Researchers Link Poor Sleep to Increased Falls
Have you ever found it difficult to keep
your balance after a poor night’s sleep? Have you ever experienced lots
of near falls after a night of twisting and turning? Well, there’s new
research out there that could explain this phenomenon!
Researchers at the School of Engineering,
in collaboration with Warwick Medical school, conducted a study
demonstrating the relationship between poor, disrupted sleep and reduced
posture and balance. They believe that a night of restless sleep
affects our vision, a sense that plays a vital role in balance. Lead
author Dr. Leandro Pecchia claims that it is something we all experience
from time to time. He says: “We all have direct experience of this.
When we do not sleep well, we may feel a little dizzy and our capability
to control our posture and balance is somehow diminished.” However, he
continues to explain that aging already reduces these abilities, meaning
poor sleep brings our balancing capabilities at these ages to the point
of non-existence, increasing our risk of falls.
The study
The study examined 20 healthy adults, between the ages of 28-34, over
two days logging how much each adult slept and how this affected their
balance. To monitor their sleep patterns, the participants wore sensors
that kept track of their heart rate and balance while quiet standing
through foot ‘ center of pressure’ (COP) displacement, while at home,
and sleep diaries, actigraphy and ‘heart rate variability’ (HRV)
measures were used to asses sleep quality variations.
The foot center of pressure is the point at
which the pressure of the body over the soles of the feet would be if
concentrated in one spot. If there are deviations this means reduced
balance. Actigraphy is a method of monitoring human rest-activity cycles
and heart rate variability is the phenomenon of variation in the time
interval between heartbeats. All these measures taken into account, the
researches found that reduced quality and quantity of sleep (shorter
sleep time, more disturbances, increased activity and decreased HRV),
led to significant changes in balance. Participants who did not undergo a
decrease in sleep quantity and quality did not experience a reduction
in balance abilities.
What does this mean?
The results of the study showed that reduced quality of sleep over
consecutive days may affect balance. This means that those who sleep
poorly are prone to more falls, especially the elderly. These results
could also help us understand in-hospital falls. Dr. Leandro Pecchia
explains, “hospitalized older patients find themselves in a frail
condition, sleeping in an unfamiliar environment, with unusual nocturnal
light and noises from other patients and nurses, and perhaps being
administered more than one drug. Waking up to go to the toilet can be
more challenging than we can imagine.” Placing these elderly adults in
an unfamiliar setting which is not cohesive to sleep and then expecting
them to get around on their own is not only wrong but also dangerous. He
goes on to say that a solution to this would be to learn to use
technology capable of early detection in sleep changes, thereby
increasing the ability to prevent or avoid falls that may occur the next
day.
Conclusion
We all know the importance of getting a good night’s sleep, however, now
we know that inadequate sleep can really be dangerous. Therefore, it's
important that you get a good night’s sleep and you can learn how to do
just that with this little secret. If your problem lies in disturbed
sleep, you may want to check out this infographic discussing what might
be disturbing your sleep and solutions to fix it!