Sleep Disorders

Even with sleep increasingly recognized as an important determinant of health, some doctors may resist the evidence. From working round-the-clock shifts during residency to on-call nights to early-morning rounds, they're sleep-deprived -- and proud of it. "Organized medicine and the professional medical societies are sanctioning 100,000 people a year to working 30-hour shifts twice a week during their medical education," says Dr.

Both night-shift work and chronic sleep deprivation are increasingly implicated in mental and cognitive problems. * Alzheimer's risk: Abnormal insulin levels (common in shift workers and sleep-deprived people) may increase the risk for certain neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease, scientists at the University of Washington have found. Normally, insulin acts on the brain to promote learning and memory.

When a star dies from an overdose, there's a tendency to write it off as "drug abuse." That amazing combination of drugs in Heath Ledger's body, for instance -- what was he thinking? Blame the celebrity, chalk it up to reckless living, a self-destructive lifestyle, a pursuit of pleasure through recreational drugs. But the drugs that killed Ledger -- three types of benzodiazepines, an antihistamine, two pain relievers -- are all substances people take for sleep.

Sleep apnea, brief disruptions of breathing during the night that affect as many as 12 million Americans, increases the risk of death four- to sixfold, according to two new studies released today. Results from the studies "remove any reasonable doubt that sleep apnea is a fatal disease," said epidemiologist Nathaniel S. Marshall of the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research in Australia, lead author of one of the two papers published in the journal Sleep.

By the time the sun began to rise one recent Friday over his Mira Mesa neighborhood, Mitch Hood had been up for about 18 hours. He punched a caffeine tablet out of a blister pack and washed it down with two cans of Red Bull. He finished it off with a gulp of Pepsi. He figured this would keep him awake four more hours. Then, he jumped back into his video game. Hood, 25, spent two tours with the Marines in Iraq. Now, like many other veterans and millions of civilians, he faces a new enemy: sleep.

Health insurers are sometimes better known for causing sleepless nights than for creating restful ones, but in the last few months, helping consumers get a good night's sleep has become a priority for most of the top-tier U.S. health insurance companies, including WellPoint, Aetna, Cigna, Kaiser Permanente and several Blue Cross plans. Their new programs don't involve sleeping pills. Instead, insurers are advocating the use of cognitive behavior therapy.

An experimental drug that mimics the effects of the hormone melatonin can reset the body's circadian rhythms, bringing relief to jet-lagged travelers and night-shift workers, researchers reported Monday. In a study of 450 people who were subjected to simulated jet lag in a sleep laboratory, a team from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston found that the drug restored near normal sleep the first night it was used.

An experiment aimed at finding ways to help astronauts adapt to life on Mars could end up benefiting insomniacs on Earth. In it, researchers found that two 45-minute exposures to bright light in the evening could help people adjust to a longer, Martian-style day. "The results have powerful implications for the treatment of circadian rhythm sleep disorders, including shift work disorder and advanced sleep phase disorder," said Dr.

People tend to think of sleep problems as adult problems, connected to trouble with weight, diet, stress or depression. But more and more children are having trouble sleeping -- and more often than not, a new study finds, treatment comes in the form of a pill. The trend is concerning, the study authors say, because sleep deprivation can lead to headaches, irritability, impaired concentration and even behavior akin to attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

The products: Over the years, inventors have patented hundreds of gadgets to combat snoring. If necessity breeds invention, it's safe to say that lots of people desperately need a quiet night's sleep. The National Sleep Foundation estimates that 37 million Americans snore habitually, which translates to millions of bleary-eyed partners and probably billions of nights spent on the couch.