Study: Insomnia’s big toll on your work

You may already know that difficulty sleeping – meaning falling asleep, staying asleep, waking too early, or some combination of these – is a rampant problem for many Americans. A study of over 7,000 workers earlier this month reported that nearly a quarter (23 percent) had some form of insomnia at least three times a week during the previous month. That translates into a big impact at work: Insomniacs lost the equivalent of nearly 8 days of work each year as a result of their impaired sleep. What was perhaps most surprising about the study is how sleep deprivation affects productivity: Because most of us don’t treat chronic sleep deprivation as an illness worth staying home for, we still come to work even when we’re dragging from too little sleep – but we definitely don’t perform at the level we should (what’s called “presenteeism”). Add that up, and it totals a loss of over $63 billion from the US economy annually.

Insomnia is a notoriously intractable problem, but there are a few methods that seem to help most people. The website CureTogether.com crunches data from a wide variety of people about a range of health issues to see what real people say helps them most. Good solutions for easing insomnia include exercise; turning off the TV and reading; sleeping in a dark room; getting rid of caffeine; melatonin and other options. – Lorie A. Parch

TELL US: What do you do to ease insomnia?

Photo: Courtesy of the National Institutes of Health

How Tonic may help kids with cystic fibrosis stick with exercise

Getting enough exercise can be a struggle for most of us, but for some it's particularly challenging — including children with cystic fibrosis (CF). Now doctors at the University of California, San Francisco, and Stanford University, led by Mona Luke-Zeitoun, are trying a new approach: They're providing personalized exercise coaching and the Tonic self-care app to kids with CF in the hope it'll make it easier for them to stick with their workout regimen.

Here's how the study will work: A personal trainer will work with the children and their families to design an individualized exercise program and teach the kids various exercise techniques. For the next six months, the trainer will check in weekly to monitor the children's progress, modify the exercise program as needed, and provide support and positive reinforcement.

Where does Tonic fit in? "The patients will use the newly developed iPhone app Tonic, with the help of the personal trainer, to define, monitor, and maintain their exercise," explains Dr. Luke-Zeitoun. "From our experience, and based on prior research, patients' adherence to exercise was significantly influenced by frequent contact with and reminders from their personal trainers. We therefore think that Tonic has the potential to play a crucial role in helping patients adhere to their exercise regimens in the long term, even after termination of their 6-month training program."

The children's health will be evaluated several times over a 12-month period. The researchers will look at how well the kids are breathing and their lung function, their strength, and their overall quality of life. These measures will be compared with a control group (similar children who won't get exercise coaching and aren't using Tonic) to evaluate the effectiveness of INSTEP, or individualized non-supervised training exercise program. "If INSTEP is successful, this could be used as a method to improve the overall health and well-being of these children," says Dr. Luke-Zeitoun.

We'll report back when the study is done to let you know how the kids are doing.

Save $3 Off the Tonic App!

From September 17 to 30, to celebrate Health Innovation Week in San Francisco, we're taking $3 off the price of the Tonic self-care app, dropping the price from $4.99 to $1.99. We hope you'll download Tonic today, and share it with anyone you know who cares about their health!

Tonic: Winner of "Best Mobile Health Solution for Behavior Change" at Mobile Health 2011, and a "5"-rated app in the Apple iTunes Store

Why I Love Tonic: Joost Plattel, Netherlands

"Tonic helps me with daily medication and exercises. The iPhone app makes it easy to build a habit with custom reminders and warnings if things are due. For the days it takes to build a habit, Tonic is a good help." -- Joost Plattel, the Netherlands