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Regular, optimal sleep tied to lower mortality risk
INDIANAPOLIS –
In a diverse group of older adults, those with regular and optimal sleep had about a 40% lower risk of dying of any cause during follow-up compared with peers who had irregular and insufficient sleep.
“If sleep were an 8-hour pill, it would be beneficial to take the full dose at regular times consistently,” lead researcher Joon Chung, PhD, of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, said in a news release.
The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies.
Broad adverse health effects
“Evidence is mounting that irregular sleep is associated with pretty broad adverse health outcomes, most prominently cardiometabolic disease, obesity, and cardiovascular disease,” Dr. Chungsaid in an interview.
In the current study, the researchers estimated the association of regular sleep of optimal sleep duration with all-cause mortality using data from 1,759 adults the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis Sleep Study.
Sleep regularity and duration were classified using 7 days of data gathered by wrist actigraphy. Adults were categorized as “regular-optimal” sleepers (n = 1,015) or “irregular-insufficient” sleepers (n = 744).
During 7 years of follow-up, 176 people died. In the fully adjusted model, the regular-optimal group had a 39% lower mortality risk compared with the irregular-insufficient sleep group (hazard ratio, 0.61;95% confidence interval [CI], 0.45-0.83). The findings were robust in sensitivity analyses.
The regular and optimal duration sleep pattern maps behaviorally to regular bed and wake times, suggesting potential health benefits of adherence to recommended sleep practices, the researchers noted.
“Results suggest benefits of expanding the public conversation on getting ‘a good night’s sleep’ and broadening this goal to getting many good nights of sleep, in a row, on weekdays and weekends,” Dr. Chung said in the release.
He further said that “getting adequate, regular sleep seems to be something that is good for all. I don’t know of anyone who wouldn’t benefit.”
Fariha Abassi-Feinberg, MD, spokesperson for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and sleep specialist with the Millennium Physician Group, Fort Myers, Fla., agreed.
“We know our bodies have an internal clock, known as the circadian rhythm, which regulates various biological processes, including sleep-wake cycles. Sticking to a consistent sleep schedule allows your body to align its natural rhythm with the external day-night cycle. This synchronization promotes better sleep quality and therefore better health,” said Dr. Abassi-Feinberg, who wasn’t involved in the study.
“The AASM recommends adults try to aim for at least 7 hours of sleep and I often tell my patients that keeping a regular routine is best for your sleep and health,” she said in an interview.
Funding for the study was provided by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Chung and Dr. Abassi-Feinberg report no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article originally appeared on Medscape.com.
INDIANAPOLIS –
In a diverse group of older adults, those with regular and optimal sleep had about a 40% lower risk of dying of any cause during follow-up compared with peers who had irregular and insufficient sleep.
“If sleep were an 8-hour pill, it would be beneficial to take the full dose at regular times consistently,” lead researcher Joon Chung, PhD, of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, said in a news release.
The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies.
Broad adverse health effects
“Evidence is mounting that irregular sleep is associated with pretty broad adverse health outcomes, most prominently cardiometabolic disease, obesity, and cardiovascular disease,” Dr. Chungsaid in an interview.
In the current study, the researchers estimated the association of regular sleep of optimal sleep duration with all-cause mortality using data from 1,759 adults the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis Sleep Study.
Sleep regularity and duration were classified using 7 days of data gathered by wrist actigraphy. Adults were categorized as “regular-optimal” sleepers (n = 1,015) or “irregular-insufficient” sleepers (n = 744).
During 7 years of follow-up, 176 people died. In the fully adjusted model, the regular-optimal group had a 39% lower mortality risk compared with the irregular-insufficient sleep group (hazard ratio, 0.61;95% confidence interval [CI], 0.45-0.83). The findings were robust in sensitivity analyses.
The regular and optimal duration sleep pattern maps behaviorally to regular bed and wake times, suggesting potential health benefits of adherence to recommended sleep practices, the researchers noted.
“Results suggest benefits of expanding the public conversation on getting ‘a good night’s sleep’ and broadening this goal to getting many good nights of sleep, in a row, on weekdays and weekends,” Dr. Chung said in the release.
He further said that “getting adequate, regular sleep seems to be something that is good for all. I don’t know of anyone who wouldn’t benefit.”
Fariha Abassi-Feinberg, MD, spokesperson for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and sleep specialist with the Millennium Physician Group, Fort Myers, Fla., agreed.
“We know our bodies have an internal clock, known as the circadian rhythm, which regulates various biological processes, including sleep-wake cycles. Sticking to a consistent sleep schedule allows your body to align its natural rhythm with the external day-night cycle. This synchronization promotes better sleep quality and therefore better health,” said Dr. Abassi-Feinberg, who wasn’t involved in the study.
“The AASM recommends adults try to aim for at least 7 hours of sleep and I often tell my patients that keeping a regular routine is best for your sleep and health,” she said in an interview.
Funding for the study was provided by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Chung and Dr. Abassi-Feinberg report no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article originally appeared on Medscape.com.
INDIANAPOLIS –
In a diverse group of older adults, those with regular and optimal sleep had about a 40% lower risk of dying of any cause during follow-up compared with peers who had irregular and insufficient sleep.
“If sleep were an 8-hour pill, it would be beneficial to take the full dose at regular times consistently,” lead researcher Joon Chung, PhD, of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, said in a news release.
The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies.
Broad adverse health effects
“Evidence is mounting that irregular sleep is associated with pretty broad adverse health outcomes, most prominently cardiometabolic disease, obesity, and cardiovascular disease,” Dr. Chungsaid in an interview.
In the current study, the researchers estimated the association of regular sleep of optimal sleep duration with all-cause mortality using data from 1,759 adults the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis Sleep Study.
Sleep regularity and duration were classified using 7 days of data gathered by wrist actigraphy. Adults were categorized as “regular-optimal” sleepers (n = 1,015) or “irregular-insufficient” sleepers (n = 744).
During 7 years of follow-up, 176 people died. In the fully adjusted model, the regular-optimal group had a 39% lower mortality risk compared with the irregular-insufficient sleep group (hazard ratio, 0.61;95% confidence interval [CI], 0.45-0.83). The findings were robust in sensitivity analyses.
The regular and optimal duration sleep pattern maps behaviorally to regular bed and wake times, suggesting potential health benefits of adherence to recommended sleep practices, the researchers noted.
“Results suggest benefits of expanding the public conversation on getting ‘a good night’s sleep’ and broadening this goal to getting many good nights of sleep, in a row, on weekdays and weekends,” Dr. Chung said in the release.
He further said that “getting adequate, regular sleep seems to be something that is good for all. I don’t know of anyone who wouldn’t benefit.”
Fariha Abassi-Feinberg, MD, spokesperson for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and sleep specialist with the Millennium Physician Group, Fort Myers, Fla., agreed.
“We know our bodies have an internal clock, known as the circadian rhythm, which regulates various biological processes, including sleep-wake cycles. Sticking to a consistent sleep schedule allows your body to align its natural rhythm with the external day-night cycle. This synchronization promotes better sleep quality and therefore better health,” said Dr. Abassi-Feinberg, who wasn’t involved in the study.
“The AASM recommends adults try to aim for at least 7 hours of sleep and I often tell my patients that keeping a regular routine is best for your sleep and health,” she said in an interview.
Funding for the study was provided by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Chung and Dr. Abassi-Feinberg report no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article originally appeared on Medscape.com.
AT SLEEP 2023
Suicidality risk in youth at highest at night
Investigators found that suicidal ideation and attempts were lowest in the mornings and highest in the evenings, particularly among youth with higher levels of self-critical rumination.
“These are preliminary findings, and there is a need for more data, but they signal potentially that there’s a need for support, particularly at nighttime, and that there might be a potential of targeting self-critical rumination in daily lives of youth,” said lead researcher Anastacia Kudinova, PhD, with the department of psychiatry and human behavior, Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, R.I.
The findings were presented at the late-breaker session at the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies.
Urgent need
Suicidal ideation (SI) is a “robust” predictor of suicidal behavior and, “alarmingly,” both suicidal ideation and suicidal behavior have been increasing, Dr. Kudinova said.
“There is an urgent need to describe proximal time-period risk factors for suicide so that we can identify who is at a greater suicide risk on the time scale of weeks, days, or even hours,” she told attendees.
The researchers asked 165 psychiatrically hospitalized youth aged 11-18 (72% female) about the time of day of their most recent suicide attempt.
More than half (58%) said it occurred in the evenings and nights, followed by daytime (35%) and mornings (7%).
They also assessed the timing of suicidal ideation at home in 61 youth aged 12-15 (61% female) who were discharged after a partial hospitalization program.
They did this using ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) three times a day over 2 weeks. EMAs study people’s thoughts and behavior in their daily lives by repeatedly collecting data in an individual’s normal environment at or close to the time they carry out that behavior.
As in the other sample, youth in this sample also experienced significantly more frequent suicidal ideation later in the day (P < .01).
There was also a significant moderating effect of self-criticism (P < .01), such that more self-critical youth evidenced the highest levels of suicidal ideation later in the day.
True variation or mechanics?
Reached for comment, Paul Nestadt, MD, with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, noted that EMA is becoming “an interesting way to track high-resolution temporal variation in suicidal ideation and other psych symptoms.”
Dr. Nestadt, who was not involved in the study, said that “it’s not surprising” that the majority of youth attempted suicide in evenings and nights, “as adolescents are generally being supervised in a school setting during daytime hours. It may not be the fluctuation in suicidality that impacts attempt timing so much as the mechanics – it is very hard to attempt suicide in math class.”
The same may be true for the youth in the second sample who were in the partial hospital program. “During the day, they were in therapy groups where feelings of suicidal ideation would have been solicited and addressed in real time,” Dr. Nestadt noted.
“Again, suicidal ideation later in the day may be a practical effect of how they are occupied in the partial hospital program, as opposed to some inherent suicidal ideation increase linked to something endogenous, such as circadian rhythm or cortisol level rises. That said, we do often see more attempts in the evenings in adults as well,” he added.
A vulnerable time
Also weighing in, Casey O’Brien, PsyD, a psychologist in the department of psychiatry at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, said the findings in this study “track” with what she sees in the clinic.
Teens often report in session that the “unstructured time of night – especially the time when they usually should be getting to bed but are kind of staying up – tends to be a very vulnerable time for them,” Dr. O’Brien said in an interview.
“It’s really nice to have research confirm a lot of what we see reported anecdotally from the teens we work with,” said Dr. O’Brien.
Dr. O’Brien heads the intensive adolescent dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) program at Columbia for young people struggling with mental health issues.
“Within the DBT framework, we try to really focus on accepting that this is a vulnerable time and then planning ahead for what the strategies are that they can use to help them transition to bed quickly and smoothly,” Dr. O’Brien said.
These strategies may include spending time with their parents before bed, reading, or building into their bedtime routines things that they find soothing and comforting, like taking a longer shower or having comfortable pajamas to change into, she explained.
“We also work a lot on sleep hygiene strategies to help develop a regular bedtime and have a consistent sleep-wake cycle. We also will plan ahead for using distress tolerance skills during times of emotional vulnerability,” Dr. O’Brien said.
The Columbia DBT program also offers phone coaching “so teens can reach out to a therapist for help using skills outside of a therapeutic hour, and we do find that we get more coaching calls closer to around bedtime,” Dr. O’Brien said.
Support for the study was provided by the National Institute of Mental Health and Bradley Hospital COBRE Center. Dr. Kudinova, Dr. Nestadt, and Dr. O’Brien have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
Investigators found that suicidal ideation and attempts were lowest in the mornings and highest in the evenings, particularly among youth with higher levels of self-critical rumination.
“These are preliminary findings, and there is a need for more data, but they signal potentially that there’s a need for support, particularly at nighttime, and that there might be a potential of targeting self-critical rumination in daily lives of youth,” said lead researcher Anastacia Kudinova, PhD, with the department of psychiatry and human behavior, Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, R.I.
The findings were presented at the late-breaker session at the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies.
Urgent need
Suicidal ideation (SI) is a “robust” predictor of suicidal behavior and, “alarmingly,” both suicidal ideation and suicidal behavior have been increasing, Dr. Kudinova said.
“There is an urgent need to describe proximal time-period risk factors for suicide so that we can identify who is at a greater suicide risk on the time scale of weeks, days, or even hours,” she told attendees.
The researchers asked 165 psychiatrically hospitalized youth aged 11-18 (72% female) about the time of day of their most recent suicide attempt.
More than half (58%) said it occurred in the evenings and nights, followed by daytime (35%) and mornings (7%).
They also assessed the timing of suicidal ideation at home in 61 youth aged 12-15 (61% female) who were discharged after a partial hospitalization program.
They did this using ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) three times a day over 2 weeks. EMAs study people’s thoughts and behavior in their daily lives by repeatedly collecting data in an individual’s normal environment at or close to the time they carry out that behavior.
As in the other sample, youth in this sample also experienced significantly more frequent suicidal ideation later in the day (P < .01).
There was also a significant moderating effect of self-criticism (P < .01), such that more self-critical youth evidenced the highest levels of suicidal ideation later in the day.
True variation or mechanics?
Reached for comment, Paul Nestadt, MD, with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, noted that EMA is becoming “an interesting way to track high-resolution temporal variation in suicidal ideation and other psych symptoms.”
Dr. Nestadt, who was not involved in the study, said that “it’s not surprising” that the majority of youth attempted suicide in evenings and nights, “as adolescents are generally being supervised in a school setting during daytime hours. It may not be the fluctuation in suicidality that impacts attempt timing so much as the mechanics – it is very hard to attempt suicide in math class.”
The same may be true for the youth in the second sample who were in the partial hospital program. “During the day, they were in therapy groups where feelings of suicidal ideation would have been solicited and addressed in real time,” Dr. Nestadt noted.
“Again, suicidal ideation later in the day may be a practical effect of how they are occupied in the partial hospital program, as opposed to some inherent suicidal ideation increase linked to something endogenous, such as circadian rhythm or cortisol level rises. That said, we do often see more attempts in the evenings in adults as well,” he added.
A vulnerable time
Also weighing in, Casey O’Brien, PsyD, a psychologist in the department of psychiatry at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, said the findings in this study “track” with what she sees in the clinic.
Teens often report in session that the “unstructured time of night – especially the time when they usually should be getting to bed but are kind of staying up – tends to be a very vulnerable time for them,” Dr. O’Brien said in an interview.
“It’s really nice to have research confirm a lot of what we see reported anecdotally from the teens we work with,” said Dr. O’Brien.
Dr. O’Brien heads the intensive adolescent dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) program at Columbia for young people struggling with mental health issues.
“Within the DBT framework, we try to really focus on accepting that this is a vulnerable time and then planning ahead for what the strategies are that they can use to help them transition to bed quickly and smoothly,” Dr. O’Brien said.
These strategies may include spending time with their parents before bed, reading, or building into their bedtime routines things that they find soothing and comforting, like taking a longer shower or having comfortable pajamas to change into, she explained.
“We also work a lot on sleep hygiene strategies to help develop a regular bedtime and have a consistent sleep-wake cycle. We also will plan ahead for using distress tolerance skills during times of emotional vulnerability,” Dr. O’Brien said.
The Columbia DBT program also offers phone coaching “so teens can reach out to a therapist for help using skills outside of a therapeutic hour, and we do find that we get more coaching calls closer to around bedtime,” Dr. O’Brien said.
Support for the study was provided by the National Institute of Mental Health and Bradley Hospital COBRE Center. Dr. Kudinova, Dr. Nestadt, and Dr. O’Brien have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
Investigators found that suicidal ideation and attempts were lowest in the mornings and highest in the evenings, particularly among youth with higher levels of self-critical rumination.
“These are preliminary findings, and there is a need for more data, but they signal potentially that there’s a need for support, particularly at nighttime, and that there might be a potential of targeting self-critical rumination in daily lives of youth,” said lead researcher Anastacia Kudinova, PhD, with the department of psychiatry and human behavior, Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, R.I.
The findings were presented at the late-breaker session at the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies.
Urgent need
Suicidal ideation (SI) is a “robust” predictor of suicidal behavior and, “alarmingly,” both suicidal ideation and suicidal behavior have been increasing, Dr. Kudinova said.
“There is an urgent need to describe proximal time-period risk factors for suicide so that we can identify who is at a greater suicide risk on the time scale of weeks, days, or even hours,” she told attendees.
The researchers asked 165 psychiatrically hospitalized youth aged 11-18 (72% female) about the time of day of their most recent suicide attempt.
More than half (58%) said it occurred in the evenings and nights, followed by daytime (35%) and mornings (7%).
They also assessed the timing of suicidal ideation at home in 61 youth aged 12-15 (61% female) who were discharged after a partial hospitalization program.
They did this using ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) three times a day over 2 weeks. EMAs study people’s thoughts and behavior in their daily lives by repeatedly collecting data in an individual’s normal environment at or close to the time they carry out that behavior.
As in the other sample, youth in this sample also experienced significantly more frequent suicidal ideation later in the day (P < .01).
There was also a significant moderating effect of self-criticism (P < .01), such that more self-critical youth evidenced the highest levels of suicidal ideation later in the day.
True variation or mechanics?
Reached for comment, Paul Nestadt, MD, with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, noted that EMA is becoming “an interesting way to track high-resolution temporal variation in suicidal ideation and other psych symptoms.”
Dr. Nestadt, who was not involved in the study, said that “it’s not surprising” that the majority of youth attempted suicide in evenings and nights, “as adolescents are generally being supervised in a school setting during daytime hours. It may not be the fluctuation in suicidality that impacts attempt timing so much as the mechanics – it is very hard to attempt suicide in math class.”
The same may be true for the youth in the second sample who were in the partial hospital program. “During the day, they were in therapy groups where feelings of suicidal ideation would have been solicited and addressed in real time,” Dr. Nestadt noted.
“Again, suicidal ideation later in the day may be a practical effect of how they are occupied in the partial hospital program, as opposed to some inherent suicidal ideation increase linked to something endogenous, such as circadian rhythm or cortisol level rises. That said, we do often see more attempts in the evenings in adults as well,” he added.
A vulnerable time
Also weighing in, Casey O’Brien, PsyD, a psychologist in the department of psychiatry at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, said the findings in this study “track” with what she sees in the clinic.
Teens often report in session that the “unstructured time of night – especially the time when they usually should be getting to bed but are kind of staying up – tends to be a very vulnerable time for them,” Dr. O’Brien said in an interview.
“It’s really nice to have research confirm a lot of what we see reported anecdotally from the teens we work with,” said Dr. O’Brien.
Dr. O’Brien heads the intensive adolescent dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) program at Columbia for young people struggling with mental health issues.
“Within the DBT framework, we try to really focus on accepting that this is a vulnerable time and then planning ahead for what the strategies are that they can use to help them transition to bed quickly and smoothly,” Dr. O’Brien said.
These strategies may include spending time with their parents before bed, reading, or building into their bedtime routines things that they find soothing and comforting, like taking a longer shower or having comfortable pajamas to change into, she explained.
“We also work a lot on sleep hygiene strategies to help develop a regular bedtime and have a consistent sleep-wake cycle. We also will plan ahead for using distress tolerance skills during times of emotional vulnerability,” Dr. O’Brien said.
The Columbia DBT program also offers phone coaching “so teens can reach out to a therapist for help using skills outside of a therapeutic hour, and we do find that we get more coaching calls closer to around bedtime,” Dr. O’Brien said.
Support for the study was provided by the National Institute of Mental Health and Bradley Hospital COBRE Center. Dr. Kudinova, Dr. Nestadt, and Dr. O’Brien have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
FROM SLEEP 2023