Sleep Apnoea Frequently The Cause Of Long-Term Sick Leave And Even Loss Of Employment

People with sleep apnoea have an increased risk of needing to take long-term sick leave or give up working completely. So concludes a major Norwegian study on over 7,000 subjects, to be published in the European Respiratory Journal (ERJ), the scientific publication of the European Respiratory Society (ERS). This finding is especially alarming since sleep apnoea, although widespread, is little known not only to the public but also to many doctors. More at...

Sleep helps the mind learn complicated tasks and helps people recover learning they otherwise thought they had forgotten over the course of a day, research at the University of Chicago shows. Using a test that involved learning to play video games, researchers showed for the first time that people who had "forgotten" how to perform a complex task 12 hours after training found that those abilities were restored after a night's sleep. More at...

A study in the Dec. 1 issue of the journal Sleep is the first to show that high levels of prenatal smoking exposure strongly modify sleep patterns in preterm neonates, which places infants at a higher risk for developmental difficulties that could persist throughout early and middle childhood. Results indicate that preterm neonates born to heavy-smoking mothers who smoked more than 10 cigarettes per day displayed disrupted sleep structure and sleep continuity. From 7 p.m. More at...

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) commends the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies (IOM) for its independent analysis of current duty-hour regulations for medical residents. The AASM will conduct a thorough review of the recommendations made in the IOM report, "Resident Duty Hours: Enhancing Sleep, Supervision, and Safety. More at...

SNORING MAY BE CULPRIT BEHIND DAYTIME FATIGUE In women, habitual snoring may be an independent cause of excessive daytime sleepiness and daytime fatigue, regardless of sleep apnea occurrences. Researchers from Sweden performed polysomnography on 400 randomly selected women, aged 20 to 70 years. The apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) was calculated, and women who acknowledged snoring loudly and either disturbingly often or very often were considered habitual snorers. More at...

Between the ages of six months and six years old, close to 90 percent of children have at least one sleep-related problem. Among the most common issues are night terrors, teeth-grinding and bed-wetting. For the majority, it's simply a stage that passes. But at least 30 percent of children in this age group have difficulties sleeping six consecutive hours - either because they can't fall into slumber or they can't stay asleep. More at...

Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment seems to improve cognitive functioning in patients with Alzheimer's disease who also suffer from obstructive sleep apnea, according to the results of a randomized clinical trial conducted at the University of California, San Diego. The study led by Sonia Ancoli-Israel, Ph.D. More at...

A new report from the Institute of Medicine proposes revisions to medical residents' duty hours and workloads to decrease the chances of fatigue-related medical errors and to enhance the learning environment for these doctors in training. More at...