Sleep Studies

If you’ve been paying attention to all of the news about the importance of getting enough sleep, or the negative impacts of sleep deprivation, and you’re focusing on all of the things that the articles say that you need to do, then you’ve probably established a set bedtime, started exercising during the day, cut out late caffeine and alcohol and even adjusted your room for light and sound. Good for you! Now all you have to do is throw yourself into your bed and you should be good to go, right? Continue reading →

We’re all used to putting on a pair of sunglasses before we head out to the beach or behind the wheel of our car on a sunny day, but how would you feel about putting them on for a few hours before bedtime? Sound funny? Continue reading →

We’ve all heard the news about sleep deprivation and the various health risks that have been associated with it: obesity, depression, cardiovascular problems, diabetes, high blood pressure. We’ve been told repeatedly that we should make seven to nine hours of sleep per night a priority, with each of us falling somewhere within that two hour window for the amount of sleep that is appropriate for us. It’s not often that you hear about people being at risk for sleeping too long, but now a study has been published that says that there is just as great a risk of dying earlier for those that sleep too long as for those who are sleeping too little. Continue reading →

The more we know about sleep, the more apparent it is that this basic bodily function is as integral to our wellbeing as eating and breathing. Getting the proper amount of sleep has been linked to improved overall health, and by contrast, sleep deprivation has a clear association with a number of serious chronic health conditions, including obesity, cardiovascular problems, diabetes 2, and an increased risk of degenerative brain disease as we age. One of the most fascinating aspects of how sleep can improve our lives is its role in improving and enhancing our memory skills, and researchers at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina have been studying the phenomenon in order to provide better understanding. Continue reading →

The idea of being able to learn while we are asleep has always been incredibly intriguing – after all, wouldn’t it be great to be able to have a tape playing in your ears while you’re sleeping and learn a new language, or the material that you need to learn for a class or to achieve a certification? Though that specific method of learning has been disproven, that does not mean that we don’t learn in our sleep. In fact, a number of studies have established that there are certain things that can be learned while we are sleeping, and Israeli scientists have shown that a Pavlovian type of conditioning can be accomplished while we are sleeping, inducing the brain to create associations between one stimulus and another when our sense of odor is used as the unconditioned stimulus. Continue reading →