Sleep

Sleep is a physiological behavior that is common in all animal species. It forms around one third of a human life. It is not known clearly the exact functions of sleep but it seems to be essential for survival as prolonged sleep deprivation leads to severe physical impairment followed by cognitive loss and eventually death.

What is Sleep?

Types of Sleep Disorders

How Can Mindfulness Meditation Improve Sleep?

Promoting Sounder Sleep in Older Adults

Sleep Deprivation - Inadequate Quantity of Sleep

Causes of Sleep Deprivation

Effect of Sleep on Your Emotions

How Long Should My Teenager Sleep For?

Management of Sleep Deprivation

REM Sleep Activity

Brain Activity During Sleep

Stages of Sleep

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Regulation of Sleep

Function of Sleep

Nutritional Effects on Sleep

Effects of Sleep Deprivation

Neuroscience of Sleep

Stimulants and Sleep

Hypnotics and Sleep

Shift Work Sleep Disorder

What is Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder (DSPD)?

Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder (DSPD) Management

What is the Circadian Rhythm?

Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorders

What Does Polysomnography Involve?

How Long should my Child Sleep for?

Health Effects of Poor Sleep - Quantity and Quality

How to Catch up on Lost Sleep

Why Do We Sleep?

Sleep Hygiene

Ghrelin and Sleep

Spoon Test for Sleep Deprivation

Can too much sleep be dangerous?

Causes of Nocturnal Awakenings

History of Sleep

Is Daytime Napping in Adults Good or Bad?

Tips on Getting to Sleep

The DEC2 Gene and Sleep

Importance of Sleep

Difference Between Nightmares and Night Terrors

How Does Sleep Affect Your Immunity?

How Does Pain Affect Your Sleep?

Why Do We Dream?

The Health Risks of Oversleeping

A Guide to Managing Sleep Disorders

The Importance of Having a Good Night’s Sleep

Sleep and Yoga

A Guide to Healthy Sleep Positions

How Can Sleep Affect Men's Health?

How Much Sleep do People Need?

Sleep and Hormones

Role of Sleep in Memory Consolidation

What is Sleep Regression?

Does Your Alarm Sound Affect Your Mood?

Could Humans Ever Hibernate?

Latest Sleep News and Research

Enlarged perivascular spaces in infancy associated with sleep problems and autism risk

Throughout the day and night, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pulses through small fluid-filled channels surrounding blood vessels in the brain, called perivascular spaces, to flush out neuroinflammation and other neurological waste.

2 Jan 2024

Study reveals burnout and professional dissatisfaction driving physicians to leave their practices

Study investigates the prevalence of burnout, professional fulfillment, and intention to leave among physicians, revealing significant variations based on gender, age, race, and specialty.

1 Jan 2024

'Visual system' protein appears to be key for stabilizing the body's circadian rhythms

Scientists at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health have identified a protein in the visual system of mice that appears to be key for stabilizing the body's circadian rhythms by buffering the brain's response to light.

28 Dec 2023

Hackensack Meridian's Dr. Mary Sedarous wins ALS United Mid-Atlantic's Flame of Hope Award

Hackensack Meridian Neuroscience Institute at Jersey Shore University Medical Center's Mary Sedarous, M.D., medical director of the ALS Center, was honored at ALS United Mid-Atlantic's 2023 Annual Celebration with the organization's Flame of Hope Award, recognizing research and innovation.

26 Dec 2023

Study: Cuddling during sleep comes at a cost, even for mice

If you’re having trouble sleeping, perhaps contact with a bedmate is causing the problem, say University of Michigan researchers.

26 Dec 2023

Study: Traditional CBT as effective as exposure therapy for fibromyalgia

There does not appear to be any profound differences between so-called exposure-based CBT and traditional CBT in the treatment of fibromyalgia, according to a study led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet.

22 Dec 2023

New research debunks color's influence on the human internal clock

Vision is a complex process. The visual perception of the environment is created by a combination of different wavelengths of light, which are decoded as colors and brightness in the brain.

22 Dec 2023

‘AGGA’ inventor testifies his dental device was not meant for TMJ or sleep apnea

A Tennessee dentist who has been sued by multiple TMJ and sleep apnea patients over an unproven dental device he invented has said under oath that he never taught dentists to use the device for those ailments — contradicting video footage of him telling dentists how to use it.

22 Dec 2023

CHEST wins $100,000 grant to improve diagnostic excellence in interstitial lung disease

The American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) was awarded a $100,000 grant from the Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS) to improve diagnostic excellence in interstitial lung disease (ILD).

21 Dec 2023

D-alanine linked to gluconeogenesis in the kidney and circadian clock

Only recently was it discovered that amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, exist in two different forms: L- and D-forms.

21 Dec 2023

Understanding the link between primary cilia, biological clock and wound healing

Nearly every organism on Earth follows a natural circadian rhythm that is coded by your cell's clock genes, which do exactly as you suspect from the name: regulate your body's rhythm on a 24-hour basis.

21 Dec 2023

Night owls at higher risk of coronary artery calcification

Artery calcification is almost twice as common in night owls compared to early birds, according to a study from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

21 Dec 2023

Sleep loss linked to reduced positivity and heightened anxiety

Sleep loss does more than just make us tired. It can undermine our emotional functioning, decrease positive moods and put us at higher risk for anxiety symptoms, according to a study published by the American Psychological Association that synthesized more than 50 years of research on sleep deprivation and mood.

21 Dec 2023

Football linked to more brain damage beyond white matter marks

Signs of injury to the brain's white matter called white matter hyperintensities, as seen on brain scans, may be tied more strongly to vascular risk factors, brain shrinkage, and other markers of dementia in former tackle football players than in those who did not play football, according to a study published in the December 20, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

20 Dec 2023

Gamma stimulation may improve memory and cognition in people with Alzheimer's disease

A surprising MIT study published in Nature at the end of 2016 helped to spur interest in the possibility that light flickering at the frequency of a particular gamma-band brain rhythm could produce meaningful therapeutic effects for people with Alzheimer's disease.

20 Dec 2023

Study investigates the connection between changing light levels and mental health

In Finland, there is a clear increase in the number of sick days taken due to depression, anxiety and sleep disorders in October and November, whereas the number of absences is lower than expected between June and September.

20 Dec 2023

‘I am just waiting to die’: Social Security clawbacks drive some into homelessness

More than a year after the federal government first cut off her disability benefits, Denise Woods drives nightly to strip malls, truck stops, and parking lots around Savannah, Georgia, looking for a safe place to sleep in her Chevy.

20 Dec 2023

Widespread cannabis use linked to increase in psychiatric disorders, UMSOM review finds

The widespread use of cannabis (marijuana) and its increased potency are associated with a rise in cannabis-related psychiatric conditions, according to a new University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) review article that was recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

19 Dec 2023

From Neanderthals to now: Tracing the evolution of human sleep cycles

Researchers examined the differences in circadian biology between the ancestors of modern humans and the archaic hominins such as Denisovans and Neanderthals and the contribution of archaic introgression in human chronotypes by using genomes to trace chronotype evolution from archaic hominins to modern-day humans.

19 Dec 2023

Study identifies respiration as potential pacemaker for memory consolidation during sleep

How are memories consolidated during sleep? In 2021, researchers led by Dr. Thomas Schreiner, leader of the Emmy Noether junior research group at LMU's Department of Psychology, had already shown there was a direct relationship between the emergence of certain sleep-related brain activity patterns and the reactivation of memory contents during sleep.

18 Dec 2023