Anxiety is all around us, the air noisily electric with it. The environment is filling with noxious sound. And an era stuffed with massacres of the innocents does not induce calm. So it’s instructive to see how one major sense – hearing – affects our ability to rest and self-soothe. And to see how we do it, […]
What Happened to Sleep Medicine?
Terminal Decline? Academic and clinical fields have their booms and busts just like economies. Sleep Medicine is no exception. A field that took off from the 1990s until the 2010s is now in palpable decline. This year a total of 112 sleep fellowships were filled in the nationwide medical match. America is presently training one potentially certifiable […]
Are Anti-Depressant Tests Worth the Money?
“This test will improve your choice of antidepressant by at least 50%” the salesman claims. I’m skeptical. I ask him how much it costs. Given his evasiveness, I ask five times before I get an answer: “Two thousand dollars. But don’t worry. Insurance will pay for it.” Sure. And if that do, a very big […]
The First Night
Many folks find they don’t sleep well their first night in a new bed, or anywhere that’s new. Sleep is more fitful and difficult, rest less lasting. In the sleep lab this is known as the “first night effect.” The expectation is strong that sleep the first time in a new, or even a different environment, […]
Timing Your Life
Time rules life, how it’s lived and performed. Time and our inner clocks make most of our lives possible. Consider the monarch butterflies that unerringly cross Canada, the United States, and as good citizens of these NAFTA states, direct themselves to the same valley in central Mexico. How do they do navigate so brilliantly? They use […]