Sleep 101

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 ...

Study finds it’s a time when people get less shut-eye, have shorter periods of deep sleep.

Many myths have told of the powers of a full moon, from werewolves to sudden madness to unexplained seizures, but new research suggests an impact close to home: Sound sleep may be harder to come by when the moon is in its full glory.

The study suggests that the human body is cued not only to the daily rising and setting of the sun, which regulates ...

Depression and menopause are just two medical conditions that can rob you of sleep. Discover other culprits that can cause insomnia.

Having problems going to sleep or staying asleep? A health condition could be to blame. Research suggests that sleep disturbances such as insomnia are rooted in certain medical conditions.

“We’re finding that both the quantity and quality of sleep a person gets can be linked to a number of health issues and diseases,” says James Wellman, MD, medical director of the ...

Sleeping alone strategies do not alter likelihood of sleeping disorders later in life.

Behavioral techniques for getting babies to sleep by themselves, such as camping out in the child’s room initially, can be effective without any long-term downside for parents or children, clinical trial follow-up showed.

Sleep problems at age 6 weren’t significantly more common among kids trained to go to bed with such methods as infants, reported Anna M.H. Price, PhD, of the Royal Children’s Hospital in Parkville, Australia, and colleagues.

The ...