Sleep Well Clinic

18/06/2026

Poor sleep could be doing more than leaving you tired. 😴

A new study has linked insomnia and irregular sleep patterns to a significantly higher cancer risk in people under 50.

With busy schedules, shift work, stress, and endless screen time, quality sleep is becoming harder to achieve.

So how can you improve your sleep, and how do you know if you're chronically sleep deprived?

Listen as Sleep Expert and Sleep Well Clinic Director, Dr Alex Bartle, talks with Tim Beveridge about the warning signs and what you can do to sleep better. 💤👇

https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/the-weekend-collective/the-health-hub/alex-bartle-bad-sleep-can-be-tied-to-life-shortening-conditions/

12/06/2026

Ready to better understand your sleep, recovery, and overall health?

For a limited time, Sleep Well Clinic is offering 50% OFF Gen 4 Oura Rings.

💍 Advanced sleep and health tracking
📊 Personalised insights
⏳ Limited stock available

Shop now and save while stocks last!

CPAP sales and support for Fisher and Paykel, and BMC CPAP machines and masks and parts provided by Sleep Well Clinic. Also light therapy and Ōura ring sleep trackers.

03/06/2026

Insomnia is common in adolescents with associated negative health consequences. This systematic review and meta-analysis assessed the effect of cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia interventions on insomnia symptoms and subjective sleep quality in adolescents aged 10–19 years.
Cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia delivered to adolescents with insomnia improved subjective sleep quality and insomnia symptoms, with effect sizes of 0.4 and 1.04, respectively. These findings provide support the efficacy of cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia in the treatment of adolescents with insomnia regardless of delivery modality.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jsr.14442

02/06/2026

Research using data from 69 previous studies and including nearly 4.5 million people found that sleeping between 7 and 8 hours per night may be associated with a lower risk of dementia. The study also found that sitting for more than eight hours a day and getting less than 150 minutes of physical activity per week may increase dementia risk. The researchers noted that their findings are associations, not causations, and that further studies are needed to assess the relationship between these factors and dementia risk.
Getting less than 7 hours of shut-eye a night was linked to an 18% increase in dementia risk, while getting more than 8 hours a night correlated to a 28% increase.
Those findings align with previous studies: Getting too much sleep can be as harmful to our health as getting too little. If you want a target to aim for, then somewhere between 7 and 8 hours seems best.
Clarifying between triggers and consequences can be tricky: There's research to suggest that sleeping too much is a sign that Alzheimer's has already started, for example, and not just a driver for the disease.
Add in the physical activity connection and recommendations around sitting too much – both previously linked to issues with brain health – and it seems we have a collection of behaviours that are good for the brain.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0343621

01/06/2026

ADHD is a condition that must be considered on a 24-hour continuum rather than focusing on daytime symptoms only. Sleep disorders in this population represent the rule rather than the exception. With 50 to 70% of individuals with ADHD having comorbid sleep disturbances, encompassing insomnia, circadian rhythm disorders, restless legs syndrome, obstructive sleep apnoea, and hypersomnia.
The neurobiological basis centres on dopaminergic dysfunction. Because dopamine regulates the internal circadian clock, patients with ADHD frequently experience delayed sleep onset. There is also an impairment of homeostatic sleep drive—the pressure to sleep that accumulates with wakefulness—resulting in a paradox wherein sleep-deprived patients with ADHD may not subjectively feel sleepy. Cortical hyperactivity was also implicated as a contributing mechanism.
Delayed sleep phase syndrome (DSPS) is a clinically significant and commonly misidentified sleep disorder in this population, particularly among adolescents.
DSPS is frequently mischaracterised as insomnia; it has a very different treatment paradigm that includes the use of passive body heating, light therapy and behavioural interventions. Environmental factors such as excessive screen use and lack of structured daytime activity may be reinforcing circadian dysregulation.
References:
1. Hvolby A. Associations of sleep disturbance with ADHD: implications for treatment. Atten Defic Hyperact Disord. 2015;7(1):1-18.
2. Wajszilber D, Santiseban JA, Gruber R. Sleep disorders in patients with ADHD: impact and management challenges. Nat Sci Sleep. 2018;10:453-480.

28/05/2026

Something to consider as you go into the weekend: This study suggests that catching up on sleep on the weekend may harm your glucose control.
Seven hours of sleep may be the optimal duration for maintaining metabolic health, with both short and excessive sleep associated with increased insulin resistance, according to a new cross-sectional study. This study found a significant inverted U-shaped relationship between how long people sleep on weekdays and their insulin resistance. They also discovered that the effect of weekend catch-up sleep is conditional — for those who don’t get enough weekday sleep, modest ‘catchup’ of 1-2 hours was beneficial, but for those who already sleep enough or for anyone engaging in excessive catch-up sleep, weekend catch-up sleep was associated with negative metabolic effects.
The goal should be consistency and adequacy rather than extremes. Aim for around 7-7.5 hours of sleep on weekdays as a reasonable target for metabolic health.
For people who chronically under sleep during the week, catching up an extra hour or 2 on weekends may offer a real, measurable, metabolic benefit. However, for patients who already get sufficient sleep, or for anyone sleeping in for more than 2 extra hours, we should counsel against it, as this ‘social jetlag’ and circadian disruption may actually be harmful.
https://drc.bmj.com/content/14/2/e005692

27/05/2026

Stressed-out teen? Sleep and sports may be the cure:
A study examined the role of sleep and sports participation in reducing stress among adolescents. The study, which used a 30-day diary method, found that quality sleep before and after stressful events helped teens cope better, while positive sports experiences provided emotional and social support. Sleep acts as a preparation mechanism, which provides adolescents with a stronger starting point so that they can better handle stress they encounter.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jora.70139

26/05/2026

The role of parenting in associations of weight status with sleep duration and timing for children with mild sleep-disordered breathing:
This study demonstrates that both shorter sleep duration and later timing relate to higher waist circumference and body mass index z-scores among school-aged children. Parenting factors (i.e., stress, parent–child dysfunctional relationships, and less use of an authoritative parenting style) may moderate sleep pattern-weight status relationships and therefore identify children most vulnerable to obesity because of insufficient sleep.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s44470-026-00066-y

25/05/2026

Longer and more frequent daytime napping is associated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality among older adults, according to research published in JAMA Network Open. Older individuals who nap for more than 30 minutes or take multiple naps a day have a higher risk of mortality than those who nap less frequently and for shorter periods of time. Metrics from wearable devices may be useful in identifying people at high risk, study authors said.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2847953

24/05/2026

The effect of hypoglossal nerve stimulation (HGNS), a novel and promising therapy for obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA), on neurocognitive deficits remains underexplored. This study evaluated whether HGNS therapy improves cognitive performance using the psychomotor vigilance test (PVT) and digit symbol substitution test (DSST), along with patient-reported outcomes (PROs) related to sleepiness, snoring, insomnia, and sleep-related function. In the modified intention-to-treat analysis, no significant differences in PVT or DSST outcomes were observed between active and control (partially therapeutic) HGNS therapy; however, in a subset of participants with ≥ 50% reduction in AHI with active HGNS, improvement in DSST reaction time was noted. All PROs significantly improved with active HGNS, suggesting benefits in subjective measures without substantial changes in objective cognitive measures.

Purpose The effect of therapeutic versus partially therapeutic levels of hypoglossal nerve stimulation (HGNS) therapy on cognitive measures and patient-reported outcomes (PROs) was evaluated in patients with moderate-severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Methods In a 10-week, double-blind, randomize...