Daily Archives: 1 April 2024

A wake-up call for everyone to establish consistent healthy sleeping patterns

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It has been conclusively determined that achieving the recommended nightly 7-9 hours of sleep is beyond the grasp of nearly a third of the population. This revelation comes from the expertise of Flinders University specialists, who have discovered that 31% of adults fall short of this optimal sleep duration.

An extensive international study involving thousands of adults and published in Sleep Health found that a mere 15% of participants managed to sleep within the recommended range of 7-9 hours for five or more nights each week. Moreover, even among those who averaged 7-9 hours per night throughout a nine-month monitoring period, around 40% of their nights needed to align with the ideal sleep duration.

This finding is of significant importance, as Dr Hannah Scott, a researcher at Flinders University, points out. The pattern of not getting enough sleep, or in some cases, getting too much, is linked with adverse health outcomes, and the ramifications of inconsistent sleep are just beginning to be understood. Dr Scott emphasises the difficulty many face in consistently achieving the recommended sleep range, particularly during the working week.

The study used sleep tracker data gathered through an under-mattress sensor to examine the sleep patterns of nearly 68,000 adults globally over nine months. This cohort comprised 67,254 adults, predominantly from Europe and North America, monitored using the Withings under-mattress Sleep Analyser.

The health implications of sleeping less than six hours on average per night are severe, including an increased risk of mortality and various conditions such as hypertension, obesity, and heart disease. Furthermore, sleeping less than seven or more than 9 hours daily is associated with a spectrum of adverse health and well-being outcomes, including issues related to digestion and neuro-behavioural health.

The study noted gender differences in sleep duration, with female participants generally achieving longer sleep than males, and age-related variations, where middle-aged individuals tended to sleep less than younger and older people.

Professor Danny Eckert, the co-author of the study, an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) leadership fellow, and director of Sleep Health research at Flinders University, calls for public health and advocacy efforts to support community and individual initiatives towards achieving more regular sleep within the recommended range. Prof. Eckert stresses the necessity of assisting individuals with chronic sleep difficulties and encouraging everyone to prioritise sleep for their health.

Additionally, the research highlights the correlation between regular snoring and hypertension, underscoring the wide-reaching effects of sleep patterns on health.

The Flinders sleep researchers offer several recommendations for improving sleep regimes. These include maintaining a regular sleep schedule to ensure restorative sleep, adjusting for unavoidable commitments like shift work, and being vigilant for symptoms of insufficient sleep. Experimenting with longer sleep schedules or naps might benefit those suspecting they are not getting enough sleep. The advice also extends to good sleep hygiene practices, such as reducing caffeine and alcohol intake and avoiding heavy meals before bedtime. Lastly, individuals concerned about their sleep are advised to consult their GP, who can refer them to sleep specialists for further assessment and treatment of sleep disorders such as sleep apnoea and insomnia.

More information: Hannah Scott, et al, Are we getting enough sleep? Frequent irregular sleep found in an analysis of over 11 million nights of objective in-home sleep data, Sleep Health. DOI: 10.1016/j.sleh.2023.10.016

Journal information: Sleep Health Provided by Flinders University

Improved mental and physical well-being in the elderly linked to proximity to natural environments

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The availability of urban green and blue spaces, even in small increments, might be linked to improved mental and physical health among older adults, as per a study by Washington State University. The research revealed that a mere 10% increase in forest area within a person’s residential ZIP code could lessen severe psychological distress. This type of distress encompasses mental health issues that necessitate treatment and disrupt everyday activities, including work and social interactions. Similarly, a 10% augmentation in green spaces, including parks, tree canopies, water bodies, or trails, was associated with a decreased likelihood of older individuals reporting their overall health as poor or fair.

Adithya Vegaraju, the study’s lead author and a medical student at the WSU Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, commented on the implications of the findings. He suggested that reducing urban green and blue spaces due to swift urban development might pose environmental concerns and public health risks. The study, published in Health & Place, analyzed health survey data from over 42,000 individuals aged 65 and above residing in urban locales across Washington state from 2011 to 2019. The researchers correlated the health outcomes of these individuals, both general and mental, with various metrics measuring access to green and blue spaces within their residential ZIP codes. Approximately 2% of the surveyed participants exhibited signs of severe psychological distress, and 19% reported their general health status as fair or poor.

The research team presented early findings at the American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting in April 2023, focusing on the link between severe psychological distress and proximity to the nearest green and blue spaces. The final study expanded on this by exploring additional factors, such as the percentage of green space, tree canopy, forest area, open space within ZIP codes, and trail lengths. It also considered how these factors correlate with self-reported general health while accounting for demographic differences among survey respondents, like race and education level.

Vegaraju highlighted the novelty of the study, pointing out that it’s among the first in the United States to explore how proximity to nature affects the health of older adults. This demographic is particularly susceptible to mental health issues like depression, which can heighten the risk of cognitive decline and dementia. Moreover, older adults are often less inclined to seek treatment for their mental health conditions.

The study also touches on the potential of “nature prescriptions,” a concept where healthcare professionals prescribe time spent in natural settings to patients. This approach could be a novel way to combat mental health issues in the elderly. Solmaz Amiri, the senior study author, emphasized the need for further research to understand how nature exposure might contribute to better mental and general health and its potential role in mitigating cognitive decline, an early indicator of Alzheimer’s disease or dementia.

Amiri, a research assistant professor at the WSU College of Medicine and a researcher at the Institute for Research and Education to Advance Community Health (IREACH), hopes that the findings will help address health disparities among older adults from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. These disparities are often linked to unequal access to green and blue spaces in urban settings.

More information: Adithya Vegaraju et al, Urban green and blue spaces and general and mental health among older adults in Washington state: Analysis of BRFSS data between 2011-2019, Health & Place. DOI: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2023.103148

Journal information: Health & Place Provided by Washington State University

Mediterranean diet linked to reduced dementia risk

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A study suggests that adhering to a diet reminiscent of the traditional Mediterranean style, which includes an abundance of seafood, fruits, and nuts, could potentially reduce the risk of developing dementia by nearly one-quarter. Researchers from Newcastle University discovered that individuals following a diet similar to the Mediterranean model experienced a risk reduction for dementia of up to 23% compared to those who did not follow such a diet.

Published in BMC Medicine, this research stands out due to its scale. Past investigations into the topic have typically been constrained by smaller sample sizes and a limited number of dementia cases. This study significantly advances the understanding of the potential dietary influences on dementia risk.

The study’s methodology involved analyzing data from 60,298 UK Biobank participants, representing a broad cross-section of the UK population who had previously submitted detailed dietary information. The researchers assessed the participants’ diets based on their adherence to the critical characteristics of a Mediterranean diet. They followed the participants for nearly a decade, during which 882 instances of dementia were recorded.

An innovative aspect of the study was considering each participant’s genetic predisposition to dementia. This was evaluated through a polygenic risk score, which aggregates the impact of various genes associated with the risk of developing dementia.

The research team, led by Dr Oliver Shannon, Professor Emma Stevenson, and Professor David Llewellyn as joint senior authors, collaborated with experts from Edinburgh, UEA, and Exeter. This work is part of the Medical Research Council-funded NuBrain consortium.

Dr Shannon highlighted the importance of finding strategies to mitigate the risk of dementia, given the condition’s significant impact worldwide and the current lack of effective treatments. He emphasized that adopting a diet more aligned with Mediterranean principles could be a viable approach to reducing the risk of dementia.

The study found no significant interaction between the genetic risk of dementia and the positive effects of adhering to a Mediterranean diet. It suggests that even individuals with a higher genetic risk might lower their chances of developing dementia by improving their diet. However, the authors acknowledge the need for further research to explore the relationship between diet, genetics, and dementia risk more thoroughly.

Professor John Mathers reflected on the encouraging implications of the study, reinforcing the message that a better diet can decrease the likelihood of dementia, even among those at higher genetic risk. He advocated for more research to bolster the case for public health interventions focusing on dietary improvements.

The researchers caution that their findings primarily apply to white, British, or Irish individuals due to the study’s reliance on genetic data from European ancestry. They call for further investigation across diverse populations to fully understand the potential benefits of a Mediterranean diet in reducing dementia risk.

Concluding their findings, the authors propose that a diet rich in healthy plant-based foods, characteristic of the Mediterranean diet, should be considered an essential component of future strategies to lower the risk of dementia.

Dr Janice Ranson, a joint lead author from the University of Exeter, emphasized the long-term brain health advantages of consuming a Mediterranean diet. She suggested that future efforts to prevent dementia could extend beyond general healthy eating advice to include specific recommendations on increasing the intake of foods and nutrients vital for brain health.

More information: Oliver M. Shannon et al, Mediterranean diet adherence is associated with lower dementia risk, independent of genetic predisposition: findings from the UK Biobank prospective cohort study, BMC Medicine. DOI: 10.1186/s12916-023-02772-3

Journal information: BMC Medicine Provided by Newcastle University