Sleep, Sex, and Bullying Some connections superficially look strange. Why should sleep disordered breathing be associated with bullying and conduct disordered kids – as well as adult males with erectile problems? Is not breathing during sleep, or simple lack of sleep, affecting both aggressive behavior and our capacity for sex? Let’s take a look. […]
Let the kids sleep (6/3/11)
Rest Changes Through the Life Cycle Rest is required for growth and maturation, but the requirements change over the life cycle. We need separate kinds of rest for special purposes at every stage of life – infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Recent work points out some of what’s required for growing kids: Infancy […]
Caffeine, sleep, and memory (6/1/11)
Blame It On Adenosine What is the main action of caffeine? To block adenosine receptors – in the brain and the rest of the body. And what does adenosine do? Tell us that we’re getting sleepy. And foul up our memories. So does blocking adenosine through caffeine improve memory? If only life were so simple. […]
Getting the perfect nap Part I (5/13/11)
The Purpose of Your Nap Naps are back in the news. Air traffic controllers, pilots, truck drivers, and your average citizen are falling asleep in droves – with sometimes fatal results. For a chronically sleep deprived population, can naps restore and rebuild? Yes. Naps can return function to many sleepy people. But rest’s capacity to […]
Use the news – don’t be used by it (4/22/11)
Fascination or Entertainment? You can’t stop watching. Night and day your head and eyes turn to the screen. The images flow like waking dreams. Walls of water lift up Japanese houses and schools like paper toys. Hundreds of thousands in Tahrir Square shout the end of dictatorship, chanting, singing, then cleaning the street refuse of […]