Category: Sleep Science

VR Sleep Rooms? If you’re still trying to absorb the sudden arrival of artificial intelligence and ChatGPT, don’t look now but here comes the next big, brave-new-world disrupter, the metaverse. The metaverse is envisioned as a vast network of online virtual worlds – a sort of ultimate World Wide Web that you experience through virtual reality. Facebook is so high on the concept that they recently changed their name to Meta in order to poise themselves for its coming. The technology is still in its infancy but there’s already a growing subculture of young, early adopters who spend a lot …

Sleeping in Virtual Reality, Elephant Seals and Fighting Alzheimer’s Disease Read more »

Has it ever occurred to you that if you haven’t gotten enough sleep you should drink some water? The idea of hydration and sleep being related is not all that obvious or intuitive. When you get up from a too-short night of sleep or one where you didn’t sleep well, and you feel like…well…crap warmed over, having a nice glass of water is probably one of the last things you think of to help get you up and going. Many of us tend to rush for the nearest coffeepot, coffee shop, or can of pop to feel human again after …

Sleep Deprived and Dehydrated Read more »

There’s a little creature called a hydra, and it’s made news recently because it can sleep. Why is that newsworthy? Because the hydra doesn’t have a brain. It may not be obvious, but that is a pretty big deal. Think for a second. Do you know of anything that sleeps that doesn’t have a brain? Okay, get it out of your system. You know your brother-in-law/neighbor/coworker sleeps, but it’s questionable about them having a brain? Yep, we’ve all got those people in our lives. And yes, it felt good to say it. Brains Need Sleep We are all fairly comfortable …

Go To Sleep Little Hydra Read more »

Have you ever had a sleep study done? Or known someone who has? Or have you avoided having one because you didn’t want to have to sleep away from home in some clinical setting with electrodes stuck to all parts of you and strangers watching you on closed circuit TV all night? Is it just your imagination running wild thinking they might laugh at your mouth hanging open, or your talking in your sleep? Did you feel like there’s no way those clinicians with their fancy equipment were going to get an accurate picture of how you actually sleep in …

Is a More Comfortable Sleep Study Possible? Read more »

Millions of people worldwide have been diagnosed with sleep apnea and they all have one thing in common: They all really hate their CPAP machines. But a new drug treatment may be on the horizon that could offer a real alternative to the effective but burdensome CPAP. The new treatment is being developed in Australia by a company called Snoretox Pty Ltd. in partnership with RMIT University in Melbourne. The technology would use molecules of tetanus toxin to restore muscle tone to the tissue around the upper airway. It would work in a very similar way to Botox which uses …

New Sleep Apnea Treatment Could Be a “Game-changer” Read more »

Sleep science is pretty new. Compared with other medical specialties, it’s just a baby. Prior to the 1950s, studies about human sleep were rarely being pursued. Isn’t that amazing? We’ve learned quite a lot about the biological mechanisms of sleep since the mid-20th century. REM sleep has been studied and documented. The circadian rhythm, first observed and studied almost 300 years ago, has been explored in-depth. Doctors identified obstructive sleep apnea and other sleep disorders, and they began investigating effective treatments to help their patients. But the questions, “What is sleep?” and “Why do we sleep?” have remained somewhat of …

A Glimpse at the Glymphatic System Read more »