Sleep Info

The title of this article sounds like the kind of question a young child would ask, but it’s actually something that scientists are looking into, as a way to learn more about how plants impact our climate. Most living organisms adapt their behavior to the rhythm of day and night. Plants are no exception: flowers open…
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For decades, scientists have fiercely debated whether rapid eye movement (REM) sleep – the phase where dreams appear – is directly involved in memory formation. Now, a study published in Science by researchers at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute (McGill University) and the University of Bern provides evidence that REM sleep does, indeed, play…
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It has been established in the last few years, and we’ve reported at length, that lack of sleep can cause obesity as well as depression.  New research indicates that obesity by itself can cause the reverse of sleeplessness — daytime drowsiness. Obesity and depression — not only lack of sleep — are underlying causes for regular…
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Since the beginning of human history, the full moon has been blamed for all kinds of things.  From poor behavior to werewolves, the lunar cycle has a bad reputation, but does it impact your sleep?  If you’re a child, it does … but only a little. To establish if lunar phases somehow do affect humans,…
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Young people with serious high videogame addiction tendencies may be at risk of sleep deprivation and disorders associated with obesity and poor cardio-metabolic health, according to new research from Canada. The study, published in the scientific journal PLOS One, examines the growing global gaming phenomenon and its impact on youth health. Dr. Katherine Morrison, co-author of…
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A pioneering study of worldwide sleep patterns combines math modeling, mobile apps and big data to parse the roles society and biology each play in setting sleep schedules. The study, led by University of Michigan mathematicians, used a free smartphone app that reduces jetlag to gather robust sleep data from thousands of people in 100…
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Many parents of children with ADHD say their children have more difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep than other children.  A new study from Aarhus University in Denmark is backing up that claim. Studies have shown that up to 70 percent of parents of children with ADHD report that the children have difficulty falling asleep…
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Echoing statements posted on the pages of SleepBetter.org more than once, NBC Nightly News last night reported on new guidelines from the American College of Physicians that say cognitive behavioral therapy, not pills, is the best way to treat insomnia. Check out the story below.

The level of salts in the brain plays a critical role in whether we are asleep or awake. This discovery, made by Danish researchers, may be of great importance to research on psychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia and convulsive fits from lack of sleep as well as post-anaesthetization confusion. The new study from the University of…
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Falling asleep and waking up are key transitions in everyone’s day, but millions of people have trouble with these transitions.  They find it hard to fall asleep or stay asleep at night, and hard to stay awake during the day. Despite decades of research, how these transitions work – the neurobiological mechanics of our circadian…
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