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A Therapy for Baby Boomers to Sleep On
August 18, 2008If you're over 55 and have spent more than a few sleepless nights, you're not alone -- insomnia affects about half of all people over 55 ― but you may also be at increased risk for physical and mental ailments.
Many older adults don't get enough restorative sleep, leading to serious health concerns, including cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, memory problems and increased rates of depression. Unfortunately, current sleeping pills are associated with memory problems, a risk for falls, dependency, withdrawal symptoms and disturbed sleeping patterns.
Circadin, a new drug developed at Tel Aviv University by Prof. Nava Zisapel, a chemist and neurobiologist from TAU's George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, may help America's aging baby boomers get the much-needed sleep they need. Recent results from Prof. Zisapel's research with Circadin appear in the Journal of Sleep Research and are reviewed in Aging Health.
How the Body Tells Time
Prof. Zisapel's research centers on the hormone melatonin, which affects the way our biological functions differentiate between day and night. "As we age, the melatonin hormone signal weakens," says Prof. Zisapel. "As a result, our bodies and brains feel less difference between day and night."
Exacerbating the effect of low melatonin levels, aging people tend to sleep in a less organized fashion than younger people, Prof. Zisapel explains. "People are sleeping in front of the TV, or nodding off during conversations, and taking long afternoon naps. This leads to less sleep at night. In a way, their sleep habits become more like babies', and less like those of healthy adults who sleep in consolidated periods during the night."
Mimicking the profile of nighttime melatonin found in our bodies, Circadin replenishes the much-needed hormone, which declines steadily with age. Clinical trials in the United States and Europe found that Circadin improves sleep quality and morning alertness, and helps those 55 and over get a better night's sleep.
Her new drug therapy "improves sleep and daytime vigilance, helping to re-organize the circadian system, the body's internal clock," Prof. Zisapel says. Added benefits include more normalized blood pressure and blood sugar levels at night. The formulation also has a profound effect on the blind, whose biological clock is disturbed because they can't see light, a trigger for synchronizing with the external day/night cycle.
Advice for Sound Sleep Hygiene
Until Circadin is available in the United States, there are some simple steps seniors can take to get a good night's sleep, Prof. Zisapel says. Spending a couple of hours outdoors every day can help. Sipping lattes on a cafe patio (away from direct sunlight) can be pleasurable, and increases the exposure to natural light from the blue-green spectrum. Experiencing a full spectrum of light during the day could also be beneficial, as is routine exercise and avoiding daytime naps and sleeping in front of the TV.
Prof. Zisapel is the past director of the Adams Brain Research Center at Tel Aviv University and is the Chief Scientific Officer of Neurim Pharmaceuticals, a company commercializing the technology and licensing it from Ramot, the technology transfer arm of Tel Aviv University. The new drug is currently available in Europe, and is expected to be in the United States by next year.
American Friends of Tel Aviv University
How the Body Tells Time
Prof. Zisapel's research centers on the hormone melatonin, which affects the way our biological functions differentiate between day and night. "As we age, the melatonin hormone signal weakens," says Prof. Zisapel. "As a result, our bodies and brains feel less difference between day and night."
Exacerbating the effect of low melatonin levels, aging people tend to sleep in a less organized fashion than younger people, Prof. Zisapel explains. "People are sleeping in front of the TV, or nodding off during conversations, and taking long afternoon naps. This leads to less sleep at night. In a way, their sleep habits become more like babies', and less like those of healthy adults who sleep in consolidated periods during the night."
Mimicking the profile of nighttime melatonin found in our bodies, Circadin replenishes the much-needed hormone, which declines steadily with age. Clinical trials in the United States and Europe found that Circadin improves sleep quality and morning alertness, and helps those 55 and over get a better night's sleep.
Her new drug therapy "improves sleep and daytime vigilance, helping to re-organize the circadian system, the body's internal clock," Prof. Zisapel says. Added benefits include more normalized blood pressure and blood sugar levels at night. The formulation also has a profound effect on the blind, whose biological clock is disturbed because they can't see light, a trigger for synchronizing with the external day/night cycle.
Advice for Sound Sleep Hygiene
Until Circadin is available in the United States, there are some simple steps seniors can take to get a good night's sleep, Prof. Zisapel says. Spending a couple of hours outdoors every day can help. Sipping lattes on a cafe patio (away from direct sunlight) can be pleasurable, and increases the exposure to natural light from the blue-green spectrum. Experiencing a full spectrum of light during the day could also be beneficial, as is routine exercise and avoiding daytime naps and sleeping in front of the TV.
Prof. Zisapel is the past director of the Adams Brain Research Center at Tel Aviv University and is the Chief Scientific Officer of Neurim Pharmaceuticals, a company commercializing the technology and licensing it from Ramot, the technology transfer arm of Tel Aviv University. The new drug is currently available in Europe, and is expected to be in the United States by next year.
American Friends of Tel Aviv University
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Fighting Sleep, Penn Researchers Reverse the Cognitive Impairment Caused By Sleep Deprivation
A research collaboration led by biologists and neuroscientists at the University of Pennsylvania has found a molecular pathway in the brain that is the cause of cognitive impairment due to sleep deprivation.
Exercise reduces fatigue in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy
Supervised exercise programmes that include high and low intense cardiovascular and resistance training can help reduce fatigue in patients with cancer who are undergoing adjuvant chemotherapy or treatment for advanced disease.
U-M discovery about biological clocks overturns long-held theory
University of Michigan mathematicians and their British colleagues say they have identified the signal that the brain sends to the rest of the body to control biological rhythms, a finding that overturns a long-held theory about our internal clock.
Novel, soy-based SE5-OH containing Natural S-equol supplement reduced hot flash frequency by nearly 59 percent
SE5-OH containing Natural S-equol, a novel soy germ-based ingredient in a supplement, improved menopausal symptoms, including significantly reducing hot flash frequency by nearly 59 percent, according to a peer-reviewed study in Japanese women.
Penn studies point to strategies for reducing painful breast cancer drug side effects
Aromatase inhibitors, the same drugs that have buoyed long-term survival rates among breast cancer patients, also carry side effects including joint pain so severe that many patients discontinue these lifesaving medicines.
'Alert status' area in brain discoved by Hebrew University scientists
A new understanding of how anesthesia and anesthesia-like states are controlled in the brain opens the door to possible new future treatments of various states of loss of consciousness, such as reversible coma, according to Hebrew University of Jerusalem scientists.
Insomnia is bad for the heart
Can't sleep at night? A new study published in the journal Sleep has found that people who suffer from insomnia have heightened nighttime blood pressure, which can lead to cardiac problems.
Workplace bullying is associated with sleep disturbances
A study in the Sept.1 issue of the journal SLEEP shows that current or past exposure to workplace bullying is associated with increased sleep disturbances.
Chemotherapy for breast cancer is associated with disruption of sleep-wake rhythm in women
A study in the Sept.1 issue of the journal Sleep shows that the sleep-wake activity rhythms of breast cancer patients are impaired during the administration of chemotherapy.
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