Sleep Blog

An innovative concept in providing consumer-driven health care has arrived on the internet. The JAAN Group is a newcomer in the field of health care, having launched in June 2008. JAAN is owned and operated by a team of nurses whose mission is to help consumers make the best choice in finding a new doctor for themselves and their family members.

JustAskANurse.net (JAAN) is a resource site established to provide the healthcare consumer with nurse-based physician recommendations. Who do the nurses go to for medical care? As professionals, patient advocates, and health care consumers, nurses are often asked for physician recommendations. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to refer to a website where this information is available?

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New article published in the journal Genetics shows that one of only a few drug targets for sleep disorders proves fruitful

You may never hear fruit flies snore, but rest assured that when you’re asleep they are too. According to research published in the January 2009 issue of the journal Genetics, scientists from the University of Missouri-Kansas City have shown that the circadian rhythms (sleep/wake cycles) of fruit flies and vertebrates are regulated by some of the same “cellular machinery” as that of humans.

The study is significant because the sleep-regulating enzyme analyzed in this research is one of only a few possible drug targets for circadian problems that can lead to seasonal affective disorder (SAD), insomnia, and possibly some cancers.

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A survey conducted at a high school in suburban Philadelphia, conducted by a team comprised of one of the school’s students and her father, a sleep specialist, to learn what sleep-deprived teens thought of starting school days later in the morning, as well as having tests given later in the school day which may result in better grades. The survey’s findings was presented at the American Thoracic Society 2007 International Conference, on May 20, 2007.

The survey of 280 high school students confirmed what most parents with a teenager know: the students are not getting enough sleep. More sleep would translate into improved academic performance, according to the teens questioned. They all attended Harriton High School in suburban Philadelphia, where the school day begins at 7:30 a.m. and ends at 2:25 p.m.

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About two-thirds of children with sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) — snoring or obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) — have some degree of cognitive deficit, but the severity of the cognitive deficit has been notoriously difficult to correlate to the severity of the sleep-disordered breathing, suggesting that other important issues may be at play, or that the right factors were simply not being measured.

A study that will be published in the first issue for November, 2008 issue of the American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine opens the door to understanding the complex relationship between sleep, breathing and brain function in a whole new way.

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Is sleep essential? Ask that question to a sleep-deprived new parent or a student who has just pulled an "all-nighter," and the answer will be a grouchy, "Of course!"

But to a sleep scientist, the question of what constitutes sleep is so complex that scientists are still trying to define the essential function of something we do every night. A study published this week in PLoS Biology by Chiara Cirelli and Giulio Tononi addresses this pressing question.

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