Not all pillows are created equal. If you sleep on your side, these are the best pillows for you.
When it comes to pillows, one size does not fit all. Not only do different body types require different pillows, but your sleep style also makes a huge difference in the type of support you need from a pillow. And more specifically, if you’re someone who sleeps on your side, you need extra support to fill the space your shoulders create between ...
Continue Reading →Here are 10 reasons why you feel sleepy, plus how to fix them.
If you’re regularly exhausted by mid-afternoon, you’re not getting enough sleep, according to John Garcia, MD, a sleep specialist at Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare in St. Paul, Minn. Lack of sleep can be dangerous: Tired people are more likely to have car accidents, and chronic tiredness can increase your chances of developing diabetes and hypertension. Surprisingly, you may be sabotaging your own efforts to get some rest. Here’s ...
Continue Reading →Do you wake in the night and eat? Sleep eating is more common than you think.
Sure, everyone likes a good bedtime snack, but for some people, nighttime eating stretches beyond that final bowl of ice cream before turning in. These people find themselves inadvertently snacking the night away, either knowing or unknowingly, in the form of nocturnal eating disorders, or NEDs.
There are two types of these eating disorders, nocturnal eating syndrome (NES) and sleep-related eating disorder (SRED). The main difference ...
Continue Reading →Sleepwalking is actually a type of sleep disorder called a parasomnia. Learn even more uncommon things people do while asleep, from eating to having sex.
Some sleep disorders are actually quite common. Most people talk in their sleep, and some are prone to sleepwalking.
But other parasomnias are more unusual, like sleep sex or sleep crime. “Parasomnia is abnormal behavior that occurs during sleep,” says David A. Neumeyer, MD, a sleep specialist at the Lahey Clinic in Burlington, Mass. “Some of ...
Continue Reading →Seriously Amazing Reasons to Snag a Good Night’s Sleep
Chances are, someone in your life — a parent, a partner, a doctor — has told you to “get some sleep.” From cutting your heart attack risk to improving your complexion to boosting your memory, here’s why you should heed their advice tonight.
You know you feel great after a good night’s sleep. But do you know just how important good sleep is for your health? It may even save your life, according ...
Continue Reading →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 ...
Continue Reading →Nodding off during the day can be embarrassing. Discover why this happens and how to prevent it.
It happens all the time and it happens to everyone, at least now and then: falling asleep in inappropriate places or at inopportune times. If you’re with friends, it can be funny. But sleeping in a meeting or in the middle of an important lecture can be mortifying.
The problem is more widespread than you might imagine. A 2009 survey conducted by state health departments ...
Continue Reading →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 ...
Continue Reading →We’re only getting 6.8 hours of sleep a night. Here’s why.
Feeling sleepy? You’re not alone. Americans get less and less sleep every year, a recent Gallup poll found. Today, we average just 6.8 hours a night, less than the doctor-recommended 7-9, and down by over an hour from 1942, when Americans got closer to 8 hours per night.
Reasons why we’re not getting enough sleep abound, but one of the biggest changes behind the sleep decline ...
Continue Reading →You would never boast about having donuts for breakfast or skipping the gym. So why is it OK to brag about not getting enough sleep?
What do Bill Clinton, Martha Stewart and Thomas Edison all have in common? They accomplished a lot on very little sleep. Edison reportedly only slept three to four hours a night, while Stewart sneaks in four before going back to running her home decor empire. Clinton’s restricted sleep started way before his presidential term demanded it ...
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