Fall bustles with the start of school and the continual grind at work. It's easy to skimp on your rest. We’ve got five reasons for you to make sleep a priority, and five health issues that could be ruining your rest.

1. Plenty of R&R (rest and relaxation) can boost your mood, focus and energy. Conversely, people with poor sleep habits experience higher levels of stress, depression and anxiety.

2. Want your kids to get A’s and B’s? Make sure they catch their Z’s. Well-rested equals alert in the classroom, and a regular sleep routine may boost math and literacy scores. Some schools are even starting later in an effort to help kids improve learning.

3. Reap the benefits of beauty sleep. When the body is sleep-deprived it produces more of the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol can cause weight gain and oily skin.

4. Getting your eight hours in could cut your risk for chest pain, heart attack and stroke. A recent study by West Virginia University indicates that people who sleep five hours daily are more than twice as likely to experience these problems.

5. Rest is a responsibility, and apparently so is justice. In a study that appears in SLEEP, Swedish naval officers were more likely to act morally and make moral judgments when fully rested.

Maybe you want to get your shut-eye but can’t quite get your eyes to shut? Sleeplessness plagues 60 million Americans. These are just a few health problems that could be keeping you up at night:

1. Your thyroid helps regulate your sleep patterns. An overactive thyroid (hyperthyroidism) can cause difficulty sleeping, fatigue and irritability.

2. Believe it or not, menstruation can affect your sleep patterns. Two in three women experience menstrual insomnia—disturbed sleep due to tossing and turning and general menstrual discomfort.

3. Maybe you do sleep, but continue to experience tiredness regardless of how much sleep you get? If you snore, have a dry throat on waking or regularly become irritable, you may want to talk to your doctor. This could be a symptom of sleep apnea.

4. Your sweetie slumbers soundly while you lay awake at night, so you decide to wake him up. Sound familiar? Ladies, you may have a case of sleep envy. You’re not alone, either. Up to 40 percent of women envy the ease with which their darlings doze. Jealous much?

5. Some people toss and turn through the night before finding sleep. If this is caused by painful or irritating tingling or tugging in your lower limbs, you may have a condition known as restless leg syndrome (RLS).

Want to keep up with the latest sleep science? Visit the National Sleep Foundation site or check out the journal SLEEP.

Restless legs syndrome (RLS), a medical condition characterized by uncomfortable sensations that create an irresistible urge to move the legs during sleep, may be linked to obesity and belly flab according a study published this week in Neurology. The previously obscure neurological disorder has recently attracted attention after late-night commercials about RLS medications brought the condition into the medical limelight.

According to the Restless Legs Syndrome Foundation, 12 million Americans suffer from RLS. The Harvard Medical School study of 88,000 women and men found that those with large waist circumferences were 60 percent more likely to develop RLS than the general population. People with a body mass index (BMI) exceeding 30 were 40 percent more likely to have RLS. A BMI above 25 is considered overweight and a BMI above 30 is considered obese.

Though the Harvard study found an association between obesity, waist size and RLS, there is no current evidence to prove weight gain causes the disorder. Researchers speculate that higher risk for RLS correlates with lower levels of the brain chemical dopamine, which transmits neurological signals and controls muscle movement. Low dopamine levels are common in people with obesity and people with RLS.

Weight loss has not been identified as an effective treatment for RLS.

For more information about RLS, visit the Restless Legs Syndrome Foundation website. Share advice and tips about RLS at Healia’s Restless Legs Syndrome Online Health Community and Support Group.


Source: Neurology. Volume 72, Issue 14. http://www.neurology.org/cgi/content/abstract/72/14/1255


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