Category: Get to Sleep!

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.

Not enough sleep? You may be hurting your heart…

A study released today by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found that a lack of sleep may increase your risk of cardiovascular disease.  The researchers, who monitored a group of 39 subjects, found that after consecutive days of insufficient sleep, the subjects experienced higher than normal heart rates and appeared more likely to experience heart trouble. The AFP article about the study has been picked up by multiple international news outlets.

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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.

Fall asleep at the push of a button?

Scientists believe they have discovered technique that could, one day, allow you to sleep at the push of a button. The technique, known as transcranial magnetic stimulation, involves the use of magnetic waves to stimulate slow wave activity in the brain. Research seems to indicate that this slow-wave activity is a key process that occurs during sleep, and is responsible for sleep’s “refreshing” nature. The magnetic pulses that are used to generate the slow wave activity are said to be harmless, and they can be created using a relatively simply headset type device. Giulio Tononi and Marcello Massimini, both of the University of Wisconsin, will be publishing their findings in the journal of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Read the full articles used to source this post here and here.

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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.