Your Teen's Insomnia Is Probably as Bad as Yours

Teens take a lot of heat for being inherently and chronically moody. They typically scoff at authority and often act like they've gotten up on the wrong side of the bed. (Sorry, I say this with much respect for teens, so if I offend any haphazard teen out there reading this, my apologies; virtually everyone goes through this phase, so it's a relatively fair comment to make, generally speaking of course).

But here's the kicker: which of the following do you attribute this behavior to?

a) Social pressures
b) Hormones
c) A developing brain and psychological profile
d) All of the above

If you answered D, you're right--partially. Now, we can say there's one more ingredient at play here: insomnia.

That's right. Last week, the National Sleep Foundation released news of a new study that indicates that prevalence of insomnia among adolescents is (surprisingly) high--and is associated with future physical and psychological problems.

Ouch. That's not something any parent wants to hear. Getting through adolescence is tough enough. No one wants Johnny or Suzie to suffer any longer than necessary. The researchers who conducted the year-long study, which looked at more than 3,000 kids between 11 and 17 years old, concluded that insomnia is a major chronic disease affecting a substantial proportion of the adolescent population. What's more, most people don't realize (or appreciate) the fact that its pervasiveness is comparable to that of other major psychiatric disorders such as mood, anxiety, disruptive, and substance use disorders. Yikes, but true.

A study like this is a call to action. Because adults often have their own issues with sleep to worry about, insomnia notwithstanding, they can easily forget that their teens could be experiencing the same problem. But a teen's bout with insomnia may have more serious consequences in the long term as they continue to mature and grow. The brain, for example, does not finish its complete development until one's early to mid twenties (which explains, by the way, why we see young adults exhibit mental illness like depression, bipolar disorder and serious psychological episodes at this age; Britney Spears, anyone?) So if a person has insomnia for years through those critical phases of one's physical and psychological development, what does that mean for one's future health?

You gotta wonder. Parents take note. Appreciate the fact insomnia has plenty of simple, practical remedies available if you just take action. This can be any number of things, from helping a teen prioritize sleep and maintain good sleep hygiene (a topic covered at length in my book Beauty Sleep), to seeking help from a qualified physician. And what can help your teen can also help you, too.

And listen up: teens need way more sleep than adults. While they like to think they can get away with staying up super-late at night and still make it to class (half awake) in the morning, truth is they really need at least 9 solid hours. Is your teen getting that? How often does he or she get up on the wrong side of the bed?

Something to think about.

Other Posts on Teens and Sleep

• Got a Gamer in Your House?
• What if Your Kid's First Bell Rang Close to Lunchtime?
• YouTube Video: Dr. Breus on Teens and Sleep Deprivation
  

Related Topics:

• Is Your Teen Too Tired?
• How to Talk to Teenagers

This article is cross-posted at Dr. Breus's Blog, The Insomnia Blog.

Technorati Tags: teens, sleep, Sleep Doctor, depression, insomnia

Skin Cells and Circadian Rhythms

Now, this is fascinating stuff. Researchers just learned that you can look at your skin cell genes to determine whether you are a lark (who likes to get up early), or an owl (who likes to stay up late). A team of German scientists just presented a new study showing that people's preferences for rising early or late are encoded in their genes, including those found in skin cells.

Other factors also play a role in influencing the time that you like to get up in the morning, but this new finding help us understand the fascinating realm of circadian "clocks" as we continue to explore how the human body deals with the shifts in patterns of activity that are needed to cope with the 24-hour cycle of day and night. Let me explain.

Our internal rhythms repeat roughly every 24 hours. Examples include the sleep-wake cycle, hunger, the ebb and flow of hormones, the rise and fall of body temperature, and other subtle rhythms that mesh withthe 24-hour solar day. A lot of people's sleep problems can be attributed to an internal clock that has become out of sync or mismatched with the day-night cycle. In other words, the individual period length of your body doesn't sync up with the period length of society's 24-hour clock.

Everyone's circadian clock or pacemaker ticks at a different rate. Most people have some idea whether they fall under the lark or owl category, but this latest study further confirms that it's no urban legend: your sleep-wake schedule is indeed influenced by your own personal circadian clock, and that morning larks have a shorter circadian cycle than night owls.

What's truly phenomenal is that the scientists here actuallycould engineer a way to observe and measure individual "clocks" in human skin cells. How? Well, after taking skin samples from volunteers,the scientists inserted into each cell a gene that lights up in ultraviolet light when the cell is metabolically most active. The gene allowed the scientists to follow the circadian rhythm of the cells as they changed over a 24-hour period. In essence, they were able to identify and track skin cells' built-in timing mechanism set by the central biological clock of the body. This is possible because most cell types have a genetic imprint of a person's unique circadian physiology.

Science is still trying to understand completely how our body clocks work, and even how many body clocks we have. (For an in-depth look at this topic, refer to my book Beauty Sleep or check out this interactive guide on the National Sleep Foundation's site.)

Currently, we think we have two body clocks--one that is set by outward cues of light and darkness, and a neurological one that has an internal schedule set in the brain. It is when these two clocks don't agree onthe same schedule and compete with one another that we feel off, for example Jet Lag.

Synchronizing these two clocks come with hitting the "re-set" buttonevery 24 hours. We can do this by exposure to light and by activity.For example, when you want to be alert and awake but your body doesn'twant to follow, you can stimulate your body to re-set itself just bygoing outside into the sunlight for 10 or 15 minutes or engaging insome physical activity, preferably outside in the bright light.

This latest study will hopefully lead to new tools for diagnosing andtreating circadian rhythm disorders such as advanced or delayed sleep-phase syndrome (DSPS). People with DSPS typically cannot fall asleep until well after midnight, nor get up during normal morning hours. And this is a chronic condition--not a one-time problem followinga late night. Those who get moody or depressed during long winter months (also called seasonal affective disorder, or SAD) may also benefit from future therapies.

Makes you wonder, though, what other secrets do skin cells hold?

Related Topics:

• Helping the Blind Reset Their Body Clocks
• Tweaking the Body Clock to Ease SAD

Technorati Tags: insomnia, research, circadian rhythm, body clock, skin cells, Sleep Doctor

This article is cross-posted at Dr. Breus's Blog, The Insomnia Blog

One More Reason to Become Smoke Free: Better Sleep

Here's a shocker: smokers don't sleep quite as well as non-smokers. (Okay, so that's not a shocker.)

New research, which you can read in summary form here, shows that cigarette smokers are four times as likely as nonsmokers to report feeling unrested after a night's sleep. (Confession: this isn't really new information; the study is "new" but the results have long been suspected.)

The study also reveals that smokers spend less time in deep sleep and more time in light sleep than nonsmokers, with the greatest differences in sleep patterns seen in the early stages of sleep. Deep sleep is what gives you that feeling of restfulness and is the zone where your body can physically rejuvenate itself at the cellular level. No deep sleep means you won't recuperate well from the day and be ready for the next.

Granted, I know that quitting smoking is easier said than done, and I don't pretend to have the quick-fix solution for that. But I can't think of a better way to tackle 2008 than to make this the year to call it quits. It's easy to forget that nicotine is a stimulant when so many smokers claim to "have a smoke" to relax themselves. This is called the "Nicotine Paradox", and is well documented.

Nicotine can stay in the body for as long as 14 hours. The effects of smoke on sleep depend largely on an individual's smoking habits (how much one smokes), but in general nicotine reduces total sleep time and deep sleep time. It's also been shown to worsen sleep-disordered breathing. Having said that, however, smokers who experience cravings due to nicotine-withdrawal symptoms in the middle of the night can be rudely awakened by the need to smoke and once they do, they can then go back to sleep. (In fact, insomnia is among smokers' most common complaints.)

In my last book, Beauty Sleep, I encouraged people to quit smoking but did not make the program contingent upon there being absolutely no cigarettes in one's life. This would be unrealistic for those who haven't taken the steps necessary to lose the cigarettes once and for all.

But I did offer this suggestion: Try having your last cigarette of the night about one hour earlier than normal. Keep yourself busy with your nighttime routine and get to bed on time. Make it a goal to wean yourself off nicotine little by little so you're smoke-free by 2009 if not sooner.

Among the more fascinating (but unsurprising) aspects to the study was that the researchers found it difficult to find smokers with no health conditions so they could fairly isolate the effects of smoking on sleep patterns. They needed to remove all factors that could potentially affect sleep, such as coexisting medical conditions, in order to show that sleep abnormalities in smokers could be directly associated with cigarette use.

Because smoking entails a host of risk factors for illness and disease, it's easy to see how finding otherwise "healthy" smokers would be a challenge. I'm hoping that the results of this study help doctors better understand how to tailor smoking-cessation programs to an individual's needs so the sleep effects are minimized. We need to do more for people who cannot seem to nix the fix.

The thought of becoming smoke free and fully rested every night sounds dreamy, doesn't it? If only that hought were enough...

This article is cross-posted at Dr. Breus's Blog, The Insomnia Blog.

Related Topics:

• WebMD Video: Stop Smoking
• Strategies and Skills for Quitting

Technorati Tags: sleep, sleep disorders, sleep doctor, smoking cessation, quit smoking

Better Sex with a Better Mattress

If you could make a mattress that guaranteed better sex, you'd be in business. And what a great selling point.

The mattresses industry is fiercely competitive, and if you've ever gone through the experience of shopping for a new mattress, with so many brands (and types) to choose from, how can you discern the good from the bad?

Well, leave it to the pros in the bed industry to time this survey right: this week when Valentine's Day hits, you might hear about a new survey reporting that innerspring mattresses make love go round.

That's right: the bedding industry's leading spring producer--Leggett and Platt--have just conducted a survey of more than 1,000 Americans in committed relationships. Both men and women responding rated an innerspring mattress as the best sleep surface for sex, as opposed to foam or an air bed.

FYI: Leggett and Platt manufacture component parts that go into the making of beds; the company just introduced its Starry Night Sleep Technology--a high-tech bed that includes devices to monitor sleep, detect and prevent snoring via tilting action, heating and cooling elements, and even a means to project high-def images on a wall screen. The price? Between $20,000 and $50,000. Not sure if it's ideal for love-making, though.

The innerspring mattress is the most common mattress sold today. It's the kind with the coily springs in the middle--the types kids like to jump on because of the "bounce back." Thanks to that famous bounce back, 68 percent of respondents prefer an innerspring for sex, whereas 25 percent prefer foam and only a scant 7 percent point to air (sorry, but this begs the question: how many people have lots of experience with sex on an air mattress?)

The best part of the survey is it also found that most respondents believe that more sleep would be the best way to boost their sex lives. Duh! In fact, 54 percent of the men and 67 percent of the women agree that more sleep could invigorate their lusty lives. No one will argue that sleep deprivation robs one of the interest, drive for, and enjoyment in sex. So is the combination of an innerspring mattress and restful sleep the new Viagra? Maybe. But what gives the mattress-sleep combo a bigger punch is that it won't keep you awake longer than necessary. Sex, after all, can be a great way to prepare for sound sleep. Anecdotal evidence alone says it acts like a sedative in most people--especially men.

Selecting a mattress is a personal choice. (I go into great detail about mattresses in my book, Beauty Sleep, if you need a roadmap.) Go with what your body tells you when you test out the different types and brands in stores. Just don't try to get it on while shopping. And don't judge a mattress by its name, celebrity endorsement, use your gut, er, your sexual instincts.

Related Topics:

• WebMD Video: Exercises for Better Sex
• WebMD Video: Sex Saboteurs

Technorati Tags: sex, sleep, mattress, Valentines Day

Want Good Sex? Kick the Kids Out of the Bedroom

When Dr. Laura Berman, a noted authority on sex health, offered her "5 ways to keep kids from ruining your sex life," she hit some fine points that are difficult for many to swallow. You can read them here; she puts it bluntly and calls our world "child-centric."

As a father myself, I know first-hand that having children makes life more complicated and busy. They can become the center of everything (I applaud the moms who give up work outside the home to care for and raise their kids full-time.). But regardless of whether a home has two working parents or just one, I bet sex get shoved aside more often than not. Amid the chaos of trying to achieve that mythical balance between work and home, you forget about the pleasures--and necessity--of sex. In brief, here's what I think about Berman's ideas:

1. Separate beds: Yes, I've always been a fan of separate beds. They help create boundaries and the sooner your children sleep in their own beds, the sooner they can establish healthy sleep habits for life.
   
   Although most books on children's sleep recommend that they do not sleep in your bed, I will say that I disagree in some cases. Every family's situation will be different, but some circumstances can call for parents to share the bed with a child. If your sleep is consistently disrupted based on putting your child back to bed several times each night, then it's okay to consider letting them in your bed--but for a limited time.
   
   As a example, if Little Suzie sneaks in a 4:30 a.m., then go ahead and let her stay, especially if she (and you) can fall back to sleep easily. If she can't get to sleep, then she must be put back in her own bed. Over the course of the following few weeks, reward your kids for staying in their beds longer and longer.


2. Adults-only vacations:I love this idea. But what Berman forgets to point out is in addition to the boost you get in your sex life, a vacation with your significant other can do wonders to your sleep bank as well. You can use the time to catch up on lost sleep and return to the real world ready to go again (and hopefully with a renewed sense of the importance of sleep).



3. Save your energy--don't super-parent: This one is easier said than done. We all want to be super-parents, driving them around to as many activities as possible. (Which supposedly helps them achieve more and get into good schools later on, right?) But I can see her point. All that super-parenting takes its toll. We can go to bed too tired for sex and perhaps too stressed out to fall asleep easily.



4. Agree on disciplining: I always tell patients never to argue or bring sensitive issues--whether they are about parenting or not--into the bedroom. It creates tension in a room that is supposed to be a sanctuary for sex and sleep only. So if you and your spouse don't agree on how to discipline your kids, keep that out of the bedroom.



5. Set a date night and stick to it: As with the vacation, I'm all for this. Good luck making it happen on a regular basis.

What often gets missed, though, in all this talk about maintaining your sexual health by policing the kids is this: it's not just about you and your spouse's sex life. Parents play a key role in helping their children get a good night's sleep. This, in turn, affects their moods, education, and development.

As parents, you need to determine the amount of sleep each family member needs and take steps to ensure individual needs are met. That said, here are a few of my favorite tips:

• Establish regular bedtime routines, creating a quiet and comfortable bedroom. Televisions and computers need to be out of the bedroom and caffeine should not be part of a child's diet (or you will see William jumping on your bed at midnight).


• Learn to recognize sleep problems. The most common sleep problems in children include difficulty falling asleep, nighttime awakenings, snoring, stalling and resisting going to bed, having trouble breathing, and loud or heavy breathing while sleeping. These sleep problems can be evident in daytime behavior such as being overtired, sleepy or cranky.


• Talk to your child's doctor about sleep--even if your doctor doesn't broach the topic.

At the end of the day, all these tips will assure you a healthy, happy bedroom life.

Related Topics:

• Eat, Relax and Sleep Your Way to Better Sex
• 5 Secrets of Super-Happy Couples

Technorati Tags: sleep, sex, parenting

Super Bowl Sunday Alert: Watch for Heart Attacks

I won't even get into which team I've picked to win this coming Sunday's Super Bowl (it's not a shocker), and I won't pick on what many of you will no doubt be eating and drinking (pizza, beer, chicken wings, dips, chips, wine, and god-knows-what). But I will say is this: try and get a good night's sleep on Saturday. It may reduce your risk for a heart attack if you're a die-hard fan of either the New England Patriots or New York Giants.

Earlier this week the Associated Press reported on a study that shows one of the more serious hazards to the excitement that surrounds a sporting event. Heart attacks and other cardiac emergencies doubled in Munich, Germany, when the German soccer team competed in the World Cup matches. The study's researchers, whose results were presented in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine this week, blamed not only the emotional stress that accompanies high-energy events, but also the lack of sleep, overeating (or should I say gorging), boozing, and smoking. All of which make for a fine Molotov cocktail that can blow up in your heart--especially if you're already in the high-risk zone. People in this category include those with high blood pressure or diabetes.

I covered this vicious cycle, which is actually very common on a smaller scale in people's everyday lives, in my book, Beauty Sleep. The interaction of these lifestyle choices in the body can be disastrous and self-feeding. The moment you let yourself go in front of the buffet table and bar is the moment you set yourself up for a poor night's sleep (or little sleep if the game has wound you up), which can then come back to haunt you the next day when you crave high-fat, sugary carbs and feel low on energy. So the cycle continues. And if you let this go on ad infinitum, you eventually experience all those negative outcomes: weight gain, chronic exhaustion, and at one extreme, minor depression.

So maybe Super Bowl Sunday isn't want it's cracked up to be. It can be the beginning of a bad cycle that has you forgetting any such thing as a New Year's Resolution (was that a month ago?). And as this new study confirms, it also can be a day of mourning not just for the losing team, but for those whose hearts get too excited and give out.

My advice? In addition to the obvious (duh: sleep well the night before, watch your consumption and emotions), I say lay claim to a very comfy couch to watch the game and nod off as much as you like. This will naturally keep you from continual eating and drinking, too. If you're going to a big party, good luck. If you feel chest pain, pop an aspirin. But of course, that could be just the indigestion biting you back.

Related Topics:

• Heart Disease 101
• Prescription for Sleep: More is Better

Technorati Tags: Super Bowl, heart disease, heart attack, Sleep Doctor