The global pandemic is keeping lots of us up through the night. It’s a new world. For most of us, insomnia’s a normal result. But good sleep improves immune response. The body resets immunologically in sleep. One famous study out of UCSF showed people who on AVERAGE slept 6 hours or less had far more […]
How Much Sleep is Too Much?
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 […]