Category: Benefits of Sleep

New Mothers Should Sleep More to Lose Weight

According to a recent study, women who recently gave birth should sleep more if they want to lose weight. According to a Sydney Morning Herald article about the study, ” They found that mothers who slept five hours or less a day when their babies were six months old were three times more likely than more rested mothers to have kept on the extra weight at one year.”

This sounds like a win-win, more sleep and less weight, but I can’t imagine it is very easy for mothers of newborns to get any sleep, let alone more sleep. Your thoughts?

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Important:
The Sleep Blog does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Instead, this website provides general information for educational purposes only. Always seek the advice of a qualified health care provider if you have questions or concerns regarding any medical condition or treatment.

Feeling pissy? Get more sleep…

This is another one of those conclusions that seems obvious, but hadn’t necessarily been thoroughly analyzed until now. Not getting enough sleep can make you feel grumpy.

Researchers at the University of California-Berkeley and Harvard Medical School conducted a study of the effects of sleep-deprivation on the brain’s control over emotions. The researcher’s studied 26 adults aged 30 and under; the participants were divided into two groups, one group stayed awake for 35 hours, the other group was allowed to sleep normally. the participants were shown a series of images, some of which were disturbing, while researchers monitored their brain activity. The researchers found that the sleep-deprived participants became aversive and experienced a decrease in prefrontal lobe activity, the area of the brain that controls emotions.

One of the researchers, Matthew Walker, said, “Sleep appears to restore our emotional brain circuits, and in doing so prepares us for the next day’s challenges and social interactions. Most importantly, this study demonstrates the dangers of not sleeping enough.”

For more information about the study, check out the most recent issue of Current Biology, where the study is published. More information is also available via Fox News and the USA Today.

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Important:
The Sleep Blog does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Instead, this website provides general information for educational purposes only. Always seek the advice of a qualified health care provider if you have questions or concerns regarding any medical condition or treatment.

Time for a new pillow?

This may sound obvious – If your pillow is too tall, it may impact the quality of your sleep.

Less obvious – How tall is too tall? Not very according to a Japanese study discussed in a recent Bloomberg article. Two excerpts from the study:

“Even a pillow that’s 2 centimeters (1 inch) too high can reduce sleep quality by causing shoulder and back strain”

“Those using an ill-fitting pillow were 2.8 times more likely to suffer back pain and 1.5 times more likely to experience tiredness”

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Important:
The Sleep Blog does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Instead, this website provides general information for educational purposes only. Always seek the advice of a qualified health care provider if you have questions or concerns regarding any medical condition or treatment.