Humans need sleep like food. Much as with recipes, there are many elements that make for good, joyous sleep. Just as a checklist won’t make you a great chef, this checklist may not give make you a great sleeper. But every little bit helps. 1. My sleep place is as cool, comfy, dark, safe as […]
Sleep in Space
Humans adapt. We live in trackless deserts, on the tops of mountains, in pestilential jungles, in prisons and hospitals. To survive we sleep, for we need sleep like food. We adapt to sleeping in space. At the recent sleep meetings I had the chance to talk with Dr. Erin Flynn-Evans, who runs the Fatigue Countermeasures Laboratory […]
Returning to Sleep
People complain to me ceaselessly – they can’t get back to sleep. Yet returning to sleep engages the same tools that help you fall asleep. If sleep is as necessary to life as food, why is returning to sleep so difficult? It seems many of us have forgotten how to rest. To fall asleep most […]
How to get the perfect nap Part II (5/16/11)
Sleep Inertia Ever wake up feeling that you’re not waking up? That parts of your brain do not want to and cannot rise from slumber, that alertness is far away? Welcome to the problem of sleep inertia. Sleep inertia can and often occurs when people wake up not feeling fully rested. In theory, if we’re […]