Doctors Orders

A group of U.S. Army researchers developed a web-based tool that tells users when and how much caffeine they should consume to feel most alert during the day.

Is a 7 a.m. espresso your answer to springing into action, or would waiting until midmorning leave you more alert? Will an afternoon cup of coffee help you avoid that post-lunch slump, or will it keep you wired all night long?

The guesswork of exactly when and how much caffeine to consume to help ...

The number of hours of sleep you need to stay healthy and alert varies according to your age.

Sure, you’re eating your vegetables and fruits and squeezing in exercise at least 20 minutes a day, but are you getting enough sleep, too? The National Sleep Foundation’s latest sleep recommendations, published March 2015 in the journal Sleep Health, may make you want to think twice about skimping on essential shut-eye. (1) Sleep is key to your physical health and emotional vitality, but ...

A pro-sleep diet starts not just before you go to bed, but the moment you wake up. Here’s what to eat and what to avoid for a night of great ZZZ’s.

How Food Affects Your Sleep

Poor sleep has been linked to a host of health problems, including obesity, diabetes, high-blood pressure, depression, and more. A 2012 study published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism found that the more tired you are, the more you eat during the day in ...

Many drugs are available to treat insomnia, but their side effects can be risky. Find out about the dangers of sleeping pills.

On the surface, prescription sleep aids can seem like the perfect cure for insomnia: Take a pill, and a few minutes later you slip into a restful sleep. Though they do have legitimate uses, sleeping pills also come with significant risks and side effects, which many people don’t realize, says Marc Leavey, MD, a doctor of internal medicine at ...

Should you trust the tracker data? Could it clue you in to underlying health conditions? Here’s what experts say about sleep-tracking devices.

Technology allows us to track more specific measurements of our health than ever before. Wearables can monitor daily steps, blood pressure, and now sleep. But experts warn that what you can learn from your sleep stats, at least currently, has its limits.

“The reality is that we live in an era in which we are obsessed with the notion ...

Having a dry, itchy scalp is an annoying skin condition. Find out why your scalp is itchy so you can take steps to get some relief.

Is itchy ever a good thing? The answer has to be never. And when it comes to your scalp, this kind of irritation is often accompanied by embarrassing flakes. Here, skin and scalp experts explain what could be causing your scalp to itch.

The Usual Itchy-Scalp Suspects

Dandruff is the most common culprit to blame for an ...

Frequency of plaques was much higher in patients with obstructive sleep apnea.

Obstructive sleep apnea has been linked with cardiovascular disease, but it also may be linked with the deadliest type of coronary artery plaque, a small study suggests.

Of patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), 63 percent had noncalcified or mixed plaques compared with 16 percent of those without OSA, according to Sunil Sharma, MD, of East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C., and colleagues.

“The broad confidence interval was most likely due ...

Sleep disturbance could lead to greater risk for heart attack and high blood pressure, researchers say.

Nighttime noise pollution — in particular the din of traffic — in urban areas puts city residents at risk for disrupted sleep and annoyance, researchers report.

Such chronic sleep disturbance could lead to serious health consequences, including increased risk for heart attack and high blood pressure, according to the new study. In addition, nighttime noise can also lead to poor sleep quality, which can cause morning ...

Mayo Clinic phasing out Ambien because of study findings.

The sleep drug Ambien (zolpidem) greatly increases hospital patients’ risk of falling, a new study finds.

Researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., looked at data on more than 16,000 hospitalized patients and found that the fall rate for those who took Ambien was more than four times higher than for those who did not take the drug — just over 3 percent compared with 0.7 percent.

Ambien is a commonly used sleep ...

These devices endanger babies’ lives and should not be used, U.S. agencies warn.

Parents should not use commercially available “infant sleep positioners” unless they are prescribed by their pediatrician. The devices have been associated with suffocation deaths, U.S. health officials warn.

The U.S. Centers of Disease and Prevention released a report detailing one such case and including findings from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, which has documented 13 deaths linked to infant sleep positioners in a 13-year period.

“Infant sleep positioners pose ...