How the Moon Affects Us



Continue reading

Couples Sleep In Sync

Love it or hate it, sharing a bed with someone is the norm for most adults in a relationship, but how well we sleep together can have a profound effect on our mood, our relationships and the rest of our lives. A new study presented at a recent SLEEP conference suggests that sleeping couples sleep better together when the woman is more satisfied.

It has previously been reported that divorced and single people experience more sleep disturbances and generally poorer quality sleep than couples, but it seems that the quality of your relationship might also influence how well you sleep. Research presented at SLEEP 2014, the 28th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, suggests that how well you sleep with your partner may be a reflection of the quality of your relationship. According to lead author Dr Heather Gunn from the University of Pittsburgh, “the sleep of married couples is more in sync on a minute-by-minute basis than the sleep of random individuals”, suggesting that our sleep patterns are influenced not just by where and when we sleep, but with also with whom we sleep.

Continue reading

The Genetics of Sleep



Continue reading

The Long Winter Sleep: The Biology of Hibernation

At this time of year, as the nights begin to draw in, and a chill appears in the air, the idea of simply curling up in a warm spot and sleeping through the winter months is very tempting. Unfortunately for us, Humans are not among the species which undergo hibernation. However, many other mammals reduce their activity levels during the winter, and a few undergo full hibernation, biochemically altering their metabolism to wait for more favourable conditions.

Continue reading

The Science of Sleep

Sleep is one of the most important aspects of our lives. Along with food, water and sex it is one of our most fundamental needs. Most people spend about 30% of their life sleeping; in a lifetime most people can expect to lose over 200,000 hours to sleep. This astonishing figure equates to around 9800 days or 27 years! What a waste! Imagine what we could achieve if we didn’t have to sleep.

It’s not just us, though. The need for sleep is as pervasive in the animal kingdom as hunger. All animals sleep, in some way or another. So why do we do it, how is it controlled, and how can the physiological controls of sleeping help us to understand other aspects of our existence?

A great deal is now understood about the biological control mechanisms underpinning the sleep-wake cycle. This cycle is circadian, meaning that it repeats approximately once every day, and the regulation of sleep is strongly influenced by daily variation in light intensity. However, there is also internal control of sleep; if kept in total darkness, animals will still experience a sleep cycle. Universal across the animal kingdom, the centre of communication between external and internal influences is the pineal gland, located at the top of the brainstem, close to the surface of the skull. In many non-human animals, the skull is sufficiently thin that the pineal gland is able to detect some light passing through, and hormones that control the sleep cycle are stimulated directly by the presence or absence of light. However, in humans the skull is far too thick for this system to work. Instead, light levels are assessed directly by the eyes, and information from the eyes is passed on to the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) which relays the information back to the pineal gland. Information about external conditions is combined with our internal clock to determine whether we should feel tired or awake.

Read full article in Experimentation >>

What a Way to Make a Living



Continue reading