Sleep 101

A glass of wine may help you relax and nod off, but having it too close to bedtime can lead to poor sleep quality and a groggy, not to mention hangover-plagued, morning after.

When you’re wound up at the end of a long, stressful day, a nightcap may sound like the perfect way to relax before bed. But while a little alcohol may make you feel sleepy, it can set you up for a restless night. Can you unwind with a ...

Segmented sleep was popular with our ancestors, but it may not be healthy for most people today. Find out just how long you should be staying asleep.

Is worry about lack of sleep keeping you up at night? For new parents, shift workers, or people just too busy to get their 8 hours, segmented sleep is a painful reality. Research shows that sleeping in shifts was a common practice by our ancestors. But interrupting your sleep/wake cycle may not be practical ...

Robert Phipps, a British body language expert, says how a person sleeps can reveal key personality traits.

Whether you’re a side sleeper, back snoozer, or a knees-up cuddler, the position you choose while sleeping could reveal something about your personality, according to a British body language expert.

Robert Phipps, a leading body language expert in the United Kingdom, claims that a person’s sleep position can reveal key personality traits, like stubbornness or bossiness, as well as how critical a person is or ...

Looking for the optimal way to wake up in the morning? Key features will help you figure out if a traditional alarm clock or a more contemporary model is the best fit for you.

Should your alarm clock wake you with a jarring screech, upbeat music, or a soothing light that mimics the sunrise? You’ll need to consider your sleep style to figure out the best alarm clock for you, but first, one caveat. Remember that alarm clocks are there to ...

Reducing screen time may be an appropriate intervention for promoting earlier sleep onset in young people.

The more TV children watch before bedtime, the less sleep they get, researchers found.

In a cross-sectional sample of children and teens from New Zealand, roughly 30 minutes of the 90 minutes before participants went to sleep each night were spent in sedentary screen-time (TV, video games, computers), according to Louise Foley, PhD, of the University of Auckland in New Zealand, and colleagues.

Those who spent the ...

If you have trouble falling asleep, are a night shift worker, or just temporarily battling jet lag, melatonin supplements may help you get a better night’s rest.

The numbers are staggering — between 50 to 70 million adults in the United States have sleep or wakefulness disorders. About 2 percent of the population uses melatonin supplements for sleep regulation, yet researchers are still learning about the overall effects of this treatment and how best to use it.

Melatonin is a hormone secreted ...

Getting a good night’s sleep is vital at every stage of life, but expect fluctuation in the needed length of sleep.

Everyone’s sleep pattern changes throughout life: Babies sleep the day away, while seniors often get by on a handful of hours nabbed here and there. Sleep habits also change depending on your age. You might find yourself waking up earlier or staying up later. It may become harder to fall asleep or stay asleep because, as you get older, you’re ...

Can sleep build strong bones? Experts say yes. Find out the benefits of healthy sleep on every part of your body.

Being asleep may seem like the ultimate form of inactivity, but those unconscious hours are actually a time of hard work for your body. Sleeping is one way that your body recovers from damage and protects itself against illness, says Michael Twery, PhD, director of the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research for the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. ...

Daylight-saving time doesn’t have to disrupt your sleep schedule. A few simple tips help ensure sound sleep during daylight-saving time and beyond.

For most of us, the springtime switch from standard to daylight-saving time is merely an inconvenience. It might be the cause of skipped appointments if we manage to miss all those reminders telling us to move our clocks forward one hour on the second Sunday in March.

But for others, the first few days of daylight saving time can mean ...

Daydreamers may have trouble turning off the part of their brain linked to a wandering mind, which could put them at risk for insomnia, according to a new study.

Daydreaming may keep you up at night, according to a new study published in the journal Sleep. Researchers from the University of California, San Diego found that people who daydream may be unable to stop thoughts from appearing in their head, which can keep them up at night and cause trouble concentrating ...