http://news.yahoo.com/sleep-disorders-plague-vets-head-trauma-ptsd-135037514.html

FRIDAY, Aug. 12 (HealthDay News) — Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and sleepiness rapidly return when patients stop using continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines, a new study finds.

CPAP is a common treatment for OSA patients, whose breathing is interrupted many times during sleep due to the repeated blockage of the upper airway. CPAP keeps the airway open by pumping a continuous stream of air through a mask or nose piece the patient wears while sleeping.

This Swiss study included patients on CPAP therapy who were randomly selected to either continue or discontinue CPAP for two weeks. Those who stopped CPAP experienced a return of OSA and sleepiness within a few days. Within 14 days, they had significant increases in heart rate and blood pressure, and a deterioration in vascular function.

The results suggest that even a short break in CPAP therapy has a negative effect on the cardiovascular system, the researchers said.

They also noted their findings show that OSA patients need to continuously use CPAP, including taking their machines with them on holidays.

The study appears online in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

By Serena Gordon
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Aug. 9 (HealthDay News) — Elderly women who experience sleep apnea have a higher risk of developing mild cognitive impairment or dementia, new research finds.

The study found that elderly women who began the study without dementia had 85 percent higher odds of developing mild cognitive impairment or dementia over the next five years if they had 15 or more sleep apnea events per hour of sleep.

“This was a prospective study of elderly women followed over time to understand the relationship of sleep apnea and cognitive impairment or dementia,” explained study co-author Dr. Susan Redline, a researcher in the division of sleep medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

“We found a very high prevalence of untreated sleep apnea — about one third of the women had sleep apnea, and those women had about an 80 percent increased risk of developing cognitive impairment or dementia during the study,” said Redline.

Although this study wasn’t designed to uncover the mechanism by which repeated oxygen deprivation might cause dementia, Redline noted that it may harm brain health by affecting the way the brain constantly replenishes its cells. More research needs to be done to find the exact mechanism, she added.

The findings are published in the Aug. 10 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The study included 298 women who did not have dementia at the start of the study. The average age of the women was approximately 82. All of the women underwent an overnight sleep study using sensors and computerized monitoring (polysomnography) between 2002 and 2004.

One hundred and five women were diagnosed with sleep-disordered breathing. That meant they had 15 or more sleep apnea episodes per hour of sleep. During those episodes, the brain was temporarily deprived of oxygen.

Five years after the sleep study, women were given cognitive function tests to assess their brain health. When the researchers compared the brain health of women who had sleep-disordered breathing and oxygen deprivation to women who did not, they found that sleep-disordered breathing significantly increased the risk of mild cognitive impairment and dementia.

The researchers also adjusted the data to account for other factors that could contribute to cognitive impairment or dementia, such as age, education, body-mass index, diabetes, smoking, medication use and baseline scores for brain health, according to the study.

They found that 31 percent of women with normal night-time breathing patterns developed cognitive impairment over the study period, compared to 45 percent of the women who had sleep-disordered breathing. That translates to 85 percent higher relative odds of cognitive impairment or dementia for the women with sleep-disordered breathing.

They also found that the cognitive impairment was associated with bouts of oxygen deprivation caused by sleep apnea, but not with fragmented sleep (such as arousal or waking after falling asleep) or sleep duration.

Since sleep-disordered breathing affects up to 60 percent of the elderly, any association between sleep apnea and cognitive impairment — even a modest one — could have a major public health impact, the researchers noted.

But whether or not treating sleep-disordered breathing could reduce the risk of dementia or cognitive impairment is the “million dollar question,” said Redline. She said other research suggests that several months of sleep apnea therapy may help improve brain function, but that much larger studies with longer treatment periods and a more diverse population need to be done.

“This could be a chicken-and-egg problem,” pointed out geriatric psychiatrist Dr. Gary Kennedy from Montefiore Medical Center in New York City. While it may be that sleep-disordered breathing contributes to cognitive impairment or dementia, the converse could be true; dementia might contribute to sleep-disordered breathing somehow, he said.

Still, said Kennedy, “this is one of those rare, positive and hopeful articles. If the abnormalities in getting oxygen are what’s causing the damage to the brain, it’s a potentially reversible or preventable problem.”

Redline said that anyone with symptoms of sleep apnea — loud snoring, long pauses in breathing, feeling unrefreshed in the morning despite a full night’s sleep — should bring these symptoms to his or her doctor’s attention and discuss treatment options.

More information

Learn more about sleep apnea from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

SOURCES: Susan Redline, M.D., M.P.H., researcher, division of sleep medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and professor, sleep medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston; Gary Kennedy, M.D., director, geriatric psychiatry, Montefiore Medical Center, New York City; Aug. 10, 2011, Journal of the American Medical Association

Researchers also found that women are better able to cope with and recover from this kind of sleep loss than men.

“The usual practice of extending sleep during the weekend after a busy workweek associated with mild sleep loss is not adequate in reversing the cumulative effects on cognitive function resulting from this mild sleep deprivation,” said the study’s principal investigator Dr. Alexandros N. Vgontzas, professor of psychiatry and endowed chair in sleep disorders medicine at the Penn State College of Medicine, in an American Academy of Sleep Medicine news release.

In the study, researchers installed 34 people, with an average age of 25 years and no sleep problems, in a sleep lab for 13 nights. There, they periodically measured sleepiness and performance. Participants were allowed to sleep eight hours a night for the first four nights to assess their typical functioning. For the next six nights, however, they were allowed to sleep only six hours a night, followed by three “recovery” nights of 10 hours of sleep each night.

The study’s findings, slated for presentation on Wednesday at Associated Professional Sleep Societies meeting in Minneapolis, revealed that after a week of sleep restriction, two nights of extra sleep are not enough to fully reverse the adverse effects of the sleep loss.

Men and women showed both significantly decreased performance on psychomotor tests, as well as subjective and objective sleepiness.

Women recovered better than men, however, the study pointed out. The researchers said the gender differences were linked to slow wave, or deep sleep, considered the restorative potion of sleep.

“In women, but not in men, deep sleep appeared to have a protective effect,” added Vgontzas, who is also director of the Sleep Research and Treatment Center at Penn State in Hershey, Pa. “Women with a higher amount of deep sleep can handle better the effects of one workweek of mild sleep deprivation, and their recovery is more complete after two nights of extended sleep.”

Kids with apnea briefly stop breathing several times nightly; each subtle mini-awakening keeps them from getting essential deep sleep.

“They often have learning and behavior problems, and they’re at increased risk for higher blood pressure,” says Judith Owens, M.D., author of Take Charge of Your Child’s Sleep.

A recent study of healthy elementary school kids found a quarter had mild apnea (often caused by chronic sinus infections); 1 percent suffered severely. Obesity, the usual trigger in adults, sometimes plays a role, but the likeliest cause is oversize tonsils or adenoids.

Spot it: Kids with apnea usually breathe noisily or snore. Your sleeping child’s chest may also move vigorously or his head tip back in a groggy attempt to get more air.

Snooze saver: The only way to confirm apnea is to visit a sleep lab. It’s treated by removing tonsils and adenoids or by helping your child shed excess pounds. Sinus medication may help, as might sleeping with the head propped up.

http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/26/get-some-sleep-pregnant-and-tired/

Not only do short sleepers not need a full 8 hours, but according to scientists they don’t nap, they don’t rely on caffeine, and they’re more upbeat than the average person. Scientist at UC San Francisco have pinpointed the genetic mutation and they believe that it may run in families.