Sleep

Healthy Weight Loss May Bring Better Sleep, Brighter Mood

Body.WeightLoss.TipsDropping excess pounds may not only improve your physical health, it might also help you feel more awake and happy, a new study shows.

The research, presented this week at the joint meeting of the International Society of Endocrinology and the Endocrine Society in Chicago, included 390 obese women and men who were assigned to one of three programs meant to help them lose weight through diet and exercise.

One group received usual care, in which they were given printed educational materials during visits every three months with their primary care provider. The second group saw their primary care provider every three months, and also had brief meetings with lifestyle coaches. The third group met with their primary care providers and lifestyle coaches, and also received meal replacements and weight-loss medications.

Changes in the participants’ weight, amount and quality of sleep and mood were assessed after six and 24 months. The average weight loss in the usual care group was 4.4 pounds, compared with about 8 pounds in the second group and close to 15 pounds in the third group.

However, no matter which group they were in, participants who lost at least 5 percent of their weight after six months slept an average of nearly 22 minutes more each night than they had before, the study found.

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Source: MedicineNet.

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Too Little, and Too Much, Sleep Ages the Brain

Body.Sleep1Achieving quality sleep is an anti-aging essential, yet many of us fail to feel rested upon waking. Elizabeth Devore, from Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Massachusetts, USA), and colleagues evaluated associations of sleep duration at midlife and later life, and change in sleep duration over time, with memory in 15,263 participants of the Nurses’ Health Study.

The team found that women who slept five or fewer hours, or nine or more hours per day, either in midlife or later life, can cause memory declines equivalent to nearly two additional years of age. Further, the researchers noted that women whose sleep duration changed by greater than two hours per day over time had worse memory than women with no change in sleep duration. The study authors submit that: “Extreme sleep durations at midlife and later life and extreme changes in sleep duration over time appear to be associated with poor cognition in older women.”

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Source: WorldHealth.net.

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