Disrupted Sleep Plagues Hospital Patients, But New Program Might Help

FRIDAY, Jan. 18, 2019 -- Anyone who has cared for a hospitalized loved one knows that frequent nighttime sleep interruptions -- caused by noise or nursing checks -- are a big concern.

But in a new study, a Chicago hospital adopted sleep-friendly measures for patients that led to fewer nighttime awakenings without compromising care.

Catching Up on News About Catch-Up Sleep

FRIDAY, Jan. 4, 2019 -- Missing out on needed sleep can bring a host of health woes, including diabetes because a lack of sleep affects insulin levels.

It also leaves you less alert and less able to focus.

Stress Keeps 1 in 3 Americans Up at Night

THURSDAY, Dec. 20, 2018 -- Millions of Americans are losing sleep as economic and political stress keeps them tossing and turning at night, a new study finds.

In 2013, about 30 percent of Americans said they slept six hours or less at night, but that number rose to 33 percent by 2017, researchers found.

Night Shift Plus Unhealthy Habits Equals Higher Diabetes Risk

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 21, 2018 -- Rotating night-shift work together with an unhealthy lifestyle significantly increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, researchers say.

"Most cases of type 2 diabetes could be prevented by adherence to a healthy lifestyle, and the benefits could be larger in rotating night-shift workers," said study authors led by Zhilei Shan. He is a nutrition researcher at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.

AHA: Sleep Apnea May Double Odds for High Blood Pressure in Blacks

MONDAY, Dec. 10, 2018 (American Heart Association) -- Black adults with high blood pressure that defies standard prescription treatments might want to get screened for sleep apnea, new research suggests.

Moderate or severe sleep apnea -- in which a person can experience pauses in breathing five to 30 times an hour or more -- was associated with more than twice the odds of having resistant hypertension, according to a new Harvard-led study published Dec. 10 in the American Heart Association journal Circulation.