Topic: Sleep in the News

The Link Between Insomnia and Depression

Many look at insomnia and think it’s a symptom of something else, such as stress, bad diet, lack of exercise, or even a disease.  But, that may not be true at all.  Researchers in Japan are looking at insomnia from a different angle — that insomnia is the cause of those problems. Using previous research…
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Scientists Hope to Learn About Human Sleep from a Sleepless Fish

Nearly all animals studied need to sleep, but little is known about why some animals sleep most of the day, while others not as much.  Researchers are trying to learn more by studying a fish that hardly sleeps at all. As a result of living in total and permanent darkness in a small location in…
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New Three-Year Project Launches to Study Insomnia

About a quarter of U.S. adults suffer from insomnia, which significantly impacts their quality of life.  But, it’s not just the individual that suffers.  Estimates put the burden of insomnia on the U.S. economy at a whopping $63 billion per year in lost productivity, increased health care expenses and costs associated with workplace errors and accidents….
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Does Apple’s “Night Shift” Really Work?

The light emitted by portable electronic devices (PEDs), particularly when used at night, has drawn a great deal of interest recently.  The main concern is over the short-wavelength “blue” light emitted by smartphones, tablets, and even televisions.  Exposure to what some call “light at night” (or LAN) can acutely suppress melatonin, a hormone produced at night and…
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Acute Sleep Loss Harder on Women than Men

New research indicates that pulling an all-nighter can impact women’s memory significantly more strongly than men. Over the last few decades, science has learned that lack of sleep harms your mind and body in a number of ways, particularly your memory. Working memory is important for keeping things in mind for briefer periods of time,…
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Body Clock Disruptions May Occur Years Before Onset of Alzheimer’s

A new study indicates that body clock disruptions may be a precursor to Alzheimer’s, and may start years or even decades before symptoms can show in brain scans. People with Alzheimer’s disease are known to have disturbances in their internal body clocks that affect the sleep/wake cycle and may increase risk of developing the disorder….
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Americans Finally Sleeping a Bit More

There’s good news and bad news for Americans and sleep.  The good news is that we’re finally getting more sleep.  Congratulations!  The bad news, however, is that it’s still not enough. “Over 14 years [2003 to 2016], Americans were getting 17 minutes more sleep every night, or a full four days more sleep per year,”…
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Writing Down Your “To-do” List Can Help You Sleep

Writing a “to-do” list at bedtime may aid in falling asleep, according to a Baylor University study. Research compared sleep patterns of participants who took five minutes to write down upcoming duties versus participants who chronicled completed activities. “We live in a 24/7 culture in which our to-do lists seem to be constantly growing and…
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Sleep Trackers are Only for the Healthy and Wealthy

Sleep trackers are the newest tool that people and doctors are using to get an idea of what’s going on while we sleep, or why we don’t sleep.  The problem is that the people who are using them are primarily those who don’t need them as much — those who are healthy or have the…
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How Do We Fall Asleep?

It truly is amazing in this modern world, not only what we know but what we don’t know.  For instance, despite all of the advancements in our understanding of the human body, we still don’t know how we fall asleep.  Researchers are getting closer to finding out, with some help from fruit flies. Fruit flies…
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