The Week: Most Recent Health:Sleepless in America

Huh? Why does our memory get worse with age?

By The Week Staff — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 12:33:00 -0500

The question: It's no secret that our memories fade with age, but the reason for the deterioration remains a puzzle to neuroscientists. Previous studies have suggested that the prefrontal cortex, which sits just behind the forehead and helps moderate sleep quality, is somehow related because it shrinks as we get older. Other research from the 1970s links stage 4 "slow-wave" sleep to a person's ability to convert new information to memories, but a connection was never explicitly outlined, at least until now. For this new study, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, researchers sought to...

Does working the late shift increase your risk of heart attack?

By The Week Staff — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 07:37:00 -0400

Working the night shift just doesn't seem to have many perks. In May, Danish researchers found that women who worked the graveyard shift were more than twice as likely to develop breast cancer. Now a British study finds that working while most people are sleeping could mean bad news for your heart. The expansive new study suggests that people who work the graveyard shift are at a higher risk of heart attack and stroke compared with those working normal daytime hours. Here's what you should know:

What did the study find?
Researchers pored over 34 clinical studies for data on more than 2 million...

Does sleeping with a night-light cause depression?

By The Week Staff — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 14:59:00 -0400

Still afraid of the dark? It's probably time to get over it. New evidence from Ohio State University found that a dim light at night — whether it comes from a night-light, or staying up late in front of a computer or TV — may be making you depressed. Here's what you should know:

What happened in this study?
University researchers exposed hamsters to a faint light when they went to sleep. Within a few weeks, the animals began to exhibit classic symptoms of depression. The hamsters spurned sugar water (normally, a reliable lure for hamsters) and were more lethargic than peers who slept...

The sleep mask that helps you control your dreams

By The Week Staff — Tue, 22 May 2012 13:20:00 -0400

The first step to controlling your dreams is to realize you're actually dreaming. And that's where the Remee sleep mask, a product developed by two Brooklyn inventors, comes in. Using an array of glowing lights, the mask gently reminds a user mid-dream that he or she is asleep, theoretically making it easier for the wearer to enter a lucid dreaming state. Here, a guide to the ambitious Kickstarter project that has investors dreaming big:

What exactly is lucid dreaming?
"Lucid dreaming refers to the act of being conscious while in a dream state — you're in a dream, but you know...

A good night's rest: The key to eating less?

By The Week Staff — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 06:25:00 -0400

If you've been trying to shed a few pounds, it might behoove you to get more shut-eye. New research presented at a meeting of the American Heart Association found that people who got less sleep consumed substantially more calories a day than those who had a good night's rest. Here, a brief guide to the study:

How did researchers conduct the study?
This small experiment, led by Dr. Andrew D. Calvin of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., took a close look at the sleeping and eating habits of 17 people between the ages of 18 and 40. The researchers put the volunteers in a Big Brother-style house...

Does sleep get better as we age?

By The Week Staff — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 16:51:00 -0500

Start looking forward to a relaxing retirement: According to an extensive new study, older Americans appear to sleep better than their far-younger counterparts. Here, a guide to the counter-intuitive findings:

Old people sleep better?
So they say. Men between the ages of 18 and 24 are twice as likely as adults over 80 to report sleeping problems. Women in that young age range are 1.61 times more likely to complain of sleep trouble. When it comes to a good night's sleep, says Alexandra Sifferlin at TIME, factors like stress, depression, and illness are more important than age...

Do you have the 'morning person' gene?

By The Week Staff — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 13:03:00 -0500

Why are some people alert and chipper in the morning while others can barely drag themselves out of bed? New research suggests that genetics may play a role. Specifically, it's a gene called ABCC9, which scientists have dubbed the "morning person" gene. Here's what you should know:

How did scientists find this gene?
German scientists studied more than 4,000 people across Europe. The subjects filled out questionnaires on their sleeping habits, and also had their genes analyzed. It turns out that "people with two copies of one common variant of the gene ABCC9 slept for a significantly shorter period...

Does dreaming help us overcome painful memories?

By The Week Staff — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:05:00 -0500

If time heals old wounds, dreaming may help speed up the recovery process. According to researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, dreaming takes the "painful edge" off difficult memories by chemically dampening a stressful event's impact. Here's what you should know:

How does this work?
Researchers discovered that brain chemicals associated with stress either become inactive or slow down during REM sleep, the period when we dream. Think of it as "overnight therapy," says Matthew Walker, the study's co-author. Dreaming is like "a soothing balm that removes the sharp edges...

The $63 billion cost of insomnia: By the numbers

By The Week Staff — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 10:14:00 -0400

Not sleeping enough can have serious health costs. But it can have pretty big financial costs, too, according to a new study in the journal Sleep. Insomnia is "an under-appreciated problem," says lead author Ronald Kessler, at Harvard Medical School. "Americans are not missing work because of insomnia," but they are doing lousy work because they're tired. "It's difficult to find a condition that has a greater effect on productivity." How great is the hit to our economy, and our lives? Here, the numbers:

11.3
Days the average worker loses to insomnia each year

$2,280
Estimated cost of that insomnia...

Can brain freeze cure insomnia?

By The Week Staff — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 11:45:00 -0400

Good news for the 1 in 10 Americans afflicted with chronic insomnia: According to a new study, you might be able to forgo the sleeping pills, white noise machines, warm milk, hypnosis tapes, and other slumber strategies, and simply cool your forehead to lull yourself to sleep. University of Pittsburgh sleep experts Dr. Eric Nofzinger and Dr. Daniel Buysse reported to colleagues this week that a water-circulating cooling cap helped insomniacs doze off as easily as normal sleepers. Here, a brief guide:

What is this sleeping cap like?
The 24 test subjects — 12 with natural insomnia, 12 with...

Low on sleep? Stop computing before bed

By The Week Staff — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 06:30:00 -0500

Laptops and smartphones may keep you informed and connected like never before, but they also could be keeping you from getting enough sleep. A poll by the nonprofit National Sleep Foundation found a suspicious correlation between our use of high-tech gadgets and our worsening sleep habits. Here, a brief guide to the findings:

What is the connection between sleep and smartphones?
Forty-three percent of poll respondents said they rarely or never get a good night's sleep. And nearly 95 percent reported that they frequently use a computer, smartphone, TV, or other electronic device in the hour before...

Night owls vs. morning people: Who's smarter?

By The Week Staff — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 08:45:00 -0500

Are you the type who stays up late to finish your work, or do you get up early to make a fresh start on the day? If it's the former, you may be pleased to learn new research has found that those with higher IQs tend to be nocturnal night-owls. But if it's the latter, you might have good reason to distrust the claim. Here's an instant guide:

Is there solid science behind this finding?
Sleep researchers tend to divide people into two groups, explains zoologist Robert Alison in the Winnipeg Free Press, based on whether they exhibit "morningness" or "eveningness." A recent study claims that eveningness...

5 more startling new facts about sleep

By The Week Staff — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 07:40:00 -0400

With the new school year about to begin, researchers are warning that getting enough sleep is among the "most powerful predictor[s] of a child's academic performance." But that's not the only conclusion that those who study bed behavior have drawn about sleep in 2010. Here are five more (see our first list here) noteworthy recent findings:

1. Women require more sleep than men
It's been the subject of a thousand domestic arguments: Who needs more rest, men or women? The answer, according to British sleep expert Jim Horne (Sleepfaring: A Journey Through The Science Of Sleep), is that women's brains...

5 startling new facts about sleep

By The Week Staff — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 13:50:00 -0400

We're entering the dog days of August, and sleep is on everyone's minds — whether it's a contented siesta on a beachfront sun-lounger, or a nap after a sweaty commute from the office. Luckily, the world's foremost experts in sleep have been hard at work to better understand our favorite nighttime activity. Here are five noteworthy new findings:

1. "Violent sleepers" are at higher risk of dementia
Do you find yourself kicking your partner in bed at night? If so, you might want to get tested by a neurologist, reports AOL Health. People who suffer from sleep behavior disorder, which causes them...

What's the best way to catch up on lost sleep?

By The Week Staff — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 11:35:00 -0400

During this seemingly never-ending recession, we're all working harder, staying later at the office, and getting up earlier to get things done. As a result, getting a good eight hours' sleep can be a rare event on a weeknight. The good news? Switching off your alarm clock and sleeping in on the weekend can quickly erase several days' worth of sleep deprivation, according to a new report. Here's a quick guide:

So taking a long Saturday morning in bed can be good for me?
Yes it can. Periods of "recovery sleep" can undo the damage caused by a few nights of inadequate sleep, says a report from the University...

What is 'sleep sex'?

By The Week Staff — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 16:05:00 -0400

A new study has focused renewed attention on a little-understood sleep disorder known as 'sexsomnia':

What is 'sexsomnia'?
Also known as "sleep sex," it's a condition that causes people to engage in sexual activity during the deepest stages of non-REM sleep.

How common is it?
A recent study, presented at the Associated Professional Sleep Studies conference in San Antonio, found that 1 in 12 individuals seeking treatment for a sleep disorder experiences episodes of sexsomnia. In this particular pool, men were almost three times as likely as women to suffer from the condition. No one knows...