Coffee vs. Napping When You're on the Road

I think virtually everyone has had the unfortunate experience of driving while drowsy and struggling to stay awake. But not everyone has pondered the best "quick fix" short of getting off the road for a full night's sleep. This week the New York Times blogged about a new study in the medical journal Sleep that attempted to answer the question: is it better to drink coffee or take a nap?

Answer: Coffee. But read on... how old you are is the deciding factor!

I wasn't that surprised by this result. I think coffee can have quite a kick to it--more so than a short nap can. This is especially true in the short term. Had the researchers prolonged the drivers' time on the road, however, passing the point at which the caffeine begins to wear off, I wonder how the results would be changed.

The most interesting discovery from the study, though, was that the effect of the coffee and napping varied by age. Middle-aged people responded better to coffee, and younger-aged people (those between 20 and 25) found the nap to be nearly equally as good as the coffee.

This partly can be explained by the fact the younger people slept longer and more deeply than the middle-aged participants during the half-hour nap. So it makes sense, then, that the younger drivers gained more from their naps than the older drivers.

Pulling over to the side of the road to take a short nap does have its risks. More often than not, it's simply not safe to just pull over and tune out--especially in remote areas where you don't know if someone will approach you and cause trouble. While the sleep doc should be advocating the nap, I have to say coffee is more practical in today's world. I just hope that those people who truly are sleep-deprived and unable to focus on the road do themselves good by calling a time-out and finding a safe place to rest up. Maybe even spend the night.

One thing that the researchers did not look at was my favorite of both worlds...the Caf-Nap. If you get the chance to look in my book BeautySleep, you will see this technique described, but let me give you the basics:

1. Get a lukewarm cup of drip-brewed coffee.
2. Drink the whole thing and then close your eyes.
3. Nap for about 20-25 minutes.
4. When you awaken the caffeine will be kicking in and you should have gotten enough rest to go for another 3-4 hours.

Related Topics:

• 10 Tips for Safe Winter Driving
• WebMD Video: Holiday Travel Stress

Technorati Tags: sleep, The Sleep Doctor, driving, safety, naps

Warning: Don't Use This Mattress as Flotation Device

Gotta love this headline: "Man, kids swept to sea on mattress."

Last week one of the crazier headlines (remotely related to my field) covered a wild rescue: a 35-year-old man and his two kids--one aged 11 and the other 12--were picked up more than a mile off shore in Australia, clinging to life on a mattress! They had been paddling along the shoreline off a bay looking for junk (or maybe treasure) when the tide dragged them out.

Okay, so now you're wondering just how in God's name a mattress can float for so long. Well, when I read more about this bizarre story, I learned it was an inflatable mattress, which had sprung a leak. Oops. I guess mattresses don't make for good rafts. But allegedly it did last for an hour and a half after it got a hole--just in time for the Coast Guard to show up and snap these hapless souls out of the water. Good thing, too. The water in this area is cold and they had no life jackets. They were treated for mild hypothermia but suffered no injuries.

I have no idea what inspired the man to encourage these kids to hop aboard their magic watercarpet. I wonder if these pre-teens scratched their heads at the thought of launching a mattress into the ocean. I certainly don't want to pass too much judgment because they may not have had access to any other "flotation device," but they certainly learned a lesson the hard way. Maybe they will go into boat-building now that they have some more sense (hopefully).

And maybe we should add yet one more disclaimer to inflatable mattresses: NOT a flotation device!

Related Topics:

• Beach Safety 101
• WebMD's Top 10 Health Stories of 2007

Technorati Tags: air mattress, water safety, beach safety

Does Your Job Cause Cancer?

Remember the days when smoking wasn't linked to cancer? At first, it was un-thought (and unheard) of, then it was invariably presumed, then it was proved. Well, get this: graveyard shift work is now considered a "probable" carcinogen. And the proof is already mounting.

This month, the World Health Organization's cancer division will classify shift work as a probable carcinogen - just like anabolic steroids, ultraviolet radiation, and diesel engine exhaust. (Following suit, the American Cancer Society said it would most likely add shift work to its list of "known and probable carcinogens" as well.)

Scary? It think so. In a fast-paced world that demands shift work in numerous industries, millions - billions perhaps - could be affected globally. About 20 percent of the working population in developed countries work night shifts.

Shift work is working in blocks of time periods that typically rotate in 8-hour "shifts" around a 24-hour clock. Generally speaking, the morning shift is 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.; the evening shift is 4 p.m. to midnight; and the "graveyard" shift - the worst of the bunch - is midnight to 8 a.m. In many companies that operate 24-hour facilities, employees work one shift for a few days or weeks, and then take on a new shift so everyone gets to cover the different types of shifts over that 24-hour period. It's not easy being a shift worker, and if you qualify as one, then you know exactly what I mean.

While it's possible for a shift worker to become totally adjusted and biologically aligned with any single shift, be it the regular day shift or the graveyard shift, most shift workers are at the mercy of rotating shifts that disrupt their rhythms. Or they break their rhythms on the weekends or on days off when they finally get a chance to catch up with their families.

Shift workers typically have two hours less sleep than other workers, and as a result, they have more problems with diabetes, psychological problems, divorce, and all kinds of health problems. At the heart of the reasoning behind this strange connection between shift work and cancer is how our bodies naturally produce melatonin at night, which has powerful anti-cancer capabilities. People who work odd hours and accept a less-than-optimal light/dark rhythm disrupt their bodies' melatonin production.

This news about shift work's negative impact on one's risk for cancer is not new. Dr. Eva S. Schernhammer has performed landmark studies showing a relationship - particularly in healthy women in their thirties.

It all started in Vienna where Dr. Schernhammer worked rotating night shifts in a cancer ward from 1992 to 1999. She had to pull 10 all-nighters a month in addition to her regular hours. When she arrived at Harvard Medical School three years later, she curiously tapped into medical, work, and lifestyle records of nearly 79,000 nurses and discovered that nurses who'd worked 30 or more years on night shifts had a 36 percent higher rate of breast cancer, compared to those who'd worked only day shifts. In fact, her fellow female night owls exhibited a 48 percent rise in breast cancer. Blind women, on the other hand, had a 50 percent reduced risk of breast cancer, compared to their seeing counterparts. Other ongoing studies confirm this astonishing link. Animals, for instance, who have their light-dark schedules switched grow more cancerous tumors and die quicker.

Bear in mind that exposure to light at night may rise the risk of several types of cancer - not just breast. This also underscores the profound impact that light has on our systems, notably our ability to fight diseases like cancer. And light from a buzzing fluorescent bulb in an office or hospital isn't the only guilty party; working on the computer, watching TV, or even reading under a bright lamp late at night might be enough to alter the biomechanics of your body.

So what's a shift worker to do? I offer my patients a few tips:

• If your shifts have to rotate, request that they rotate clockwise - from day to night to graveyard - instead of the reverse. It's much easier to adapt to a clockwise rotation than a counterclockwise one, which, unfortunately, is how many places conduct shift work.


• Get a dark night's sleep no matter what time it is. Schedule your sleep time and set strict rules - turn off your phones, televisions, and sleep in your bedroom.


• Form a support group out of your own family. Tell them your needs and be attentive to their needs as well.

And maybe it could be time to start looking for a new job. I don't know about you, but shift work is something I know I couldn't do forever. It may have its time and place during one's life and career, but there is something to be said for living like cavemen - rising with the sun and preparing for bed with the sunset. Wouldn't life be so much easier?

Related Topics:

• Off-Shift Work and Its Effects
• Medications for Circadian Rhythm Disorders

Technorati Tags: sleep, cancer, shift work

He Knows If Your Teens Are Sleeping...

Pediatric Grand Rounds this week features my post about teens and sleep.

I hope you'll take a minute and stop by Hope for Pandora to read other great posts by nurses, doctors, medical students and parents. Thank you to Thomas for including me in this week's carnival.