Category: Sleep
Forming new habits can take longer than you think. Here are 8 tips to help you stick with them
You may have heard the popular claim that it only takes 21 days to form a habit.
It’s a neat idea. Short, encouraging and full of promise. But there’s just one problem: it’s not true.
Studies that measured time to reach automaticity (when a behaviour becomes second nature) found that habit formation took between 59 and 154 days. Some people developed a habit in as few as four days. Others took nearly a year.
Daylight saving time and early school start times cost billions in lost productivity and health care expenses
Chronic sleep deprivation does more than leave people tired. It costs an estimated US$411 billion annually in lost productivity and health care costs. Poor sleep leads to workplace mistakes, car accidents and long-term health issues that strain businesses, families and the economy as a whole.
How light helped shape our skin colour, eyes and curly hair
Light may have driven our ancestors to walk upright on two legs. Light helps explain the evolution of our skin colour, why some of us have curly hair, and even the size of our eyes.
Health News Headlines
60% of baby food doesn’t meet nutrition standards – High school football has become a public health crisis – Catching up on sleep at weekends may lower heart disease risk by a fifth
How much does your phone’s blue light really delay your sleep? Relax, it’s just 2.7 minutes
But what does the science actually tell us about the impact of bright, blue light and sleep? When our group of sleep experts from Sweden, Australia and Israel compared scientific studies that directly tested this, we found the overall impact was close to meaningless. Sleep was disrupted, on average, by less than three minutes.
How can I get some sleep? Which treatments actually work?
You might have tried breathing exercises, calming music, white noise, going to bed in a dark and quiet bedroom, eating different foods in the evening, maintaining a regular sleep pattern, or reducing caffeine. But after three to four weeks of what seems like progress, your insomnia returns. What next?
Springing forward into daylight saving time is a step back for health – a neurologist explains the medical evidence, and why this shift is worse than the fall time change
Researchers are discovering that “springing ahead” each March is connected with serious negative health effects, including an uptick in heart attacks and teen sleep deprivation.
Employers targeting workers’ sleep problems
Sleep is the latest in an ever-growing list of wellness issues that employers are targeting to improve workers’ health and lower medical costs.
Study links irregular sleep patterns to metabolic disorders
Irregular sleep habits linked to increased risk of obesity, high cholesterol, hypertension, high blood sugar and other metabolic disorders.
A Wake-Up Call On Data-Collecting Smart Beds And Sleep Apps
Your smart bed, mattress pad or sleep app, may know when you go to sleep, when you toss and turn, and It may even be able to tell when you’re having sex.
FDA warns about sleeping pills’ side effects
The warning applies to Lunesta,Sonata and Ambien, Ambien CR, Edluar, Intermezzo, and Zolpimist.
How much sleep do teenagers really need?
How much sleep do adolescents really need and how can parents help them achieve it?
Why you should stop buying vitamins and get more sleep instead
Research suggests that some high-dose supplements do little to prevent chronic disease among healthy individuals — and may do more harm than good.
I can’t sleep. What drugs can I (safely) take?
Long-term regular use of medicines to promote sleep should be avoided, as initial effectiveness declines over a few weeks and dependence, side effects increase.