Abstract Purpose To characterize sleep patterns and predictors of poor sleep quality in a large population of college students. This study extends the 2006 National Sleep Foundation examination of ...sleep in early adolescence by examining sleep in older adolescents. Method One thousand one hundred twenty-five students aged 17 to 24 years from an urban Midwestern university completed a cross-sectional online survey about sleep habits that included the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the Epworth Sleepiness Scale, the Horne-Ostberg Morningness–Eveningness Scale, the Profile of Mood States, the Subjective Units of Distress Scale, and questions about academic performance, physical health, and psychoactive drug use. Results Students reported disturbed sleep; over 60% were categorized as poor-quality sleepers by the PSQI, bedtimes and risetimes were delayed during weekends, and students reported frequently taking prescription, over the counter, and recreational psychoactive drugs to alter sleep/wakefulness. Students classified as poor-quality sleepers reported significantly more problems with physical and psychological health than did good-quality sleepers. Students overwhelmingly stated that emotional and academic stress negatively impacted sleep. Multiple regression analyses revealed that tension and stress accounted for 24% of the variance in the PSQI score, whereas exercise, alcohol and caffeine consumption, and consistency of sleep schedule were not significant predictors of sleep quality. Conclusions These results demonstrate that insufficient sleep and irregular sleep–wake patterns, which have been extensively documented in younger adolescents, are also present at alarming levels in the college student population. Given the close relationships between sleep quality and physical and mental health, intervention programs for sleep disturbance in this population should be considered.
Forest landscapes across western North America (wNA) have experienced extensive changes over the last two centuries, while climatic warming has become a global reality over the last four decades. ...Resulting interactions between historical increases in forested area and density and recent rapid warming, increasing insect mortality, and wildfire burned areas, are now leading to substantial abrupt landscape alterations. These outcomes are forcing forest planners and managers to identify strategies that can modify future outcomes that are ecologically and/or socially undesirable. Past forest management, including widespread harvest of fire- and climate-tolerant large old trees and old forests, fire exclusion (both Indigenous and lightning ignitions), and highly effective wildfire suppression have contributed to the current state of wNA forests. These practices were successful at meeting short-term demands, but they match poorly to modern realities. Hagmann et al. review a century of observations and multiscale, multi-proxy, research evidence that details widespread changes in forested landscapes and wildfire regimes since the influx of European colonists. Over the preceding 10 millennia, large areas of wNA were already settled and proactively managed with intentional burning by Indigenous tribes. Prichard et al. then review the research on management practices historically applied by Indigenous tribes and currently applied by some managers to intentionally manage forests for resilient conditions. They address 10 questions surrounding the application and relevance of these management practices. Here, we highlight the main findings of both papers and offer recommendations for management. We discuss progress paralysis that often occurs with strict adherence to the precautionary principle; offer insights for dealing with the common problem of irreducible uncertainty and suggestions for reframing management and policy direction; and identify key knowledge gaps and research needs.
Current pharmacological options for the treatment of insomnia insufficiently meet the needs of all insomnia patients. Approved treatments are not consistently effective in improving sleep onset and ...sleep maintenance, while also having complicated safety profiles. These limitations highlight the unmet need for additional medications and treatment strategies. Initial research suggests that the dual orexin receptor antagonists (DORAs) may offer an additional pharmaceutical option to treat insomnia in some patients.
We reviewed the existing literature on dual orexin receptor antagonists in PubMed databases using the search terms "orexin receptor antagonist," "almorexant" "filorexant," "lembroexant" and "suvorexant"; searches were limited to English language primary research articles, clinical trials, and reviews.
Targeting the orexin receptor system for treatment of insomnia offers an additional and alternative pharmacological approach to more common gamma aminobutyric acid agonist sedative hypnotic treatment. Effectiveness is not well established in the current literature; however, the literature does suggest efficacy. Preclinical reports also suggest the potential for treatment in individuals with comorbid Alzheimer disease and insomnia.
DORAs offer an additional treatment option for insomnia. More clinical trials are needed to robustly evaluate their safety and effectiveness in several subclasses of individuals with insomnia. Given the published literature, head-to-head comparisons to existing treatment for insomnia are warranted.
ABSTRACT
We present the goals, design, and first results of the MUSE Ultra Deep Field (MUDF) survey, a large programme using the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument at the ESO Very ...Large Telescope. The MUDF survey is collecting ≈150 h on-source of integral field optical spectroscopy in a 1.5 × 1.2 arcmin2 region which hosts several astrophysical structures along the line of sight, including two bright z ≈ 3.2 quasars with close separation (≈500 kpc). Following the description of the data reduction procedures, we present the analysis of the galaxy environment and gaseous properties of seven groups detected at redshifts 0.5 < z < 1.5, spanning a large dynamic range in halo mass, $\log (M_h/\rm {M_\odot }) \approx 11 - 13.5$. For four of the groups, we find associated Mg ii absorbers tracing cool gas in high-resolution spectroscopy of the two quasars, including one case of correlated absorption in both sightlines at distance ≈480 kpc. The absorption strength associated with the groups is higher than what has been reported for more isolated galaxies of comparable mass and impact parameters. We do not find evidence for widespread cool gas giving rise to strong absorption within these groups. Combining these results with the distribution of neutral and ionized gas seen in emission in lower redshift groups, we conclude that gravitational interactions in the group environment strip gas from the galaxy haloes into the intragroup medium, boosting the cross-section of cool gas and leading to the high fraction of strong Mg ii absorbers that we detect.
Collegiate athletes must satisfy the academic obligations common to all undergraduates, but they have the additional structural and social stressors of extensive practice time, competition schedules, ...and frequent travel away from their home campus. Clearly such stressors can have negative impacts on both their academic and athletic performances as well as on their health. These concerns are made more acute by recent proposals and decisions to reorganize major collegiate athletic conferences. These rearrangements will require more multi-day travel that interferes with the academic work and personal schedules of athletes. Of particular concern is additional east-west travel that results in circadian rhythm disruptions commonly called jet lag that contribute to the loss of amount as well as quality of sleep. Circadian misalignment and sleep deprivation and/or sleep disturbances have profound effects on physical and mental health and performance. We, as concerned scientists and physicians with relevant expertise, developed this white paper to raise awareness of these challenges to the wellbeing of our student-athletes and their co-travelers. We also offer practical steps to mitigate the negative consequences of collegiate travel schedules. We discuss the importance of bedtime protocols, the availability of early afternoon naps, and adherence to scheduled lighting exposure protocols before, during, and after travel, with support from wearables and apps. We call upon departments of athletics to engage with sleep and circadian experts to advise and help design tailored implementation of these mitigating practices that could contribute to the current and long-term health and wellbeing of their students and their staff members.
Objectives: To determine whether sleep quality mediates the relationship between traumatic life events and psychological wellbeing in college students. Methods: 40,646 undergraduate responses from ...the Spring 2017 National College Health Assessment II were evaluated for relationships between two predictor variables--"satisfactory sleep" and "traumatic life events," and two outcome variables--"psychological distress" (a composite of anxiety, exhaustion, feeling overwhelmed, depression, sadness, loneliness, hopelessness, and anger) and "suicidality" (composite of self-harm behaviors, suicidal ideation, suicide attempts). Linear mediation regression analysis via structural equation modeling was used to test these relationships. Results: Each additional "traumatic life event" students reported experiencing was associated with a 27.6% - 58.9% increase in the odds of reporting indicators of psychological distress or suicidality. "Satisfactory sleep" significantly mediated this negative relationship (proportional effects between 10.6 and 12.5%). Conclusions: Healthy sleep mediates the impact of traumatic life events on psychological distress and suicidality.
The aim of this study is to determine what modifiable behavioral and sociological factors were predictive of psychological distress and suicide risk in Asian and Asian American students, the ethnic ...group with the highest unmet mental health need in collegiate populations. We also compared these relationships in Fall 2019 to Fall 2020 to better understand how the impact of these factors changed during the COVID-19 pandemic and concurrent increase in Anti-Asian discrimination.
We used factor analysis to extract a wide range of predictor variables from the Fall 2019 and Fall 2020 American College Health Association's National College Health Assessment III. Next, we used structural equation modeling to identify significant drivers of psychological distress (Kessler-6 scale) and suicidality (Suicide Behavior Questionnaire-Revised scale) in Asian and Asian American students (n = 4,681 in 2019 and 1,672 in 2020).
When compared to 2019, experiencing discrimination in 2020 had a substantially larger effect on both psychological distress and suicidality among Asian and Asian American university students. Loneliness and depression were also significant drivers of negative mental health outcomes both years, and their effect magnitudes remained largely unchanged. Being well rested had a protective effect against psychological distress both years.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, discrimination was an important driver of psychological distress and suicidality in Asian and Asian American students. These findings suggest that organizations should enhance culturally competent mental healthcare services, while also working at the systems level to reduce bias and discrimination.
The objective of this study is to determine to what degree sleep disturbances predict academic success, relative to other known risk factors for decreased academic performance.
We performed ...regression analyses on data from the Spring 2009 American College Health Association National College Health Assessment II dataset (n=55,322 students) to isolate the relative contribution of the frequency of sleep problems in the previous week to GPA and the likelihood of withdrawing from a course. In our estimations, we also controlled for other factors that influence academic success such as demographic and academic variables, drug and alcohol use, perceived stress, and employment hours.
Sleep disturbances were found to be a significant independent predictor of academic problems; on average, each additional day per week that a student experienced sleep problems raised the probability of dropping a course by 10% and lowered the cumulative GPA by 0.02. Factors such as stress, binge drinking, marijuana and other illicit drug use, which typically receive more attention by university administrators, had similar or relatively smaller negative associations with academic success as compared to disturbed sleep. Approximately three quarters of students surveyed reported never receiving information about sleep from their university.
Sleep education represents an underutilized opportunity for universities to maximize retention rates and academic success.
Abstract Using more than 100 galaxies in the MUSE Ultra Deep Field with spectroscopy from the Hubble Space Telescope’s (HST) Wide Field Camera 3 and the Very Large Telescope’s Multi Unit ...Spectroscopic Explorer, we extend the gas-phase mass–metallicity relation (MZR) at z ≈ 1–2 down to stellar masses of M ⋆ ≈ 10 7.5 M ⊙ . The sample reaches 6 times lower in stellar mass and star formation rate (SFR) than previous HST studies at these redshifts, and we find that galaxy metallicities decrease to log(O/H) + 12 ≈ 7.8 ± 0.1 (15% solar) at log( M ⋆ / M ⊙ ) ≈ 7.5, without evidence of a turnover in the shape of the MZR at low masses. We validate our strong-line metallicities using the direct method for sources with O iii λ 4363 and O iii λ 1666 detections, and find excellent agreement between the techniques. The O iii λ 1666-based metallicities double existing measurements with a signal-to-noise ratio ≥ 5 for unlensed sources at z > 1, validating the strong-line calibrations up to z ∼ 2.5. We confirm that the MZR resides ∼0.3 dex lower in metallicity than local galaxies and is consistent with the fundamental metallicity relation if the low-mass slope varies with SFR. At lower redshifts ( z ∼ 0.5) our sample reaches ∼0.5 dex lower in SFR than current calibrations and we find enhanced metallicities that are consistent with extrapolating the MZR to lower SFRs. Finally, we detect only an ∼0.1 dex difference in the metallicities of galaxies in groups versus isolated environments. These results are based on robust calibrations and reach the lowest masses and SFRs that are accessible with HST, providing a critical foundation for studies with the Webb and Roman Space Telescopes.
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