Here’s the sleep news for this week:
Scientists may have found the missing link between heart disease and sleep problems
It’s been widely known that people with heart disease also struggle with sleep problems, but we didn’t necessarily know why. Recently, scientists have identified a direct link between these conditions for the first time in a new study in mice and human tissues. Published July 20 in the journal Science, the research shows that heart disease may disrupt the production of melatonin in the brain due to damage of a group of nerves, superior cervical ganglion (SCG), that plug into both the heart and the pineal gland. Further research and clinical trials need to be done to confirm these findings.
Researchers find sleep delays more prevalent in certain countries
A new study from researchers at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and Nokia Bell Labs in the United Kingdom investigated the cultural and individual factors that influence sleep. The researchers used smartwatches for extensive data collection, analyzing 52 million logs collected over a four-year period from 30,082 individuals in 11 countries. These people wore Nokia smartwatches, which allowed the team to investigate country-specific sleep patterns based on the digital logs from the devices. The study discovered that individuals' sleep is heavily linked to their geographical location and cultural factors.
While wake-up times were similar across the board, sleep time varied by country. People in higher GDP countries had more records of delayed bedtime, and those in collectivist cultures, compared to individualist culture, also showed more records of delayed bedtime. Among the studied countries, Japan had the shortest total sleep duration, averaging a duration of under seven hours, while Finland had the longest, averaging eight hours.
Melatonin keeps fruits and vegetables fresh
Not only can melatonin help you sleep, it might help us keep our fruits and veggies fresh longer. A team of horticultural scientists in Australia are making significant strides in using melatonin in effort to keep fruits and vegetables fresh for longer periods of time. Over the past year, they have been gathering and examining global research to evaluate the potential benefits of applying the melatonin hormone to fresh produce. The team is looking to help eliminate some of the 44% of fresh produce thrown away from chilling injuries, which include: abnormal ripening, sunken spots, pitting, hardening of flesh, and browning of peel and pulp.
These chilling injuries come from the fact that during shipping, the produce has to be stored at a colder temperature than the produce requires. As they looked into this, they found that melatonin is beneficial in reducing chilling injury symptoms and membrane leakage. It works by maintaining higher antioxidant levels, thereby keeping horticultural produce fresher.
