Most People Choose Sleep Over Sex
We have become so sleep deprived that most people would rather get a good night’s sleep than have sex. In a new survey of 12,500 travelers from a dozen countries, 51% chose sleep over sex. In a similar survey a decade ago, only 31% preferred sleep. Conducted for Westin Hotels & Resorts, the survey echoes numerous scientific studies showing that Americans are running short on sleep. According to the National Sleep Foundation, 30% of Americans report trouble sleeping. Prescriptions for sleep medications have risen 7% over the past two years. According to data from pharmaceutical...
read moreWorking Night Shift Increases Health Risk
With jobs in short supply and bills to pay, more people are working when they used to be sleeping. Some are working a series of part-time jobs that keep them up past their normal bedtimes or working the night shift and struggling to readjust their body clocks. It’s not easy. Shifting your sleep cycle causes metabolic confusion that can lead to serious sleep disorders and increase your risk for certain health problems. Every creature has a natural circadian rhythm, the natural ebb and flow of the body’s biological functions over a 24-hour cycle. Humans are programmed to wake when...
read moreCouch Time Causes Insomnia in Children
Many school-age children experience trouble falling asleep. As many as 16% of parents report having problems getting their children to fall sleep at night. Researchers say the solution could be as simple as getting more physical exercise during the day. The amount of physical activity children receive during the day plays an important role in childhood sleep patterns, according to a study recently published in Archives of Disease in Childhood. Researchers at the University of Auckland in New Zealand found that inactivity can lead to insomnia in children. Too many hours on the couch playing...
read moreDreams Help Us Process Emotion
Some people remember their dreams vividly well after they wake up. For others, the tenuous memory of dreams begins to slip away with the first flicker of wakefulness. An inability to remember our dreams does not lessen their impact. New research indicates that a powerful connection exists between our nightly dreams and our ability to process human emotions during the day. In research presented at the annual conference of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, researchers at the University of California-Berkeley found that people require adequate sleep to understand complex...
read moreLack of Sleep Increases Risk of Dying
That sleepless night that makes you grouchy and tired the next day can be a killer — literally. New research shows that getting less than 5 hours of sleep a night increases your risk of death from cardiovascular disease. In a study of 4,600 men and women aged 35 to 55, researchers at University College London and the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom found that women who slept less than 8 hours per night had a higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease than men. Differences in hormone levels may play a role. According to data recently published in the journal Sleep,...
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