Sleep Archive

Although health experts are giving us fewer reasons to see the doctor every year, there are many benefits to doing so.

Simple changes can help to turn down the volume.

If your wife or sleep partner often seems bleary-eyed and resentful in the morning, you may be one of the millions of adults who snore habitually—a condition that affects twice as many men as women. Snoring occurs when your upper airways narrow too much, causing turbulent airflow. This, in turn, makes the surrounding tissues vibrate, producing noise.

"Snoring is a sign that there is a really narrowed space," says Dr. Sanjay Patel, a sleep disorder specialist at Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. "That happens either in your nasal passages or in the back of your throat." Some men are snorers because they have excess throat and nasal tissue. Others have floppy tissue that's more likely to vibrate. The tongue can also get in the way of smooth breathing. 

It appears that cognitive behavior therapy may help people with chronic insomnia and no underlying medical problems fall asleep faster.

Mobility — the ability to move purposefully around your environment — is vitally important to health and well-being.

Nearly one-third to one-half of adults ages 65 and older experience impaired mobility. At first, it may not seem like a big deal — many people with impaired mobility learn to just move a little more slowly and a little more deliberately. Some people work around the problem by relying on a cane or walker.

Painful knees and sleeplessness often go hand in hand, but a form of counseling called cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can help with both problems, according to a study in Arthritis and Rheumatology.

The study involved 100 people ages 50 to 70 with wear-and-tear arthritis (osteoarthritis) in the knee as well as insomnia. They were chosen at random for either eight sessions of CBT or a comparison treatment, called desensitization therapy, known not to be very effective for insomnia.

Find out if your sleeping habits put you at risk—and what to do about it.

Drinking sodas and other beverages sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup may boost levels of harmful LDL cholesterol and triglycerides in your blood, according to a study in the June 2015 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Researchers assigned 85 healthy adults to four different groups. One group drank beverages containing the artificial sweetener aspartame, while the others drank beverages sweetened with various percentages (10%, 17.5%, and 25%) of high-fructose corn syrup. After two weeks, LDL cholesterol levels held steady in people who drank aspartame-sweetened drinks. But among those who drank beverages with high-fructose corn syrup, LDL cholesterol rose in tandem with the percentage of sweetener.

A strong sunscreen and sun-protective clothing can help keep you safe this summer and every day of the year.

With summer here, it's time to reach for the sunscreen. But not everyone is convinced that skin protection is a necessity. "Older adults grew up at a time when unprotected skin exposure wasn't a cardinal sin, and many I talk to think a little sun is good for them. But older adults are actually at an increased risk for skin cancer, since their skin is no longer able to repair damage as efficiently as it once did," says Dr. Oon Tan, a dermatologist at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.

Some commercial weight-loss plans may help you lose a few pounds, but long-term weight control depends on healthy eating habits and regular exercise.

Heavy snoring and sleep apnea may be linked to early declines in memory and thinking, according to a new study published online April 15, 2015, by the journal Neurology. The research also suggests that treating sleep apnea with a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine may delay the declines.

For the study, researchers reviewed the medical histories for 2,470 people ages 55 to 90 and categorized them as free of memory and thinking problems, in early stages of mild cognitive impairment, or with Alzheimer's disease. For each category, the researchers compared people without sleep apnea, people with untreated sleep apnea, and people with sleep apnea who had used CPAP machines to aid breathing as they slept.