Monthly Archives: July 2014

Though sleep science is a relatively new field of study, it is advancing rapidly, and as a result new technologies are being developed every day. Though many of these are oriented around comfort and are marketed by the mattress industry, others are related to brain activities, manipulating our sleep cycles through medication or even through our genes in order to accomplish a variety of goals. Here are just a few of the latest ideas that are being discussed and developed. Continue reading →

Though sleep deprivation isn’t something that anybody would wish on their own worst enemy, let alone themselves, a growing pool of creative artists is confessing to finding an upside to their sleepless hours – increased creativity. Frustrated by the fatigue, exhaustion, stress and anxiety that their insomnia creates, a growing number of artists are abandoning lying in their beds and staring at the ceiling and trading it in for the studio.

Matt Berry, a musician and actor, suffers from chronic insomnia. Last year he encountered the worst bout of it he’d ever had, and the anxiety of it grew and grew until he was becoming obsessed with getting sleep.  His frustration finally led him to create a new album titled Music for Insomniacs, a departure from the music he had previously written. Berry is proud of the fact that he turned a negative into a positive. Continue reading →

With sleep deprivation and insomnia being one of the top concerns cited by adults in the United States, and with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pointing to lack of adequate sleep as a public epidemic, anything that promises to help consumers get the rest that they need is bound to be a success. But a biotech company located in the suburbs of Philadelphia has gone one step further, investigating and developing an over-the-counter sleep aid that may also provide a cure for snoring. Requis Pharmaceuticals has announced that they are getting ready to submit an investigational new drug application to the United States Food and Drug Administration regarding their drug Requisom. Continue reading →

When we’re running short of sleep, our brains don’t function as well as they do when we’re well-rested…. That’s a scientific fact that’s been proven by sleep researchers all over the world. As nice as it would be to always be able to get the seven to nine hours of sleep that we need, we realistically have to admit that’s not always possible. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a way to counteract the impact of sleep deprivation on our brains when we can anticipate that we’re not going to be able to get enough sleep on a given night? According to a technology entrepreneur who claims to have spent over $300,000 on researching how to “hack” his own biology, when you know that you’re going to be short of sleep before an important meeting or performance, there are certain foods that you can eat that will help you sleep more efficiently, thus getting better benefit from the sleep that you get. Continue reading →

After more than eighteen months of online petitions, teacher meetings, school board meetings and the collection of research on the positive impact that a later start time would have on the wellbeing of high school students ability to learn, parents, teachers and students in Montgomery County, Maryland were just a few days away from the meeting that they were sure was going to bring change to their daily schedules. But the school superintendent Joshua P. Starr recently put a hold on the plan, withdrawing his support from the proposal and leaving students stuck with their original 7:25 a.m. starting time.  Continue reading →