Teens who think their parents are loving are less likely to be cyberbullies

September 2, 2020

Science Daily/New York University

Adolescents who perceive their parents to be loving and supportive are less likely to engage in cyberbullying, according to a new study by researchers at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing.

The findings, published in the International Journal of Bullying Prevention, are especially relevant given changes in family life created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"With remote learning replacing classroom instruction for many young people, and cell phones and social media standing in for face-to-face interaction with friends, there are more opportunities for cyberbullying to occur," said Laura Grunin, a doctoral student at NYU Meyers and the study's lead author. "New family dynamics and home stressors are also at play, thanks to higher unemployment rates and more parents working from home."

More than half of U.S. teens report having experience with cyberbullying, or online behavior that may involve harassment, insults, threats, or spreading rumors.

"Understanding what factors are related to a young person's cyberbullying of peers is important for developing ways that families, schools, and communities can prevent bullying or intervene when it occurs," said Sally S. Cohen, clinical professor at NYU Meyers and the study's senior author.

Gary Yu, associate research scientist and adjunct associate professor at NYU Meyers, coauthored the study with Grunin and Cohen.

Using data from the World Health Organization (WHO) Health Behavior in School-Aged Children survey, the researchers analyzed responses from 12,642 U.S. pre-teens and teens (ages 11 to 15 years old) surveyed in 2009-2010, the most recent WHO data on school-aged children collected in the United States. The adolescents were asked about their bullying behaviors, as well their perceptions of certain family characteristics, including their relationship with their parents.

The researchers found that the more adolescents perceived their parents as loving, the less likely they were to engage in cyberbullying. When asked if their parents are loving, youth who said "almost never" were over six times more likely to engage in high levels of cyberbullying than those who answered that their parent is "almost always" loving. Other types of emotional support, including how much teens feel their parents help and understand them, also contributed to the likelihood of whether young people engaged in cyberbullying behavior.

"Our findings point to the importance of parental emotional support as a factor that may influence whether teens cyberbully -- and more importantly, it is how teens perceive the support they receive from their parents," said Grunin. "I would stress to parents it is not necessarily if they think they are being supportive, but what their adolescent thinks. Parents should strive to discern their teen's perception of parental emotional support as it might be associated with youth cyberbullying behavior."

Certain demographic factors were also related to teens' likelihood of cyberbullying. Girls were much less likely than boys to exhibit high levels of cyberbullying. Race also played a role: Asian American adolescents were the least likely to be cyberbullies, while African American teens were less likely than white teens to engage in lower levels of cyberbullying and more likely to engage in higher levels.

Cohen added, "Since 2010, when the survey was conducted, technology and social media have become increasingly ubiquitous in teens' lives; the increase in screen time during the current pandemic poses new challenges. Online access and anonymity in posts create widespread opportunities for cyberbullying."

The researchers note that educators, health professionals, social media experts, and others working in youth development should take family dynamics into account when creating programs to address cyberbullying.

"While our study doesn't prove that a lack of parental support directly causes cyberbullying, it does suggest that children's relationships with their parents might influence their bullying behaviors. These relationships should be considered when developing interventions to prevent cyberbullying," said Grunin.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200902101822.htm

Researchers discover a specific brain circuit damaged by social isolation during childhood

Study in mice shows long-lasting effects and points the way to potential treatments

August 31, 2020

Science Daily/The Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Loneliness is recognized as a serious threat to mental health. Even as our world becomes increasingly connected over digital platforms, young people in our society are feeling a growing sense of isolation. The COVID-19 pandemic, which forced many countries to implement social distancing and school closures, magnifies the need for understanding the mental health consequences of social isolation and loneliness. While research has shown that social isolation during childhood, in particular, is detrimental to adult brain function and behavior across mammalian species, the underlying neural circuit mechanisms have remained poorly understood.

A research team from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has now identified specific sub-populations of brain cells in the prefrontal cortex, a key part of the brain that regulates social behavior, that are required for normal sociability in adulthood and are profoundly vulnerable to juvenile social isolation in mice. The study findings, which appear in the August 31 issue of Nature Neuroscience, shed light on a previously unrecognized role of these cells, known as medial prefrontal cortex neurons projecting to the paraventricular thalamus, the brain area that relays signals to various components of the brain's reward circuitry. If the finding is replicated in humans, it could lead to treatments for psychiatric disorders connected to isolation.

"In addition to identifying this specific circuit in the prefrontal cortex that is particularly vulnerable to social isolation during childhood, we also demonstrated that the vulnerable circuit we identified is a promising target for treatments of social behavior deficits," says Hirofumi Morishita, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Neuroscience, and Ophthalmology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, a faculty member of The Friedman Brain Institute and the Mindich Child Health and Development Institute, and senior author of the paper. "Through stimulation of the specific prefrontal circuit projecting to the thalamic area in adulthood, we were able to rescue the sociability deficits caused by juvenile social isolation."

Specifically, the team found that, in male mice, two weeks of social isolation immediately following weaning leads to a failure to activate medial prefrontal cortex neurons projecting to the paraventricular thalamus during social exposure in adulthood. Researchers found that juvenile isolation led to both reduced excitability of the prefrontal neurons projecting to the paraventricular thalamus and increased inhibitory input from other related neurons, suggesting a circuit mechanism underlying sociability deficits caused by juvenile social isolation. To determine whether acute restoration of the activity of prefrontal projections to the paraventricular thalamus is sufficient to ameliorate sociability deficits in adult mice that underwent juvenile social isolation, the team employed a technique known as optogenetics to selectively stimulate the prefrontal projections to paraventricular thalamus. The researchers also used chemogenetics in their study. While optogenetics enables researchers to stimulate particular neurons in freely moving animals with pulses of light, chemogenetics allows non-invasive chemical control over cell populations. By employing both of these techniques, the researchers were able to quickly increase social interaction in these mice once light pulses or drugs were administered to them.

"We checked the presence of social behavior deficits just prior to stimulation and when we checked the behavior while the stimulation was ongoing, we found that the social behavior deficits were reversed," said Dr. Morishita.

Given that social behavior deficits are a common dimension of many neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders, such as autism and schizophrenia, identification of these specific prefrontal neurons will point toward therapeutic targets for the improvement of social behavior deficits shared across a range of psychiatric disorders. The circuits identified in this study could potentially be modulated using techniques like transcranial magnetic stimulation and/or transcranial direct current stimulation.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200831112345.htm

Depressed or anxious teens risk heart attacks in middle age

August 26, 2020

Science Daily/European Society of Cardiology

Depression or anxiety in adolescence is linked with a 20% greater likelihood of having a heart attack mid-life, according to research released today at ESC Congress 2020.1

In a warning to parents, study author Dr. Cecilia Bergh of Örebro University in Sweden, said: "Be vigilant and look for signs of stress, depression or anxiety that is beyond the normal teenage angst: seek help if there seems to be a persistent problem (telephone helplines may be particularly helpful during the COVID-19 pandemic). If a healthy lifestyle is encouraged as early as possible in childhood and adolescence it is more likely to persist into adulthood and improve long-term health."

There are indications that mental well-being is declining in young people. This study investigated whether conditions like depression in adolescence (age 18 or 19) are associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease in adulthood. The researchers also examined the possible role of stress resilience (ability to cope with stress in everyday life) in helping to explain any associations.

The study included 238,013 men born between 1952 and 1956 who underwent extensive examinations in late adolescence (as part of their assessment for compulsory military service) and were then followed into middle age (up to the age of 58 years). The assessments at the age of 18 or 19 years included medical, psychiatric, and physical examinations by physicians and psychologists.

Stress resilience was measured by an interview with a psychologist and a questionnaire, and based on familial, medical, social, behavioural and personality characteristics.

A total of 34,503 men were diagnosed with a non-psychotic mental disorder (such as depression or anxiety) at conscription. Follow-up for cardiovascular disease was through hospital medical records.

The study found that a mental disorder in adolescence was associated with the risk of having a myocardial infarction (heart attack) by middle age. Compared to men without a mental illness in adolescence, the risk of myocardial infarction was 20% higher among men with a diagnosis -- even after taking into account other characteristics in adolescence such as blood pressure, body mass index, general health, and parental socioeconomic status.

The association between mental illness and heart attack was partly -- but not completely -- explained by poorer stress resilience and lower physical fitness in teenagers with a mental illness. "We already knew that men who were physically fit in adolescence seem less likely to maintain fitness in later years if they have low stress resilience," said Dr. Bergh. "Our previous research has also shown that low stress resilience is also coupled with a greater tendency towards addictive behaviour, signalled by higher risks of smoking, alcohol consumption and other drug use."

Dr. Bergh said: "Better fitness in adolescence is likely to help protect against later heart disease, particularly if people stay fit as they age. Physical activity may also alleviate some of the negative consequences of stress. This is relevant to all adolescents, but those with poorer wellbeing could benefit from additional support to encourage exercise and to develop strategies to deal with stress."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200826083017.htm

Treatment for teen anxiety

Study shows a particular treatment for childhood anxiety disorders could be beneficial

August 25, 2020

Science Daily/University of Cincinnati

Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S., with approximately 4.4 million children and adolescents affected, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"These disorders are not only common in children and teens, but, if untreated, result in considerable personal and economic cost over the lifetime," says Jeffrey Strawn, MD, associate professor and anxiety expert in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience at the University of Cincinnati.

In a new National Institute of Mental Health-funded study, led by Strawn and published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, UC researchers took a first look at one particular medication for treatment of these disorders in pediatric patients to see if it was beneficial.

"Psychotherapy and medications reduce symptoms for many children and adolescents with anxiety disorders," says the UC Health physician. "In particular, the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, have shown benefit in numerous trials."

Strawn says SSRIs work by increasing serotonin in the brain. Serotonin is one of the chemical messengers that nerve cells use to communicate with one another. These medications block the reabsorption of serotonin into nerve cells, making more serotonin available to improve transmission of messages between neurons.

"However, up to two in five children don't completely improve with existing medication treatments," he says. "While SSRIs represent the first line medication for anxious youth, predicting treatment response is difficult.

"Improvement varies considerably from patient to patient, often resulting in a trial-and-error process of medication selection and dosing. Additionally, clinicians have limited data to help them to determine which patients will respond to what treatments."

"To help predict which patients would improve most with one SSRI, called escitalopram, my colleagues and I compared its use to a placebo in adolescents with generalized anxiety disorder."

Fifty-one patients aged 12-17 were randomly chosen to be treated with either escitalopram or a placebo for eight weeks. Their anxiety symptoms and overall improvement were evaluated in addition to how well they tolerated the medication. They also had their blood drawn to assess how medication blood levels impacted their outcomes.

"We found this particular SSRI to be superior to a placebo in reducing anxiety," Strawn says. "Also, differences in how adolescents break down the medication affected blood levels, and these blood levels predicted certain side effects, like restlessness, jitteriness and insomnia. Understanding how blood levels vary could help us determine dosage."

Strawn and his collaborators also found that some patients improved more quickly than others. Patients who were slower metabolizers of the medication had better outcomes and improved faster when compared to patients who had increased metabolism of the medication.

Strawn says this is the first controlled study of this SSRI for pediatric anxiety disorders and the first to assess the impact of metabolism on escitalopram blood levels in adolescents. He says a larger study with a more diverse population is needed.

"For clinicians treating anxious adolescents, this study provides preliminary answers to important questions about the effectiveness of this treatment. It may also help clinicians predict how quickly patients respond and identify which patients may be less likely to get better. This would help us select alternative treatments for patients who are less likely to respond," he says. "We hope this will open the door for more studies and eventually become a more effective treatment for patients in the future."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200825133130.htm

Who could benefit from exercise and behavioral treatment?

Depression study suggests it may be possible to predict who would benefit

August 24, 2020

Science Daily/Rutgers University

Aerobic exercise clearly benefits young adults with major depression, and a Rutgers-led study suggests it may be possible to predict those who would benefit from behavioral therapy with exercise.

"Our study needs to be replicated, but the precision medicine approach of predicting who may or may not benefit from exercise as an antidepressant is provocative," said senior author Brandon L. Alderman, an associate professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Health in the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. "We also need to know whether exercise has a similar antidepressant effect in younger adolescents and in adults with more treatment-resistant forms of depression who have not responded well to traditional treatments, including antidepressants and cognitive behavioral therapy."

Unique to this precision medicine study, published in the journal Psychological Medicine, is an assessment of cognitive control and reward-related brain activity, two facets of brain function that are impaired in people with depression. Like previous studies, this one showed that aerobic exercise helps young adults with major depression.

Cognitive control means processes that allow adjustments in behavior to help achieve goals and resist distractions. Reward processing (or reward-related brain activity) reflects the response to rewarding stimuli or outcomes and the ability to process and then modulate your response to positive and negative outcomes, such as loss. Deficits in reward processing have been linked to multiple psychiatric conditions, including major depression, and may reflect anhedonia -- the loss of interest in or inability to experience pleasure in cases of depression.

Many people with major depression, a complex disease, do not respond favorably to evidence-based treatments. Depression symptoms include feelings of hopelessness, irritability, fatigue, difficulty concentrating and thoughts of suicide, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. People suffering from depression often seek effective treatment using a trial-and-error approach. They move in and out of various treatments, including antidepressants and cognitive behavioral therapies, according to Alderman.

The Rutgers-led team studied 66 young adults with major depression, focusing on aerobic exercise and its impact on depressive symptoms. Three times a week for eight weeks, some participants did moderate-intensity aerobic exercise and others did light-intensity stretching. Depression symptoms were reduced by 55 percent in the aerobic exercise group versus 31 percent in the light-intensity stretching group.

While aerobic exercise did not influence reward processing or cognitive control, people with better reward processing when the study began were more likely to successfully respond to exercise treatment.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200824092021.htm

Study of one million Danish children: Childhood adversity increases the risk of early death

August 19, 2020

Science Daily/University of Copenhagen The Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences

In many ways, our childhood lays the foundation of our health in adult life. It is central to our physical and cognitive development. If this development is disturbed, it may have long-term consequences for our physical and mental health later in life.

In a new study, researchers from the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen show that adversity in childhood increases the risk of premature death in early adulthood (16-36 years of age).

The researchers have recorded social and stressful adversity* in childhood among one million Danish children.

'We divided the children into five groups depending on the degree of adversity experienced in childhood. The more stressful experiences they have experienced during childhood, the higher the mortality rate in early adulthood. For the most vulnerable children, the mortality rate is surprisingly 4.5 times higher', says Professor Naja Hulvej Rod from the Department of Public Health.

The higher mortality rate mainly manifests itself in suicide and accidents, but the study also shows a higher risk of dying from cancer in this group.

Poverty in Childhood Does Not Rhyme with Welfare State

According to the researchers, the results of the study stress the critical importance of broad structural public-health initiatives to reduce stressful adversity in childhood. For example, prevention of childhood poverty and other adversity in childhood. With time, it may help reduce social inequality in health.

'It is striking to see such a strong connection between adversity in childhood and mortality in the Danish welfare state, which among other things aims to promote financial stability among families with young children and to minimise social adversity. From an international perspective, you may worry that these associations are even stronger in a less extensive welfare system', says Naja Hulvej Rod.

The study is the first of its kind on a global basis. The size of the study has made it possible for the researchers to study the associations between incidents of social and stressful adversity throughout childhood and how it affects mortality rates among young adults.

*In the study, social adversity is defined as financial poverty or long-term unemployment in the family, while stressful adversity includes e.g. death of a parent, divorce or alcohol/drug abuse among the parents.

Group 1: 54 % of the children experienced no or only very few isolated incidents of adversity in childhood.

Groups 2-4: 43 % of the children experienced isolated incidents of adversity in childhood, mainly related to poverty or illness in the family. Here the researchers found a mortality rate in early adulthood that is 1.3-1.8 times higher than in Group 1.

Group 5: 3 % experienced great social and stressful adversity throughout childhood. In this group, the mortality rate is 4.5 times higher than in Group 1.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200819094805.htm

Gut microbiome plays important role in sleep regulation

Transplanted bacteria from sleep-apnea mice caused sleep changes in recipient mice

September 23, 2020

Science Daily/University of Missouri-Columbia

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a chronic sleep condition affecting more than one billion people worldwide. Evidence suggests OSA can alter the gut microbiome (GM) and may promote OSA-associated co-morbidities, including diabetes, hypertension and cognitive problems. Researchers from the University of Missouri School of Medicine and MU Health Care have discovered how OSA-related sleep disturbances affect the gut microbiome in mice and how transplanting those gut bacteria into other mice can cause changes to sleep patterns in the recipient mice.

David Gozal, MD, the Marie M. and Harry L. Smith Endowed Chair of Child Health at the MU School of Medicine, said the study shows the gut microbiome plays a major role in sleep regulation. This ultimately could translate into treatments that target the gut microbiome in humans with OSA.

"By manipulating the gut microbiome, or the byproducts of the gut microbiota, we would be in a position to prevent or at least palliate some of the consequences of sleep apnea," said Gozal, the lead author of the study. "For example, if we combine continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) with customized probiotics that change the patient's gut microbiome, we might be able to eliminate some of the tiredness and fatigue and reduce the likelihood of the comorbidities associated with OSA that affect cognition, memory, cardiovascular disease or metabolic dysfunction. If we can do any one of those things, then this is a major movement forward in the way we treat OSA."

The study exposed male mice to either room air or intermittent hypoxia -- a condition in which the body doesn't get enough oxygen -- designed to mimic OSA. After six weeks, researchers collected fecal material from all of the rodents. A third group of mice was divided up and given either a fecal transplant from the mice breathing room air or those exposed to intermittent hypoxia. The transplanted mice underwent sleep recordings for three consecutive days. Researchers found the mice who received transplants from the intermittent hypoxia group slept longer and slept more often during their normal period of wakefulness, suggesting increased sleepiness.

"This is the first study that evaluated sleep in naïve mice subjected to a fecal microbiome transplant from mice exposed to intermittent hypoxia," Gozal said. "The fecal microbiome analysis showed profile differences between the mice transplanted from intermittent hypoxia donor mice versus those exposed to room air, indicating that the transplant altered the GM of the recipient mice."

Emerging evidence suggests the GM can influence health and sleep quality through the brain-gut microbiome axis (BGMA). The next step is to study the mechanism involved in the relationship between the brain and the gut to determine how changes in the gut microbiome can affect sleep structure and, in turn, how OSA can contribute to co-morbidities.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200923124804.htm

Links among poor sleep, high blood pressure, gut microbiome discovered

September 2, 2020

Science Daily/University of Illinois at Chicago

In the first study of its kind, University of Illinois Chicago researchers have found associations among disrupted sleep, elevated blood pressure and changes in the gut microbiome.

The research aimed to determine whether a 28-day period of disrupted sleep changed the microbiota in rats. The gut microbiota refers to the collection of microorganisms living in the intestines. The researchers also sought to identify biological features associated with undesirable arterial blood pressure changes.

The results were published in Physiological Genomics.

Using rats, the researcher disrupted their sleep periods. Rats are nocturnal, so the experiments were designed to interfere with their daytime sleep periods.

Telemetry transmitters measured the rats' brain activity, blood pressure and heart rate. Fecal matter also was analyzed to examine changes in the microbial content.

The research idea was generated by several of the paper's authors who are or have been health care providers with night-shift schedules.

"When rats had an abnormal sleep schedule, an increase in blood pressure developed -- the blood pressure remained elevated even when they could return to normal sleep. This suggests that dysfunctional sleep impairs the body for a sustained period," Maki said.

Undesirable changes also were found in the gut microbiome -- the genetic material of all bacteria living in the colon.

Contrary to her initial hypothesis, Maki found that the gut microbiome changes did not happen immediately, but instead took a week to show unfavorable responses such as an imbalance among different types of bacteria including an increase in microbes associated with inflammation.

"When the sleep disruption stopped, everything did not come back to normal immediately," Maki said. "This research shows a very complex system with the presence of multiple pathological factors."

This was initial research, and studies will continue to examine pathways involving the gut microbiome and metabolites produced by gut bacteria. The researchers will see exactly how sleep characteristics are changed and how long blood pressure and gut microbiome alterations persist. Researchers will then determine how this information translates to humans.

"We hope to find an intervention that can help people who are at risk for cardiovascular disease because of their work and sleep schedules. People will always have responsibilities that interrupt their sleep. We want to be able to reduce their risk by targeting the microbiome with new therapies or dietary changes," Fink said.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200902182439.htm

COVID-19 has likely tripled depression rate

September 2, 2020

Science Daily/Boston University School of Medicine

A first-of-its-kind study from the Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) finds 27.8% of U.S. adults had depression symptoms as of mid-April, compared to 8.5% before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Published in the journal JAMA Network Open, the study also found that income and savings are the most dramatic predictors of depression symptoms in the time of COVID.

"Depression in the general population after prior large scale traumatic events has been observed to, at most, double," says study senior author Dr. Sandro Galea, Dean and Robert A. Knox Professor at BUSPH, citing examples such as September 11, the Ebola outbreak, and civil unrest in Hong Kong.

"We were surprised to see these results at first, but other studies since conducted suggest similar-scale mental health consequences," Galea says. These studies have mainly been conducted in Asia and focused on specific populations such as healthcare workers and college students (one such study found depression symptoms among half of Chinese healthcare workers who had treated COVID patients).

But the new BUSPH study is the first nationally-representative study in the U.S. to assess the change in depression prevalence before and during COVID using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ 9), the leading self-administered depression screening tool.

The researchers used data from 5,065 respondents to the 2017-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), and 1,441 respondents from the COVID-19 Life Stressors Impact on Mental Health and Well-Being (CLIMB) study, which was conducted from March 31 to April 13, 2020, when 96% of the U.S. population was under stay-at-home advisories or shelter-in-place policies.

Both surveys used the PHQ 9 to assess depression symptoms and gathered the same demographic data, and the 2020 survey also gathered data on COVID-related stressors including job loss, the death of a friend or loved one from COVID, and financial problems.

Across the board, the researchers found an increase in depression symptoms among all demographic groups. Not surprisingly, experiencing more COVID-related stressors was a major predictor of depression symptoms.

However, the biggest demographic difference came down to money. After adjusting for all other demographics, the researchers found that, during COVID, someone with less than $5,000 in savings was 50% more likely to have depression symptoms than someone with more than $5,000.

"Persons who were already at risk before COVID-19, with fewer social and economic resources, were more likely to report probable depression, suggesting that inequity may increase during this time and that health gaps may widen," says study lead author Catherine Ettman, a doctoral student at the Brown University School of Public Health and director of strategic development in the Office of the Dean at BUSPH.

"We would hope that these findings promote creating a society where a robust safety net exists, where people have fair wages, where equitable policies and practices exist, and where families can not only live on their income but can also save money towards the future," she says.

As COVID continues to grip the country, Ettman says, "There may be steps that policymakers can take now to help reduce the impact of COVID-19 stressors on depression, such as eviction moratoria, providing universal health insurance that is not tied to employment, and helping people return to work safely for those able to do so."

At the same time, Ettman says she and her colleagues hope the study findings will also help those who are experiencing depression in this incredibly difficult time see that they are not alone: On the contrary, one in four U.S. adults is probably going through the same thing.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200902152202.htm

Circadian rhythms help guide waste from brain

September 2, 2020

Science Daily/University of Rochester Medical Center

New research details how the complex set of molecular and fluid dynamics that comprise the glymphatic system -- the brain's unique process of waste removal -- are synchronized with the master internal clock that regulates the sleep-wake cycle. These findings suggest that people who rely on sleeping during daytime hours are at greater risk for developing neurological disorders.

"These findings show that glymphatic system function is not solely based on sleep or wakefulness, but by the daily rhythms dictated by our biological clock," said neuroscientist Maiken Nedergaard, M.D., D.M.Sc., co-director of the Center for Translational Neuromedicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) and senior author of the study, which appears in the journal Nature Communications.

The findings add to a growing understanding of the operation and function of glymphatic system, the brain's self-contained waste removal process which was first discovered in 2012 by researchers in the Nedergaard's lab. The system consists of a network of plumbing that follows the path of blood vessels and pumps cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) through brain tissue, washing away waste. Research a few years later showed that the glymphatic system primarily functions while we sleep.

Since those initial discoveries, Nedergaard's lab and others have shown the role that blood pressure, heart rate, circadian timing, and depth of sleep play in the glymphatic system's function and the chemical signaling that occurs in the brain to turn the system on and off. They have also shown how disrupted sleep or trauma can cause the system to break down and allow toxic proteins to accumulate in the brain, potentially giving rise to a number of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's.

The link between circadian rhythms and the glymphatic system is the subject of the new paper. Circadian rhythms -- a 24-hour internal clock that regulates several important functions, including the sleep-wake cycle -- are maintained in a small area of the brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus.

The new study, which was conducted in mice, the researchers showed that when the animals were anesthetized all day long, their glymphatic system still only functioned during their typical rest period -- mice are nocturnal, so their sleep-wake cycle is the opposite of humans.

"Circadian rhythms in humans are tuned to a day-wake, night-sleep cycle," said Lauren Hablitz, Ph.D., first author of the new study and a research assistant professor in the URMC Center for Translational Neuromedicine. "Because this timing also influences the glymphatic system, these findings suggest that people who rely on cat naps during the day to catch up on sleep or work the night shift may be at risk for developing neurological disorders. In fact, clinical research shows that individuals who rely on sleeping during daytime hours are at much greater risk for Alzheimer's and dementia along with other health problems."

The study singles out cells called astrocytes that play multiple functions in the brain. It is believed that astrocytes in the suprachiasmatic nucleus help regulate circadian rhythms. Astrocytes also serve as gatekeepers that control the flow of CSF throughout the central nervous system. The results of the study suggest that communication between astrocytes in different parts of the brain may share the common goal of optimizing the glymphatic system's function during sleep.

The researchers also found that during wakefulness, the glymphatic system diverts CSF to lymph nodes in the neck. Because the lymph nodes are key waystations in the regulation of the immune system, the research suggests that CSF may represent a "fluid clock" that helps wake up the body's infection fighting capabilities during the day.

"Establishing a role for communication between astrocytes and the significant impacts of circadian timing on glymphatic clearance dynamics represent a major step in understanding the fundamental process of waste clearance regulation in the brain," said Frederick Gregory, Ph.D., program manager for the Army Research Office, which helped fund the research and is an element of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command's Army Research Laboratory. "This knowledge is crucial to developing future countermeasures that offset the deleterious effects of sleep deprivation and addresses future multi-domain military operation requirements for Soldiers to sustain performance over longer periods without the ability to rest."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200902082326.htm

Blood pressure-lowering is even more beneficial than previously thought

September 1, 2020

Science Daily/European Society of Cardiology

Blood pressure medication can prevent heart attacks and strokes -- even in people with normal blood pressure. That's the finding of late breaking research presented in a Hot Line session today at ESC Congress 2020.

"Greater drops in blood pressure with medication lead to greater reductions in the risk of heart attacks and strokes," said principal investigator Professor Kazem Rahimi of the University of Oxford, UK. "This holds true regardless of the starting blood pressure level, in people who previously had a heart attack or stroke, and in people who have never had heart disease."

"The fact that the relative effects are similar for everyone does not mean that everyone should be treated," he added. "This decision will depend on an individual's likelihood of suffering cardiovascular disease in the future -- there are a number of risk calculators health professionals can use. Other factors to consider are the potential for side effects and the cost of treatment."

There has been controversy about whether pharmacological blood pressure lowering is equally beneficial in people with versus without a prior heart attack or stroke, and when blood pressure is below the threshold for hypertension (typically 140/90 mmHg). Evidence from previous studies has been inconclusive, leading to contradictory treatment recommendations around the world.

This was the largest -- and most detailed -- study ever conducted to examine these questions. The researchers combined data on individuals who had participated in a randomised clinical trial and conducted a meta-analysis. The study included 348,854 participants from 48 trials.

Participants were divided into two groups: those with a prior diagnosis of cardiovascular disease and those without. Each group was divided into seven subgroups based on systolic blood pressure at study entry (less than 120, 120-129, 130-139, 140-149, 150-159, 160-169, 170 and above mmHg).

Over an average four years of follow-up, each 5 mmHg reduction in systolic blood pressure lowered the relative risk of major cardiovascular events by about 10%. The risks for stroke, ischaemic heart disease, heart failure and death from cardiovascular disease were reduced by 13%, 7% and 14% and 5%, respectively.

Neither the presence of cardiovascular disease nor the level of blood pressure at study entry modified the effect of treatment.

Professor Rahimi said: "The decision to prescribe blood pressure medication should not be based simply on a prior diagnosis of cardiovascular disease or an individual's current blood pressure. Rather, blood pressure medication should be viewed as an effective tool for reducing cardiovascular risk when an individual's probability of having a heart attack or stroke is elevated."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200901094058.htm

Sleep restriction amplifies anger

August 28, 2020

Science Daily/American Academy of Sleep Medicine

Feeling angry these days? New research suggests that a good night of sleep may be just what you need.

This program of research comprised an analysis of diaries and lab experiments. The researchers analyzed daily diary entries from 202 college students, who tracked their sleep, daily stressors, and anger over one month. Preliminary results show that individuals reported experiencing more anger on days following less sleep than usual for them.

The research team also conducted a lab experiment involving 147 community residents. Participants were randomly assigned either to maintain their regular sleep schedule or to restrict their sleep at home by about five hours across two nights. Following this manipulation, anger was assessed during exposure to irritating noise.

The experiment found that well-slept individuals adapted to noise and reported less anger after two days. In contrast, sleep-restricted individuals exhibited higher and increased anger in response to aversive noise, suggesting that losing sleep undermined emotional adaptation to frustrating circumstance. Subjective sleepiness accounted for most of the experimental effect of sleep loss on anger. A related experiment in which individuals reported anger following an online competitive game found similar results.

"The results are important because they provide strong causal evidence that sleep restriction increases anger and increases frustration over time," said Zlatan Krizan, who has a doctorate in personality and social psychology and is a professor of psychology at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. "Moreover, the results from the daily diary study suggest such effects translate to everyday life, as young adults reported more anger in the afternoon on days they slept less."

The authors noted that the findings highlight the importance of considering specific emotional reactions such as anger and their regulation in the context of sleep disruption.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200828204952.htm

Atheists are more likely to sleep better than Catholics and Baptists

August 28, 2020

Science Daily/American Academy of Sleep Medicine

A new study of sleep, religious affiliation, and perceptions of heaven found that atheists and agnostics are significantly more likely to be better sleepers than Catholics and Baptists.

Preliminary results show that 73% of atheists and agnostics reported getting seven or more hours of nightly sleep, which is recommended by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine to promote optimal health. In contrast, 63% of Catholics and only 55% of Baptists reported sleeping at least seven hours per night. Atheists and agnostics also reported experiencing less difficulty falling asleep.

"Mental health is increasingly discussed in church settings -- as it should be -- but sleep health is not discussed," said lead author Kyla Fergason, a student at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. "Yet we know that sleep loss undercuts many human abilities that are considered to be core values of the church: being a positive member of a social community, expressing love and compassion rather than anger or judgment, and displaying integrity in moral reasoning and behavior. Could getting better sleep help some people grow in their faith or become better Christians? We don't know the answer to that question yet, but we do know that mental, physical and cognitive health are intertwined with sleep health in the general population."

The study involved a population-based sample of 1,501 participants in the Baylor Religion Survey, which includes questions on religious affiliation, behaviors, and perceptions. Participants also rated their difficulty falling asleep and their average total sleep time.

Results also show that those participants who reported sleeping seven or more hours per night were significantly more likely to believe that they would get into heaven. However, these perceptions of heaven were unrelated to difficulty falling asleep at night. According to the authors, this pattern indicates that better sleep leads to a more optimistic outlook, which in this case is manifesting as positive expectations of getting into heaven.

The research abstract was published recently in an online supplement of the journal Sleep and will be presented as a poster Aug. 28-30 during Virtual SLEEP 2020. SLEEP is the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, a joint venture of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200828204948.htm

American Academy of Sleep Medicine calls for elimination of daylight saving time

August 27, 2020

Science Daily/American Academy of Sleep Medicine

Public health and safety would benefit from eliminating daylight saving time, according to a position statement from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

The AASM supports a switch to permanent standard time, explaining in the statement that standard time more closely aligns with the daily rhythms of the body's internal clock. The position statement also cites evidence of increased risks of motor vehicle accidents, cardiovascular events, and mood disturbances following the annual "spring forward" to daylight saving time.

"Permanent, year-round standard time is the best choice to most closely match our circadian sleep-wake cycle," said lead author Dr. M. Adeel Rishi, a pulmonology, sleep medicine and critical care specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and vice chair of the AASM Public Safety Committee. "Daylight saving time results in more darkness in the morning and more light in the evening, disrupting the body's natural rhythm."

The position statement, published online as an accepted paper in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, outlines the acute effects of daylight saving time, which range from increased risk of stroke and hospital admissions to sleep loss and increased production of inflammatory markers, one of the body's responses to stress. In addition, studies show that traffic fatalities have increased as much as six percent in the first few days following the change to daylight saving time, and a recently published research abstract found an 18 percent increase in adverse medical events related to human error in the week after switching to daylight saving time.

"There is ample evidence of the negative, short-term consequences of the annual change to daylight saving time in the spring," said AASM President Dr. Kannan Ramar. "Because the adoption of permanent standard time would be beneficial for public health and safety, the AASM will be advocating at the federal level for this legislative change."

In July, an AASM survey of more than 2,000 U.S. adults found that 63 percent support the elimination of seasonal time changes in favor of a national, fixed, year-round time, and only 11 percent oppose it. Additionally, a 2019 survey by the AASM found that 55 percent of adults feel extremely or somewhat tired after the spring change to daylight saving time.

The AASM position statement on daylight saving time has been endorsed by the following organizations:

• American Academy of Cardiovascular Sleep Medicine

• American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine

• American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST)

• American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine

• California Sleep Society

• Dakotas Sleep Society

• Kentucky Sleep Society

• Maryland Sleep Society

• Michigan Academy of Sleep Medicine

• Missouri Sleep Society

• National PTA

• National Safety Council

• Society of Anesthesia and Sleep Medicine

• Society of Behavioral Sleep Medicine

• Southern Sleep Society

• Start School Later

• Tennessee Sleep Society

• Wisconsin Sleep Society

• World Sleep Society.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200827150951.htm

Got fatigue? Study further pinpoints brain regions that may control it

August 26, 2020

Science Daily/Johns Hopkins Medicine

Scientists at Johns Hopkins Medicine using MRI scans and computer modeling say they have further pinpointed areas of the human brain that regulate efforts to deal with fatigue.

The findings, they say, could advance the development of behavioral and other strategies that increase physical performance in healthy people, and also illuminate the neural mechanisms that contribute to fatigue in people with depression, multiple sclerosis and stroke.

Results of the research were published online Aug. 12 in Nature Communications.

"We know the physiologic processes involved in fatigue, such as lactic acid build-up in muscles, but we know far less about how feelings of fatigue are processed in the brain and how our brain decides how much and what kind of effort to make to overcome fatigue," says Vikram Chib, Ph.D., assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and research scientist at the Kennedy Krieger Institute.

Knowing the brain regions that control choices about fatigue-moderating efforts can help scientists find therapies that precisely alter those choices, says Chib. "It might not be ideal for your brain to simply power through fatigue," says Chib. "It might be more beneficial for the brain to be more efficient about the signals it's sending."

For the study, Chib first developed a novel way to objectively quantify how people "feel" fatigue, a difficult task because rating systems can vary from person to person. Physicians often ask their patients to rate their fatigue on a scale of 1 to 7, but like pain scales, such ratings are subjective and varied.

To standardize the metric for fatigue, Chib asked 20 study participants to make risk-based decisions about exerting a specific physical effort. The average age of participants was 24 and ranged from 18 to 34. Nine of the 20 were female.

The 20 participants were asked to grasp and squeeze a sensor after training them to recognize a scale of effort. For example, zero was equal to no effort and 50 units of effort were equal to half the participant's maximum force. The participants learned to associate units of effort with how much to squeeze, which helped to standardize the effort level among individuals.

The participants repeated the grip exercises for 17 blocks for 10 trials each, until they were fatigued, then were offered one of two choices for making each effort. One was a random ("risky") choice based on a coin flip, offering the chance to exert no effort or a predetermined effort level. The other choice was a predetermined set effort level. By introducing uncertainty, the researchers were tapping in to how each subject valued their effort -- a way, in effect, of shedding light on how their brains and minds decided how much effort to make.

Based on whether the participant chose a risky option versus the predetermined one, the researchers used computerized programs to measure how participants felt about the prospect of exerting particular amounts of effort while they were fatigued.

"Unsurprisingly, we found that people tend to be more risk averse -- to avoid -- effort," says Chib. Most of the participants (19 of 20) opted for the risk-free choice of a predetermined effort level. This means that, when fatigued, participants were less willing to take the chance of having to exert large amounts of effort.

"The predetermined amount had to get pretty high in relative effort for participants to choose the coin toss option," says Chib.

Among a separate group of 10 people trained on the gripping system but not given numerous, fatiguing trials, there was no significant tendency toward picking either the risky coin toss or defined effort.

Chib's research team also evaluated participants' brain activity during the gripping exercises using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans, which track blood flow through the brain and show which neurons are firing most often.

Chib's team confirmed previous findings that brain activity when participants chose between the two options seemed to increase in all participants in an area of the brain's known as the insula.

Also using fMRI scans, they took a closer look at the motor cortex of the brain when the participants were fatigued. This region of the brain is responsible for exerting the effort itself.

The researchers found that the motor cortex was deactivated at the time participants "decided" between the two effort choices. That finding is consistent, Chib says, with previous studies showing that when people perform repeated fatiguing exertions, motor cortex activity is decreased, associated with fewer signals being sent down to the muscles.

Participants whose motor cortex activity changed the least, in response to fatiguing exertion, were the ones who were most risk averse in their effort choices and were most fatigued. This suggests that fatigue might arise from a miscalibration between what an individual thinks they are able to achieve and the actual activity in motor cortex.

Essentially, the body attunes to the motor cortex when fatigued, because if the brain kept sending more signals to muscles to act, physiological constraints would begin to take over, for example, increased lactic acid, contributing to even more fatigue.

These findings, says Chib, may advance the search for therapies -- physical or chemical -- that target this pathway in healthy people to advance performance and in people with conditions that are associated with fatigue.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200826113713.htm

Social connection is the strongest protective factor for depression

August 14, 2020

Science Daily/Massachusetts General Hospital

Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have identified a set of modifiable factors from a field of over 100 that could represent valuable targets for preventing depression in adults. In a study published in The American Journal of Psychiatry, the team named social connection as the strongest protective factor for depression, and suggested that reducing sedentary activities such as TV watching and daytime napping could also help lower the risk of depression.

"Depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide, but until now researchers have focused on only a handful of risk and protective factors, often in just one or two domains," says Karmel Choi, PhD, investigator in the Department of Psychiatry and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and lead author of the paper. "Our study provides the most comprehensive picture to date of modifiable factors that could impact depression risk."

To that end, researchers took a two-stage approach. The first stage drew on a database of over 100,000 participants in the UK Biobank -- a world-renowned cohort study of adults -- to systematically scan a wide range of modifiable factors that might be associated with the risk of developing depression, including social interaction, media use, sleep patterns, diet, physical activity, and environmental exposures. This method, known as an exposure-wide association scan (ExWAS), is analogous to genome-wide association studies (GWAS) that have been widely used to identify genetic risk factors for disease. The second stage took the strongest modifiable candidates from ExWAS and applied a technique called Mendelian randomization (MR) to investigate which factors may have a causal relationship to depression risk. MR is a statistical method that treats genetic variation between people as a kind of natural experiment to determine whether an association is likely to reflect causation rather than just correlation.

This two-stage approach allowed the MGH researchers to narrow the field to a smaller set of promising and potentially causal targets for depression. "Far and away the most prominent of these factors was frequency of confiding in others, but also visits with family and friends, all of which highlighted the important protective effect of social connection and social cohesion," points out Jordan Smoller, MD, ScD associate chief for research in the MGH Department of Psychiatry, and senior author of the study. "These factors are more relevant now than ever at a time of social distancing and separation from friends and family." The protective effects of social connection were present even for individuals who were at higher risk for depression as a result of genetic vulnerability or early life trauma.

On the other hand, factors associated with depression risk included time spent watching TV, though the authors note that additional research is needed to determine if that risk was due to media exposure per se or whether time in front of the TV was a proxy for being sedentary. Perhaps more surprising, the tendency for daytime napping and regular use of multivitamins appeared to be associated with depression risk, though more research is needed to determine how these might contribute.

The MGH study demonstrates an important new approach for evaluating a wide range of modifiable factors, and using this evidence to prioritize targets for preventive interventions for depression. "Depression takes an enormous toll on individuals, families, and society, yet we still know very little about how to prevent it," says Smoller. "We've shown that it's now possible to address these questions of broad public health significance through a large-scale, data-based approach that wasn't available even a few years ago. We hope this work will motivate further efforts to develop actionable strategies for preventing depression." The study's two-stage approach could also be used to inform the prevention of other health conditions.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200814131007.htm

Ten minutes of massage or rest will help your body fight stress

September 18, 2020

Science Daily/University of Konstanz

Allowing yourself a few minutes of downtime significantly boosts mental and physical relaxation. Research by psychologists at the University of Konstanz observed higher levels of psychological and physiological relaxation in people after only ten minutes of receiving a massage. Even ten minutes of simple rest increased relaxation, albeit to a lesser degree than massage. The findings, reported on 8 September 2020 in the journal Scientific Reports, provide the first indication that short-term treatments can robustly reduce stress on a psychological and physiological level by boosting the body's principal engine for relaxation -- the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS).

Stress is known to have negative consequences for health and disease. However, our bodies have an inbuilt regenerative system, the PNS, to ward off stress during times of threat. Launching a relaxation response is thus key to protecting our health and restoring balance in our body. Massage has been used to improve relaxation, yet no systematic approach exists to robustly confirm its effect on the PNS and whether or not this could be used as rehabilitation for patients suffering from stress-related disease.

Boosting the body's engine for relaxation 

This study indicates that massage is an easy-to-apply intervention that can boost the body's principal engine for relaxation -- the PNS -- and also lead to a reduction in perceived mental stress. The discovery that massage is effective on the level of both psychology and physiology via the PNS will pave the way for future studies on understanding the role of relaxation on stress.

"To get a better handle on the negative effects of stress, we need to understand its opposite -- relaxation," says Jens Pruessner, head of the Neuropsychology lab and Professor at the Cluster of Excellence "Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour" at the University of Konstanz. "Relaxation therapies show great promise as a holistic way to treat stress, but more systematic scientific appraisal of these methods is needed."

Standardised testing approach 

Researchers from the Department of Psychology in Konstanz developed a standardised approach for testing if tactile stimulation could improve mental and physical relaxation. They applied two different ten-minute massages on human subjects in the laboratory to test: A head-and-neck massage was designed to actively stimulate the PNS by applying moderate pressure on the vagal nerve, which is the largest nerve running to the PNS. Then a neck-and-shoulder massage with soft stroking movements was designed to examine whether just touch can also be relaxing. Finally, a control group of participants sitting quietly at a table was tested for the effect of rest without tactile stimulation. Physiological relaxation was gauged by monitoring the heart rate of participants and measuring heart rate variability (HRV), which indicates how flexibly the PNS can respond to changes in the environment. The higher the HRV, the more relaxed is the body. Psychological relaxation was gauged by asking participants to describe how relaxed or stressed they feel.

Ten minutes of resting or receiving either massage resulted in psychological and physiological reduction in stress. All participants reported that they felt more relaxed, and less stressed, compared with before the treatments. Further, all participants showed significant increases in heart rate variability, which demonstrates that the PNS was activated and the body physiologically relaxed just by resting alone. The physiological effect was more pronounced when participants received a massage. It was, however, not important whether the massage was soft or moderate -- tactile contact in general seemed to improve the relaxation of the body.

Small moments with big impact 

"We are very encouraged by the findings that short periods of dis-engagement are enough to relax not just the mind but also the body," says Maria Meier, a doctoral student in the lab of Neuropsychology and first author on the study. "You don't need a professional treatment in order to relax. Having somebody gently stroke your shoulders, or even just resting your head on the table for ten minutes, is an effective way to boost your body's physiological engine of relaxation."

By developing a standardised method for robustly testing and validating relaxation therapies, the study allows further experiments to test the effects of additional relaxation interventions that could be used in prevention or rehabilitation programmes for people suffering from stress-related diseases such as depression.

"Massage, being such a commonly used relaxation therapy, was our first study," says Meier. "Our next step is to test if other short interventions, like breathing exercises and meditation, show similar psychological and physiological relaxation results."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200918104305.htm

The key to happiness: Friends or family?

The answer may surprise you

September 17, 2020

Science Daily/Southern Methodist University

Think spending time with your kids and spouse is the key to your happiness? You may actually be happier getting together with your friends, said SMU psychology professor Nathan Hudson.

Hudson's research finds that people report higher levels of well-being while hanging with their friends than they do with their romantic partner or children. In fact, being around romantic partners predicted the least amount of happiness among these three groups, reveals a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Hudson stressed, however, that the finding has more to do with the activity than the person it is shared with. That's because people tend to spend more of their time doing enjoyable activities with friends than they do with family members, who occasionally find themselves together doing unpleasant tasks like chores or caretaking duties.

"Our study suggests that this doesn't have to do with the fundamental nature of kith versus kin relationships," he said. "When we statistically controlled for activities, the 'mere presence' of children, romantic partners, and friends predicted similar levels of happiness. Thus, this paper provides an optimistic view of family and suggests that people genuinely enjoy their romantic partners and children."

More than 400 study participants were asked to think back on times with their friends or family -- identify the activity they shared -- and rate whether those experiences left them feeling various emotions, such as happy, satisfied, and with a sense of meaning. Each emotion was rated from 0 (almost never) to 6 (almost always).

This information and other responses about how study participants felt at different times allowed Hudson and his co-authors, Richard E. Lucas and M. Brent Donnellan, to estimate rates of happiness with their friends and family. Lucas and Donnellan are both from Michigan State University.

The activities people most frequently perform while they're with their romantic partners include socializing, relaxing, and eating. People tend to do similar activities when they are with their friends, too. They just do a lot more of these enjoyable tasks while hanging with their friends and a lot less housework, the study found. For instance, 65 percent of experiences with friends involved socializing, but only 28 percent of the time shared with partners.

Spending time with their children also meant more time doing things that had a negative association, such as housework and commuting.

However, the activity that people reported most often with their offspring -- childcare -- was viewed positively. And overall, people report feeling similar levels of well-being while in the presence of friends, partners, and children once the activity was taken out of the equation.

There's a lesson here, Hudson said. "It's important to create opportunities for positive experiences with romantic partners and children -- and to really mentally savor those positive times. In contrast, family relationships that involve nothing but chores, housework, and childcare likely won't predict a lot of happiness."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200917084049.htm

People react better to both negative and positive events with more sleep

September 15, 2020

Science Daily/University of British Columbia

New research from UBC finds that after a night of shorter sleep, people react more emotionally to stressful events the next day -- and they don't find as much joy in the good things. The study, led by health psychologist Nancy Sin, looks at how sleep affects our reaction to both stressful and positive events in daily life.

"When people experience something positive, such as getting a hug or spending time in nature, they typically feel happier that day," says Nancy Sin, assistant professor in UBC's department of psychology. "But we found that when a person sleeps less than their usual amount, they don't have as much of a boost in positive emotions from their positive events."

People also reported a number of stressful events in their daily lives, including arguments, social tensions, work and family stress, and being discriminated against. When people slept less than usual, they responded to these stressful events with a greater loss of positive emotions. This has important health implications: previous research by Sin and others shows that being unable to maintain positive emotions in the face of stress puts people at risk of inflammation and even an earlier death.

Using daily diary data from a national U.S. sample of almost 2,000 people, Sin analyzed sleep duration and how people responded to negative and positive situations the next day. The participants reported on their experiences and the amount of sleep they had the previous night in daily telephone interviews over eight days.

"The recommended guideline for a good night's sleep is at least seven hours, yet one in three adults don't meet this standard," says Sin. "A large body of research has shown that inadequate sleep increases the risk for mental disorders, chronic health conditions, and premature death. My study adds to this evidence by showing that even minor night-to-night fluctuations in sleep duration can have consequences in how people respond to events in their daily lives."

Chronic health conditions -- such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer -- are prevalent among adults, especially as we grow older. Past research suggests that people with health conditions are more reactive when faced with stressful situations, possibly due to wear-and-tear of the physiological stress systems.

"We were also interested in whether adults with chronic health conditions might gain an even larger benefit from sleep than healthy adults," says Sin. "For those with chronic health conditions, we found that longer sleep -- compared to one's usual sleep duration -- led to better responses to positive experiences on the following day."

Sin hopes that by making sleep a priority, people can have a better quality of life and protect their long-term health.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200915121310.htm

When doing good boosts health, well-being

Acts of kindness benefit givers, study finds

September 3, 2020

Science Daily/American Psychological Association

Performing acts of kindness and helping other people can be good for people's health and well-being, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. But not all good-hearted behavior is equally beneficial to the giver. The strength of the link depends on many factors, including the type of kindness, the definition of well-being, and the giver's age, gender and other demographic factors.

The study was published in the journal Psychological Bulletin.

"Prosocial behavior -- altruism, cooperation, trust and compassion -- are all necessary ingredients of a harmonious and well-functioning society," said lead author Bryant P.H. Hui, PhD, a research assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong. "It is part of the shared culture of humankind, and our analysis shows that it also contributes to mental and physical health."

Previous studies have suggested that people who engage in more prosocial behavior are happier and have better mental and physical health than those who don't spend as much time helping others. However, not all studies have found evidence for that link, and the strength of the connection varies widely in the research literature.

To better understand what drives that variation, Hui and his colleagues performed a meta-analysis of 201 independent studies, comprising 198,213 total participants, that looked at the connection between prosocial behavior and well-being. Overall, they found that there was a modest link between the two. Although the effect size was small, it is still meaningful, according to Hui, given how many people perform acts of kindness every day.

"More than a quarter of Americans volunteer, for example," he said. "A modest effect size can still have a significant impact at a societal level when many people are participating in the behavior."

Digging deeper into the research, Hui and his colleagues found that random acts of kindness, such as helping an older neighbor carry groceries, were more strongly associated with overall well-being than formal prosocial behavior, such as scheduled volunteering for a charity. That may be because informal helping is more casual and spontaneous and may more easily lead to forming social connections, according to Hui. Informal giving is also more varied and less likely to become stale or monotonous, he said.

The researchers also found a stronger link between kindness and what is known as eudaimonic well-being (which focuses on self-actualization, realizing one's potential and finding meaning in life), than between kindness and hedonic well-being (which refers to happiness and positive feelings).

The effects varied by age, according to Hui, who began this research at the University of Cambridge. Younger givers reported higher levels of overall well-being, eudaimonic well-being, and psychological functioning, while older givers reported higher levels of physical health. Also, women showed stronger relationships between prosociality and several measures of well-being compared with men -- perhaps because women are stereotypically expected to be more caring and giving, and thus derive a stronger sense of good feelings for acting in accordance with those social norms, according to the study.

Finally, the researchers found that studies that were specifically designed to measure the connection between prosociality and well-being showed a stronger link between the two than studies that analyzed data from other large surveys not specifically designed to study the topic.

Future research should examine several other potentially important moderators that the research literature has largely ignored so far, the researchers suggest -- for example, the potential effects of givers' ethnicity and social class. Researchers might also examine whether more prosociality is always a good thing, or whether there is an "ideal level" of prosociality beyond which too much kindness and giving become detrimental to the giver, according to Hui.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200903095622.htm