This week in sleep news …
Daylight saving time ends Sunday
This Sunday, say goodbye to later sunsets until next year, thanks to falling back. As you gain an hour of sleep this coming week, we’ve got you covered with tips on how to ease this daylight saving transition for yourself, your children, and your pets.
While we move into the darker months, take a beat to appreciate that morning sun: Dr. Chris Winter, neurologist, Sleep.com sleep advisor, and author of “The Sleep Solution” and “The Rested Child,” said to us in regard to the stalled daylight saving time bill, “There are psychological and circadian benefits for seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and overall health to getting that morning light [which comes with standard time].” He shares that the morning light helps us set a more natural circadian rhythm, which improves overnight sleep and minimizes SAD.
Improving deep sleep may prevent dementia
Increasing slow wave sleep may be the key to avoiding dementia, a new study finds. The study, published in JAMA Neurology, looked at data from 346 participants, who were all over the age of 60 and completed two overnight sleep studies several years apart. These participants were studied for dementia after the second sleep study. The researchers found that the amount of deep sleep declined between the two studies, showing that slow wave sleep is lost with aging. They also found that as deep sleep decreased, the percentage of participants diagnosed with dementia increased. Ultimately, researchers found that each percentage point decrease in deep sleep every year was associated with a 27% increase in the risk of dementia.
Lack of sleep is compromising the mental health of adults
If you think you’re hearing “I’m tired” more often than usual, you may be on to something. The meditation and sleep app Calm launched a sleep survey asking 9,500 residents from 10 U.S. and U.K. cities between the ages of 18 and 65 about their sleep habits and challenges. The survey results showed that 91% of adults feel tired or not rested and 78% said their lack of sleep impacted their mental health negatively. Participants told researchers they felt that to improve their mental health, they needed seven hours or more of sleep per night. However, only 31% are getting over seven hours of sleep per night.
The survey also found that Gen Z is struggling the most with their sleep, with 46% of the age group reporting difficulty in falling asleep often and 38% reporting current events keeping them up at night.
Sleep loss may help scientists fight depression
Have you ever felt particularly wired after pulling an all-nighter? Northwestern University researchers dove into that feeling in a new study published yesterday in Neuron. To study this phenomenon, researchers induced mild sleep deprivation in mice and then examined their behaviors as well as brain activity. They saw that not only did dopamine (the chemical in your brain responsible for feelings of pleasure, satisfaction, and motivation) release increase during the sleep loss period, the ability for neurons to modify their connections also was enhanced — meaning this rewired the brain to maintain the energized mood for the next few days.
These findings could help scientists better understand how moods transition naturally. This may also lead to a better understanding of how fast-acting antidepressants work and help researchers identify previously unknown targets for new antidepressant medications.
In social media news …
If only we could just save up all our daylight hours and use them throughout the year. Don’t forget to turn back your clocks Sunday!
