Sleep and insomnia increase with age. Most studies find the inability to get proper rest affects the majority of folks past the age of 65 (Lots of younger people can’t sleep, either.) There are dozens of known reasons people can’t sleep. Here’s some of the most prominent. Aging Changes Sleep Take a newborn. Many neonates will […]
How Sleep Resets the Brain
So just what is the brain doing during sleep? We know sleep is necessary to cognition, glucose control, weight, memory, even life asleep. But what’s really going on in there? The layers of information that control and constantly renew the human body are strikingly complex. One of the most useful theories to explicate how was […]
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, […]
Political Insomnia Disorder
“I can’t sleep!” people keep telling me – even if they’ve slept well their entire lives. “What I saw today was unbelievable, I can’t get it out of my mind!” Television images of fear, rage, intimidation and destruction seep into their dreams: of friends and neighbors screaming at them to leave their homes, workplaces blasted in fire, wars […]
Why Don’t People Sleep?
“Can’t I just treat my insomnia with a book?” My interlocutor was sure there was a book out there (including one of my mine) that “could get me to sleep just fine.” Certainly many could do with a brief bout of Sleep School – understanding how sleep affects their health, performance, pleasure, pain, income and mortality […]