© Christin Klose / Picture-Alliance / Dpa / AP Images
Why I don't put any stock in a recent "study".No matter what your stance on a particular topic is, you can nearly
always find a study that supports your point of view. What matters more than being able to find a published study with a particular outcome is the quality of that study. Case in point:
last Monday, researchers presented unpublished (read: not peer-reviewed) data from an observational study, concluding that time-restricted eating (TRE) was associated with a 91% increase in the risk of cardiovascular (CV) death, which resulted in a frenzy of headlines by many news outlets. If you already think that TRE is harmful to health, you might take the headline at face value; but if you look with a closer eye, you'll find that the results from this study are virtually meaningless.
What do we know about this study?This study was presented as a
poster at a conference, meaning that study details are limited and the full study still needs to be peer-reviewed before publication, as noted above. Randomized trials have been used to study the potential health benefits of TRE, but usually with limited duration. The motivation for this study was to see if long-term use of TRE affected mortality, something that would be extremely difficult to do with a randomized trial. For this retrospective, observational study, the researchers used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) collected between 2003 and 2018 from more than 20,000 people in the US. Each year, NHANES collects demographic, biomarker, and dietary data from approximately 5,000 randomly selected US residents to track changes in overall population trends. Each food recall questionnaire requires the participant to remember what they ate, how much, and at what times on the previous day. This study required that every participant completed two food recall surveys less than two weeks apart, and averaged their two feeding windows to determine each person's eating duration.
Comment: The results and conclusion in the study are rather general: From the study in Sleep Health For many familiar with traditional medicine, the above hardly comes as a surprise, but the researcher have had an opportunity to apply statistics to a great amount of data. Who knows perhaps one day there will be statistics that can show if the following old proverbs are true: Early to bed, early to rise, makes man healthy, wealthy and wise; work sweetens the sleep; who goes fasting to bed will sleep but lightly; if the skin of your belly is tight, the skin of your eyelids can sleep; one hour's sleep before midnight is better than two after it, a quiet conscience sleeps in thunder (Except the first, they were found here)
On SOTT.net, there are 500+ articles that mention sleep in the title, of which probably more than half are health related. Among these there are close to 20 articles that mention both good and sleep, and with the current article 15 articles include both poor and sleep.
Below is a selection:
How sleep works
Sleep shrinks the brain — and that's a good thing
Neurons help flush waste out of brain during sleep
The complex relationship between sleep and pain: Insights from sleep expert Dr Alison Bentley
Humans don't hibernate but they do need more sleep in winter, new study suggests
Even in the depths of sleep our brains are alert to stranger danger, new study reveals
Sleep loss sabotages new memory storage in the hippocampus
Scientists make first observation of how the brain records memories during sleep
Brain paralyzes you while you sleep
General anesthesia and normal sleep affect brain in an amazingly similar way as consciousness fades
Inflammation May Be Link Between Extreme Sleep Durations And Poor Health
Snoring Sounds May Hold the Key to a Good Night's Sleep
What sleep does in general
Getting good quality sleep could add several years to your lifespan
Poor sleep hygiene: New study shows what disrupted sleep does to your mental health
Lousy sleep isn't good for your body, either
Sleep and children
Poor sleep in children may have prenatal origins
Poor Children More Vulnerable to Effects of Poor Sleep
Teens need more sleep than adults: Inadequate sleep causes low mood, poor health and learning
Poor sleep in adolescents may increase risk of heart disease (From 2012)
Why children need a good night's sleep: Study suggests sleep deprivation affects immature brain differently than adults'
Sleep and old age
Senior moments: Poor memory tied to faulty brain rhythms during sleep
Poor sleep in old age prevents the brain from storing memories
Poor sleep habits raise the risk of dementia
A good night's sleep could keep you out of a nursing home
Good sleep
Researchers identify genetic causes of poor sleep
Ditch sugary sodas for a good night's sleep
Gut microbiome linked to poor sleep via metabolite production
Cold or hot shower before bed: Which is better for sleep?
Keys to getting a good night's sleep
Fixing Technical Problems for a Good Night's Sleep
Morning daylight exposure essential for a good night's sleep
US sleep scientists want to cancel daylight saving time
How the 'lost art' of breathing can impact sleep and resilience
Good relationships equal better sleep, says study: How responsive partners boost mental health