Research from our members
Circadian regulation of breath alcohol concentration
Rukmini et al. 2021 SLEEP
Alcohol is one of the most widely used and abused drugs. It is therefore important to understand factors that impact alcohol physiology. There is mixed evidence regarding the role of the human circadian clock in regulating blood alcohol levels. Prior work has been limited to very small sample sizes with limited testing over the circadian cycle. Here, we demonstrate significant circadian rhythms for breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) responses under highly controlled laboratory conditions. In normally entrained individuals, peak BrAC values increased during the night. This has potential implications for alcohol-related traffic fatalities which occur most frequently at night, as well as risk of alcohol toxicity. Future studies should test whether circadian variation in alcohol physiology impacts human health and safety.
School closure during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic – Impact on children's sleep
Lim et al. 2021 Sleep Medicine
- Children slept longer when learning moved to the home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- A later start time for daily academic activities resulted in longer sleep duration.
- Early school start times have an impact on limiting children's sleep duration.
- A shift to later school start times should be considered to facilitate increased sleep for children.
Cognitive effects of split and continuous sleep schedules in adolescents differ according to total sleep opportunity
Lo et al. 2020 SLEEP
Splitting sleep into main nocturnal period and a daytime nap has been shown to mitigate deterioration in adolescents’ basic cognitive functions when total sleep opportunity over 24 h is less than recommended (i.e. 6.5 h). With total sleep opportunity at 8 h—the minimum recommended, we found that a split sleep schedule with 6.5-h nocturnal sleep and a 1.5-h nap achieved similar performance in basic cognitive tasks, subjective alertness, and mood as the nocturnal sleep only schedule. Our findings suggest that adopting a split sleep schedule in this manner may be a plausible option for adolescents unable to obtain sufficient sleep at night.
Articles for medical professionals
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- Diagnosis of Obstructive Sleep Apnea Hypoventilation Syndrome - Obstructive Sleep Apnea Hypoventilation Syndrome (OSAHS) is increasingly being recognised ...
Articles for the public
- Polysomnography (Sleep Studies) - A sleep study or polysomnogram (PSG) is a multiple-component test ...
- How to get a good night's sleep - Sleep Is Important for Wellbeing. Most of us have experienced ...