Sleep Paralysis: What Is It and What Causes It?
Sleep paralysis is a type of REM parasomnia or abnormal behavior that takes place during the REM sleep cycle. Also known as sleep atonia, this condition refers to the feeling…
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Sleep
What I Learned from Tracking My Sleep with Fitbit for Two Months
If someone had told me a year ago that he sleeps with his watch on at night, I’d probably wonder just how eccentric of a personality I was dealing with.…
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Our Dreams Have Many Purposes, Changing Across the Lifespan
lthough radically different in terms of their content and feel, the range of dream states are just as complex as waking states. If we look across an individual’s lifetime, we…
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The Wisdom of the Sloth: Is Sleep a Lost Virtue?
In the sixth century, Pope Gregory I compiled an infamous list of seven deadly sins. Of these seven, sloth is the only sin named for an animal in English. But…
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How Binaural Beats Affect Your Brain – and How They Don’t
he beat is low and steady – but it’s all just in my head… While I’m sitting on my couch, listening to some smooth jazz, there is a faint beat…
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The inescapable nightmare of fatal familial insomnia
A family curse
During the early 1980’s, an Italian physician was investigating a mysterious and dreadful disease that had long plagued his family. In earlier generations, this disease had killed…
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Weird animal brain: Bottlenose dolphin
Marine mammals, such as dolphins, whales, and porpoises, spend their entire lives at sea. Like us, they need to breathe, avoid danger, and care for their young. Like us, they…
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Melatonin: An Old Hormone with New Tricks
Melatonin: you’ve undoubtedly seen it in the supplement aisle at the drugstore…that natural sleep remedy your aunt recommended once, sounding vaguely like a portmanteau of mellow and serotonin. But between…
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Screensavers of the Brain: The Science of Dreaming
Each night, you place your head on your pillow, close your eyes, and, barring insomnia, you lose consciousness of the world around you, drifting into blissful oblivion. Eventually, you reawaken,…
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Messing with the ‘Flip-Flop’ Switch: Why Getting Sick Makes You Sleepy
We all know how it feels to be sick. The fatigue, increased sleep, and general malaise that accompany a cold are the primary reasons people stay bedridden when ill. Even…
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WIDE AWAKE at #SfN14
There’s always one person snoring through the talk you’re trying to listen to at SfN. That person might even be you at some point during this meeting! Whether you are…
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Sleep ‘til you’re Hungry. Eat ‘til you’re Sleepy.
Have you ever tried to go to sleep hungry? Believe me, it doesn’t work. You just end up lying in bed, listening to your stomach growl, and dreaming about your…
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Sweet Dreams or Amyloid Nightmares
Sleep deprivation has become a badge of honor in our modern society. Competitions break out in coffee shop lines over who is functioning on the least number of Zzzzzs and…
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From Turkey Comas To New Disease Treatments
Neurodegenerative disorders, like Huntington’s and Alzheimer’s disease, are devastating. As you can imagine, witnessing the slow and progressive loss of a loved one’s mental and emotional states is an extremely…
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Disruption of Circadian Cycles Linked to Weight Gain
Every night during finals week, I studied into the wee hours of the morning and caught only a few hours of sleep. It was exhausting! After finals were over, I…
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24-Hour Service: The Circadian Clock
Have you ever woken up minutes before your alarm sounded? This strange phenomenon isn’t just a bizarre coincidence! Like most living things, we have an extremely accurate and powerful internal…
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Let There Be Light!
When I was an undergraduate student, I was an expert at pulling “all-nighter” study sessions prior to exams and project deadlines. Once everything was said and done the next day,…
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Can you learn while you sleep?
As a student, I have admittedly entertained the idea of learning by osmosis. Who wouldn’t want to catch some shut-eye with a textbook as your pillow and absorb all its…
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