Join the 'Sleep Disorders' group to help and get support from people like you.

FDA: Lower Ambien's Dose to Prevent Drowsy Driving

Posted 2 days 22 hours ago by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, May 15 – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved new, lower-dose labeling for the popular sleep drug Ambien (zolpidem) in an effort to cut down on daytime drowsiness that could be a hazard while performing certain tasks such as driving. The move follows the FDA's request to manufacturers in January that drugs containing zolpidem carry instructions that lower the recommended dose and provide more safety information to patients. "FDA has approved these changes because of the known risk of next-morning impairment with these drugs," the agency said in a statement released Tuesday on its website. Sleep medications containing zolpidem include Ambien, Ambien CR, Edluar and Zolpimist, as well as generic versions of Ambien and Ambien CR. "The purpose of the lowering is to help decrease the risk of next-morning impairment of activities that require alertness," Dr. Ellis ... Read more

Related support groups: Sleep Disorders, Insomnia, Ambien, Zolpidem, Ambien CR, Intermezzo, Edluar, Zolpimist

Sleep Woes Tied to Prostate Cancer Risk in Study

Posted 11 days ago by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, May 7 – Sleep problems may increase men's risk for prostate cancer, a new study suggests. "Prostate cancer is one of the leading public health concerns for men, and sleep problems are quite common," said study author Dr. Lara Sigurdardottir, of the University of Iceland in Reykjavik. "If our results are confirmed with further studies, sleep may become a potential target for intervention to reduce the risk for prostate cancer." Her study included about 2,100 men, aged 67 to 96, in Iceland. They were asked if they took medications to help them sleep, had trouble falling asleep or woke up during nights or early in the morning and had difficulty going back to sleep. The researchers found that 14.4 percent of the men had severe or very severe sleep problems. None of the men had prostate cancer at the start of the study. During five years of follow-up, 6.4 percent were diagnosed ... Read more

Related support groups: Sleep Disorders, Prostate Cancer

ER Visits Tied to Ambien on the Rise

Posted 17 days ago by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, May 1 – There has been a dramatic increase in the number of emergency-room visits related to sleep medications such as Ambien, according to a new U.S. study. Adverse reactions to zolpidem – the active ingredient in the sleep aids Ambien, Ambien CR, Edluar and Zolpimist – rose almost 220 percent between 2005 and 2010, researchers from the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) found. The study authors concluded that use of these drugs for the short-term treatment of insomnia should be carefully monitored. Zolpidem, which has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, has been used safely and effectively by millions of Americans, but adverse reactions to the medication have increased. Most of these cases involved people aged 45 and older, the researchers said. "Although short-term sleeping medications can help patients, it is ... Read more

Related support groups: Sleep Disorders, Insomnia, Ambien, Zolpidem, Ambien CR, Substance Abuse, Intermezzo, Edluar, Zolpimist

Study Puts New Spin on 'Sound Sleep'

Posted 11 Apr 2013 by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, April 11 – Playing a certain type of sound stimulation during sleep might help improve your memory, a small new study suggests. Slow oscillations in brain activity occur during slow-wave sleep and are critical for retaining memories. This study found that playing sounds synchronized to the rhythm of those oscillations enhances the oscillations and boosts memory. The findings suggest an easy and noninvasive way to enhance memory, according to the authors of the study, which was published online April 11 in the journal Neuron. "The beauty lies in the simplicity to apply auditory stimulation at low intensities – an approach that is both practical and ethical, if compared, for example, with electrical stimulation – and therefore portrays a straightforward tool for clinical settings to enhance sleep rhythms," Dr. Jan Born, of the University of Tubingen, in Germany, said in a ... Read more

Related support groups: Sleep Disorders

Health Tip: Poor Sleep Can Hurt Your Heart...

Posted 2 Apr 2013 by Drugs.com

-- When you're not sleeping well, your whole body can suffer – including your heart. The Women's Heart Foundation explains how sleep disturbances may affect heart health: Increased stress. Increased hunger, resulting weight gain. Increased risk of stroke, as a possible result of sleep apnea. Increased risk of heart disease, as a possible result of sleep apnea. High blood pressure, faster heart rate and irregular heartbeat. Read more

Related support groups: Sleep Disorders, Insomnia

Shorter Shifts for Medical Interns May Not Boost Patient Safety

Posted 25 Mar 2013 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, March 25 – Cutting the number of hours that U.S. medical interns work in a single stretch may not improve patient care as had been hoped. Instead, the measure decreases interns' overall training time and may also increase patient risks, according to a new study. New national rules introduced in 2011 reduced the continuous-duty hours of first-year resident physicians from 30 to 16 hours. This was done in the belief that shortening their continuous work hours would enable them to get more sleep and that less fatigue would reduce the number of serious medical errors made by residents. This study found, however, that the changes did not increase the amount of sleep that interns got each week, and that there was a significant increase in the number of potentially dangerous handoffs of patients from one resident to another. In addition, the changes led to a decline in the residents' ... Read more

Related support groups: Sleep Disorders

Bathroom Visits May Add to Sleep Problems for Seniors

Posted 14 Mar 2013 by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, March 14 – Having to get up at night to urinate may worsen the already poor sleep of older people with insomnia, a new study suggests. Treatment of this problem, called nocturia, might help improve the sleep quality among these seniors, the researchers said. The study included older men and women with insomnia. Their patterns of sleeping and waking up to urinate during the night were evaluated for two weeks. The investigators found that 54 percent of all nighttime awakenings were associated with having to urinate. The more often a person had to go to the bathroom during the night, the poorer their self-reported quality of sleep, according to the study, which was published online March 15 in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. In addition, the study authors noted that nighttime awakenings were 11.5 percent longer on nights when people had to go to the bathroom. Waking up ... Read more

Related support groups: Sleep Disorders, Overactive Bladder

Full Pantry Plus Too Little Sleep Is Recipe for Weight Gain

Posted 11 Mar 2013 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, March 11 – Too little sleep with unlimited food availability leads to too much eating and weight gain, according to a small new study. "I don't think extra sleep by itself is going to lead to weight loss," Kenneth Wright, director of the Sleep and Chronobiology Laboratory at the University of Colorado, Boulder, said in a university news release. "Problems with weight gain and obesity are much more complex than that. But I think it could help." Wright and colleagues monitored 16 young, lean, healthy male and female adults who lived for about two weeks at the University of Colorado Hospital, which has a sleep suite. For the first three days, all the participants had the opportunity to sleep nine hours a night and were given meals that contained only enough calories to maintain their weight. For the next five-day period, the participants were split into two groups. One group's ... Read more

Related support groups: Sleep Disorders, Obesity

'Violent Behavior' Occurs in Many Adult Sleepwalkers, Study Finds

Posted 8 Mar 2013 by Drugs.com

FRIDAY, March 8 – Adults don't always outgrow sleepwalking, and among those who don't, 58 percent may become violent and sometimes injure either themselves or their sleeping partner, a new study shows. Not only that, these sleepwalkers suffer a host of health problems during their waking hours, the researchers noted. "Daytime sleepiness is a frequent problem in adults affected with sleepwalking," said study author Dr. Yves Dauvilliers, director of the sleep lab at Gui-de-Chauliac Hospital in Montpelier, France. That's among the more obvious problems, he said. They also may experience depression, anxiety and lower quality of life. Injuries, both to sleepwalkers and their bed partners, happen 17 percent of the time, Dauvilliers said. "Some patients have jumped out of windows," he said. "Some have walked on the house roof. And others fell down the stairs, with legs broken." The study is ... Read more

Related support groups: Sleep Disorders

Sound Sleep Helps the Heart, Expert Says

Posted 5 Mar 2013 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, March 5 – Getting enough sleep is important for good heart health, an expert says. "Without enough sleep, there is an increase in blood pressure and stress hormones, lower glucose [blood sugar] tolerance and weight gain," Dr. Alan Gertler, a cardiologist and associate professor of medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said in a university news release. "All of these factors can increase the risk of coronary artery disease." The ideal amount of sleep is between six and eight hours a night, he said. Sleep deprivation (fewer than six hours of sleep per night) "can lead to elevated C-reactive protein levels, which may be a marker of inflammation of the endothelial lining of the arteries, which can increase the risk of atherosclerosis," Gertler noted. Sleep apnea, a common problem, is another sleep-related issue that can lead to heart trouble, he said. The disrupted ... Read more

Related support groups: Sleep Disorders, Cardiovascular Risk Reduction

Spotting Sleep Problems in Special-Needs Children

Posted 5 Mar 2013 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, March 5 – About 30 percent of children have a sleep disorder, but the rate is even higher in children with special needs, an expert says. This increased risk in children with special needs is likely related to physical and behavioral differences, as well as side effects from medication, said Dr. Jennifer Accardo, director of the Sleep Disorders Clinic and Lab at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, Md. Not all children with special needs who have sleep disturbances will be diagnosed with a sleep disorder, but early detection of common signs is the key to improving sleep. Parents know their child's sleep patterns best and can spot sleep issues if they know what to look for. Signs of sleep problems in school-age children with special needs include: snoring; difficulty falling or staying asleep; sleepwalking, night terrors and other nighttime activities; sleeping too much; ... Read more

Related support groups: Sleep Disorders

Certain Sleep Aids May Raise Hip Fracture Risk in Nursing Homes: Study

Posted 4 Mar 2013 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, March 4 – Health staff at nursing homes often give patients sleeping pills to help them sleep, but a new study suggests that a certain class of medications may put patients at raised risk for hip fractures. A team from Harvard Medical School in Boston looked at more than 15,500 long-stay nursing-home residents, aged 50 and older, who suffered a hip fracture between July 2007 and December 2008. The residents' average age was 81. About 1,700 of the residents had been given a nonbenzodiazepine hypnotic sleep drug before their hip fracture. This class of drugs includes Lunesta, Sonata, Ambien and Intermezzo. Those who took nonbenzodiazepine hypnotic sleep drugs were about two-thirds more likely to suffer a hip fracture than those who didn't take the drugs, according to the study, published online March 4 in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. Although the study found an association ... Read more

Related support groups: Sleep Disorders, Insomnia, Ambien, Zolpidem, Lunesta, Ambien CR, Sonata, Zaleplon, Fracture, Intermezzo, Eszopiclone, Edluar, Zolpimist

Exercise Leads to Better Sleep: Poll

Posted 4 Mar 2013 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, March 4 – A brisk walk or workout can improve your sleep, even in the hours before bed, according to the results of a new U.S. poll conducted by the National Sleep Foundation. "Exercise is great for sleep. For the millions of people who want better sleep, exercise may help," David Cloud, National Sleep Foundation CEO, said in a foundation news release. The 2013 Sleep in America poll of 1,000 adults between the ages of 23 and 60 found that people who exercised reported better sleep than those who didn't exercise, even though they got the same amount of sleep each night (an average of 6 hours, 51 minutes on weeknights). People who got light, moderate or vigorous exercise were much more likely to say they had a good night's sleep every night or almost every night during the week than those who did not exercise – 56 to 67 percent versus 39 percent, respectively. The survey also ... Read more

Related support groups: Sleep Disorders, Cardiovascular Risk Reduction

Health Tip: Develop Good Sleep Habits

Posted 28 Feb 2013 by Drugs.com

-- To get a good night's sleep, it's important to develop healthy sleep habits and stick to them each night. The National Sleep Foundation recommends these healthy sleep habits to help you wake up rested each morning: Establish a regular bedtime and wake-time schedule and follow it every day, even on weekends. Create a consistent and relaxing bedtime routine, and make sure your bedroom is comfortable, dark and quiet. Invest in a comfortable mattress and pillows, and only sleep and have sex in your bedroom – nothing else. Don't eat within two to three hours of bedtime, and avoid caffeine, alcohol and tobacco before going to sleep. Exercise regularly, but try to schedule your workout well before bedtime. Read more

Related support groups: Sleep Disorders

Sleep Deprivation May Disrupt Your Genes

Posted 25 Feb 2013 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, Feb. 25 – Far more than just leaving you yawning, a small amount of sleep deprivation disrupts the activity of genes, potentially affecting metabolism and other functions in the human body, a new study suggests. It's not clear how your health may be affected by the genetic disruption if you don't get enough sleep. Still, the research raises the possibility that the effects of too little sleep could have long-lasting effects on your body. "If people regularly restrict their sleep, it is possible that the disruption that we see . .. could have an impact over time that ultimately determines their health outcomes as they age in later life," said study co-author Simon Archer, who studies sleep at the University of Surrey, in England. The study was published online Feb. 25 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. At issue is how a lack of enough sleep affects the human ... Read more

Related support groups: Sleep Disorders

Page: 1 2 3 4 5 Next (63 results)

Ask a Question

Further Information

Related Condition Support Groups

Insomnia, Narcolepsy, Sleep Apnea, Drowsiness, Shift Work Sleep Disorder, Sleep Paralysis, Jet Lag