One in five primary school students of grades one to four according to a study suffers from sleep problems. In most cases, however, only the resulting symptoms such as poor concentration, hyperactivity or anxiety, not with the sleep problem itself, said the Cologne Sleep Specialist Alfred Wiater on Friday at a symposium in Warnemünde. He appealed to doctors and parents, especially at an early age to pay attention to sleep habits and to consider problems sleep expert.
Sleep disorders may have many causes, said Frank Kirchhoff, director of the Children Sleep Laboratory, at the Rostock Clinic South City. In some cases, they are genetic, sometimes they are also due to snoring, for example, due to large tonsils and adenoids, to nocturnal seizures or obesity. In the sleep laboratory every year around 500 children aged between 0 and 18 years are examined, overnight, all bodily functions documented.

“In one case, moving a child sleeping in the legs often violently, so it was constantly disturbed during deep sleep,” said Kirchhoff. With the little sleep during the day it was unfocused and constantly tired, could not sleep at night, however. The reason was lack of iron, the sleep disorder was resolved and the overall health improved considerably.

Sleep doctors advise parents to observe the sleeping habits of their children more closely. “In the interviews for our study, in most cases the children themselves describe their problems very well,” said Wiater, who sits on the board of the Society for Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research. “Only one in three cases, the sleep problems and the Parent.” Good sleep is important but for recreation and also for memory function. Why would such as snoring children often poorer school performance than those who sleep without snoring, Wiater said.

Patients with inflammatory diseases or infections often also suffer from fatigue and exhaustion, insomnia and even depression. What causes these symptoms now, researchers from the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg and the University Hospital Erlangen. They identified a chemical messenger that controls communication between the immune system and brain crucial.

The researchers studied patients with rheumatoid arthritis, as well as mice that show due to a genetic defect, a similar disease. Both people and mice suffering from inflamed joints and severe pain. There are also many cases in tiredness and fatigue, insomnia and depression. It was known previously that these symptoms occur in the central nervous system. However, as affect the immune system and inflammation in the joints, the nervous system, could not explain the science to date.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, they examined the brains of anesthetized mice. The team led by Prof. Georg Schett doctors discovered that inflammation is an important neurotransmitter – mediates between the brain and immune system and thereby influences the perception of pain significantly – the so-called tumor necrosis factor alpha. This effect was observed, the researchers also in humans. “Interestingly, drugs that inhibit tumor necrosis factor alpha, already successfully used worldwide for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis,” said Schett. The drugs slowed the pain and increased well-being before the inflammation had subsided.

This effect can explain the researchers from Erlangen now if you inhibit the tumor necrosis factor, reduces the pain response in the brain, and the psychological changes such as tiredness and fatigue are positively influenced. “Our research results are probably due to a number of inflammatory diseases or infections transmitted also” hopes Schett.

Sleep disorders can lead to excessive sleepiness during the day. The consequences for those involved are massive. The daytime sleepiness (hypersomnia), diminishes the quality of life shattered, health and can lead to unemployment. This is the result of the largest study on this issue, the Danish researchers in the journal “Acta Neuro-Logica Scandinavica” publish.

Especially people who suffer from nighttime breathing problems are often extremely tired during the day. These include severe snorers and people with sleep apnea, but also people who get worse at night because of their excess weight air. Due to the shortness of breath, they sleep less deeply and wake-between more often than healthy sleepers. Also affected by hypersomnia are people who suffer from narcolepsy, a neurological disorder of the sleep-wake cycle and people with restless legs syndrome.

For their study, the team accompanied by Professor Poul Jennum from the University of Copenhagen, more than 2,200 patients with daytime sleepiness and more than 8,800 healthy subjects over a period of seven years. One of four Hypersomniaproband had to leave at this time because of various illnesses treated in hospital. Of the participants without the sleep disorder, it was only one in ten.

78 percent of disturbed sleep took drugs but only 68 percent of those without sleep problems. Also, the ability financially to come alone to make ends meet, was affected by the disorder of sheep: So were 47 percent of the patients some form of government support but only 35 percent of the participants in the control group. As a reason for the researchers suspect a lower level of professional capacity and more missed days. Remained untreated sleep disorder, it increased the risk of unemployment to 30 percent.

Absenteeism, unemployment, medical care and safe state support of disturbed sleep also affect the society. Calculated in this way the researchers found that each of the patients state and society more than 10,000 € per year cost.