Interspecies Recording? Many secrets arrive with the night. Recently researchers at Universite de Rennes 1 in France decided to hook up microphones to listen to dolphins. No one seemed to know what sounds they made – especially in sleep. The dolphins made a lot of noise. However, 1% of their vocalizations sounded nothing like their […]
Noisy, sleepless hospitals (and how to rest in them – 1/25/12)
When You’re Ill You Really Need Rest Rest is as necessary to life as food. Without it the body does not restore and regenerate. Hospitals don’t seem to fully understand that connection. A new study of noise in hospital rooms, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, was not good news. The average hospital room […]
A different way to Diabetes (1/23/12)
Food or Sleep? Paula Deen may be getting the headlines, but diabetes is a threat to America’s health – and to our economy. If present trends continue – in some ways things are getting worse – perhaps one third of Americans will become diabetic by 2030. Diabetes means that our main fuel source – glucose […]
Can kids get addicted to the internet? (1/16/12)
Compulsion or Addiction? Can you get addicted to internet use? A new Chinese study in PLoS 1 argues that it certainly happens; that it clearly changes brain and behavior; and that the brain changes seen are in many ways similar to what happens with drug addiction and gambling. Kids Who Can’t Stop The adolescents – aged 14 […]
Rebound insomnia (1/13/12)
When You Can’t Stop Using Sleeping Pills You can’t sleep and you must. You start to take sleeping pills. They work – for a while. Then you find you need more. You try some nights without those pills. You can’t sleep at all – until you take the pills again. You’ve got rebound insomnia. Join […]