sleep deprivation •

The researchers discovered that there is a 30 percent risk of stroke in senior citizens that experience sleep distortions.

STATES CHRONICLE – A recent study conducted in Canada has revealed that sleep quality is important for the health of senior people. The researchers said that older citizens with bad sleeping habits are at risk for stroke or severe arteriosclerosis. It seems that the more interrupted the sleep pattern is, the higher the risks of arteriosclerosis or strokes are.

Assistant professor in the neurology department at the Toronto University and scientist and neurologist at the Toronto Sunnybrook Center for Health Sciences, Andrew Lim investigated alongside a team of other doctors the link between interrupted sleep patterns and strokes in the autopsied brains of 315 volunteers that participated in the Aging and Rush Memory Project.

All of the participants in the study were senior citizens that had an interrupted sleep pattern. It seems that in the case of the volunteers, there was an average disruption of sleep of up to seven times in a single hour. The participants (70 percent out of which were women) were monitored for at least a week before death. The autopsy of the brain revealed, in the majority of the cases, that they suffered from macroscopic infarcts, or strokes.

Out of 315 autopsies, the doctors concluded that 29% of the volunteers showed signs of a stroke, 61% presented evidence presented brain blood vessels damage that ranged from moderate to severe, It seems that the risk of such medical complications increases with an astonishing 27 percent when the patient experiences a disruption of the normal sleep cycle.

The percentages for developing severe arteriosclerosis were 27% higher in sleep deprived patients. The numbers only increase when it comes to macroscopic subcortical infarcts, 30 percent with every additional time the patient aroused during an average hour of sleep.

There was no conclusive evidence that tied interrupted sleep patterns to severe strokes. Doctor Lim explains that by saying that an acute stroke is composed out of a subset of manifests of pathological infarcts. Also macroscopic subcortical infarcts are easier to quantify, thus reducing the error margin

It seems that a fragmentation of the sleep pattern may cause the blood circulation to be impaired. This could lead to a number of health issues, amongst which we can find a chronic motor and cognitive impairment, and, yes, sleep deprivation.

Lim also adds that the sample on which the study was conducted is not broad enough in order to draw definitive conclusions. He states that the only certainty is that sleep quality is important for the health of senior people.

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Poor sleep can lead you to obesity. A new study says a bad night’s sleep may make people buy more unhealthy foods the next day, hence lead them add extra kilos.

During the study, researchers found that people who were deprived of one night’s sleep purchased more calories and grammes of food in a mock supermarket on the following day.

The findings of the study were even more glaring. Scientists found that sleep deprivation also led to increased blood levels of a hormone called ghrelin that is known for increasing hunger.

However, there was no correlation between individual ghrelin levels and food purchasing, suggesting that other mechanisms – such as impulsive decision making – may be more responsible for increased purchasing.

“We hypothesized that sleep deprivation’s impact on hunger and decision making would make for the ‘perfect storm’ with regard to shopping and food purchasing – leaving individuals hungrier and less capable of employing self-control and higher-level decision-making processes to avoid making impulsive, calorie-driven purchases,” said first author Colin Chapman, of Uppsala University.

Study

The scientists gave 14 normal-weight men a fixed budget (approximately USD 50). These men were given the budget on the morning after one night of total sleep deprivation, as well as after one night of sleep.

The men were instructed to purchase as much as they could out of a possible 40 items, including 20 high-caloric foods and 20 low-calorie foods. The prices of the high-caloric foods were then varied to determine if total sleep deprivation affects the flexibility of food purchasing.

Before the task, participants received a standardized breakfast to minimize the effect of hunger on their purchases.

The study was published in the journal Obesity.

Findings

Sleep-deprived men purchased significantly more calories and grammes of food than they did after one night of sleep. The researchers also measured blood levels of ghrelin. The found that the hormone’s concentrations were higher after total sleep deprivation. However, this increase did not correlate with food purchasing behaviour.

“Our finding provides a strong rationale for suggesting that patients with concerns regarding caloric intake and weight gain maintain a healthy, normal sleep schedule,” said Chapman.

Sleep Quality Is Important For the Health of Senior People

Poor sleep makes you buy more unhealthy foods, lead you to obesity

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