The Sleep Blogger
"I dedicate this night of sleep to …"
Sleep is not always the simple act of closing your eyes and falling into an unconscious state. It is many other things. It is a literary device (the famously sleep-deprived Ebenezer Scrooge, for instance), the gateway to dreams, a metaphorical stand-in (“sleeping” as making whoopee), the object of countless scientific undertakings, a source of torment [...]
Ten hours of sleep, 100 years of life
If it’s your dream to see a birthday cake with your name on the frosting and 100 candles blazing away atop it, here’s a tip for you: Get at least ten hours of sleep every day. That appears to to be the threshold amount of sleep needed to live long enough to hit the century [...]
Just don't let it affect your iSleep
The Sleep Blogger has been a longtime user of (and advocate for) Apple products. In fact, these very words were produced on his MacBook Pro. But there’s one thing that keeps him from becoming a full-fledged Apple cultist: The company’s control freakiness. Now he also has a sleep-related reason not to join the cult. More [...]
To dream, perchance to remember
If the Sleep Blogger thought you would believe it, he’d start today’s post this way: “While browsing through my newest issue of Current Biology magazine …” Nobody would buy it, though. Fact is, until today the Sleep Blogger didn’t even know the magazine existed. And even if he had known it, he wouldn’t read it [...]
Sleep and the silver screen
The Sleep Blogger is in a Hollywood mood today, and for good reason: The Web is chock full o’ news about the entertainment industry and sleep. Let’s roll the tape. A NEW DOCUMENTARY FILM will be released next week, called “Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy.” As the film’s Web site explains: In this [...]
The Sleep Blogger will now take your questions
Some vitally important questions about sleep, posed and answered. Q: Can anyone think of a single benefit, no matter how far-fetched, to sleeplessness? Can anything good be said about it? A: Actually, that’s two questions, but because it’s the same query worded differently, we’ll treat it as one. (Pompous enough for ya?) Yes, someone has [...]
Exploring the food/sleep connection
Food and sleep became entangled in an odd, and maybe even contradictory, way in recent days, thanks to two scientific reports. Allow the Sleep Blogger to explain. Scientific report No. 1, as compiled by Reuters: In a study, researchers found that normal-weight young men ate a Big Mac’s-worth of extra calories when they’d gotten four [...]
Yet another reason to sleep well
As you may have noticed, we here at the Sleep Blog approach our jobs with a certain messianic zeal. We can (and often do) point out the many reasons why it’s important to get a good night’s sleep. (1) It’s healthy. (2) It’s relaxing. (3) You can’t perform at your peak unless you’re well-rested. (4) [...]
Second banana, again
For the second year in a row, a big-name celebrity has been recruited to help spread the word about sleep — specifically, the importance of regular, sustained doses of it. And for the second year in a row, the Sleep Blogger finds himself feeling like Paul Shaffer after a bigger star has come onstage to [...]
Here's one guy sleeping well these days
Before the Sleep Blogger was the Sleep Blogger, he was the Dream Blogger. (Same line of work, different specialty.) As such, he had the pleasure of spending a big chunk of the summer of 2009 in Stephenville, Texas, to chronicle how the residents of one small town kept their dreams alive as they grappled with [...]