Topic: Sleep in the News

If you’ve ever wondered how Santa’s reindeer can help the big guy deliver presents all night without getting tired, well … now you know.  According to a BBC article published this week, researchers have determined that reindeer have no internal body clock that tells them when they should be asleep and when they should be…
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A new study of doctors in Japan indicates that physician mental health can be predicted by looking at the amount of sleep and time off they’re able to have. A survey asked doctors about the number of days they spent off duty, the amount of overnight work they performed, and their average number of hours…
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You may have never heard of Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome, but there’s a pretty good chance that if you know a few adolescents, you know someone who has it.  Simply put, people with this disorder have a body clock that’s longer than 24 hours.  Because of this, they tend to have trouble going to sleep…
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According to a new report posted on the LA Times Health Blog, daylight savings time (which starts on Sunday, March 14 at 2 a.m.) is not only a short-term hassle that can make you sleepy, it’s also dangerous!  The blog post quotes scientists who have studied the physiological and psychological affects of the lost hour. …
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A new study out today indicates a difference between various ethnic groups when it comes to sleeping.  The National Sleep Foundation conducted its survey of around 1,000 individuals to find out the amount of sleep Americans are getting, their sleeping habits and who is consulting doctors.  It was part of their effort to promote National…
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We say it over and over here at SleepBetter.org, and it’s not a new idea — most people don’t get enough sleep.  Another health issue in America and other countries is the rising percentage of people who are overweight.  Are those two facts linked?  A new study profiled by Reuters and other media sources is…
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There’s a great article on the Yahoo site, Shine, about how all of you night owls can become early birds.  In a perfect world, it wouldn’t be necessary for people who are naturally more alert at night to switch themselves onto an “early to bed early to rise” schedule, but we don’t live in that…
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Here at SleepBetter.org, we thought we’d heard it all.  That is, until we read about mathematician Mark Holmes and his graduate student Lisa Rogers at Troy, New York’s Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.  They’re trying to use math to predict how different environmental, medical, or physical changes to a person’s body will affect their sleep.  Their story…
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The long held belief is that as you get older, you need less sleep.  A new study is disputing that claim.  According to a story this week in the U.K.’s Daily Mail, researchers at the University of California in San Diego reported at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference (the source of…
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This certainly isn’t the first time it’s been mentioned on SleepBetter.org, but it bears repeating — sleep deprivation leads to poor and potentially dangerous decisions. The sentiment is backed up by new research from Washington State University. The study was outlined in an article in yesterday’s Spokesman-Review from Spokane, Washington.   Researchers from WSU note…
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