Sleep is ‘like a rollercoaster’ which may contribute to waking up confused
BY ISABEL DAYMAN | SAT 12 AUG 2017, 2:45 PM AEST | Abc.net.au Have you ever woken up not knowing where you are? Do you wake up feeling confused or panicked, unsure of how you got there or how long you’ve been asleep for? Sleep expert Emeritus Professor Leon Lack, from Flinders University, explains what causes the strange sensations we experience when waking up. Why do I wake up confused and disorientated? Professor Lack said while there hadn’t been much research around the phenomenon, the body’s “rollercoaster” sleep cycle was probably to blame for feelings of confusion and disorientation. “Our …
Are iPads turning babies into insomniacs? How touch screens are costing infants sleep
By KAREN D’SOUZA | kdsouza@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group | MercuryNew.com PUBLISHED: August 11, 2017 at 12:57 pm | UPDATED: August 16, 2017 at 3:53 pm Whoever coined the phrase “sleeping like a baby” certainly didn’t live in the high-tech age. Indeed, new studies show that babies are losing sleep and touch screens are to blame. Now, it’s long been known that too much staring at the screen isn’t good for any of us, but when it comes to babies, toddlers and small children in general, the lack of sleep at a crucial stage of growth may actually impair …
NEW STUDY CONFIRMS WE CAN INDEED LEARN IN OUR SLEEP — BUT THERE’S A CATCH
By Luke Dormehl — Posted on August 11, 2017 8:49 pm | DigitalTrends.com It’s the dream of any kid too lazy to study: put on a set of earphones when you go to bed and learn while you’re sleeping. The good news? According to a new study, this is absolutely a possibility. The bad news? It’s not quite as simple as that. The research, published in the journal Nature, shows that new auditory memories can be formed as we sleep, although these are only laid down during particular phases of our slumber. In an experiment, sleeping subjects were exposed to …
Deep Sleep Reinforces the Learning of New Motor Skills
Neurons Recap Useful Firing Patterns During Deep Sleep By Devika G. Bansal on August 10, 2017 | UCSF.edu The benefits of a good night’s sleep have become widely known, and now neuroscientists at UC San Francisco have discovered that the animal brain reinforces motor skills during deep sleep. During non-REM sleep, slow brain waves bolster neural touchpoints that are directly related to a task that was newly learned while awake, while weakening neural links that are not, the researchers found. “This phenomenon may be related to the notion of ‘extracting the gist’ of how to perform a novel task,” said …
Teeth Grinding
MouthHealthy.org “Keep a stiff upper lip” or “get a grip!” That’s often the advice we get—and give—on how to cope with stress. If you take it literally, the result could be grinding your teeth or clenching your jaws. It’s called bruxism, and often it happens as you sleep. Teeth grinding can be caused not just by stress and anxiety but by sleep disorders, an abnormal bite or teeth that are missing or crooked. A study in the November 2016 issue of the Journal of the American Dental Association suggests that teeth grinding is also associated with alcohol and tobacco use. …
Treatment can help those with sleep apnea get better sleep
By Marissa Harshman | Columbian Health Reporter | Published: August 7, 2017, 6:00 AM | Columbian.com At first, Jim Mains attributed his sleepless nights to having a newborn. Then, as work got busier, he pointed to the mounting stress as the reason for his lack of energy. But when his wife, Ceci, voiced concerns about his increasing snoring and pauses in breathing during his sleep, the Vancouver man realized it was time to see a doctor. He was shocked by the diagnosis. “I never suspected sleep apnea,” Mains said. Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops …
What is deep sleep and how much of it should you be getting?
Oliver Wheaton for Metro.co.uk | Thursday 3 Aug 2017 2:07 pm | Metro.co.uk There are several different stages of sleeping, but the one which is most important to the body is deep sleep. In the modern age with our hectic lives and constant stimuli, people are getting less and less deep sleep, which can be having an affect on our health. What is deep sleep? Sleep researchers generally divide sleep up into five stages. Stages one and two are ‘light sleep’, stages three and four are ‘deep sleep’, while stage five is REM. Light sleep occurs when you first nod …
Insufficient Sleep: Study Finds Some Who Sleep 6 Hours Have Larger Waistlines Than Those Who Get 9 Hours
Published on July 27, 2017 | SleepReviewMag.com Adults in the UK who have poor sleep patterns are more likely to be overweight and obese and have poorer metabolic health, according to a new study. The findings showed that people who were sleeping an average of 6 hours a night had a waist measurement that was 3 cm greater than individuals who were getting 9 hours of sleep a night. And shorter sleepers were heavier too. The results strengthen the evidence that insufficient sleep could contribute to the development of metabolic diseases such as diabetes-major health challenges facing the National Health …
Sleep is the new skinny — with a booming industry to help us get rest
JULY 6, 2017 | THE PULSE | BY ANDREW STELZER | NewsWorks.org Zach Goldberg has had major trouble sleeping for much of the past decade. White noise, black-out shades, avoiding screens before bedtime — none of those adjustments were enough for Goldberg. “In high school and in college, I would spend maybe three or four nights a month just awake until like five, six [in the morning],” says Goldberg. Then he discovered the magic secret, for him: Harry Potter audiobooks. As he gets ready for bed, Goldberg presses play on an iPod especially dedicated for this purpose — and the …
The Scary Way Snoring Can Tank Your Brain
Similar risks apply if you wake up feeling zonked, too BY CHRISTA SGOBBA | July 24, 2017 | MensHealth.com Snoring at night doesn’t just drive your partner crazy—it might signal a serious problem for your brain. People with sleep-breathing disorders tend to have poorer memory and trouble paying attention, new research in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society suggests. In the study, researchers tested 1,700 older adults with at-home polysomnopgraphy, a tool that measures oxygen level and other sleep factors during shuteye, and surveyed them on their sleep habits. Then, the participants took some tests to measure their cognitive …