sleep
clock | August 21, 2006This list, written on December 17, 2005, is still quite up-to-date. There are also some more specialized books which are expensive, and many of those I'd like to have one day, but I cannot afford them (though I have placed a couple of them on my wish list, just in case I see a cheap copy come up for sale):
I know the holidays are coming in just a couple of days, but perhaps you still have time to order a book or two for your friends and family.
There are tons of books about sleep out there, mostly of suspect quality. Books about clocks tend to be either very old (thus out-dated) or far too…
clock | August 18, 2006One of the several hypotheses floating around over the past several years to explain the phenomenon of repeated wake-up events in hibernating animals although such events are very energy-draining, is the notion that the immune system needs to be rewarmed in order to fend off any potential bacterial invasions that may have occured while the animal was hibernating:
Now, a group of researchers provided a mathematical model that supports this hypothesis:
"A habit in some animals to periodically wake up while hibernating may be an evolutionary mechanism to fight bacterial infection, according to…
clock | August 17, 2006Many Commercial Drivers Have Impaired Performance Due To Lack Of Sleep
Truck drivers who routinely get too little sleep or suffer from sleep apnea show signs of fatigue and impaired performance that can make them a hazard on the road, according to a major new study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. The study results are published in the August 15th issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
clock | August 10, 2006This is an interesting idea:
A novel way to advance the circadian cycle has been proposed as a way to solve the problem associated with the early starting times of middle and high schools. It has been recognized for some time that teen age students do not really wake up until well past the time they physically arrive at school. Researchers at Brown University have found that the student's blood contains large amounts of the sleep hormone, melatonin. Researchers at the Lighting Innovations Institute of John Carroll University are seeking funding to carry out a study to find out if their method…
clock | August 8, 2006Today's New York Times has a good article about jet-lag: The Science of Zzzzz's. I am glad to hear that JetBlue is using scientific advice in helping their pilots be fresh and alert, especially now that JetBlue has started flying from RDU.
purepedantry | August 1, 2006Muahaha. It has now been proven that men should not sleep over:
If you have ever thought you were stupid to sleep with someone, consider this. Sharing your bed could actually make you stupid if you are a man - at least temporarily.
Even without having sex, bed sharing disturbs sleep quality, say Gerhard Kloesch and colleagues from the University of Vienna, Austria. The team recruited eight unmarried, childless couples, and used questionnaires and a wrist activity monitor, an "actigraph", to assess sleep patterns after 10 nights together and 10 apart.
Men and women fared differently. While…
clock | July 30, 2006Men's sleep apnea found alongside erectile problems:
Men who are sound sleepers have better sex lives.
A study published in a recent edition of Urology says men who suffer from sleep apnea syndrome also suffer a high rate of erectile dysfunction.
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One theory, Dr. Atwood said, suggests that sleep apnea disrupts rapid-eye-movement or REM sleep -- a time when men routinely experience erections. Decreased REM sleep means fewer REM erections.
The possibility exists, he said, that REM erections are a necessary process for men to maintain healthy…
clock | July 25, 2006Sawing The ZZZZZs: Getting Old Needn't Keep You Awake, Geriatricians Say:
"Patients must be educated on normal sleep-related changes but also made aware that sleep problems are not a part of normal aging."
Again we have the problem with the use of the word "normal"! Fragmentation of sleep in old age is "normal" in a sense that it happens to most people and most other mammals. Just because it is unpleasant and potentially bad for one's health does not make it not normal. Yet, just like we treat bad eyeseight with glasses, we can alleviate sleep problems in the elderly with a variety of…
clock | July 24, 2006Found on the Talk About Sleep forums:
We here at Talk About Sleep have recently learned of a very interesting study of sleep and sleep disorders being conducted by a Ph.D. student at the University of Minnesota. Matthew Wolf-Meyer is a medical anthropologist and is interested in hearing about your personal experiences as a sleep disorder sufferer, as well as the experiences of your family members.
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From what we understand, this is the first social study of sleep disorders and their impacts on the lives of patients and their families. This study could have positive…
clock | July 17, 2006From Financial Times: 'Social jet lag' causes fatigue and illness (also on MSNBC):
Half the people in modern urban societies suffer from "social jet lag" because their body clocks are seriously out of step with their real lives, the Euroscience forum in Munich heard on Monday.
The result was chronic fatigue and an increased susceptibility to disease, researches found. They concluded that employers should tell staff to wake up in their own time and come in to work when they feel ready to.
Till Roenneberg, a circadian rhythm researcher at Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, coined the…
clock | July 1, 2006
I did not find it surprising. If you have money, you can buy yourself time - to exercise, to eat a good meal at a nice restaurant or to fix healthy food at home, and to sleep as much as your body needs. As a result, you will be healthier overall. You can read about the study here (hat-tip:Sleepdoctor)
clock | June 29, 2006This week, it took me quite a while to figure out how to answer the Ask a ScienceBlogger question: "What are some unsung successes that have occurred as a result of using science to guide policy?"
As a relative newcomer to the United States, and even more a newcomer to American politics, I was not around long enough to pay attention to various science-driven policies of the past. Most of what I know are far from "unsung" successes - from Manhattan Project, through Clean Air and Clean Water acts, to the EWndangered Species Act, to the international Kyoto Protocol. Dealing with DDT, DES,…
clock | June 29, 2006The absence of light-dark cycles in space (e.g., on the shuttle or space station) results in disruptions of sleep. It has been proposed that humans who spend prolonged time in space are suffering from jet-lag - the internal desynchronization of clocks in various tissues.
A new experiment on the space station will take a somewhat different strategy than usual. Instead of measuring EEG (brain activity), it will monitor EKG (heart activity) over a period of 150 days.
The idea, brought by Irish researchers, is that EEG monitoring is not capable of measuring internal desynchronization of the…
clock | June 27, 2006The article I linked to in my previous post on the topic of having sex while asleep (or is it 'being sleep while having sex'?), e.g., the one I got pointed to by someone (e-mail?), is actually, quite terrible. So, instead, if you are interested in the topic, you should check out a much more serious website - Sleepsex.org, which focuses entirely on the phenomenon of sexsomnia.
I need to thank Karmen for pointing out that site to me. The site has extensive links to other sources of information, including links to all of Dr. Shapiro's papers on the topic. For instance, this paper (pdf)…
clock | June 23, 2006Sex While Sleeping Is Real, And May Be No Joke
It is a tiny study but the preliminary results are intriguing. The article does not go much into underlying biology, but it touches on possible legal ramifications. If walking, eating or driving while asleep is possible, why not having sex? After all, you don't even have to get out of bed. What do you think?
clock | June 23, 2006Rozerem is a selective melatonin agonist. It acts on melatonin receptors at the suprachiasmatic nucleus. It is prescribed as a non-addictive sleep aid for people having difficulties with the onset of sleep, i.e., falling asleep in the evening.
While melatonin itself appears unlikely to be a molecule that directly induces sleep, it does have phase-resetting effects on the circadian clock. Thus, Rozerem appears ideal as an aid for extreme "owls" to help them fall asleep (if they need to wake up early in the morning, as some jobs require). By mimicking melatonin, it would phase-advance the…
clock | June 21, 2006My post about sleep has been translated by Davide 'Folletto' Casali into Italian, and posted on his blog. You can see the translated post here. If you can read Italian (and even you do not - just for fun, and to reward his hard work), go and look around his blog.
clock | June 16, 2006Interesting:
Melatonin may be found in grapes
MILAN, Italy, June 16 (UPI) -- Scientists in Italy say they have discovered that the grapes used in popular red wines may contain high levels of the sleep hormone melatonin.
Melatonin is naturally secreted by the pineal gland in the brain, especially at night, and it tells the body when it is time to sleep, according to researcher Iriti Marcello at the University of Milan.
Hey, hey, what do you say:
Until recently, melatonin was thought to be exclusively produced by mammals, but has recently been discovered in plants.
Excuse me, but we've known…
clock | June 13, 2006When a news release states that a brain region is crucial for something, one is led to believe that this is the MAIN center controlling that function. If it is crucial for thermoregulation than it is the center for thermoregulation and without it the animal does not thermoregulate. Or am I misunderstanding English (it is a second language for me, after all)?
So, when the article starts with: "Researchers at Northwestern University have pinpointed a brain area in flies that is crucial to sleep, raising interesting speculation over the purpose of sleep and its possible link with learning and…
clock | June 12, 2006So, Wellbutrin is now officially a drug for treating Seasonal Affective Disorder. And chocolate is so unofficially. But, those may only take the edge off of the symptoms - they cannot affect the underlying causes.