Health & Science

... and some of the things we were told to avoid

Sleeping pills can trigger bizarre behavior during sleep. As sleep aids become more popular, researchers are reporting a growing number of cases of sleepwalking, sleep-eating, and even sleep-driving. At the same time, a study found that sleep meds don’t even work very well, increasing average sleep time by a mere 15 minutes per night.

Educational videos for the diaper crowd may have the opposite of their intended effect. Videos such as Baby Einstein and Brainy Baby promise to nurture a young child’s brain by presenting simple images, tunes, and vocabulary words. But a study found that children were inclined to “zone out” in front of such videos. In fact, those who watched them everyday understood, on average, seven fewer words than kids who did not watch—presumably because the latter group instead was interacting more with other humans.

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