Archive for June, 2010
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
Each day we willingly let a dangerous intruder into our homes. This thief distracts us from our families, influences our children, and steals something precious every night. The outlaw is television and a new report details just how much of our lives we give away to the glowing box.
The Nielsen Company, which tallies ratings and television viewership across the country, recently revealed that American households spent on average 8 hours and 18 minutes per day watching television during the 2007-08 television season. This is a record high since the company began measuring TV watching in the 1950s.
This is significant because, according to the National Sleep Foundation’s Sleep In America Poll, Americans average only 6 hours and 40 minutes sleeping per day. Watching TV does not have positive effects on a person’s health. Though some people treat it as one, it is not a necessity for humans. Sleep is a necessity and is being disregarded in favor of electronic distraction. For the sake of your health and well being, turn the TV off and go to bed.
For more information on proper sleep hygiene and sleep in general, visit Oregon Sleep Associates.
Monday, June 21st, 2010
Do you have Diabetes? If so, your sleep may be more important to controlling your blood sugar than you think…
Research indicates that 50 to 80% of people with Type 2 Diabetes also suffer from Obstructive Sleep Apnea and a lack of restorative sleep in general is considered a risk factor for developing the disease.
Oregon Sleep Associates is hosting an exclusive free seminar on Diabetes and it’s connections with sleep. Board Certified Sleep Specialists Dr Daniel Root and Dr Jennifer Kim will be speaking. Seating is limited so reserve your spot now.
Where: Oregon Sleep Associates, 2228 NW Pettygrove St, Suite 150, Portland, OR 97210
When: Thursday, June 24th @ 5:30-6:30pm.
Diabetic refreshments provided.
Please RSVP to 503-288-5201 or email: admin@oregonsleepassociates.com
Tuesday, June 15th, 2010
Setting bedtime rules encourages the healthy development of preschool-aged children. An abstract presented at SLEEP 2010 shows children who had a regular bedtime scored higher on language, reading and math assessments.
Earlier bedtimes were linked to higher scores in most of the developmental measures.
Children who slept less than 11 hours per night, the AASM’s recommended minimum for preschoolers, scored lower on phonological awareness, literacy and early math skills. Insufficient sleep may hurt a child’s development and school achievement.
The findings were based on a sample of 8,000 children assessed in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – Birth Cohort. The longitudinal study sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education and the National Center for Education Statistics followed children’s health, development, care and education from birth to the start of kindergarten.
In the government study parents reported usual bedtime and wake time. The children took a shortened set of items from standardized assessments to determine developmental outcomes.
The principal author of the study recommends parents help their preschooler get healthy sleep and encourage development by setting a regularly bedtime and establishing routines such as bedtime readings or stories.
Tuesday, June 1st, 2010
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Examples of simulated x-ray images of threat bags with typical hit rates. A: gun with low target difficulty in the center (HR was 75%), B: knife with low target difficulty in upper right corner (56%), C: gun with high target difficulty in lower right corner (50%), D: knife with high target difficulty in lower left corner (32%)
The job of a Transportation Security Administration luggage screener has to be one of the most tedious and thankless professions. All day long they stare at an X-ray screen with literally thousands of pieces of luggage passing through. Each piece is completely unique, yet they are expected to accurately pick out dangerous objects among the blurry images. Add to that the constant pressure and anger directed towards them by the hoards of annoyed travelers passing through the checkpoints. The job requires constant vigilance and attention to detail, which is why it is especially important that the TSA screeners be well-rested.
However, as research developed by the University of Pennsylvania and the Department of Homeland Security shows, even a one-time lack of sleep can seriously affect the ability to detect threats in luggage. The researchers took 5800 X-ray images of luggage and organized them into batches of 200 slides, 25% of which contained images of weapons hidden in the bags. Then study subjects went through the images on a simulated X-ray terminal. The response rate and times were measured for each subject when they were well-rested and when they had been deprived of sleep. The results were startling; the average detection rate decreased significantly and the false positive rate increased when the subjects were working the night shift or had been sleep deprived. The study authors concluded that “night work and sleep loss adversely affect the accuracy of detecting complex real world objects among high levels of background clutter.” They go on to caution that in a real world environment “fatigue in luggage screening personnel may pose a threat for air traffic safety unless countermeasures for fatigue are deployed.”
For more information on Shift Work and how it affects job performance visit the newsletter archive at www.oregonsleepassociates.com.
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