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 […]
Couch 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 […]
Dreams 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 […]
Lack 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 […]
Can Insomnia Be Inherited?
A new study presented at Sleep 2009, the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Studies, suggests that insomnia may be inheritable. The study of 1,436 eight- to 16-year-old twins found that the same genes that impact depression and anxiety affect adolescent insomnia. Study results are consistent with the results of similar studies connecting insomnia […]
TV Watching Interferes With Sleep
Preparing the body for sleep is one of our most important daily rituals, although few people realize the importance it plays in maintaining good health. Our bodies need from seven to eight hours of sleep per night to adequately recharge. Many Americans chronically receive less sleep than they need, unwittingly increasing their health risk. Getting […]