Dr. Esra Tasali and colleagues at the University of Chicago collected overnight polysomnographic data from 12 African-Americans and 12 Caucasians, none of whom had any sleep complaints or disorders.
Level of Evidence
2b - Individual Cohort Study
Key Points of this article
The current findings provide evidence for ethnic differences in the intensity of NREM sleep
Lower levels of SWA in African-Americans could be related to their reported poor sleep quality and higher risk for insulin resistance.
By American Academy of Sleep Medicine, [RxPG] Slow wave activity (SWA), a stable trait dependent marker of the intensity of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, is lower in young healthy African-Americans compared to Caucasians who were matched for age, gender and body weight.
Dr. Esra Tasali and colleagues at the University of Chicago collected overnight polysomnographic data from 12 African-Americans and 12 Caucasians, none of whom had any sleep complaints or disorders. The authors found that African-Americans had markedly lower SWA as compared to Caucasians.
The current findings provide evidence for ethnic differences in the intensity of NREM sleep, said Tasali. Lower levels of SWA in African-Americans could be related to their reported poor sleep quality and higher risk for insulin resistance.
The amount of sleep a person gets affects his or her physical health, emotional well-being, mental abilities, productivity and performance. Recent studies associate lack of sleep with serious health problems such as an increased risk of depression, obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
Publication:
Based on a research abstract that was presented on Wednesday at SLEEP 2007, the 21st Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS)
On the web:American Academy of Sleep Medicine
Advertise in this space for $10 per month.
Contact us today.
This news story has been reviewed by Dr. Himanshu Tyagi before its publication on RxPG News website. Dr. Himanshu Tyagi, MBBS is the founder editor and manager for RxPG News. In this position he is responsible for content development and overall website and editorial management functions. His areas of special interest are psychological therapies and evidence based journalism.
RxPG News is committed to promotion and implementation of Evidence Based Medical Journalism in all channels of mass media including internet.
Feedback
For any corrections of factual information, to contact the editors or to send
any medical news or health news press releases, use
feedback form
