Chronobiology Research; Sleep Medicine Exploration

07/05/2022

Did you know that 1/3 of US adults announced that they sleep less than the recommended amount per night? And that 1/5 of adults live with a mental illness? Based on this line of inquiry, a new study strived to analyze the relationship between inadequate sleep and frequent mental distress. A population-based sample of US adults was used.

Inadequate sleep was defined as 6 or less hours of sleep on a given night and "frequent mental distress" was defined as self-reporting 14 days of mental health status as "not good" within the last four weeks. A cross-sectional study was conducted with these parameters and a system of 2018 data with 275,000 individuals was used aged from 18 to 64.

Results created from logistical regression analysis revealed that participants who averaged

06/29/2022

Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune and inflammatory disease, meaning it causes an individual's immune system to attack healthy cells by mistake and create painful swelling in select areas of the body. Because of this, sleep disturbance is a major symptom of RA and a very serious problem.

A new study recently investigated how the addition of a melatonin regiment would effect the quality of sleep and disease activity of patients with RA. A randomized placebo-controlled trial was conducted for 64 RA patients and assessment for quality of sleep was conducted before and after.

Results showed that melatonin was safe and effective in improving sleep quality and temporarily reduced acknowledgment of pain at night for RA patients.
read more below:
https://www.sleepmedres.org/journal/view.php?doi=10.17241/smr.2022.01207

06/27/2022

New evidence has shown that sleep can affect the immunological response after vaccination, and in this relevant case, against Covid-19. This study wanted to test to see associations between regular sleep disruption and immunity response after vaccination.

Almost 600 healthcare workers were involved in this study. All underwent 2 Pfizer-BioNTech inoculations and clinical characteristics, demographics, sleep duration, and habits were recorded. Additionally, blood samples were collected and antibodies were measured.

Results show that insomnia was associated with lower levels of vaccine-induced anti-S protein IgG antibodies against COVID-19. It proves that the primary role of adequate sleep should be emphasized in order to obtain a satisfactory immune response against COVID-19. Additionally, it calls for more studies surrounding this line of inquiry as sleep is a basic and vital need to the human body.
More on this study can be read below:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jsr.13656?campaign=wolearlyview

06/27/2022

For all kinds of cancer, the metastatic spread is caused by the dispersal of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) by blood. Before, its been believed that CTCs were shed constantly by growing tumors/invasive cancerous tissues, but a new study on breast cancer in human and mouse models has shown that CTC intravasation events occur during sleep.

The elements that regulate spontaneous CTC intravasation in physiological environments are not yet fully understood, so the research sought to determine CTC abundance and composition in hospitalized women with progressive breast cancer who had no treatment or were temporarily off-treatment. During active and rest phases, they donated blood. It was found that most CTCs were obtained during night time at the rest phase. These new findings were tested with mouse models to pinpoint the precise timing of events.

The study concluded that there was an upregulation of mitotic genes during the rest phase (this enabled metastasis efficiency). Additionally, key circadian rhythm hormones such as melatonin, testosterone, etc. were found to dictate CTC generation dynamics. It shows their inclination to metastasize is concentrated within the rest phase of the affected individual, providing a new rationale for time-controlled interrogation and treatment of metastasis-prone cancers.
The specifics can be read below:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04875-y

06/15/2022

Objective sleep measures often differ from self-reported perceptions of sleep, but factors regarding this bridge are considered controversial. Additionally, the comparison between ambulatory and laboratory polysomnography (PSG)is lacking, and this questions patient cooperation. This study wants to portray the discrepancy between self-reported and objective sleeping times and uses analysis from PSGs of patients with insomnia, sleep-related breathing disorders, sleep-related movement disorders, hypersomnia, and parasomnias to do so.

The results showed that misperception of sleep quality is normal in sleep disorders, but seen most with individuals with insomnia. They under assess their sleep duration and quality (mostly because of hyper-vigilance). On the other hand, patients with the other disorders mentioned above overestimate their total sleep time and sleep efficiency. This information is all supposedly unrelated to patient age, s*x, or PSG setting. But regardless, assessment of these differences between insomnia and the other disorders may be essential for the behavioral treatment of the condition and depict the importance of the use of PSGs with these patients.
More can be read below:
https://jcsm.aasm.org/doi/10.5664/jcsm.9086

06/14/2022

Sleep studies in the past have shown that sleep loss impairs glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity, however this condition also involves circadian disruption. This symptom (often due to long hours of work) reduces sleep efficiency and can be caused through changes in timing of light exposure, waking behaviors, and even food intake. Now, current research has shown the significance of recurrent circadian disruption over sleep restriction as a precedent for risk of obesity, diabetes, and other cardiometabolic disorders. A new study in 2022(link attached below) capitalizes on these ideas and how glucose tolerance is affected by chronic circadian disruption coupled with specific food intakes.

Specifically, the study wanted to see how recurrent circadian disruption (RCD) in humans with either a low-fat diet or a high-fat diet affected their glucose metabolism in a 3 week period. Results have shown that glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity were not significantly affected on a low-fat diet compared to a high fat diet coupled with circadian disruption. In the end, it brings light to why low fat diets are essential to individuals who are under stress that creates circadian disruption. The study also shows that when RCD is accounted for, sleep restriction regardless of the diet does not necessarily cause adverse outcomes.
More on it can be read below:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35150732/

06/14/2022

This first study is about the effect of excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) for patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a sleep-related breathing disorder. The aim was to predict EDS in patients with OSA, and find out if positive airway pressure was a viable technique to treat this. This is important as EDS can cause unexpected events resulting in public health problems.

-For basic procedure, patients were split into two groups according to the presence of EDS. Clinical records, sleep questionnaire scores, and polysomnography data were analyzed to find the difference between two groups.

-Analysis revealed that the Epworth Sleepiness Scale, a sleep latency test, the 1st stage of non-rapid eye movement in total sleep time, and patients' weight were significant factors in the parameters of EDS for patients with OSA. More can be read with this link to the study below:
https://www.sleepmedres.org/journal/view.php?number=190

06/06/2022

Hi everyone, and welcome to my page! As a small introduction, I'm a research trainee at a Sleep Medicine Lab for Brigham and Women's Hospital! In the coming days, I will be doing sleep medicine literature reviews on new studies regarding the effects of chronic sleep disruption. But for now, I attached a link down below for a 33-day study the lab is doing on sleep restriction and light exposure. We're looking for participants, and subjects are compensated for their time!

Brigham and Women's Hospital seeks healthy 20-40 year-olds for a 33-day research study of how sleep and artificial light affect metabolism and brain function.