Sleep and Memory

What is the easiest way to strengthen your memories? Sleep!

WebMD Medical News reported at the end of April that Jeffrey Ellenbogen, MD, a neurologist and fellow in sleep research at Harvard Medical School, has found some interesting connections between sleep and memory.

"This is the first study to show that sleep protects memories from interference," Ellenbogen says in an American Academy of Neurology news release.

"These results provide important insights into how the sleeping brain interacts with memories: It appears to strengthen them," he says. "Perhaps, then, sleep disorders might worsen memory problems seen in dementia."

Ellenbogen's research shows that those who were asked to memorize word pairs and then were distracted by another set of word pairs were able to repeat the first words more accurately after a good night's rest.

That is to say, "sleeping on it" prevented a distraction to the memory task, and could be useful for understanding how memory works.

So does this mean that we should all commit something to memory and then take a nap?

Maybe!

Related Topics:

• WebMD Video: Napping on the Job
• Learn To Relax and Sleep Like A Baby

Technorati Tags: sleep, memory, naps, health and wellness

Sleepy Soldiers

In an excellent article in the Sunday Edition of Stars and Stripes (5/20/07), the authors take a look at what I feel is one of the more important aspects of America's well being, their soldiers' sleep. We all know that sleep in or on the field of battle can be a horrible and scarce experience at best, but now it is even more difficult.

In the past several months, under the new Baghdad security plan (to create new combat outposts and joint security stations in the city of Baghdad to help slow the feud between Sunni and Shia Muslims), the soldiers are now running double duty.

First they patrol the surrounding neighborhood, then they come back to the station and have to stand guard for a second shift.

When they do get to go to a larger base, they are so busy doing all of the normal things we try to do (email, shower, laundry), they actually do not have time to sleep.

As crazy as this may seem, the Pentagon has no policy requiring servicemen and women in a war zone to get a particular amount of sleep. Basic rules for ground troops is 4 in 24, or 4 hours within 24 hours. Some soldiers say that this rule has been misinterpreted to mean that one can go on 4 in 24 for an indefinite period of time.

We know this cannot be true, and it will compromise the safety of not just the soldiers themselves but those around them as well, since we know that sleep deprivation affects reaction time, mood, and critical thinking skills.

To add to the misery, even if they have the time to sleep, they may not have a suitable environment, or may be unable to sleep due to nightmares from what they have experienced.

Oftentimes the best thing for them to do is nap. A quick power nap can really make a difference. The new saying appears to be "Nap early and Nap often" -- sounds like good advice.

Be safe.

Related Topics:

• Sleep Deprivation Blurs Moral Judgment
• WebMD Video: Wounds of War - One Soldier's Recovery

Technorati Tags: sleep deprivation, soldiers, safety, health and wellness

Should You Wake a Sleepwalker?

I recently read a great quick question and answer section on the Scientific American website (April: this shows you how far behind I am with my reading!) about sleepwalking.

As I have been asked this question before, I thought it may be worthwhile to address it:

"Should you wake a sleepwalker?"
...and the usual follow-up,
"If you wake a sleepwalker can they die?"

First of all, the answer is a resounding YES, you should wake a sleep walker... and a resounding NO, they will not die.

The reason you will want to wake a sleepwalker is because they could possibly hurt themselves or others. However, you will want to be quite careful, since when you wake them you should expect them to be quite disoriented, and in some cases possibly angry. This is rare, though; we see most sleepwalkers upon waking are simply confused.

Sleepwalking is quite common in children and adolescents (about 15-20% will have at least one episode). We see the rate of incidence increase in adults with sleep deprivation, and with alcohol use.

It should be known that sleepwalking occurs in the deepest stages of Non-REM Sleep (stages 3 and 4) and can involve some very complex behaviors: walking, talking, dressing, undressing, preparing food, having sex, driving, and in one rare case, committing homicide!

This is why it is oftentimes best to gently wake someone and lead them back to bed. The following evening you may want them to go to bed a bit earlier, reduce their caffeine and alcohol, and sleep on the lower level of their home (to avoid the stairs!).

Related Topics:

• 5 Steps for Stopping a Sleepwalker
• WebMD Video: What's Your Sleep Personality?

Technorati Tags: sleep walking, sleep deprivation, caffeine, health and wellness

Caffeine Facts

Photo Credit: Jason Wilson

While catching up on my reading about caffeine I came across a story featured in the April 23, 2007 print edition of U.S. News & World Report. The facts I was able to pull out were simply amazing:

• A police officer in Alaska has invented a combination of caffeine and lip balm.
• An inventor in Durham, NC has perfected the recipe for a caffeine-infused doughnut or bagel.
• The number of 18-to-24-year-olds who drink coffee daily has doubled, from 16 percent to 31 percent.
• Energy drinks like Red Bull and Cocaine, with several times the buzz of a can of Coke, have mushroomed into a $3.5 billion-a-year industry.
• Children's consumption of soft drinks has doubled in the past 35 years, with sodas supplanting milk.
• A 2003 study of Columbus, Ohio middle schoolers found some taking in 800 milligrams of caffeine a day -- more than twice the recommended maximum for adults of 300 milligrams. (Learn how to cut back on caffeine intake.)
• Test subjects dosed with the amount found in a cup of coffee come out ahead on problem-solving tasks.
• By triggering the release of adrenaline to help muscles work harder and longer, caffeine so clearly enhances athletic performance that until 2004 it was considered a controlled substance by the International Olympic Committee.
• The latest findings on coffee suggest that it even staves off disease. Caffeine reduces the risk of Parkinson's disease, for example, by blocking receptors for adenosine, a neurotransmitter that plays a role in motor function. It is now being tested as a Parkinson's treatment. Caffeine also heads off migraines by contracting blood vessels in the brain.
• Coffee, like blueberries and broccoli, contains potent antioxidants. It appears to reduce the risk of colon cancer, gallstones, and liver cancer, among other illnesses.
• In 2005, Harvard researchers found that drinking six cups of coffee or more daily cut the risk of getting type 2 diabetes by half in men and 30 percent in women.
• One study of 80,000 women showed that those who drank more than two or three cups of coffee daily reduced their risk of suicide over 10 years by a third.
• The young adult crowd who favor caffeine with their alcohol appear to be putting themselves at some risk, too. According to Mark Fillmore, a psychologist at the University of Kentucky, "Caffeine seems to restore the speed of your behavior but not the accuracy." This gives a whole new meaning to "The Quick and the Dead!"
• "Coffee culture" has become so much a part of American culture that 36-year-old Starbucks, once considered a gourmet's treat, now boasts 9,401 stores nationwide and has focused growth on economically struggling neighborhoods far from the yuppified precincts of its early success.

So what have a learned from all of these factoids?

First, I think it is safe to say that very few people who use caffeine really know the pros and cons and how to use it appropriately.

Second, I know almost no one who thinks about their use or abuse of caffeine.

And finally, it made me think twice about my single morning cup a few days per week.

Related Topics:

• WebMD Video: Truth About Coffee
• Pros and Cons of the Caffeine Craze

Technorati Tags: sleep, caffeine, health and wellness

Acupuncture and Sleep Apnea

I saw an interesting news clipping by Alien Sheng in the 17 April 2007 issue of the American Chronicle, entitled Acupuncture and Sleep Apnea.

In it she described sleep apnea quite well, and then went on to explain that there is only one article on the control of sleep apnea with acupuncture. I too question why we have not seen more on Eastern medicine and sleep disorders.

The article stated quite well that:

The basic assumption made in traditional Chinese medicine is that the body is supposed to function properly. When all is in harmony, it will do so. It is necessary to live in a certain way to make this harmony more likely. There are important environmental considerations such as diet, exercise, and even the mental and spiritual well being of a person that contribute to harmony. When something gets out of whack, there is a definite reason and cause. It is the pursuit of this underlying cause rather than a concentration on symptoms that makes acupuncture and sleep apnea such a good match.

While I have read a good bit on insomnia and Eastern medicine, I think that we would all like to see more on the subject. Especially with the recent FDA recommendation that for all medications in the sleeping pill category, explicit descriptions of even unusual side effects must be made known to those using these prescriptions.

I think what we need would be a good set of empirical research studies looking at topics like acupressure/acupuncture and sleep disorders, yoga and sleep, etc.

Related Topics:

• WebMD Video: Personal Story - Sleep Apnea
• WebMD Video: Diagnosing Sleep Apnea at Home

Technorati Tags: sleep apnea, acupuncture, sleep disorders, insomnia, Chinese medicine, health-and-wellness

Air Safety and Sleep

A still from the air traffic
controller movie, Pushing Tin

I was looking at an interesting but tragic article on air traffic controller sleep and fatigue the other day and what I learned was actually quite scary. The CNN story stated:

In the August 27 Comair crash in Lexington, Kentucky, the lone air-traffic controller was working on just two hours of sleep, according to the NTSB.

The controller cleared the CRJ-100 to take off from the correct runway, which was 7,003 feet long, but the airplane mistakenly turned onto a shorter runway that was just half that length. The plane crashed into a fence and trees at the airport perimeter, killing 49 of the 50 people onboard.

The controller in the tower had worked a 6:30 a.m.-to-2:30 p.m. shift the day before the accident, then returned nine hours later and worked from 11:30 p.m. until the 6:07 a.m. accident, the NTSB says. He told investigators his only sleep between shifts was a two-hour nap.

So here I must wonder, what was this guy thinking? He was scheduled to work for about a 24 hour period with a decent break in between and he only took a 2 hour nap!

While I have no idea what is required of these people, I would venture to say that if I were an air traffic controller, I would certainly try to get more sleep than 2 hours before going to work where, literally, people's lives are on the line.

It was reported that there have been 4 other fatigue-related incidents (all italics are mine):

Chicago, Illinois, March 23, 2006: The NTSB letter says a controller cleared an Airbus A320 passenger plane to cross a runway and then, less than 15 seconds later, cleared a Boeing 737 to take off on the same runway. The pilot of the Boeing saw the Airbus and stopped before reaching the taxiway intersection. The controller told investigators he had slept only four hours during a nine-hour break between shifts.

Los Angeles, California, August 19, 2004: A controller cleared a Boeing 737 passenger plane to taxi onto and take off from a runway at the same time that another plane, a Boeing 747, had been cleared to land on the same runway. The pilot of the landing plane saw the 737 and pulled up 12 seconds before a collision would have occurred, passing about 200 feet above the runway. The controller had slept five or six hours before returning to work, the NTSB letter says.

Denver, Colorado, September 25, 2001: A controller approved a request from a Boeing 757 cargo plane crew to depart from a runway, even though the runway had been closed for construction. The aircraft passed within 32 feet of lights that had been erected in the construction zone. Investigators determined that the controller had slept less than two hours during a nine-hour period between work days.

Seattle, Washington, July 8, 2001: A controller cleared a Boeing MD-80 passenger airplane to cross a runway at the same time a Boeing 767 passenger airplane was about to land on the runway. The pilots in the landing airplane hit their brakes to avoid a collision, stopping only 810 feet short of the MD-80. The controller was working his third shift in two days, with eight-hour rest periods between shifts.

As you can see in the LA incident, the person got at least 5 hours of sleep, while the others were quite a bit less.

My question is this: could it be that these people cannot fall asleep quickly enough to get the rest they need in between shifts?

This could be a real possibility. Think about the stress they must be under while working. That is not likely something that they would be able to just shrug off, drive home, nap, and drive back. I would doubt that they would be allowed to take sleeping pills, and also, at least in the ComAir case, they were being asked to sleep at a time of day when they may not be tired.

Could it be that they are being required to work shifts that their bodies cannot sustain?

I think this too is a real possibility. The human body may not have been meant to handle these types of work schedules.

However, I will say that common sense would say, if you do not feel up to it, don't go in to work.

Related Topics:

• WebMD Video: Napping on the Job
• The Toll of Sleep Loss in America

Technorati Tags: sleep, fatigue, air safety, air traffic controller, health-and-wellness

Sleep, Odor, & Memory

Jayson Emery

In an article in Forbes.com (3/11/07; you may need an account to read it.), there was a recap of a study published in one of the most prestigious journals known, Science. In the study:

German scientists used medical students as their guinea pigs, having them play a computer version of a common memory game: They turned over pairs of cards to find each one's match. Some played in a rose-scented room. Later that night, while they were in a deep stage of sleep known as slow-wave sleep, researchers gave them another whiff of roses. The next day, the rose-scented sleepers remembered the locations of those cards better than people who didn't get a whiff - they answered correctly 97 percent of the time compared with 86 percent.

In no other sleep stage was there a difference in memory performance.

Interestingly, when asked to do a different type of memory task (numeric and finger-tapping), the subjects' performance was unchanged with any odor in any stage of sleep. The scientists theorized that since there are different types of memory, the numeric memory task must be stored in an area of the brain that is unaffected by smell.

What interests me about this study was that I had learned that we cannot smell in our sleep; at least not consciously, which is why smoke alarms have a loud noise associated with them. However, this study would indicate that there may be an unconscious stimuli for smell in sleep.

Related Topics:

• Strengthen Memory While You Sleep
• Sleep Deprivation May Impair Memory

Technorati Tags: sleep, memory, odor, health-and-wellness