Men who co-sleep may have lower testosterone at night

This article discusses research showing that in men who co-sleep with their baby have lower testosterone levels at night than man who do not co-sleep. The researchers do not know why this happens or even the significance. One theory is that the lower testosterone levels may help men be more responsive to their babies.

Restless legs syndrome and soap

I saw this article titled "Can a bar of soap cure your nighttime leg cramps?" and wanted to comment. I think the author is confusing two separate disorders - restless legs syndrome and nocturnal leg cramps. They say that a bar of soap under the mattress may improve restless legs syndrome, but the title implies nocturnal leg cramps. The confusing part is that both conditions may respond to magnesium, which purportedly is given off by soap - I don't know if that is true. But it seems that if magnesium was given off by soap, how would putting it under your mattress help? Also, they mentioned lavender soap may help, as the lavender can help sleep. Maybe, but why not just use lavender aromatherapy? If you have leg cramps or restless legs, see your doctor first.

Obstructive sleep apnea common in women

This article discusses research about the prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in women. I was taught that men are about two times more likely to have OSA than women until women reach menopause. Than the prevalence is about equal for both men and women. But this study showed that about half of the women in their sample had some form of OSA, with 14% having severe OSA. Hopefully the word will get out and women will talk to their doctor or a sleep physician about getting evaluated.

Sleep problems may signal onset of Alzheimer's Dementia

This article discusses research showing that sleep difficulties may be an early sign of Alzheimer's dementia.

Snoring is linked to behavioral problems in toddlers

This article reviews research showing that toddlers who snore on a regular basis are more prone to behavioral problems. This could be because chronic snoring is often a marker for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). And treating the snoring (and underlying OSA) could improve a child's behavior. If your child snores regularly, you may want to have him or her evaluated by an ear, nose, and throat doctor (an ENT) or a sleep physician.

This article discusses research showing that the light from tablets close to bedtime can lead to sleeplessness. I have seen this in some of my patients. The light can suppress Melatonin, the hormone that gets secreted when it is dark. My patients have used filters to block out blue light or a software program called f.lux.

Exercise training improves daytime functioning in sleep apnea patients

Exercise may improve obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) severity, even in the absence of weight loss. The less severe the OSA, the better patients may feel in the daytime. This article in the August edition of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine is about a study done to see if exercise training can improve daytime functioning even without reducing OSA severity.

In the study, they had a group of people do supervised exercise for 12 weeks versus the control group that did only stretching for 12 weeks. The two groups of participants were similar with the exception of their baseline sleepiness scores, with the exercise group reporting a little more sleepiness than the stretching group.

The results of the study showed that at the end of the 12 weeks, the OSA severity was 25% lower in the exercise group. The exercise group also had less depressive symptoms, less fatigue, and more vigor than the stretching group. Exercise training caused a lowering if subjective sleepiness, but this was not statistically significant. Exercise training improved physical functioning, vitality, and mental health as measured by questionnaires. Interestingly, there was no difference in participants performance on tests of cognition with exercise versus stretching.

Now you may say that the improvements in exercise were due to OSA severity reduction, not because of the exercise itself as the authors proposed. But, only improvement in fatigue was linked to reduction in OSA severity in the exercise group. All of the other improvements occurred in the exercise group even when the OSA severity remained the same.

These findings are exciting, because not everyone feels better on CPAP. Perhaps exercise may improve their functioning, even though they still have OSA.