Topic: Sleep in the News

It’s fairly obvious that we expend more energy when awake than asleep, but new research that shows just how much extra energy is used during a sleepless night is rather surprising. Research conducted at the University of Colorado found that eight hours of sleep saved roughly 135 calories over eight hours of wakefulness.  That’s equivalent…
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Most people, when visiting the hospital for surgery, are told the anesthesia will put them to sleep so the doctors can do their work.  New research shows, however, that being put “under” is actually much more like a coma than sleep. Anesthesia is obviously a common practice for surgery, and has been for hundreds of…
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While regulations have been put in place to restrict the work hours of doctors in training, no such regulations exist for fully trained physicians. An editorial in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine argues that sleep-deprived physicians should not be permitted to proceed with an elective surgery without a patient’s informed, written consent. According…
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Sleep was front and center on Yahoo News this week, as they presented a story that charted eight things that keep you up at night.  Here’s a look at their list: Pain Mental illness and stress Snoring Jet lag Shift work Hormonal changes Medical illnesses Drugs The sleep stealers weren’t necessarily ranked, but we think…
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A novel new study indicates that those with the sleep disorders hypersomnia, narcolepsy, and obesity-related sleep problems (such as sleep apnea) bring about consequences far beyond trouble for the individuals who suffer from them.  Hypersomnia causes excessive fatigue, requiring multiple naps throughout the day.  Narcolepsy, which is related to hypersomnia, causes individuals to fall asleep…
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This is the last day of exams for many college students around the U.S., and a new study is out that reinforces the idea that cramming during all night study sessions is a bad idea. A new study conducted by British and American professors finds that sleep may be just as important as studying when…
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You may have heard your mother talking about getting her “beauty rest”.  New research is showing that she knew what she was talking about. Swedish scientists studied 23 subjects ages 18 to 31, photographing them before while well rested and then again after being up for 31 hours while getting only five hours of sleep. …
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Sleepy bees can’t dance. We have researchers to thank for this knowledge, and video to prove it.  The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that the tired bees lag just like sleep-deprived humans do. Scientists kept bees from getting their normal eight hours of sleep per night (they used…
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Sleepy bees can’t dance. We have researchers to thank for this knowledge, and video to prove it.  The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that the tired bees lag just like sleep-deprived humans do. Scientists kept bees from getting their normal eight hours of sleep per night (they used…
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A new study reveals that most American office workers don’t consistently get good sleep.  The study, conducted by Phillips, also indicates that lack of sleep is affecting workers’ on-the-job performance. Findings from the new ‘Workplace Power Outage’ Sleep Survey*, claim to challenge conventional assumptions about amount and quality of sleep and their relation to productivity…
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