Is it true that sleeping more than eight hours a night hastens your demise? People certainly think so. Several years ago a national TV news reporter asked me if it was true, because after working shifts “I go home and sleep for ten or more hours, will that shorten my life?” A recent article in Journal of […]
It’s About Time
Timed Lives Time rules life, and body clocks direct and define much of yours. Twenty-four hour (circadian) clocks continue to be implicated in most aspects of human health, joy, and performance. A recent British study out of the UK Biobank of 91000 people recently refocused attention on how disruptions in body clocks play out in depression and […]
Happy Enemies of Sleep
Cellphones, televisions, pads, monitors, are not generally considered unwitting enemies of sleep, yet often are. We have great fun with electronic lights, but we are not built for light at night. At night we are designed to sleep. A recent study from Kenneth Wright’s group at the University of Colorado highlights for preschoolers what has long been […]
Stress, Overeating, and Sleep
Stress makes you sleepless. Insomnia makes you hungry, especially ravenous for fat and sugar. You eat more, gain weight, get more stressed. Then repeat. When expectations exceed realities stress becomes one’s constant companion. The plane flight to see your ailing mother is delayed, then cancelled. Your kid forgets his homework and you can’t leave work […]
Is Art Collecting Healthy?
Art and the quest for beauty can leave you sleepless. A patient recently came to me with an unusual complaint – art collecting induced insomnia. He could not stop thinking about modern and contemporary prints, what he possessed and more possessively what he further wished to have. A universe of potential desire awaited him each night. […]