There is a fair bit of misunderstanding of what exactly constitutes insomnia. In this article, I’ll attempt to shine some light on this subject as it affects a lot of people in some very irritating–and sometimes serious–ways.

To start off, it’s quite normal to experience a few days or a couple of weeks of poor sleep once in a while. Often, it’s brought on by some psychological or physical trauma of some sort – a death in the family, a bankruptcy, a looming deadline – anything.

Once the event passes or the shock wears off, the sleeplessness goes away. We’d call this transient or acute insomnia. If it lasts much longer than about three weeks, we transition into chronic or long term insomnia.

Yet what exactly constitutes insomnia, as opposed to any other sleep disruptions or disorders?

Insomnia – A Definition

Insomnia is generally interpreted to be a positive or yes answer to either of these questions:

Do you have difficulty falling asleep at night?

Do you have difficulty staying asleep at night?

If you’ve answered yes to either or both of these questions (as it is with me), then you have to ask yourself the question:

Do I really have a hard time falling or staying asleep?

How do I know?

This second question is really important as it’s been shown that people are very poor judges of their own sleep quality and quantity.

However, I believe that, if you can’t actually measure the insomnia (i.e. how many times you woke up and how long you were awake for), the better subjective attitude would be:

How do I feel the next day? Am I unfocused, tired, confused, otherwise compromised?

Some people really suffer with this, and the effects of insomnia are basically an inability to function. They may hallucinate, have difficulty doing simple tasks (like driving or cooking) – it generally ruins their quality of life.

There Are Two Types of Insomnia

Now that we’ve defined insomnia, it’s important to differentiate between the two types: primary and co-morbid (or secondary).

Primary insomnia is basically the condition you have when no other “causes” for the sleeplessness are there, or can be found. Once all the other medical, medication, substance or sleep disorder (sleep apnea) causes are eliminated, this is what’s left. If the insomnia was “caused” by some depression or anxiety without a real medical issue present – than this is what you have.

Co-morbid or secondary insomnia is a type that is brought on or amplified by the use of some other factor – and it could be almost anything. Medications, nicotine, caffeine, alcohol, illicit drugs, pain, stress, rheumatoid arthritis, hyperthyroidism, brain trauma, anything. It’s important that we get these medical issue resolved first, or the insomnia issue may never go away.

The important lesson here is to find out whether the cause of your insomnia has got a third-party contributor – something that can be controlled. I’d say that things like “jet lag” are pretty hard to control, and so that would be considered short-term, primary insomnia. Something like taking amphetamines or your arthritis causing pain all night would be co-morbid.

13 Things You Didn’t Know About Insomnia

In 2002, the Government of Canada conducted a study on insomnia. I was really surprised when I started to look at these statistics, and when I started to talk about my sleeping problems; seems that this issue is a lot bigger than I ever imagined.

Based on the responses of the 36,984 randomly selected respondents, the study reported the following:

1. 13% (about 1 in 7) of people in Canada over the age of 15 have insomnia. (Editor’s Note:  Compare to an estimated 9% of the US population)
   
2. 18% of these reported sleeping less than 5 hours a night.
3. 29% of them said that they had taken some kind of sleep medication during the previous 12 months, versus 7% of non-insomniacs.
4. Insomnia risk rises with age – about 10% at age 15-24, to about 20% at age 75+.
5. Women are more likely to report insomnia than are men, but only just – 15% versus 12%.
6. Medical conditions seemed to affect about 20% of the sleepless.
7. Almost 1/3 reported insomnia along with anxiety or mood disorders – versus about 12% who didn’t report these issues.
8. 23% of people who reported their lives as “stressful” suffered from insomnia – about double the people who reported “little or no” stress.
9. 17% of insomniacs rated their ability to cope with difficult problems as fair or poor.
10. Heave/obese people have a higher prevalence of insomnia than people of normal weight. The lowest reported episodes of insomnia were people of a normal weight.
11. Those with high school education or lower report a higher incidence of insomnia than more educated groups. Lower education generally translates into a lower standard of living (they looked at this as well).
12. 16% of heavy drinkers (2+ drinks/day) reported insomnia. It’s pretty much taken as fact now that alcohol may help you get to sleep, but the quality of that sleep is really poor.
13. 18% of people who use cannabis (marijuana) were sleepless.

Most of their conclusions from the study reinforce many of the things about sleep that we’ve been told -in particular the fact that what you do during the day affects your sleep at night.  As they say it better than I ever could – here it is:

Physical and psychological problems can interfere with sleep. Painful conditions such as arthritis, migraine and fibromyalgia were associated with insomnia, as were anxiety and mood disorders and stressful life events. As well, alcohol and cannabis use were significant factors. Obesity, too, was related to having problems with sleep.

Even allowing for a series of physical, mental, lifestyle and socioeconomic factors, insomnia was related to some adverse situations. Relatively large percentages of insomniacs had difficulty coping with day-to-day demands and unexpected problems. They were also more likely than other people to have had a recent disability day and to express overall dissatisfaction with life. As well, a significantly large proportion of people in the prime working age range who suffered from insomnia were not employed.

Some less obvious factors were associated with insomnia. When physical and mental health status, lifestyle, and demographic and socioeconomic variables were controlled for, being female, middle-aged, widowed, and having a low education were significantly related to insomnia.

On the other hand, moderate physical activity and a bit of work stress were protective. The lack of a positive association between work stress and insomnia may reflect the relatively large proportion of insomniacs who do not work.

So there you have it – some things about sleep you may not have known!  Hopefully this information will help you assess your own sleep quality.  In my next post, I’ll go into more detail about some of the (natural) things you can do to help lessen or relieve any insomnia symptoms.

Back in November 2010, we wrote about pilot error due to fatigue and sleep deprivation.  We also noted that the FAA and pilots’ unions were campaigning for schedule reform to mitigate this issue but were facing opposition from airline companies.

Some pilots even said that the FAA’s original proposal was not sufficient.  They wanted 10 hour breaks in order to ensure that 8 hours were spent sleeping.

In the end, Team Sleep won out.

The FAA and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood just announced a manditory rest period of 10 hours for all pilots, 8 hours of which must be spent sleeping.  As FAA Acting Administrator Michael Huerta said,

“This new rule gives pilots enough time to get the rest they really need to safely get passengers to their destinations.”

In addition, the FAA put a cap of 14 hours on the allowable length of flight duty for single crews, which includes the time crew members are required to report for duty, the time before and between flights without rest periods, and ends when the final flight is parked at the gate.

They’ve also stipulated that a pilot must have 30 consecutive hours free from duty on a weekly basis, an increase of 25% from the previous regulations.

Pilots, Airlines, and the FAA will also be responsible for assessing a pilot’s “alertness and fitness” before each flight, removing pilots from duty that day who report fatigue.  Pilots will also be required to undergo training every two years on how to spot signs of fatigue brought on by commuting, erratic sleep scheduling, and sleep debt.

While these new rules do not take effect until 2014 – nor do they cover cargo pilots, who sometimes work extra shifts as commercial pilots – they are a big step in the right direction.

It looks like the FAA has finally woken up to the seriousness of pilot sleep deprivation.

Now it’s time for the rest of us to get on board as well.

Andi (ZQ: 86) is the editor of Zeology and the Zeo Knowledge Center. By tweet or by post, email or Expert Answer, she makes sure people get the information they need about sleep.

Making sure that teenagers get enough sleep is a daunting task.

Today, teenagers have a myriad of demands to stay awake and cheat sleep, such as job commitments, school work, family obligations and the powerful distracting force of the Internet.

School is just one of the many stresses deal with.

While excessive daytime sleepiness and a hindered ability to focus and excel in school are a few of the more obvious detriments to a lack of sleep, recent studies have found that teenagers might need their rest even more than we thought.

In 2007, the Centers for Disease Control conducted a comprehensive survey of over 12,000 students, the finding of which has now been released. The survey given by the researchers also asked questions about a wide range of behaviors that posed health risks. Students who indicated sleeping more than 8 hours on average, and students who indicated sleeping under 8 hours were divided into two distinct categories.

After examining the data along these lines, researchers saw a disturbing trend:

Students with a noticeable sleep deficiency were substantially more likely to participate in high-risk behaviors.

How Bad Is It?

When receiving less than 8 hours of sleep, teenagers were more likely to engage in the following-

• Serious consideration of suicide
• Avoid exercising for 60 minutes a day
• Engaging in sexual activity
• Consumption of alcohol
• Smoking cigarettes
• Smoking marijuana
• Depression
• Participating in fist fights
• Spending over 3 hours a day on the computer

Alarmingly, it seemed that a sleep deficit was the norm, with more than two thirds of the students reporting sleeping less than 8 hours.

The strong correlation between a lack of sleep and high-risk behavior don’t necessarily indicate a concrete causal relationship, but they do depict an upsetting trend.

Why This Happens

Due to their still-developing brain teenagers are considerably more susceptible to risky behaviors than adults with the same amount of sleep deficit. The underdeveloped social and emotional skills of teenagers make it more likely for them to display extreme emotional behavior.

Sleepy teens end up being "that guy" more often than well-rested teens.

Another contributing factor is the change in circadian rhythm brought on by puberty. In contrast to rigid work and school schedules, many teenagers stay awake well into the night due to their inability to sleep, both due to a shifting circadian rhythm and external factors.

In addition teens require more sleep than adults. The National Sleep Foundation estimates 85% of teenagers are failing to reach the recommended 8.5 to 9.25 hours of sleep per night. Teenagers are often subjected to early start times for school that only serve to further exacerbate their already substantial sleep deficit.

A failure to address the poor sleeping habits of a teenager can potentially lead to decreases in cognitive efficiency and ability. In addition, sleep-deprived teenagers can exhibit behaviors typically associated with other cognitive and developmental issues, such as ADHD, potentially leading to a misdiagnosis.

Of course, for those teens who exhibiting decreased cognitive capacity and changes in behavior regardless of the amount of sleep obtained, an analysis at a sleep lab can pinpoint any potentially underlying sleep disorders.

What You Can Do To Help Your Teen

Whatever the case may be, it’s imperative that parents, educators, and employers recognize the signs of sleep deficiency and act accordingly in order to ensure their child decreases susceptibility to high-risk behavior and is able to perform to the best of their ability.

Things as simple as picking (and helping to enforce) a set bedtime and teaching good sleep hygiene habits will go a long way in helping teenagers get the sleep they need – and stay safe in the process.

Talk with your teenager about their sleep habits - no matter what difficulties you might face.

]]> http://blog.myzeo.com/teenage-sleep-deprivation-dont-do-it/feed/ 0 http://blog.myzeo.com/stuff-we-love-from-users-like-you/ http://blog.myzeo.com/stuff-we-love-from-users-like-you/#comments Tue, 20 Sep 2011 22:46:58 +0000 Andi@Zeo http://blog.myzeo.com/?p=5209 ]]>

Aw, shucks.

Every time.  You do it every time.

Just when I think I’m turning into a cold, soulless robot, full of data points and little else, you go and melt my heart.

You’ve taken this little device that we made – that originally started as souped up Altoids tin – and held it close.

Used the data to motivate yourself to make small yet meaningful changes.

Talk and talked and talked about the power of sleep in your life – and changed the overall conversation.

You are now all part of something bigger than just your ZQ score.  You’re part of a revolution in health, wellness, and how we quantify it – and I just want to say “Thank you”.

The examples of your awesomeness have been many; I only want to highlight a few that have come in over the last few days.  It’s good stuff and I think everyone will be able to learn, grow, and benefit from it.

Here’s to You, Children of the Revolution

Complete Guide to Tracking Your Health & Fitness Online from Greatist

Thank you for all that you do.  For what you’ve done.  And for what you’ll go and do tomorrow.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Andi (ZQ: 86) is the editor of Zeology. By tweet or by post, email or Expert Answer, she makes sure people get the information they need about sleep.

Ah, Fall.  Another chance to start things anew.

As with any fresh start, this sense of new beginnings also applies to heath, wellness and – you guessed it-sleep. During those long days of summer you might have done some or all of the following:

• Let your sleep schedule “relax” a bit and got up when you felt like it, or stayed out more often.
• Said “what the heck” to stopping at the clam shack for fried clams, or getting that summer evening’s ice cream in.
• passed on that walk, bike ride, or run during those really hot and humid days – and never made it to the air conditioned gym like you said you would.

Whatever you did this summer, don’t beat yourself up over it.  Bad vibes are terrible motivators.  Instead, use this transition time to get your fall on the right track.

To help you out, we’ve partnered with BodyMedia for their 25 Days of Wellness Giveaway. 

Starting tomorrow (9/7/11) BodyMedia will be giving away a bevvy of items to help you as you build a better lifestyle.  A new item will be given away each day for 25 days, so enter today for your chance to win:

Gee Andi, what do I get?

How about a Zeo?  We’ve got two to give away – one on 9/11 and one on 9/27– so don’t miss out.

You can also sign up to win a BodyMedia FIT, a WiThings scale, and Zumba Fitness classes, among other items.

Best of all?  You don’t need to buy anything to enter.  Just sign up here on BodyMedia’s Facebook page for your chance to win.

So remember:  You can win a free Zeo to help jump start your fall fitness plan and be 25 days closer to a better you, all in one fell swoop.

Not a bad way to begin a new season.

Andi (ZQ: 86) is the editor of Zeology. By tweet or by post, email or Expert Answer, she makes sure people get the information they need about sleep.

I had a plan. I really did.

Convinced that my girlfriend got sub-par sleep, I was going to have her use Zeo for a month, show her just how bad her sleep was, then write about it for you all to read.

Although it may not seem like I’m Boyfriend of the Year, I am a great sleeper. Didn’t think that my girlfriend could say the same about herself.

Turns out I was wrong.

Perception vs Reality – Not always a Pretty Thing

I was expecting her to have a decent ZQ, but something on the lower end of her age range.  Not horrible sleep, but certainly less – and of a lower  quality- than what she could get.

She ended up with an average of 96. My own average is a 97. I was blown away.

How could this have happened, I asked myself. Did I wake up in Oppositeland?

No.

The truth of the matter is that she is actually a pretty good sleeper.  Her secret weapon?

It’s me!

Your Bed Partner is Your Secret Sleep Weapon

Social scientists have noticed that one partner’s behavior can influence the other – and it looks like this was a classic example of good habits rubbing off.

My girlfriend and I have been living together for almost six months. During that time, she’s adapted to my sleeping schedule and now goes to bed and wakes up at roughly the same times as I do.  Keeping a set bedtime and risetime – even on the weekends- is a hallmark of good sleep hygiene and good sleep.

Now that she’s turning in at about the same time I am – instead of staying up much later and cutting into her total sleep time – she gets way better sleep now than before.

Our bedroom is also much more attuned to sleeping.  My girlfriend now benefits from blackout curtains – to cut down on wake-ups due to light – as well as a fan to help drown out any noise.  No doubt that’s also contributed to her good sleep, too.

My Slice of Humble Pie

So what does her sleep now look like?

On a whole, she gets about seven and a half to eight hours of sleep per night. When you break it down, it looks something like this:

• almost 2 hours of Deep sleep
• almost 3 hours of REM sleep
• about 3 hours of Light sleep.
• about 20 minutes in Wake, on average.

As you can see, my girlfriend is sleeping much better than I imagined

Check out my sleep below, then look at my girlfriend’s graph above.  Similar sleep schedule, similar ZQs and similar sleep quality.  Our sleep architecture is a little different, but certainly not outside the realm of “typical”.

A typical night of sleep for me

So while my little experiment backfired — my girlfriend now has dibs on the “I told you so”–it succeeded in different ways.

My editor, Andi, said it best: “That’s the great thing about science: even when it doesn’t turn out the way you expect, it still tells you something interesting.”

*Sigh*

Indeed.

Related Posts

Keith (Ave ZQ: 97) is a writer and the newest member of the Zeo Web Content team. When it comes to sleep, he’s a Viking.

Biological sex, that is.  The kind that operates within your body, affecting everything from blood pressure, to hormone production, to sleep.

We like to say that it doesn’t matter, that we’re all equal – until it does.

A recent Wall Street Journal article was just another reminder that sex, indeed, does matter.

Men are From Mars; Women are from Venus

Humans have long been grappling with sex and its sibling, gender.  We’ve argued back and forth about what differences there were between the two, and how that translated into social roles, work roles, cognitive abilities, physical abilities, communication skills, and who makes a better parent.

It’s possible that our long tortured history with this question has also spooked us a bit.  Just like race, biological sex was long used as justification why someone couldn’t do something.  Bringing it into the conversation, understandably, raises a number of red flags.

Exhibit A - How we don't want sex to be used.

But to completely ignore it – to say that it has little or no effect on biological functions like sleep – is missing the point.  In fact, bringing sex into the equation might be a good thing.

Sex is the new X Factor

In many different fields, it’s becoming clear that  sex and sex differences are playing a greater role in research.  More and more scientists are looking at how sex differences affect the brain, cells, organs – even how the body handles certain types of drugs, foods, and pharmaceuticals.

Such actions appear to be influencing sleep researchers, who are now asking questions like:

• Do men and women use sleep differently in memory processing?  If so, what does this mean for learning abilities – and our testing methods?

• Do men and women experience similar events – like insomnia- differently?  If so, where within the body do those differences play out?

• Do men and women have circadian rhythms of different lengths? If so, what does it mean for bedtime routine?

We at Zeo are doing our part to help, diving deeper into our DOZER database and looking how how sleep stacks up among men and women.  For instance, we presented a poster at this year’s APSS conference on how sleep phases change based on age and gender. (Download Full Poster).

Sleep based on Age and Sex

It’s a also study we couldn’t have done without your help. Just to get a fraction of this information across different ages and sexes would have taken tremendous effort on any researcher’s part.  So don’t thank us – thank yourself every time you upload data.  Your efforts are paying off, big time.

In short, the more all of us do and share research like this, the better we will all be at tackling the sex question. Just like age revealed itself to be a key component in understanding sleep, sex is poised to do the same.

So, what will you get?  A poster is nice – but a little something more in exchange for sleep data would be better.

How about more sleep tips, strategies, and information tailored to you?  Not just to your age and occupation, but also to your sex.   Information that take into account sex related issues like hormonal changes and hot flashes – not just that they happen, but how they play out and what you can do about it.

Sounds pretty good to me – but why don’t you weigh in below?  It is, after all, your data.

Tell us what you’d like to see done with this information here in the comments or on our forum. We’re all ears.

Related Posts

• Age and Sex affect Sleep Quality and Quantity
• Why Sleep Science Doesn’t Know Everything – and What You Can Do About It
• Sleep Architecture the Third:  Back to the Sleep Cycles
• Why REM could stand for “Remembering Everyday Memories”
• Behind the Headband: Your Internal Symphony

Andi (ZQ: 86) is the editor of Zeology. By tweet or by post, email or Expert Answer, she makes sure people get the information they need about sleep.

Sleep Holds Secrets–Night Rhythms not so different than Waking Rhythms

It used to be you’d go to a sleep clinic, stay overnight and get totally wired up to accurately measure your sleep cycles.  And that’s still the case for sleep apnea and diagnosis of severe sleep problems.  I met with a Pulmonologist (a sleep doctor who specializes in breathing) at the Carolinas Medical Center about a month ago to chat about sleep, and was amazed at the sleep charts he sat and showed me on his office computer. You think you’re not sleeping…..oh man, there are people with serious problems.  More on that soon.

I’ve been measuring my nightly sleep using an EEG  headband (Zeo) for over 6 months, and there is a definite pattern, with much more activity than you’d imagine.  It’s more ragged, with shorter bursts of deep sleep and REM sleep, than I thought.  I realized night rhythms are not so different than waking rhythms.

36 Nights-Charlotte

Nothing holds my attention more than a few minutes… 5-10 minutes of deep sleep and BAM, I’m dreaming….20 minutes later I’m awake.  All the deep sleep happens early in the night, with REM (dreaming) sleep three, four, five times during the night.  How come I remember none of the dreams? Interesting to get confirmation of how many times I awake during the night.

The excel diagram in this post is 31 nights of EEG measured sleep, using a ZEO – each horizontal stripe is one night, each little numbered box is 5 minutes.

A month of my sleep data, captured using Zeo. Purple = Deep sleep, yellow = REM, orange = Wake, green = Light. Red = Awake

Color & Sleep Phase Break Down

• Purple is deep sleep
• yellow is REM
• orange is awake
• red is up and active, and
• green is light sleep….or as the Pulmonologist described, trash sleep.

All the good stuff happens during REM and deep sleep.  If you’re sick, you heal while sleeping, you gain procedural memory during sleep, grow taller,  resolve conflict with dreams, and organize memory.  Neurologists measure sleep as more active than waking.

To me, the pattern of sleep is the most captivating, it reflects basic organic and human qualities.  The proportions of the pattern itself is inherently recognizable and familiar.

Laurie Frick draws from neuroscience to construct intricately hand-built works and installations to explore the nature of pattern and the mind.  Her recent exhibition was an experiment in rhythm using time studies of daily activity logs and sleep charts, and captured the familiar human rhythm stretching across both realms.

We all know that many of us don’t get enough sleep every night, and that it’s related to serious health risks and problems. Old news; got it.

But instead of seeing sleep as a problem that needs to be fixed, maybe it’s time to think of it as the secret ingredient to give us the edge.

We got together with Sleep & Sports expert Cheri Mah to create this infographic to show why athletes care so dang much about their sleep–and coincidentally, why you should, too.

Case in point

Just by googling some of the top athletes out there, we found that most of these high performers get much more sleep than your typical person.

The reason? Recovery.

When you’re already at the top of your game, leveraging your sleep could be the way to beat the competition. If you know that being your mental and physical best gives you the better performance, wouldn’t you try to repeat that, game after game?

2-year US Triathlete champ Jarrod Shoemaker knows it. Team Radioshack knows it. The Trailblazers and the Celtics know it, too.  For them, sleep can mean the difference between winning and losing.

But what about you? Have you made sleep part of your game plan for success?  Sure, you might not be in the NBA, but that MBA you have speaks volumes about your inner drive to live life to the fullest, not just putter along by the wayside.

Now it’s your turn to step up and be a champ–all it takes is a little more sleep.

Get all the details for better sleep, including Cheri Mah’s Game Plan, below! (Or see it full size here!). You can also get more tips and pointers via our newsletter, so sign up below!

Steve (ZQ: 100) is our resident Research Scientist, working to help people understand the science behind Zeo, as well as the science of sleep. He is one of the driving forces behind our Sleep Research Center.

What started in a classroom at Brown made the The Martha Stewart Show today as a Top 5 Health & Beauty Gadget…

Credit: David E. Steele/The Martha Stewart Show