal eye movements and steering. Recent research has found that even a single night of sleep deprivation can impact a person’s ability to coordinate eye movements with steering.” This study is extremely important because it may allow law makers to start thinking about ways to introduce measurable parameters to regulate people driving under the effects of sleep deprivation.

Did you know that 20 to 30% of truck drivers’ accidents are due to sleep deprivation?

Would you like to know more? One of our Wenatex Sales Consultants, Rachelle from Victoria sent us a fantastic link where you can find excellent information and film in relation to sleep. Here it is and thank you Rachelle!

http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/special_eds/20070813/sleep/default.htm

Until tomorrow, be wise and have fun… and watch out for those “sleepwalking” trucks!

How important the quality of a bed is has been demonstrated in a police incident in the town of Okaloosa, USA.

A couple having marital problems and contemplating divorce had a fight over who would sleep on the couch. The wife said her husband pushed her off the bed onto the floor, which started the fight over who should sleep on the couch. The husband had slept there the night before, but was refusing to sleep there a second time. After an investigation by the local Sheriff, the incident was closed.

This case illustrates the importance of a good night’s sleep and the influence of the mattress to achieve it.

Until next time

Be wise and have fun

Juan

For more information of how to improve the quality of your sleep please click here.