Sleep Time Linked to Postmenopausal Stroke
	Postmenopausal women sleeping less than six hours or more than nine hours every night have increased chances of suffering an ischemic stroke, shows a study carried out by Jiu-Chiuan Chen, assistant professor at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health. Postmenopause is a stage a woman has to go through once she reaches menopause, when her reproductive system becomes inactive. Data provided by the Women's ... [read more >>]
	21 July 2008, 04:45GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Don't Mess with Sleep
	Whenever we happen to have one of those hectic, incredibly busy days when time seems to be slipping by and we feel like we're not getting anything done properly, sleep is one of the first things that we readily sacrifice. An hour or two, we say to ourselves, will not make a great deal of difference in our daily schedule, as long as at the end of the day (or rather, in the middle of the night) we can finally put aside our computers and ... [read more >>]
	09 June 2008, 07:08GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Unexpected Weight Gain Sources
	We all know by now that a diet rich in fast food meals and kebab takeaways, ice cream desserts two times a day and lots of sugary, fizzy drinks is bound to get anyone of us to pile on the pounds. However, the true mystery is that sometimes, we eat the right amounts and types of foods and we exercise regularly and still we put on weight. This is not only extremely frustrating, it's a downright killer to all the self-confid ... [read more >>]
	07 June 2008, 05:35GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Fasting Can Prevent Jet Lag
	As part of our very busy, modern lifestyle, many of us find themselves in a position that imposes frequent traveling, often to very distant, overseas destinations. One of the most common and troublesome side effects of frequent flying is jet lag – a common physiological response of our bodies to the disruption of the "light/dark" cycle that occurs when we travel across multiple time zones. In other words, our interna ... [read more >>]
	23 May 2008, 06:29GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Sloths Are Not that Lazy
	Sloths really deserve their name: 11 % of the sloths move only 38 m (126 ft) daily, and 38 % of them cannot move at all for 24 hours. Captive two-toed sloths are active about 7 hours each day. Moreover, coming to increase the impression of laziness is the fact that, since sloths are nocturnal, they just s ... [read more >>]
	15 May 2008, 02:44GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Causes of Sleepwalking
	Getting no sleep can be the main reason of one’s zombie-like behavior, meaning, for sleepwalking. "Sleepwalkers should keep a regular bedtime to avoid unwanted evening strolls," said Antonio Zadra of the Université de Montréal, lead researcher of a study published in the Annals of Neurology journal, a study that connected sleep loss and sleepwalking in predisposed individuals. Sleepwalking or somnambulism is experienced by 4% ... [read more >>]
	12 May 2008, 14:11GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Women Sleep More Than Men
	She sleeps more but she falls asleep with more difficulty. A new report released by the The Statistics Canada has found that men sleep an average of 8 hours and 7 minutes per night, compared to 8 hours and 18 minutes in the case of women. But while 25% of the men face trouble when becoming asleep, the number goes up to 35% in the case of women. In the case of men and women with full-time employment, the discrepancy in sleep t ... [read more >>]
	23 April 2008, 14:11GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Mac Pro Reboot-On-Wake Issue Silently Fixed
	Early Mac Pro adopters have long complained about this sleep issue they've been experiencing with their systems. Apple's discussion forums were filled with complaints of a reboot-on-wake issue that bugged Mac Pro owners who were desperately looking for a ... [read more >>]
	01 April 2008, 13:15GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

A Cure for REM Sleep Disorder
	Nowadays, many people associate REM with the name of a rock band. But how many of you know that REM is actually an acronym for "rapid eye movement", defining a normal stage of sleep. REM sleep in adult humans normally comprises about one quarter of total sleep, meaning 90-120 minutes. During a normal night's sleep, we usually undergo through about 4 or 5 periods of REM sleep; they are shorter at the beginning of th ... [read more >>]
	31 March 2008, 03:45GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

No Sleep, No Sex
	There is a flow of researches showing how the lack of sleep impacts your brain functions, from learning to memory. But the impact on people's life is much more severe than it could be guessed, plummeting productivity, safety, health, relationships and... sex. Too much work and too little sleep resulted in the fact that 20% of the Americans have lost interest in sex. This is the result of a research made by the National Slee ... [read more >>]
	26 March 2008, 14:06GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Men Skipping Sleep Turn Obese
	Lazy people should sleep more. But how can a hard working man be an obese person? A new Japanese research shows that men who sleep less than five hours a night are exposed to turning obese and to having high levels of glucose in the blood, which is the first step towards diabetes. "Lack of sleep triggers a hormone in the blood which stimulates the appetite (ghrelin, the most powerful appetite stimulant yet discovered). It ... [read more >>]
	14 March 2008, 14:06GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

A Robot that Reads Your Dreams and Dances Them!
	Dreams should be something intimate, something that is deeply yours, like thoughts. But not any more with the Sleep Waking, a robot that can record your brainwave activity and REM sleep. The robot not only reads your dreams, but plays them back in an interpretive dance. The Sleep Waking robot is the fruit of a collaboration between artist Fernando Orellana and Computer Science Professor Brendan Burns of the Albany Regional Sleep ... [read more >>]
	23 February 2008, 03:48GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

How Do Whales Sleep?
	Have you ever wondered how whales sleep? Actually, just like us, but in short naps. This was showed by a new research led by Dr. Patrick Miller of the University of St. Andrews, who captured on video drifting behavior in sperm whales. Sperm whales in the wild turn off completely conscious activity for short 'cat naps'. The research also shows that sperm whales may sleep less than other mammal species. The drifting behavior (& ... [read more >>]
	22 February 2008, 08:42GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Just 6 Minutes of Sleep Boost Your Memory!
	You can cram all night long for the damn exam, but that's all in vain if you skip sleeping. That have been proved by a large array of researches. But this German research signaled by New Scientists comes with really astonishing information: in fact, even only 6 minutes of nap can boost your memory performances. "Ultra-short" sleep appeared to have impacted the memory processing, a challenge to current theories. ... [read more >>]
	22 February 2008, 06:39GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Marijuana Withdrawal Causes Deep Sleep Impairment
	Any marijuana smoker will tell you that he/she is in total control and can quit easily, only that they smoke just like that, for fun. Really? A new research published in the journal "Drug and Alcohol Dependence" shows that the effects of withdrawal from marijuana smoking can be as bad as those experienced when quitting tobacco smoking, meaning irritability, anger and impaired sleeping. "These results indicate that some m ... [read more >>]
	12 February 2008, 06:09GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Smoking Impairs the Sleep!
	A cigarette for calming you before going to bed? Bad news: a new study reveals that smokers are 4 times more exposed than non-smokers to sleep impairment, experiencing less of the resting deep sleep, especially in the early stages of sleep. This may be connected to a nicotine withdrawal experienced each night. "It is possible that smoking has time-dependent effects across the sleep period. Smokers commonly experience dif ... [read more >>]
	06 February 2008, 06:15GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Standby, Sleep and Hibernate in Windows Vista SP1
	With Windows Vista, Microsoft aimed to deliver the evolution of the Boot and Resume processes. Essentially, enhancements in this area are synonymous with the speed at which a computer would perform boot and resume tasks. With Vista, the Redmond company's bet was to make the machine behave more like alternative pieces of technology, such as television sets when starting up. This is why, in an effort to reduce boot and resume periods, M ... [read more >>]
	01 February 2008, 09:32GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Circadian Clock, Found in Each Cell of Your Body!
	Partying until the dawns, or snoring at 9:00 p.m.? This has been known to be a genetic trait, as various genes were found to impact your inner clock. But a new research shows that this inner clock is not only in your genes, but in each cell of your body! A new study published in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" reveals that skin cells can reveal the speed of a person's circadian clock. The biological ... [read more >>]
	29 January 2008, 05:34GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Brain Wiring, Stronger During Waking Hours, Weaker During Sleep!
	With such a vast array of researches proving it, it is clear: you may cram, but without sleep, you will remember nothing. A new study at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health not only confirms this, but shows that the mechanism through which the brain strengthens memories during the sleep is different from what was thought before. It appeared that the synapses (neuronal connections) were stronger when lab rats ... [read more >>]
	22 January 2008, 05:38GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Can Your Mattress Kill You?
	We used to sleep on bed mattresses made of more or less natural untreated stuff. But now, they tell you that you ain't cool, man, if you do not have a visco-elastic polyurethane foam (also called memory foam) mattress. They say this is the technological revolution in your bed, the Star Trek dream in your bedroom and the idea of the rigid mattresses is just a prejudice. It is being strongly advertised that the memory foam will remove y ... [read more >>]
	22 January 2008, 04:44GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Daytime Naps Boost Memory!
	Now, we know why Spaniards take their daily siesta. They want to outsmart us all! A new research led by Prof. Avi Karni and Dr. Maria Korman, of the Center for Brain and Behavior Research at the University of Haifa, and published in the journal "Nature Neuroscience", shows that a daytime nap of 90 minutes boosts the consolidation of your long-term memory. "We still don't know the exact mechanism of the memory proce ... [read more >>]
	08 January 2008, 02:52GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

A Drug Against Sleep Loss
	Sleeping less than 7-8 hours per night could cut short your life because of cardiovascular issues, with an increase of 110 %, as revealed by some researches. Another recent research has showed that sleep loss in children (and not only) makes them prone to obesity. Sleep loss has also been connected to lowered immune system (meaning vulnerability to infections). But, the most affected organ by the sleep loss is the brain. Sleep loss can ... [read more >>]
	03 January 2008, 03:26GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Can Birds Sleep While in Flight?
	65 % of the bird species migrate. Some species make very short displacements during winter, like the Finnish rooks which spend the winter in Northern Germany, displacing themselves with just 50 km (30 mi) daily. The longest migration made by any bird is that effectuated by the Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea), which nests on the Arctic zone, in the tundra region, and winters in the Antarctica (when there is the Austral summer). This 19,0 ... [read more >>]
	20 December 2007, 09:38GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Too Much or Less Sleep Can Kill You
	Lazy bone or hyperactive? If you do not sleep on average 7-8 hours per night, in the end both less or more than this could cut short your life, as found by a new research carried on at the University College London Medical School, in London, U.K., and published in the journal "SLEEP", revealing for the first time that a decrease and an increase in sleep duration are connected with higher mortality because of cardiovasc ... [read more >>]
	17 December 2007, 05:05GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Sleep Quality Determines Memory Quality
	Which is the storehouse of our memories? A new research made at the University of Liege, in Belgium, and published in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences", has made a connection between sleep, brain changes and memories' quality 6 months after an event has taken place. Memories appeared to be processed first in the hippocampus, then transferred for long term and consolidated into the medial prefrontal cortex ... [read more >>]
	14 December 2007, 04:58GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

How Is Coffee Made?
	The Finns call it their national drink; for Italians, making it is an art, and in most western countries, there's no breakfast without coffee. It is the second preferred beverage in the world after tea and about one third of the humans drink it: coffee. Coffee is got through the roasting of the seeds of the coffee tree, an ever-green tall bush with glossy green dark leaves living in warm climates. Its flowers are white, beautiful, ... [read more >>]
	27 November 2007, 02:56GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

How Are Sleep, Hunger and Thinness Connected?
	Lazy bone individuals are slimmer. It is known that people sleeping less are prone to be overweight or obese. But a new research published in the journal Genes and Development has also revealed how orexin, a hormone controlling sleep and hunger, works: it activates a protein, named HIF-1, previously known for its role on activating cancerous tumor growth. "The study is among the first to show how HIF-1 operates in healthy tissues rath ... [read more >>]
	15 November 2007, 05:35GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

New Blue-Blocking Glasses Make You Sleep Better
	There are infrared glasses, protective ones, glasses that improve your vision and even 'over-the-top' glasses. But what about glasses that make you sleep in a nice and easy way? A team at John Carroll University, making investigations in its Lighting Innovations Institute, has come up with an affordable accessory that could decrease the symptoms experienced by ADHD patients and could also improve sleep patterns in p ... [read more >>]
	14 November 2007, 04:26GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Fat Food Means Bad Sleep
	Too much ice-cream, bacon and cheese means more than a big belly and bad cholesterol. Fat rich diets seem to also impair the body’s internal clock, as found by a new research published in Cell Metabolism. The fatty diet on mice induced a rapid change in their normal activity patterns: the rodents ate more during the day, when mice, nocturnal mammals, should have been asleep. All these were linked to a change in the molecules involved in ... [read more >>]
	07 November 2007, 03:01GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Cold Bastards Sleep Better
	Are you going through some stressful situation in your life? In this case, that can ruin your good night’s sleep even 6 months after your problems are solved...This is the result of a five-year long research led by Dr. Jussi Vahtera, of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health in Helsinki, Finland, made on a sample of 16,627 men and women with normal sleep and 2,572 with disturbed sleep. At the beginning of the research, each subject w ... [read more >>]
	02 November 2007, 07:30GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

8 Tips to Have a Good Night's Sleep
	1. Sleep in a comfortable bed, in quiet, dark rooms and places where you feel secure. 2. Don't snooze in the evening, even if the nigh before that you haven’t slept well. Try to stay awake and go to the sleep not earlier than 8 o’clock. Maintain the same sleeping hours, as this way your body will keep a constant rhythm between the sleep and active periods. 3. Don't drink coffee or take other brain stimulating ch ... [read more >>]
	01 November 2007, 11:53GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

9 Reasons For a Good Night Sleep
	"You snooze, you lose". Is that so? All vertebrates sleep, from fish to mammals, and birds even take naps while flying! Even some invertebrates, like insects, sleep. An animal deprived of sleep dies sooner than if it lacks food, because sleep is an imperative metabolic need. The stress induced by the urban life impairs severely our sleep time. And many jobs, like those of doctors, policemen, firemen, truck drivers, workers in ... [read more >>]
	31 October 2007, 15:06GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Sleep Loss Turns You Insane
	No sleep is really bad for your body, the effects ranging from lowered immune system (meaning vulnerability to infections) to memory and cognitive impairment and weight gain. "Almost all psychiatric disorders show some problems with sleep. But scientists previously believed the psychiatric problems triggered the sleep issues." said psychologist Matthew Walker of the University of California, Berkeley. His team, collaboratin ... [read more >>]
	24 October 2007, 05:13GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Fish That Sleep!
	I doubt that you have ever seen a fish with the eyes closed, but fish do sleep! (even snakes sleep too, even if their eyelids are soldered and transparent). Physiological measurements revealed that fish go through periods of drowsiness characterized by low responses to environmental factors. It is a very basic type of sleep, not related to drowsiness in mammals. But some fish don't always get the "shut-eye" for ... [read more >>]
	18 October 2007, 06:37GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

10 Tips for a Better Memory
	You may forget where you have parked the car, what you did yesterday and the birthday of your best buddy. How many times you were trying to prepare yourself for an exam and you couldn't learn anything? If you're young, they say you're in love or your mind is wandering; with the age they say you've turned into…crap. 1.Feed your brain. If it lacks or receives in small amounts what's necessary for the neuronal fun ... [read more >>]
	11 October 2007, 03:45GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Top 12 Severe Secondary Effects of Stress
	You eat the same food, do the same exercises and almost the same things and yet… something is different. Are extra pounds the reason why the metabolism slows down? No, it's the stress. The main negative effects of the stress are caused by the cortisol, secreted during tension moments. In the wild, we had to prepare our organism when confronted with a danger or a challenging situation. But the daily urban stress puts the body in too ma ... [read more >>]
	11 October 2007, 03:10GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The 'Anti-Snoring' Pillow
	Snoring can be fun, but just in comedies. In real life, snoring can ruin marriages and relationships. Snoring can make people feel less sexy, cause tensions in a couple and make partners fear its negative effects on a long-term relationship. But the most dangerous outcome is lack of sleep and exhaustion. Alcohol and junk food only manage to make just spur it. Just in the UK, 15 million people suffer because of a ‘snoring part ... [read more >>]
	05 October 2007, 14:21GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Are Sleepwalkers Real Killers?
	We might think that sleepwalkers get out of bed with a knife and kill someone they're angry with. A new review based on 32 medical and legal cases shows that this naïve concept is off base. Sleepwalkers are seldom violent and do not look out for enemies to stab while in the sleep arousal state. It appears that if a sleepwalker turns violent, the victim is normally a person who got in the way, but not a previously targeted victim. & ... [read more >>]
	26 September 2007, 03:21GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Too Much or Too Little Sleep Kills You Earlier
	Bad sleep is worse than low cognitive abilities, weight gain, bad sex and car crashes. A team from the University of Warwick, and University College London, has discovered that less sleep doubles your chances of dying from cardiovascular disease. But too much sleep also doubles the risk of death. The research was made on 10,308 civil servants in the "Whitehall II study" and employed data on the mortality rates and sleep patte ... [read more >>]
	25 September 2007, 05:36GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Less Sleep = Fatter
	Those who wake up early ... get fat! A new study reveals that children who don't sleep enough are more prone to grow obese when adults. It appears that less sleep impedes the body from synthesizing enough amounts of a hormone that inhibits the appetite. The Australian researchers at the University of Queensland in Brisbane investigating young children from birth to 21 found those who had sleeping impairments were almost ... [read more >>]
	24 September 2007, 02:51GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

10 Weird Types of Sleeping
	All vertebrates sleep, from fish to mammals. And even some invertebrates, like the insects. During sleep, the body enters in a predominantly anabolic phase, when it develops, grows, heals and builds muscle; the immune system is at its peak (that's why, when we’re ill, we wake up without the cold). The lack of sleep impairs the functioning of the brain. Sleep is necessary to organize the memories we amass during the day and to give ... [read more >>]
	22 August 2007, 13:36GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

This Man Has Not Been Sleeping for 34 Years!
	From the employer’s perpective, this is the ideal employee: the one who never sleeps. Eventually, s/he doesn’t even pee or poop. Well, Thai Ngoc, a 64-year-old Vietnamese man, does pee and poop, but does not sleep. He is famous for being awake for 33 years or 11,700 nights, as informed by the Vietnamese news organization Thanh Nien. At the moment, Ngoc does not display any apparent health effect (of course, except for the fact that he ... [read more >>]
	08 August 2007, 14:06GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Your Sleeping Position Betrays Your Personality
	After finding five different types of snoring, Professor Chris Idzikowski, director of the Sleep Assessment and Advisory Service, has come with an analysis linking the personality of each other with the sleeping position s/he’s got. His analysis encompasses six common sleeping positions, connected each other to a particular personality type. "We are all aware of our body language when we are awake but this is the first time we hav ... [read more >>]
	16 July 2007, 14:31GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Day Naps Are Bad for Our Mental Performances
	That's why many get rid of their kids for a moment: they put them to take a nap in the afternoon. But this seems not to be beneficial for the children, as some recent researches have found that daytime napping in the case of young children can be connected to poorer sleep and mental performance compared to their counterparts that only sleep at night. But the researchers cannot say if the nap is the cause or the result of the impaired ... [read more >>]
	29 June 2007, 13:31GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Good Sleep Means Good Sex
	Bed is good for sex especially if you take a good advantage of it to have a good sleep. A new study revealed that women accusing lower sex drive during menopause are more likely to report disturbed sleep, depression symptoms and night sweats (hot flashes during sleep). This is the first time sleep disturbance has been found to be connected to decreased sex drive during or after menopause. The same research showed that her ... [read more >>]
	09 June 2007, 05:38GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Night Contact Lenses Restore Day Vision
	This is the dream of many: perfect vision without glasses. You wear lenses while sleeping and wake up with perfect vision throughout the day. The technique, called Ortho-K (Orthokeratology), involves wearing special contact lenses while you sleep to fix the curvature of the eye. "Ortho-K is similar to an orthodontist using a brace to straighten teeth. We take extremely accurate and detailed measurements of your eyes. ... [read more >>]
	06 June 2007, 07:14GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Sexsomnia: Having Sex While Sleeping
	Researchers at the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center in Minneapolis have made for the first time a review and formal classification of all documented sleep-related disorders linked with abnormal sexual behaviors and experiences, called "sleepsex" or "sexsomnia". "It seems that more and more reports are surfacing of abnormal sexual behaviors emerging during sleep," said lead author Dr. Carlos H. Sche ... [read more >>]
	01 June 2007, 16:11GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Sleeping Is a Process of Thinking
	Could our dreams be useful in getting new ideas? Researchers at Harvard Medical School believe that sleeping is the way the brain processes the amount of daily information… so the idea above makes sense. It is known that sleep strengthens learning and memory. A previous research at Harvard led by Matthew Walker discovered that a good night’s sleep can improve movement skills, playing a piece of music, riding a bike, or throwing ... [read more >>]
	15 May 2007, 07:13GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Soon, We Could Go to Sleep With the Flip of a Switch
	All it would take to get a good night's sleep would be to flip the switch of a device, and let magnetic waves guide us to Dreamland. Most mammals, birds, fish, as well as invertebrates such as the fruitfly Drosophila sleep. The state is characterized by a reduction in voluntary body movement, temporary blindness, decreased reaction to external stimuli, an increased rate of anabolism (the synthesis of ... [read more >>]
	02 May 2007, 13:01GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Dreamate Bracelet Helps Insomniacs Lose the Sheep Count
	Here's something that may come to help those who often use to count thousands of sheep before falling asleep. The Dreamate device sends you to land of the dreams (or nightmares) by sending a gentle wave to your wrist. The “good karma” wave touches the so-called “sleeping golden triangle” point located on your inner wrist (just above the “American dream” veins). Here's how it ... [read more >>]
	01 May 2007, 04:19GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia