There are many methods and products available for helping individuals with sleep problems or insomnia issues to fall asleep. These range from techniques, such as focused breathing and relaxation, to prescription medication, such as Ambien sleep medicine, to novel uses of technology, such as sound and light machines and the use of white noise.

It is this last category - the white noise machines - that is going to be the focus in this article. Why? Because while millions of people deal with sleep problems every night, most of them are familiar with everything on this list above with the exception of using a white noise machine. So let us see if that gap in knowledge can be filled in just a little bit today!

When the goal is to assist with sleep, a sleep machine can be used to block out external sounds and mental stimuli. This is accomplished through the use of constant, repetitive white noise, which the mind locks onto and uses as a kind of barrier between the brain and the outside world. Additionally, in a very real sense, having a Homedics white noise unit close to your bed stand at night literally makes it a sound that is close by, and thus blocks out other sounds from a further a distance.

When the brain gets habituated to a repetitive sound, the conscious mind pushes this sound into the back ground. In other words, a repetitive ceases to be heard in contrast to a new sound. A simple example of this in everyday life is how people rarely hear their clock ticking or how a person might not notice that the air conditioning had been running and making a loud constant sound of air blowing until the AC turns off. In the absence of the sound, the mind recognizes it had been there easier than during the presence of the sound.

A multi-ethnic study in the June 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine reports that there is a statistically significant relationship between obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) episodes occurring during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and type 2 diabetes.

Results indicate that the adjusted odds ratio for type 2 diabetes was 2.0 times higher in patients with REM-related OSA, defined as havng an REM apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) of 10 or more breathing pauses per hour of REM sleep. The prevalence of type 2 diabetes was 30.1 percent in participants with OSA and 18.6 percent in those without OSA; however, the overall association between OSA and diabetes became non-significant after controlling for covariates such as body mass index (BMI), age, race and gender. Middle-aged participants with OSA had an adjusted odds ratio for type 2 diabetes that was 2.8 times higher than younger or middle-aged people without OSA. Hispanics and older patients referred for OSA evaluation had a higher prevalence of type 2 diabetes; this relationship was not affected by OSA.

According to principle investigator Kamran Mahmood, MD, MPH, of the University of Illinois at Chicago, the researchers were surprised by the significant association of REM-related OSA with type 2 diabetes.

“We believe that REM-related OSA is a marker of early OSA, especially in women and patients younger than 55 years,” said Mahmood. “Generally, OSA is worse in REM sleep compared to non-REM sleep because of neurologically mediated impairment of skeletal muscles of upper airway and ventilation. This may be the reason for closer association of REM-related OSA and type 2 diabetes.”

The study gathered data from 1,008 consecutive patients who were evaluated for OSA by comprehensive polysomnography at the University of Illinois at Chicago; 66.9 percent were African American, 16.9 percent were Caucasian, 14.9 percent were Hispanic and 1.3 percent were Asian. OSA was defined as an AHI of five or more breathing pauses per hour of sleep and was diagnosed in 745 individuals (74 percent); the 263 adults (26 percent) who did not have OSA served as the control. Men comprised 52.8 percent of the OSA group but only 28.5 percent of the control group.

According to the authors, the findings are consistent with several studies on the association of OSA with glucose tolerance, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. REM-related OSA is more common in mild-to-moderate cases of OSA, especially in women and in patients younger than 55 years of age. Sleep fragmentation caused by OSA may reduce REM sleep time, which could explain a high REM AHI.

Mahmood said that the results highlight the need to educate minority groups about OSA and its complications. The authors encourage awareness campaigns and making OSA screening part of all obesity management programs.

According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, OSA is a sleep-related breathing disorder that involves a decrease or complete halt in airflow despite an ongoing effort to breathe. It occurs when the muscles relax during sleep, causing soft tissue in the back of the throat to collapse and block the upper airway. This leads to partial reductions (hypopneas) and complete pauses (apneas) in breathing that can produce abrupt reductions in blood oxygen saturation. Brief arousals from sleep restore normal breathing but can cause a fragmented quality of sleep. Most people with OSA snore loudly and frequently, and they often experience excessive daytime sleepiness.

Source:
Kelly Wagner
American Academy of Sleep Medicine

More and more of us are coming to understand the importance of sleep; that it is as essential to our bodies as food and water. Now there’s even more reason to be sure and get a good night’s sleep.

Data that comes from a group of 44 college students showed that when sleep came after a period of learning, it preserved the most vital memories for as long as four months.

These findings were presented at SLEEP 2009. The event brings together 6,000 researchers and clinicians in the area of sleep medicine to discuss the latest findings and developments in sleep medicine.

Where once sleep was thought of as a passive activity, experts now know that our brains are very active during these periods and suggest we think of sleep as a time of memory consolidation.

The sleeping brain decides what’s most important about a memory and chooses the best of these for long-term storage.

Sleep appears to preserve memories that are important emotionally or are considered relevant to future goals.

“It may be that the chemical and physiological aspects of sleep underlying memory consolidation are more effective if a particular memory is ‘tagged’ shortly prior to sleeping,” explains study author Jessica Payne who is a postdoctoral fellow in psychology at Harvard Medical School.

The work had the subjects, all between the ages of 18 and 22, look at scenes with neutral or negative objects on a neutral background, and then tested them on their memory for the objects and backgrounds 24 hours later.

In a classic “early bird” vs. “night owl” split, half the subjects were assigned to a “sleep first” group, which trained and tested on scenes between 7:00-9:00PM; the rest of the subjects were assigned to the “wake first” group, training and testing on the scenes from 9:00-11:00 AM.

Four months later, the subjects were once again tested on their memory of the scenes.

Negative objects were remembered better in the sleep first group, but backgrounds associated with the negative objects were more poorly remembered in the sleep first group.

This pattern was evident four months later, with the objects tied to emotions being retained only for the sleep first group.

Payne suggests that we remember best when we stagger learning over time. And while the amount of sleep everyone needs is different, teens usually need about 9 hours, adults 7-8 hours, this can vary from as few as 5 to as many as 10 hours a night to truly feel rested.

If you’re sleep deprived, you create a “sleep debt” where your body will eventually demand that you make up the sleep you’ve missed.

You’ll also have to deal with impairments in your judgment, reaction times and other mental functions that come from lack of sleep. Studies have shown performance when sleep deprived is even worse than being intoxicated.

Signs that you’re too tired to drive according to the National Sleep Foundation are:

- You’re having trouble keeping your eyes focused

- You can’t stop yawning

- You can’t remember driving the last few miles

If you find yourself feeling drowsy during the day, even during mundane, boring activities or meetings, experts believe that you haven’t gotten enough sleep.

And with our burn the candle at both ends world, it’s no wonder. If you tend to fall right to sleep (within 5 minutes) of lying down, you may be severely sleep deprived and need to catch up on your rest, for the sake of your own health, as well as all those around you it’s vital not to underestimate the importance of sleep.