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Many people have the same or a similar dream many times, over either a short period of time or their lifetime. Recurring dreams usually mean there is something in your life you've not acknowledged that is causing stress of some sort
https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/dream8.htm

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Why do people often forget their dreams? (Kyle Enberg & Joey Harris)

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Why do people often forget their dreams? (Kyle Enberg & Joey Harris)

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results suggest the brain of high recallers may be more reactive to stimuli such as sounds, which could make them wake up more easily. It is more likely a person would remember their dreams if they are awakened immediately after one.

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What is the difference between people who always recall their dreams and those who rarely do?

Credit: Dreamstime

People who tend to remember their dreams also respond more strongly than others to hearing their name when they're awake, new research suggests.

Everyone dreams during sleep, but not everyone recalls the mental escapade the next day, and scientists aren't sure why some people remember more than others.

To find out, researchers used electroencephalography to record the electrical activity in the brains of 36 people while the participants listened to background tunes, and occasionally heard their own first name. The brain measurements were taken during wakefulness and sleep. Half of the participants were called high recallers, because they reported remembering their dreams almost every day, whereas the other half, low recallers, said they only remembered their dreams once or twice a month.

When asleep, both groups showed similar changes in brain activity in response to hearing their names, which were played quietly enough not to wake them.

However, when awake, high recallers showed a more sustained decrease in a brain wave called the alpha wave when they heard their names, compared with the low recallers.

"It was quite surprising to see a difference between the groups during wakefulness," said study researcher Perrine Ruby, neuroscientist at Lyon Neuroscience Research Center in France.

The difference could reflect variations in the brains of high and low recallers that could have a role in how they dream, too, Ruby said. [ 7 Mind-Bending Facts About Dreams]

Who remembers their dreams

A well-established theory suggests that a decrease in the alpha wave is a sign that brain regions are being inhibited from responding to outside stimuli. Studies show that when people hear a sudden sound or open their eyes, and more brain regions become active, the alpha wave is reduced.

In the study, as predicted, both groups showed a decrease in the alpha wave when they heard their names while awake. But high recallers showed a more prolonged decrease, which may be a sign their brains became more widely activated when they heard their names.

In other words, high recallers may engage more brain regions when processing sounds while awake, compared with low recallers, the researchers said.

While people are asleep, the alpha wave behaves in the opposite way -it increases when a sudden sound is heard. Scientists aren't certain why this happens, but one idea is that it protects the brain from being interrupted by sounds during sleep, Ruby said.

Indeed, the study participants showed an increase in the alpha wave in response to sounds during sleep, and there was no difference between the groups.

One possibility to explain the lack of difference, the researchers said, could be that perhaps high recallers had a larger increase in alpha waves, but it was so high that they woke up.

Time spent awake, during the night

The researchers saw that high recallers awoke more frequently during the night. They were awake, on average, for 30 minutes during the night, whereas low recallers were awake for 14 minutes. However, Ruby said "both figures are in the normal range, it's not that there's something wrong with either group."

Altogether, the results suggest the brain of high recallers may be more reactive to stimuli such as sounds, which could make them wake up more easily. It is more likely a person would remember their dreams if they are awakened immediately after one, Ruby said.

However, waking up at night can account for only a part of the differences people show in remembering dreams. "There's still much more to understand," she said.

The study is published online today (Aug. 13) in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.

Email Bahar Gholipour. Follow LiveScience @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience.

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People who tend to remember their dreams also respond more strongly than others to hearing their name when they're awake, new research suggests. Everyone dreams during sleep, but not everyone recalls the mental escapade the next day, and scientists aren't sure why some people remember more than others.

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Why do we suddenly wake up when we fall in our dream - Tristan and Bryan

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Why do we suddenly wake up when we fall in our dream - Tristan and Bryan

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We wake up when we feel the sensation of falling as a hypnic jerk is experiences due to a dream or other things such as discomfort.

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A sensation of falling occurs when the labyrinth or vestibular apparatus, a system of fluid-filled passages in the inner ear, detects changes in acceleration. This sensation can occur when a person begins to fall, which in terms of mechanics amounts to a sudden acceleration increase from zero to roughly 9.8 m/s2 .

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Hannah & Emily - Do Americans require more sleep than people from different countries?

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Hannah & Emily - Do Americans require more sleep than people from different countries?

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There is no evidence to suggests that Americans as a whole require more sleep than others, but tend to receive increasing amounts of sleep as the years pass.

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On average, Americans get more than eight hours of sleep on weeknights and more on weekends, according to the data.

Share story

Americans are finally getting more sleep - about 18 minutes more per weeknight compared with 2003.

It may not sound like much, but researchers say it's a positive sign.

"If we only got more sleep, we would then see that we actually perform better and would probably be more creative and more productive during the day," said Dr. Mathias Basner, the associate professor of sleep and chronobiology in psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania and the lead author of the analysis of federal survey data, published this month in the journal "Sleep."

The incremental gains took place over 13 years. Basner and his colleague, David Dinges, found that Americans gained about 1.4 minutes of sleep per weeknight each year between 2003 and 2016.

People also slept more on weekends, though the improvement was not as great - an extra 50 seconds of sleep per weekend night per year, a total gain of about 11 minutes.

On average, Americans get more than eight hours of sleep on weeknights and more on weekends, according to the data. But sleep length varies widely. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than a third of adults get insufficient sleep, which it defines as less than seven hours.

Many studies have pointed to the potential health benefits of a good night's sleep. Poor sleep has been linked to weight gain, focus issues and even an increased risk of Type 2 diabetes and heart disease. It can even exacerbate relationship problems.

Americans were able to eke out extra sleep largely by heading to bed sooner and, to a lesser degree, by waking up later, the researchers found.

That changing weeknight bedtime - a shift earlier of 66 seconds each year - was made possible, in part, by less reading and television watching before bed.

While Americans added about 30 seconds of television watching to their weekday routine each year, they were doing less of it in the hours before bed, freeing themselves to go to sleep a bit earlier, the researchers found. Each year, the number of people who said they watched television or movies before bed on weeknights shrank by about 0.22 percent.

Americans also dedicated less of their time to a number of activities, including travel to work and school, eating and drinking, housework and consumer purchases.

"These are all activities that you can do nowadays online," Basner said. "You can do grocery shopping online. You bank online. You can do administrative tasks online."

While the gains in sleep were significant, they were not universally shared. The researchers, for example, did not find statistically significant gains for the unemployed and others not in the labor force.

The analysis relied on data from more than 180,000 people who participated in the American Time Use Survey, a questionnaire conducted by the Census Bureau about the activities that comprise each respondent's day.

The responses represent the population aged 15 and older and excluded active military members, prisoners and nursing-home residents.

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Americans getting more sleep - 18 minutes per weeknight

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On average, Americans get more than eight hours of sleep on weeknights and more on weekends, according to the data. Share story Americans are finally getting more sleep - about 18 minutes more per weeknight compared with 2003. It may not sound like much, but researchers say it's a positive sign.

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Why can some people remember their dreams while others cannot?

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Why can some people remember their dreams while others cannot?

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Asked by Kyle and Joe:
Scientists aren't exactly sure why some remember while other's dont, but they did discover a link between remembering dreams and being more responsive  when hearing your name called, so it might just have to do with your attention and your response to outside stimuli.
https://www.livescience.com/38856-why-people-recall-dreams.html

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Best time to go to sleep and wake up? Tom and Paige

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Best time to go to sleep and wake up? Tom and Paige

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It would vary depending on the person and what their schedule is, but the best time to sleep is when the sun goes down, and the best time to wake up is when the sun comes up.

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Do you ever go to bed ridiculously early because you need to wake up on time for work - then feel even more tired in the morning?

Well, you might be doing it wrong.

Don't just think by getting more hours of sleep, you'll be more refreshed in the office the next day. Apparently it's a bit more complicated than that.

But, luckily for us, someone has created a 'sleep calculator', being used on blinds company site web-blinds.com, so we can work out when we need to hit the sack in the click of a button.

Apparently it's all to do with sleep cycles rather than getting more hours of sleep. If you wake up at the wrong time during a sleep cycle, you'll find yourself more tired - even if you were asleep for longer.

If you need to get up at 7am

Need to make sure you're awake and getting out of bed at 7am? Then you need to go to bed at either 9.46pm or 11.16pm.

If you're having a late night and you don't fancy either of these, then 12.46am and 2.16am will also work.

The sleep calculator factors in the average of 14 minutes it takes people to naturally fall asleep, so you don't necessarily need to be in bed by this time.

If you need to get up at 6am

To get up at 6am, you're looking at a bedtime of 8.46pm, 10.16pm or even 11.46pm or - if you're feeling like a real night owl - 1.16am.

How about 8am?

Don't need to get up super early to get to work on time? Have no fear. Here's what time you need to go to bed for an 8am rise: 10.46pm, 12.16am, 1.46am or 3.16am.

What are sleep cycles?

A sleep cycle lasts about 90 minutes, during which time we move through five stages of sleep - four stages of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep and one stage of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.

We move from light sleep in Stage 1 to a very deep sleep in Stage 4. It is difficult to wake someone in Stage 4 of a sleep cycle, which is why you might feel more groggy if you wake up during this stage.

The fifth stage, REM sleep, is when most dreaming occurs.

You can even be really precise

For example, if you know getting out of bed at 6:35 is the optimum time so you can not miss the train and be punctual for work, enter it into the sleep calculator and you'll get a result.

For a 6.35am rise time, go to bed at 9.21pm, 10.51pm, 12.21am or 1.51am.

The Sleep Calculator website reads: "Getting a good night's sleep is about more than simply going to bed early - it's about waking up at the right time too.

"Using a formula based on the body's natural rhythms, the Sleep Calculator will work out the best time for you to rise or go to sleep."

The calculator works on the principle that everyone sleeps in about five or six cycles which last roughly 90 minutes.

Waking up midway through a cycle can leave you feeling grumpy the next day. The idea is to wake up in between cycles and feel refreshed in the morning.

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Exact time you should go to sleep if you need to wake up refreshed at 7am

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Do you ever go to bed ridiculously early because you need to wake up on time for work - then feel even more tired in the morning? Well, you might be doing it wrong. Don't just think by getting more hours of sleep, you'll be more refreshed in the office the next day.

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Do dreams connect directly with events in reality?

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Do dreams connect directly with events in reality?

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Directly? No. But when you dream, you implement parts of your past indirectly into your dream. In one study, while playing Tetris, the groups of players report seeing falling blocks after playing the game for several hours. But they were convoluted and were seen in different ways from the others.

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Dreams make perfect sense when you're having them. Yet, they leave you befuddled the next morning, wondering "where did that come from?" The answer may lie in the dreams of people with amnesia, researchers report in Friday's issue of Science.

Much of the fodder for our dreams comes from recent experiences. For this reason, scientists have tentatively supposed that the dreaming brain draws from its "declarative memory" system, which includes newly learned information.

The declarative memory stores information that you can "declare" you know, such as the square root of nine, or the name of your dog. Often, you can even remember when or where you learned something - for example, the day you discovered the harsh truth about Santa Claus. That's called episodic memory.

People who permanently suffer from amnesia can't add new declarative or episodic memories. The parts of their brains involved in storing this type of information, primarily a region called the hippocampus, have been damaged. Although amnesiacs can retain new information temporarily, they generally forget it a few minutes later.

If our dreams come from declarative memories, people with amnesia shouldn't dream at all, or at least dream differently than others do. But new research directed by Robert Stickgold of Harvard Medical School suggests quite the opposite.

Just like people with normal memory, amnesiacs replay recent experiences when they fall asleep, Stickgold's study shows. The only difference seems to be that the amnesiacs don't recognize what they're dreaming about.

Dreaming of Tetris
Every day, the people in the study played several hours of the computer game Tetris, which requires directing falling blocks into the correct positions as they reach the bottom of the screen. At night, the amnesiacs didn't remember playing the game. But, they did describe seeing falling, rotating blocks while they were falling asleep.

A second group of players with normal memories reported seeing the same images.

Therefore, Stickgold's research team concluded, dreams must come from the types of memory amnesiacs do have, which are called "implicit memories." These are memories that scientists can measure even when individuals don't know that they have them.

One class of implicit memories is found in the procedural memory system, which stores information that you use without really being able to say how you know what you're doing. When you ride a bicycle for the first time in years, or type on a keyboard without looking, you're relying on procedural memory.

Another type of implicit memory uses "semantic" knowledge, and resides in different parts of the brain, including a region called the neocortex. Semantic knowledge involves general, abstract concepts. Both groups of Tetris players, for example, only described seeing blocks, falling and rotating, and evidently did not see a desk, room, or computer screen, or feel their fingers on the keyboard.

Without help from the hippocampus, new semantic memories are too weak to be intentionally recalled. But they can still affect your behavior - for example, causing you to buy a certain brand of something you saw in an advertisement you don't remember.

In contrast, the information in episodic memories is associated with specific times, places or events. Without these "anchors" to reality, it's no wonder that dreams are so illogical and full of discontinuity, the study's authors say.

Stickgold believes that dreams serve a purpose for the brain, allowing it to make necessary emotional connections among new pieces of information.

"Dreams let you consolidate and integrate your experiences, without conflict with other input from real life," Stickgold said. "Dreaming is like saying, 'I'm going home, disconnecting the phone, nobody talk to me. I have to do work.'"

Because the hippocampus seems to be inaccessible for this "off-line" memory processing, the brain may use the abstract information in the neocortex instead.

According to Stickgold's theory, dreaming is like choosing an outfit by reaching into bins labeled "shirts," "pants" and so on. You'll rummage up something to wear, but it won't be a perfectly matching ensemble.

Sleep's earliest messages
The period of sleep that Stickgold's team studied is called "hypnagogia." It's an in-between state between being fully awake and fully asleep. Many people who have just had an intense new experience of some kind, either mental or physical, often report replays of that experience during this stage.

In his poem, "After Apple Picking," for example, Robert Frost describes seeing the apples and apple blossoms, and feeling the ladder sway as he nods off to sleep. Stickgold's first encounter with this phenomenon occurred after a day of mountain climbing, when he felt the sensation of rocks under his fingertips as he fell asleep.

Hypnagogic sleep is different from REM sleep, the period marked by rapid eye movement, when standard dreams most often occur. According to Stickgold, other studies suggest that the hippocampus isn't active during REM sleep either. Therefore, he proposes, the brain activity responsible for the Tetris images is probably similar to the dreaming that occurs in REM sleep.

Interpreting REM sleep dreams, however, is a highly subjective process.

"What's so nice about the images in our experiments is that they are so accurately re-creating the Tetris experience. There's no interpretation necessary," Stickgold said.

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Dreams make perfect sense when you're having them. Yet, they leave you befuddled the next morning, wondering "where did that come from?" The answer may lie in the dreams of people with amnesia, researchers report in Friday's issue of Science. Much of the fodder for our dreams comes from recent experiences.

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Can sleep deprivation kill you? Brenna + Rose

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Can sleep deprivation kill you? Brenna + Rose

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Humans can typically only survive for 11 days without sleep. After this, physical symptoms that result can cause death. http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2009/05/can_you_die_from_lack_of_sleep.html

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Are Alzheimer's linked to a lack of sleep. 

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Are Alzheimer's linked to a lack of sleep. 

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In a couple of ways Alzheimer's can be linked to a lack of sleep because researchers have discovered that a waste draining system that they call the ''glymphatic system'' is ten times more active while you are asleep. This nocturnal cleaning system removes proteins called amyloid-beta, which accumulate into the plaques that contribute to alzheimer's and dementia. Although this is a clear sign of dementia and Alzheimers it doesn't entirely mean that you will have this due to a lack of sleep

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If you or your loved one suffers from sleep deprivation, the consequences can be far more serious than simple crankiness and fatigue. Studies show that lack of sleep may cause Alzheimer's disease.
But even if you're not getting the rest you need, don't lose hope; you might just want to get a little more creative with how you're going about it. Learn more about how to follow your natural sleep patterns to feel your best each night.

How a Lack of Sleep May Cause Alzheimer's

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, insufficient sleep is a public health epidemic. In fact, an estimated 50-70 million U.S. adults have sleep or wakefulness disorder which can affect daily functioning, such as driving, and overall mental health and long-term well-being.

In fact, we're told that sleep is just as important as diet and exercise when it comes to living a healthy life. Lack of sleep has been linked to a myriad of health problems including:

Cognitive dysfunction

Depression

Stress

Type II diabetes

Weight gain

More concerning, a new study indicates that lack of sleep may lead to Alzheimer's. Led by Maiken Nedergaard, M.D., who co-directs the URMC's Center for Translational Neuromedicine, the researchers discovered that a waste-draining system they call the "glymphatic system" is ten times more active during sleep than while awake. This nocturnal cleaning system removes proteins called amyloid-beta, which accumulate into the plaques that contribute to Alzheimer's and dementia.

Nedergaard and her team coined the term "glymphatic system" last year, when they used new imaging technology known as two-photon microscopy to discover a scrubbing process taking place around brain cells, known as glial cells. The mechanism of this cleanup process is fascinating: Nedergaard and colleagues found that cerebrospinal fluid flows through the spaces between neurons, flushing proteins and other neural waste into the circulatory system and away.

So what if you're not getting those eight hours? Are you destined to get Alzheimer's? No, not necessarily - and don't buy any sleep remedies just yet. You might just have leftover sleep patterns from your ancestors.

The Myth of the Need for 8 Uninterrupted Hours of Sleep

Before the advent of the lightbulb, we went to sleep when it got dark. Interestingly, heading to bed around 7:00 or 8:00 p.m. meant that we had about 12 whole hours of restful time, so it was natural for us to wake up in the middle of the night.

The eight uninterrupted hours of sleep is a modern notion that, unfortunately, causes many sleepers a great deal of concern. But we should learn to rethink the way we sleep.

What's ultimately most important about sleep is the quality of it, not the quantity.

Our modern lives simply don't let us get the rest we need. Laptops and smartphones naggingly chirp and glow at us all day long, ad nauseum. If we could truly unplug, we might find the peace of mind we need to get that rest.

But most of us don't have that luxury. So what can we do to get the sleep we so desperately need? It may simply mean accepting that "waking up during the night is part of normal human physiology," says sleep psychologist Gregg Jacobs.

Use Your Natural Sleep Patterns to Feel Your Best

Furthermore,in 2001, historian Roger Ekirch of Virginia Tech University, in a paper drawing on 16 years of research, revealed "a wealth of historical evidence that humans used to sleep in two distinct chunks" of time, the British News Service reported.

Ekirch published a book, "At Day's Close: Night in Times Past," in which he revealed more than 500 references to a segmented sleeping pattern. Such references were gleaned from diaries, court records, literature and medical books.

The references were like those reported by Wehr's subjects in that they describe a first sleep which began about two hours after dusk which were followed by waking periods of one to two hours, then a second block of sleep.

This knowledge is comforting for the many of us who, all too often, feel sleep-deprived. But there are other ways to get rest:

1. If you cannot sleep eight continuous hours, then spread it out.

2. Sleep in four hour chunks.

3. Take naps.

The quality of the sleep you get is the most restorative, not the quantity of it. Do whatever it is that is most natural for you or your loved one.
Did you know a lack of sleep could cause Alzheimer's? What will you do to get more rest this weekend? Share your tips with us in the comments below. Related Articles:

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If you or your loved one suffers from sleep deprivation, the consequences can be far more serious than simple crankiness and fatigue. Studies show that lack of sleep may cause Alzheimer's disease. But even if you're not getting the rest you need, don't lose hope; you might just want to get a little more creative with how you're going about it.

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Can you control your dreams?(featuring Tyler, and Johnson)

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Can you control your dreams?(featuring Tyler, and Johnson)

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Yes some have mastered the ability to control there dreams, this is called lucid dreaming. When in a lucid dream the dreamer is aware they are currently dreaming and are able to change the landscape

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- everyone dreams during sleep; not everyone remembers

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What is the difference between people who always recall their dreams and those who rarely do?

Credit: Dreamstime

People who tend to remember their dreams also respond more strongly than others to hearing their name when they're awake, new research suggests.

Everyone dreams during sleep, but not everyone recalls the mental escapade the next day, and scientists aren't sure why some people remember more than others.

To find out, researchers used electroencephalography to record the electrical activity in the brains of 36 people while the participants listened to background tunes, and occasionally heard their own first name. The brain measurements were taken during wakefulness and sleep. Half of the participants were called high recallers, because they reported remembering their dreams almost every day, whereas the other half, low recallers, said they only remembered their dreams once or twice a month.

When asleep, both groups showed similar changes in brain activity in response to hearing their names, which were played quietly enough not to wake them.

However, when awake, high recallers showed a more sustained decrease in a brain wave called the alpha wave when they heard their names, compared with the low recallers.

"It was quite surprising to see a difference between the groups during wakefulness," said study researcher Perrine Ruby, neuroscientist at Lyon Neuroscience Research Center in France.

The difference could reflect variations in the brains of high and low recallers that could have a role in how they dream, too, Ruby said. [ 7 Mind-Bending Facts About Dreams]

Who remembers their dreams

A well-established theory suggests that a decrease in the alpha wave is a sign that brain regions are being inhibited from responding to outside stimuli. Studies show that when people hear a sudden sound or open their eyes, and more brain regions become active, the alpha wave is reduced.

In the study, as predicted, both groups showed a decrease in the alpha wave when they heard their names while awake. But high recallers showed a more prolonged decrease, which may be a sign their brains became more widely activated when they heard their names.

In other words, high recallers may engage more brain regions when processing sounds while awake, compared with low recallers, the researchers said.

While people are asleep, the alpha wave behaves in the opposite way -it increases when a sudden sound is heard. Scientists aren't certain why this happens, but one idea is that it protects the brain from being interrupted by sounds during sleep, Ruby said.

Indeed, the study participants showed an increase in the alpha wave in response to sounds during sleep, and there was no difference between the groups.

One possibility to explain the lack of difference, the researchers said, could be that perhaps high recallers had a larger increase in alpha waves, but it was so high that they woke up.

Time spent awake, during the night

The researchers saw that high recallers awoke more frequently during the night. They were awake, on average, for 30 minutes during the night, whereas low recallers were awake for 14 minutes. However, Ruby said "both figures are in the normal range, it's not that there's something wrong with either group."

Altogether, the results suggest the brain of high recallers may be more reactive to stimuli such as sounds, which could make them wake up more easily. It is more likely a person would remember their dreams if they are awakened immediately after one, Ruby said.

However, waking up at night can account for only a part of the differences people show in remembering dreams. "There's still much more to understand," she said.

The study is published online today (Aug. 13) in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.

Email Bahar Gholipour. Follow LiveScience @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience.

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People who tend to remember their dreams also respond more strongly than others to hearing their name when they're awake, new research suggests. Everyone dreams during sleep, but not everyone recalls the mental escapade the next day, and scientists aren't sure why some people remember more than others.

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Troy - Why do we suddenly wake up when we fall in our dreams?

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Troy - Why do we suddenly wake up when we fall in our dreams?

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Typically when you dream, your body is paralyzed, but sometimes you can start dreaming before your body is on "off" mode. With hypnagogic jerks, you might act out a dream like falling off a cliff, falling from the sky, or tripping. This causes that sensation of waking up with a twitch.

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Most nights, if you're lucky, sleep is a completely unremarkable event. But every so often you may experience bizarre behaviors that can leave you feeling completely confused--and perhaps slightly freaked out. Not to worry. We asked sleep docs to decode some of the craziest things that can occur from the moment you close your eyes--and most of them are totally normal.

Here are five surprising culprits that could be keeping you up at night--and how to fix them fast.
Feeling like you're falling
Also known as a hypnagogic jerk, it tends to happen as you're falling asleep. Typically when you dream, your body is paralyzed, but sometimes you can start dreaming before your body is on "off" mode. With hypnagogic jerks, you might act out a dream like falling off a cliff, falling from the sky, or tripping, says Dr. W. Christopher Winter, Men's Health sleep advisor and medical director of the sleep center at Martha Jefferson Hospital in Virginia.

Why the falling? Researchers aren't sure. "It's more likely to happen when you're overtired, sleep-deprived, or stressed," Winter says. "And your brain enters into sleep cycles more aggressively, but your body hasn't caught up."

Bonus tip: Avoid these 5 Sleep Mistakes You Don't Know You're Making.
Sleep paralysis
You start to wake up in the morning and realize you can't move a muscle or speak. It can last from several seconds to several minutes, and it's completely terrifying. Essentially, it's the opposite of what happens with hypnagogic jerks, where your brain wakes up before the paralysis that accompanies deep sleep goes away, Winter says. "You may feel like you can't breathe. Many people describe it as an elephant sitting on their chest. That's because all of the muscles that control your breathing except for the diaphragm are still paralyzed."

Find out how being overweight may be sabotaging your sleep.
Sleepwalking
Most sleep-related behaviors are harmless. But sleepwalking can be a dangerous issue, since you can trip, walk into something, leave your house, and even get behind the wheel. "With sleepwalking, you're coming out of sleep just enough for your body to move, but not enough for your brain to be awake," says Winter. That's why you probably have no recollection of your late-night jaunts.

The prescription sleep-aid Ambien has been linked to some of the more bizarre sleepwalking incidents including cooking, binge eating, and driving while zonked out. That's because even if you wake up during the night, the drug keeps your brain sedated so you're still in an unconscious state, Winter says. If you experience unusual or dangerous nighttime antics and pop the sleeping pill, talk to your doctor about switching prescriptions.
Sleep-talking
About 5 percent of adults yap in their sleep, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Most pillow-talk sessions last only about 30 seconds on average. "It often happens within the first hour or two of sleep when your body is entering into deep stages of sleep, but there's still enough muscle tone to produce sounds or movements that may accompany dreams," says Winter.

Still tossing and turning? Find out why your brain won't let you sleep.
Recurring dreams
"Dreaming is a way for your brain to sort out things it needs to reevaluate and process before it can file them away as memories," Winter says. "Recurring dreams may happen with unresolved psychological issues your brain is trying to sort out." Oftentimes, recurring dreams are based partly in reality. "If you were robbed at the grocery store, you might replay that over and over during sleep until you come to grips with it--whereas if you went to the store to get bread and milk, your brain would process it right away and move on," Winter adds.
Sleep sex
You're not the only one who has woken up mid-act. In a study of more than 800 patients at a sleep disorders center, about 8 percent of patients reported incidents of sexsomnia--initiating sex with a partner while asleep, according to researchers at the University Health Network in Toronto. "In my experience working with patients, the attitudes, behaviors, and things people may say during sleep sex are often very different from what they'd do and say when fully awake," Winter says.

As a parasomnia, the phenomenon is similar to sleepwalking--you're coming partly out of deep sleep enough that you can move and possibly talk, but your brain isn't awake enough to be fully conscious. "Many people have a vague recollection of it happening during the night or they wake up during sex," says Winter. "It's possible you may have been dreaming about sex or perhaps you went to bed with the urge."
Exploding head syndrome
It's just as freaky as it sounds: "All of a sudden, the person wakes up having heard a really loud noise, like an explosion, a flash of light, or a sense that their head is exploding," says Dr. Winter. "In reality, nothing has actually happened." It's a type of hypnagogic jerk, similar to feeling like you're falling: You're heading toward deep sleep, but your body hasn't achieved paralysis yet, and your senses are still turned on.

Here are seven strategies you can use to drift back into dreamland--fast.

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7 crazy things that happen while you sleep

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Most nights, if you're lucky, sleep is a completely unremarkable event. But every so often you may experience bizarre behaviors that can leave you feeling completely confused--and perhaps slightly freaked out. Not to worry. We asked sleep docs to decode some of the craziest things that can occur from the moment you close your eyes--and most of them are totally normal.

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Yes, everyone dreams, including a good portion of mammals. Evidence suggests that everyone dreams but not everyone will remember their dreams.

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(Photo: www.flickr.com/photos/jeijiang)

By Melissa Dahl

Some of us have wild and weird dreams nightly, while other people swear they never dream. But is their sleep truly dreamless -- or could it be that they never remember their dreams? A team of French researchers set out to investigate this question, and their results are published in the Journal of Sleep Research and summarized earlier this week over at the Discover blog Neuroskeptic.

Related:How Your Feet Can Help You Sleep

The researchers specifically studied this in people with REM sleep behavior disorder -- the thing comedian Mike Birbiglia has and based an entire semiautobiographical movie on. People with this condition act out their dreams as they're sleeping (say, by jumping out the window of a La Quinta in Walla Walla, Washington, as Birbiglia famously did). And so by studying people with this disorder, the sleep scientists thought they could get a good idea of who was dreaming, and who was not, by observing their movements as they slept. Before they did that, though, they gave the 289 participants a questionnaire, asking them whether they dreamed.

A small portion of the study volunteers -- just under 4 percent -- said they either never dreamed or hadn't in more than a decade. And yet the way they moved in their sleep seemed to indicate otherwise. One participant, for example, was a man in his 70s who said he stopped dreaming in his 20s. But the video the scientists recorded of his sleepover in the lab shows him "arguing, swearing profanities, kicking, boxing and throwing items towards an invisible individual" in his sleep. While this was going on, he was talking, too (translated from French): "What can I make to eat, I saw ... You listen ... (incomprehensible words, then high-pitched voice). Stay here before doing such a thing, you b*tch!"

His behavior suggests he is dreaming, but that his dreams vanish upon waking. Although it also could be true, as the Discover writer points out, that this man and the other non-dreamers in this study may have been behaving as if they were dreaming but weren't actually experiencing the corresponding images. Really, who's to say what's going on inside someone else's head?
More from Science of Us:
What It's Like to Be an Intersex Nudist
How to Recover From an All-Nighter
There's a Bright Side to Bad Dreams
A Field Guide to Dwelling on Your Failures
Where's the 'Real' You -- in Your Head or Your Heart?
Also on HuffPost:

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(Photo: www.flickr.com/photos/jeijiang) By Melissa Dahl Some of us have wild and weird dreams nightly, while other people swear they never dream. But is their sleep truly dreamless -- or could it be that they never remember their dreams? A team of French researchers set out to investigate this question, and their results are published in the Journal of Sleep Research and summarized earlier this week over at the Discover blog Neuroskeptic.

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Does your body size affect your sleep? - Paige and Tom

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Does your body size affect your sleep? - Paige and Tom

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Although not true for every individual, it has been proven that in general, excess body weight can be directly correlated with shorter sleep time.

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Sleeping too little is correlated with obesity and non-obesity extra "love handle" weight. Does sleep restriction make you fat or does extra weight make it hard to sleep? Both. Like most things involving sleep, the interactions are complex and the causal relationship runs both ways.

Higher BMI (body mass index) is correlated with shorter sleep time. It is also correlated with later sleep than normal (going to bed late and getting up late.) Not enough sleep results in a tendency to gain weight. This isn't true for everybody (some people actually lose weight when they don't sleep enough), but over the population as a whole it has repeatedly been shown that less sleep is correlated with added fat.

Population and laboratory studies have found that a persistent pattern of shortened sleep results in insulin resistance and cardiovascular disease.

Sleep debt increases the appetite, and particularly increases the desire for high-calorie, carbohydrate-rich foods. Advanced medical imaging scans show higher activation in an area of the brain involved with appetite. This is one obvious reason for weight gain, although the deeper picture is more complex. In some situations, researchers have found sleep-restricted subjects did not have an increased appetite, but they still gained weight.

Although even one night of short sleep can result in a desire to eat more, the second night of a very short sleep left participants in a controlled study reaching for cookies and cake and eschewing fruit and vegetables.

Public health minded authorities who worry about the obesity pandemic look at both sides of the energy balance - people eat too many calories and burn off too few calories with physical activity. Too little sleep affects both. When you are tired from insufficient sleep, you might fidget less and burn fewer calories, but a more likely explanation is the effect of sleep deprivation on hormones.

Hormones, sleep, and weight

Adipocytes (your "fat cells") release leptin to the bloodstream to signal sufficient fat stores; leptin therefore acts as a natural appetite suppressor. The stomach releases ghrelin when it is empty signal hunger. (That's oversimplified; ghrelin is suspected to be associated with the body's long-term weight regulation - levels are higher in obese people than lean people.)

Sleep deprivation lowers the levels of leptin and raises levels of grehlin. It's a double whammy hormone hit that makes you want to eat more. The brain is getting signals that the body is starving, so you crave food.

Lack of sleep affects leptin and ghrelin; short sleep time (4 hours per night or less) results lower leptin levels and higher ghrelin levels in the blood plasma. With sleep loss, low leptin and high ghrelin can give powerful dual signals that the body has an energy deficit, thus increasing food intake.

Leptin levels in the body follow a circadian rhythm although unlike the sleep circadian cycle the leptin one is not correlated with daylight and night. The cycle is more tied to habitual meal patterns. Exercise also makes leptin levels fall.

Other hormones are intimately tied up with both sleep and weight. A reciprocal interaction of the growth hormone releasing hormone (GHRH) and corticotropin-releasing hormone play a role in sleep patterns. Ghrelin, galanin and neuropeptide Y have been shown to promote sleep

Additionally, the orexin (hypocretin) system in the hypothalamus plays a part in the interaction between sleep and appetite. Orexin levels influence leptin release, which in turn regulates appetite and weight and tells the brain how much energy the body has. Scientists do not fully understand all these interactions. There are many competing systems and cycles in the body. A better understanding of these system might result in new avenues for addressing the sleep disorder epidemic and the obesity epidemic. Researchers recently found that oxerin appears to increase the body's sensitivity to leptin, leading to the promise that ways to boost oxerin levels may eventually become a therapy for obesity.

Too many causes

Poor sleep results in daytime lethargy, lower energy levels, drowsiness - all of which lead to less exercise - both formal and informal. Poor sleep also leads to an increased appetite - they eat more food and more calorie-dense food.

So shortened sleep times makes us fatter through several channels. It is hypothesized that there are evolutionary reasons for this connection between weight and sleep times. Mother Nature may have set us up to store fat in summer in anticipation of scarcer food in the winter. Summertime has shorter nights and longer days - people tend to sleep less during the summer - so the body interprets these circadian signals as a time to increase fat deposits.

Scientists have now definitely established the link. There are genes controlled by the circadian clock that regulates sleeping/waking and some of the same genes also contribute to fat deposits.

This result comes from animal tests. When researchers turned off the clock gene in mice (through genetic engineering), the the mice did not gain weight on a high calorie diet compared with a control group. The glucose and lipid metabolic pathways were disrupted. The genetically modified mice did not store fat in the same quantities.

Leptin and visfatin are hormones released by adipose tissue (they are called adipokines) and they are higher in people with high insulin resistance, meaning those individuals have or are at risk for diabetes. When subjects were deprived of sleep, the blood levels of these hormones rose. Each hour of short sleep caused a 6% increase in leptin and a 14% increase in visfatin. Another adipokine, retinol-binding protein 4, which is also strongly suspected to contribute to insulin resistance, did not vary with sleep duration.

Nature magazine reports scientists have found "disrupted circadian rhythm leads people to crave high-fat foods."

There is some indication that the body reacts differently to sleep restriction during times of stress versus other times. Sleep loss due to stress may lead to more food consumption the next day than sleep loss due to other causes. The calorie-rich food people crave in such periods is often referred to as "comfort food".

Sleepless Children and Obesity

A study of children found a U-shaped relationship between weight and time spent in stages 3 and R of sleep. Moderately overweight kids spent more time in deep sleep and REM sleep, but obese kids had reductions in both deep and REM sleep.

A British study found the in children as young as 30 months, short sleep duration was correlated with obesity at age 7. Plenty of other investigators have found a link between insulin sensitivity and sleep loss.

Timing of Meals and Sleep

We can see the effect of diet and consumption on sleep by noting how unusual eating patterns affect sleep timing and circadian cycles. The old punishment of sending someone to bed without their supper is instructive: it is unpleasant to skip a meal during a day, but it is really difficult to go to sleep on an empty stomach.

Muslims who observe dietary restrictions in Ramadan show how moving eating and drinking around the day affects even our unconscious lives. Ramadan fasting produces a decrease in slow-wave sleep and REM sleep and an increase in sleep latency. A shift in body temperature fluctuations indicates the circadian cycle is shifted, too. Another study also found a decrease in REM time but NREM time and total sleep time unchanged.

It also turns out the causal arrow can go the other direction. Experiments in mice found type of diet and timing of eating can affect the circadian cycle. The molecular mechanism for this is not known and it is not clear whether the percentage of fat in the diet made a difference or the fact that the mice were eating when they would otherwise be sleeping, or both.

Long-term Trend?

The evidence showing many short sleepers are obese does not prove cause and effect in either direction, of course, and for years it was debated whether doctors should try to intervene to get people to sleep more. But we are getting more evidence that the metabolic hormone levels are directly affected by sleep duration.

Some observers look at the long-term trends to support the idea of a cause-and-effect. Sleep times have been declining for the past 100 years (some say) rates of obesity and higher BMI have been rising for the past four decades. Both are hallmarks of modern life. From what we know about the relationship between sleep deprivation and over a few years for individuals, it must be true for society as a whole. Right? The evidence is not really strong. It is not clear that sleep times have declined over the decades and there are plenty of reasons for increased weight - automation and machines taking over tasks humans used to do with their muscles and availability of cheap food.

Public Health Interventions

Looking at the coincidence of the obesity/metabolic syndrome and sleepless some are calling for widespread effort to get people to sleep more. (What this effort would involve and how effective it would be are other questions.) Of course, there are plenty of reasons to get people to sleep more. Some call for more study of the question - but researchers are forever calling for more study.

Skepticism

The well respected sleep scientist Jim Horne raises skepticism about working on increasing sleep times as a way to lose weight. He thinks the evidence that inadequate sleep leads to weight gain on a wide scale is scant, and that there are other reasons to worry about short sleep times. "The real health risk of inadequate sleep comes from a sleepiness-related accident" - not weight gain. He concedes that extremely short sleep times - 4 hours per night - lead to glucose intolerance, but points out that only a small fraction of obese people would be classified as "short sleepers".

Related stories:

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Sleeping too little is correlated with obesity and non-obesity extra "love handle" weight. Does sleep restriction make you fat or does extra weight make it hard to sleep? Both. Like most things involving sleep, the interactions are complex and the causal relationship runs both ways.

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Are there advantages of taking a nap? (Tristan & Bryan)

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Are there advantages of taking a nap? (Tristan & Bryan)

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Yes, it can improve brain functions and can lower stress. Also, napping can lower rates of cardiovascular disease and inflammation.

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You Asked: Is It Good or Bad to Take a Nap?

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The bottom line on your favorite afternoon pastime

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there are various causes as to why we dream some including our past experiences that we have had, it is also a component and form of memory processing. Dreams also occur due to our biggest fears, or traumatic experiences.

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Zeke: Will you sleep better during a new moon or a full moon?

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Zeke: Will you sleep better during a new moon or a full moon?

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You sleep much better during a new moon. The reason for this is rather simple; the amount of light produced by the full moon keeps you awake at night.

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Can you remember how well you slept the last time there was a full moon?

Do you feel that when the moon shines brightest, things just don't seem quite right?

If so, you're not alone. Despite a lack of scientific evidence, millions of people believe that the moon holds an uncanny power over them.

In this article, I'll be looking at why people feel the moon has such an influence over them, as well as studies that have been done into this worldwide belief.

Then you can make your own decision as to whether or not you think you'll sleep differently when the next full moon comes around.

Not just superstitious people

Even casual exposure to the emergency services, law enforcement, teaching or social care will involve contact with firm believers in the adverse effects of a full moon.

From hospitals to police stations, the full moon will be blamed for everything from poor sleep patterns to an increase in accident numbers to sudden psychotic episodes.

Serious, professional, highly trained individuals are certain the moon affects us. In 2011, the World Journal of Surgery stated that more than 40% of medical staff believed lunar phases impacted on human behavior. However, a thorough statistical analysis didn't back this up.

The moon has been linked in the media to a rise in burglaries, changes in voting patterns, volatile stock market prices, more road accidents, less successful surgeries, and even the numbers of children born.

There's no scientific proof to back up any of these claims, yet many people still believe the moon is somehow involved.

The Transylvania effect

The Transylvania Effect is a term first coined in academic literature in the 1990s. It describes the belief that the lunar cycle can produce both psychologically and physiologically disturbances in people and populations.

The belief that the moon exerts a direct influence on the body and mind can be traced back to pre-Christian times. Pliny the Elder, Roman author, naturalist, and philosopher believed that because the full moon caused heavy dew it must also make the brain become "unnaturally moist".

That was how, he claimed, the moon caused both epilepsy and lunacy. Hippocrates noted that "no physician should be entrusted with the treatment of disease who was ignorant of the science of astronomy".

And the word lunatic, across various languages has its root in the moon - the old English word for lunatic was monseoc, which literally means moon-sick.

In the 21 st century we perpetuate lunar myths in our entertainment and our media. From books to films, from memes to light-hearted end of the world news stories, we constantly repeat the tropes of the Moon's effect on behavior.

With the constant media repetition of an association between the full moon and human behaviour it is not surprising that such beliefs are widespread in the general public (Kelly et al. 1996)

Ancient Calendars

The very earliest calendars were based on the cycles of the moon, with the sighting of the new moon indicating a new phase in the year.

Marks on the walls of the prehistoric painted caves at Lascaux in France are believed by Dr Michael Rappenglueck, of the University of Munich, to be the earliest known calendar .

The series of dots and squares painted among the 15,000 year old drawings of bulls, horses and antelopes represent the 29 day lunar cycle.

Most pre-modern calendars were lunisolar, combining the solar year with the lunar year. The Julian calendar abandoned this in favor of a purely solar reckoning. However, the Islamic calendar opted for a purely lunar one.

It should be noted that lunar calendars have always been particularly popular among agricultural societies; this may well be the foundation for our belief that we sleep less during the full moon.

All full moons rise around the time of sunset. But the so called "harvest moon" and "hunter's moon", which occur during the agriculturally busy late summer and autumn in the northern hemisphere behave in a notable way.

They move across the sky in a way that means there's no long period of darkness between sunset and moon rise for several days around the full moon.

So our belief in restless sleep on full moon nights may stem from a long held belief that we should be out working under the full moon.

Anecdotal versus strictly scientific

Anecdotal evidence for a lunar effect isn't hard to find; some people swear they sleep poorly over the nights of the full moon. And moon madness stories from the front line of those who see humanity at its worst are surprisingly common.

We may publicly dismiss them, but privately we consider them because one captivating anecdote will always stick in the mind better than a host of scientific studies.

In nature, we can prove lunar rhythms - for example, the triggering of the spawning of the coral on the Great Barrier Reef around the full moon in December. But with regard to humans, to date, no scientific study that indicates a lunar influence on behavior has stood up under scrutiny.

The closest a study came to actual evidence was a July 2013 project carried out at the University of Basel in Switzerland.

Under highly controlled conditions, a small sample of 33 healthy adults were recorded as having four minutes less REM sleep over the nights of the full moon.

Unfortunately, the results of the experiment have never been replicated, and the statistically small size of the sample casts doubt on the validity of the results.

Founded on misconceptions

The belief that the moon can influence the human body is founded on misconceptions then, it seems.

Some suggest that because the moon has a profound effect on the tides, it might also have an effect on humans, since we are comprised mainly of water.

In actual fact, the moon exerts a very weak tidal force on uncontained water. Astronomer George O. Abell claims that a mosquito would exert more gravitational pull on your arm than the moon would on your body.

What research does demonstrate, however, is that many people fall prey to a phenomenon that University of Wisconsin-Madison psychologists Loren and Jean Chapman termed "illusory correlation".

That is, the perception of an association that doesn't in fact exist. For example, many people who have joint pain insist that their pain increases during rainy weather, although research shows this to be untrue.

Conclusion

There's no established scientific link between the full moon and sleep patterns. Maybe there was in the past, when the bright moonlight made us restless or allowed us to work later into the night.

But it's something we left behind when we lit our houses and streets, and set about controlling our environment.

Or perhaps it's a lingering legend from the days when something as otherworldly as the full moon in the sky just had to mean something!

On November 14, 2016, the moon was closer to Earth than it had been since January 26, 1948. It was both a full moon and a 'super moon', and the next time it will be that close to the earth is November 25, 2034.

It was the closest and largest super moon in 86 years, and there were a lot of headlines written about it in the media: helpful articles on what to expect, whether you should be worried, and how to explain poor sleep.

And so the myth lived on.

Your thoughts

Do you feel that the moon influences how well you sleep? Does the full moon appear to affect your or someone you know's behavior? Let me know in the comments below.

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Full Moon Insomnia: Does The Moon Affect Your Sleep?

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Do you feel that your sleep is affected by a full moon? Millions of people claim the same, but is there any scientific proof? Find out why scientists don't believe the moon influences your sleep, and how it's a myth from the past that's still perpetuated by the media of the present.

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Trevor and Tyler: Explain Insomnia and how can it be fixed?

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Trevor and Tyler: Explain Insomnia and how can it be fixed?

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Insomnia is a problem where you can't physically  go to sleep. It can be fixed by not being stressed, lowering anxiety, curing your depression, have a sleep routine, being physically healthy, and don't stay up too late. Work Cited- http://www.helpguide.org/articles/sleep/insomnia-causes-and-cures.thm

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What is societal Jet lag? (Julian and Eden) 

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What is societal Jet lag? (Julian and Eden) 

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Social Jet Lag is when you go to bed and wake up later on weekends than during the week. This leads to sleepiness, fatigue, and poor health.

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Preliminary results of a new study show that social jet lag has emerged as an important circadian marker for health outcomes.

Results show that social jet lag, which occurs when you go to bed and wake up later on weekends than during the week, is associated with poorer health, worse mood, and increased sleepiness and fatigue. Each hour of social jet lag also is associated with an 11-percent increase in the likelihood of heart disease. These effects are independent of sleep duration and insomnia symptoms, which are related to both social jet lag and health.

"These results indicate that sleep regularity, beyond sleep duration alone, plays a significant role in our health," said lead author Sierra B. Forbush, an undergraduate research assistant in the Sleep and Health Research Program at the University of Arizona in Tucson. "This suggests that a regular sleep schedule may be an effective, relatively simple, and inexpensive preventative treatment for heart disease as well as many other health problems."

The research team was led by senior author Michael A. Grandner, PhD, MTR, director of the Sleep and Health Research Program. They utilized data from the community-based Sleep and Healthy Activity, Diet, Environment, and Socialization (SHADES) study, analyzing survey responses from 984 adults between the ages of 22 and 60 years.

Social jet lag was assessed using the Sleep Timing Questionnaire and was calculated by subtracting weekday from weekend sleep midpoint. Overall health was self-reported using a standardized scale, and survey questions also assessed sleep duration, insomnia, cardiovascular disease, fatigue, and sleepiness.

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that adults should sleep 7 or more hours per night on a regular basis to promote optimal health. In addition to adequate duration, healthy sleep requires good quality, appropriate timing and regularity.

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sleep disorder research; insomnia research; diseases and conditions; staying healthy; sleep disorders; insomnia; obstructive sleep apnea; disorders and syndromes

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Social jet lag is associated with worse mood, poorer health and heart disease: Delaying your sleep schedule on weekends has health consequences

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Preliminary results of a new study show that social jet lag has emerged as an important circadian marker for health outcomes. Results show that social jet lag, which occurs when you go to bed and wake up later on weekends than during the week, is associated with poorer health, worse mood, and increased sleepiness and fatigue.

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What is sleepwalking? How many Americans do it?

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What is sleepwalking? How many Americans do it?

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8.4 million Americans each year
The act of walking around while sleeping
behavior disorder that originates during deep sleep. (Kyle Enberg & Joey Harrios)

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Have you ever woken up somewhere not knowing how you got there? You may have walked there in your sleep! Learn more about sleepwalking about how to prevent it.

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Brenna and Rose - Is there a connection between sleep and obesity?

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Brenna and Rose - Is there a connection between sleep and obesity?

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With less sleep, you are at a greater risk for obesity.  Poor sleep results in poor energy levels, making people less willing to exercise and therefore more prone to obesity.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3632337/

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The involuntary act of opening ones mouth, as a result of bordemen or tiredness. Other things that happen during a yawn include, increased blood flow to the neck, head, and face. As well as a push of spinal fluid and blood down from the brain.

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Sept. 23, 2011-- Why do we yawn?

All humans yawn. So do most vertebrate animals. Surely it serves some useful function. But what that might be has puzzled scientists throughout the ages.

Now a series of experiments suggests a surprising reason for yawning. It cools the brain, says Andrew C. Gallup, PhD, a postdoctoral research associate at Princeton University.

"We have collected data on rats, parakeets, and humans. All the data supports the brain-cooling hypothesis," Gallup tells WebMD.

Here's the basic idea:

When you start to yawn, powerful stretching of the jaw increases blood flow in the neck, face, and head.

The deep intake of breath during a yawn forces downward flow of spinal fluid and blood from the brain.

Cool air breathed into the mouth cools these fluids.

"Together these processes may act like a radiator, removing [too hot] blood from the brain while introducing cooler blood from the lungs and extremities, thereby cooling [brain] surfaces," Gallup says.

To answer skeptics, Gallup has laid out a more detailed anatomical description of the process in the medical literature.

Gallup's theory predicts that colder outside air should cool the brain better than hot air. The body should therefore yawn more when the air is cool, and yawn less when the air is hot.

Where better to test this than in Tucson, Ariz.? Gallup's team went there twice: Once in the winter, when it was a cool 71.6 degrees F outside, and once in early summer, when it was 98.6 degrees F.

The researchers asked 80 pedestrians to look at pictures of people yawning. It's well known that people often yawn when they see others yawn.

Sure enough, in the cooler weather 45% of people yawned when they looked at the pictures. But in hotter weather, only 24% of people yawned. Moreover, people yawned more if they'd been outside longer in the cool weather, and yawned less if they'd been outside longer in the hot weather.

These results mimicked an earlier study in which Gallup's team showed that budgie parakeets yawned more in cool temperatures than they did in hot temperatures. And it supported a rat study in which rat brains cooled a bit when the animals yawned.

Continued

Gallup says his brain cooling theory of yawning is the only theory that explains all these experimental results. But he has not yet convinced those who prefer another theory.

University of Geneva physician Adrian G. Guggisberg, MD, agrees with Gallup that changes in room temperature can trigger yawning. But he's wary of the brain cooling theory. And he offers an alternative interpretation of Gallup's Tucson study.

"The fact that yawning is suppressed during high temperatures suggest that it fails precisely when we need it," Guggisberg tells WebMD. "There are other [ways to regulate body temperature], such as sweating, and it is unclear why we would need another regulator which fails when it matters."

Yawn theorists split into two camps. Like Gallup, one side says yawning must have a physiological cause, and a physical benefit. The other side says yawning is a form of communication that offers various social benefits.

Guggisberg prefers the social theory of yawning. He sees the physiological effects of yawning as too small to account for their persistence through evolution. But he sees the contagious effect of yawning as a key clue.

"The more people are susceptible to contagious yawning, the better their social competence and empathy," Guggisberg says. "In humans it is clear that yawning has a social effect. It is probably an unconscious behavior. It is not clear what yawning communicates or what it achieves. But clearly it transmits some information that has some effect on brain networks or behavior."

Across cultures, Guggisberg says, the yawn is understood as a sign of sleepiness and boredom. The yawn thus communicates to others that one is experiencing a moderately unpleasant experience but not an immediate threat.

"We might have to get used to the idea that yawns have a primarily social rather than primarily physiological effect," Guggisberg and colleagues wrote in a recent article.

Gallup argues that whatever message yawning communicates, it is far too ambiguous and subtle to be so well-conserved throughout evolutionary history.

"It is not that I don't think there is any social function to yawning, because clearly it is contagious," Gallup says. "But we have to think of it as a process driven by physiological triggers we are unable to control. If it happens in a meeting, it should not be a sign of disrespect or insult."

Continued

The Gallup study appears in the Aug. 28 online issue of Frontiers in Evolutionary Neuroscience.

Sources

SOURCES:

Andrew G. Gallup, PhD, postdoctoral research associate, department of ecology and evolutionary biology, Princeton University, New Jersey.

Adrian G. Guggisberg, MD, division of neurorehabilitation, University of Geneva, Switzerland.

Gallup, A.C. and Eldakar, O.T. Frontiers in Evolutionary Neuroscience, published online Aug. 28, 2011.

Shoup-Knox, M. Frontiers in Evolutionary Neuroscience, published online Sept. 24, 2010.

Gallup, A.C. and Gallup, G.G. Evolutionary Psychology, 2007; vol 5: pp 92-101.

Gallup, A.C. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, January 2011; vol 35: pp 765-769.

Gallup, A.C. Medical Hypotheses, 2011.

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Sept. 23, 2011-- Why do we yawn? All humans yawn. So do most vertebrate animals. Surely it serves some useful function. But what that might be has puzzled scientists throughout the ages. Now a series of experiments suggests a surprising reason for yawning. It cools the brain, says Andrew C.

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Q1: What is sleep Hygiene?
A: Sleep Hygiene is variety of practices and habits that lead to good sleep quality and being fully alert during the day.
https://sleepfoundation.org/sleep-topics/sleep-hygiene
Q2: What are night terrors?
A: Night terrors are often misdiagnosed as just a simple nightmare or a person having PTSD. Symptoms of night terrors include waking up from sleep constantly, screaming and sweating,, having no recollection of bad dreams, and seeing frightening images.
http://www.nightterrors.org/

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what is the record for the longest period without sleep? who holds it?
Randy Gardner holds the record. He stayed awake for 11 days and 24 minutes.

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Back in 1965, 16-year-old high school student Randy Gardner stayed awake for 11 days and 24 minutes - that's 264.4 hours straight. It remains one of the longest documented records for a human intentionally going without sleep using no stimulants, and on the surface Gardner appeared to get through it okay, even beating Sanford University researcher William Dement in a game of pinball on the tenth day. But all was not well with Gardner, as physiological and cognitive tests began to reveal.

As the TED-Ed video reports, after just two days of zero sleep, Gardner's eyes struggled to remain focussed, he showed some signs of ataxia - an inability to repeat simple tongue twisters - and he found it difficult to identify objects based purely on touch. According to researcher John J. Ross of the US Navy Medical Neuropsychiatric Research Unit, who was responsible for monitoring the effects of Gardner's experiment, by day three, he became moody and uncoordinated, and by day five he started hallucinating.

From there he experienced trouble concentrating, forming short-term memories, and became paranoid, and irritable. Stanley Coren from the Psychiatric Times details Ross's findings by day 11:

"Expressionless appearance, speech slurred and without intonation; had to be encouraged to talk to get him to respond at all. His attention span was very short and his mental abilities were diminished.

In a serial sevens test, where the respondent starts with the number 100 and proceeds downward by subtracting seven each time, Gardner got back to 65 (only five subtractions) and then stopped. When asked why he had stopped he claimed that he couldn't remember what he was supposed to be doing."

In fact, the effects on Gardner were so dire, the Guinness Book of Records has stopped listing records for voluntary sleep deprivation so as not to encourage further attempts. This might explain why Gardner has managed to retain the title of 'record holder' in the face of several other claims, including that of another student, Jim Thomas of California State University Fresno, who reportedly stayed awake for 266.5 hours just two weeks after Gardner set the record, and Maureen Weston from Cambridgeshire in the UK, who was listed as in previous Guinness World Records editions as having stayed awake for a whopping 449 hours in 1977 during a rocking-chair marathon.

While Gardner ended up recovering from the experiment with no discernible long-term physical and mental defects, the rest of us might not be so lucky. We might not be attempting to cut out shut-eye altogether like Gardner did, but a lot of us are trying to sustain ourselves on less sleep than our bodies need, and over several years, the health effects can be very serious.

From weight gain, high blood pressure and hormone changes to illness and an increased risk of premature death, we know that the effects of consistently getting less than the recommended 7 hours sleep a night for adults and 10 hours sleep for adolescents aren't great, and as the TED-Ed video reports, in the US, 30 percent of adults, and 66 percent of teenagers are regularly sleep-deprived.

So why exactly do we need sleep, and what's happening in our bodies that causes a lack of sleep to give some people a 4.5 times higher risk of stroke? Watch the video above to find out, and see if you can fit a sneaky 20-minute nap in at work today. Your body will thank you for it.

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Watch: Here's What Happened When a Teenager Stayed Awake For 11 Days Straight

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Back in 1965, 16-year-old high school student Randy Gardner stayed awake for 11 days and 24 minutes - that's 264.4 hours straight. It remains one of the longest documented records for a human intentionally going without sleep using no stimulants, and on the surface Gardner appeared to get through it okay, even beating Sanford University researcher William Dement in a game of pinball on the tenth day.

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A serious sleeping disorder where your breathing starts and stops.

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You may need surgery if you have severe obstructive sleep apnea that does not respond to breathing devices such as a CPAP machine, or that is caused by visible obstruction to the upper airway, perhaps due to large tonsils. Possible surgical procedures include:

If surgery is considered as a possible treatment, talk to your doctor about the different types of surgical procedures, the risks and benefits of the procedures, potential discomfort, and the recovery time you will need after surgery.

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You may need surgery if you have severe obstructive sleep apnea that does not respond to breathing devices such as a CPAP machine, or that is caused by visible obstruction to the upper airway, perhaps due to large tonsils.

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Zeke: Is it true that we need less sleep as we get older? Why or why not?

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Zeke: Is it true that we need less sleep as we get older? Why or why not?

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No, it is not true that we need less sleep. As we grow older, there are changes in our "sleep architecture" that occur as we get older. The older we get, the more light sleep we get, but we get less deep sleep, causing us to be much more tired than we might be.

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Aging is an inevitable part of life. It can cause many changes in our lives. One of these changes is in sleeping patterns. Learn more about how the aging process affects our sleep.

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Do we dream during our deepest sleep?(Sergy and Ally)

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Do we dream during our deepest sleep?(Sergy and Ally)

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Yes we do dream during our deepest sleep because while we are in stage four we enter a deep sleep called REM, Where most of our dreams occur it's just a matter of actually remembering them or not due to the fact that the person who is in stage four is in a state of oblivion.

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When we sleep at night, we typically go through several sleep cycles. And each one of these cycles consists of 4 different stages of sleep. Let's go through what differentiates these stages and what we know about each of them.

This stage occurs after you have decided to sleep and your eyes are closed. During this stage-which typically lasts between 1 and 10 minutes-you are lightly asleep, and you can quickly return to being fully awake.
Defining features

Although you are asleep, you may wake up feeling like you didn't sleep at all.

Your body's muscles are not inhibited yet: your eyes roll a little bit and you may slightly open your eyelids.

Your breathing slows down and your heartbeat becomes regular.

Your blood pressure and brain temperature decrease.

The hypnic jerk we sometimes experience when falling asleep, accompanied or not by the sensation of falling down, happens during this stage. Some say it is a vestigial reflex humans developed during the evolutionary process to prevent them from falling off the trees they slept in.

Did you know?
People with irregular sleeping habits tend to have these hypnic jerks more often.

When NREM Stage 2 sleep kicks in, things get serious!
Defining features

Stage 2 sleep, which usually lasts about 20 minutes, is characterized by a slowing heart rate and a decrease in body temperature. Your body reduces its activity to prepare you to go into a deep sleep.

It becomes harder to wake you up.

Your brain starts to emit larger waves.

Your blood pressure also decreases, and other metabolic functions slow down too.

The 2 first stages of NREM Sleep together are often referred to as light sleep.

Did you know?
We spend most of our nights in Stage 2 sleep (around 45% of total sleep duration).

This sleep stage refers to the combined stages of what was previously separated into Stage 3 & 4 sleep.
Defining features

This stage typically starts 35-45 minutes after falling asleep.

As electroencephalograms show, our brain waves slow down and become larger.

At this point, you sleep through most potential sleep disturbances (noises and movements) without showing any reaction.

If you actually wake up during NREM Stage sleep, there's a high probability you are going to feel disoriented for the first few minutes.

Did you know?
Other names for this stage include "slow-wave sleep" and "Delta sleep."

This is the final stage of a standard sleep cycle. The first Rapid Eye Movement sleep stage lasts around 10 minutes and usually happens after having been asleep at least 90 minutes.
Defining features

As its name indicates, your eyes move rapidly in all directions during Rapid Eye Movement sleep.

It is during this stage of sleep (the deepest) that powerful dreams usually happen. Same goes for sleepwalking and bedwetting episodes.

This stage is also characterized by an increase of the heart and respiration rates, and their rhythms may become irregular.

REM stages typically get longer and longer as the night goes by, and the last REM stage can last an hour.

Did you know?
REM sleep is also known as "paradoxical sleep." This is because the brain waves emitted during this stage seem contradictory to sleep: Although you are sleeping, your brain waves look at lot like what can be recorded when you are fully awake. Another aspect of this paradox is the fact that even though your brain shows heightened activity, most of your muscles are paralyzed.

The image above shows the different stages of sleep, as they appear when you record your brain waves.

Thanks for reading! Now go on and get in those 8 hours.

Susie Felber

Susie is a writer, comedian, and producer who has worked in TV, film, theater, radio, video games, and online. As the daughter of a hard-working M.D., she's had a lifelong interest in health and is currently on a personal mission to "walk the walk" and get her writer's body in better shape.

View all articles

When we sleep at night, we typically go through several sleep cycles. And each one of these cycles consists of 4 different stages of sleep. Let's go through what differentiates these stages and what we know about each of them.

This stage occurs after you have decided to sleep and your eyes are closed. During this stage-which typically lasts between 1 and 10 minutes-you are lightly asleep, and you can quickly return to being fully awake.
Defining features

Although you are asleep, you may wake up feeling like you didn't sleep at all.

Your body's muscles are not inhibited yet: your eyes roll a little bit and you may slightly open your eyelids.

Your breathing slows down and your heartbeat becomes regular.

Your blood pressure and brain temperature decrease.

The hypnic jerk we sometimes experience when falling asleep, accompanied or not by the sensation of falling down, happens during this stage. Some say it is a vestigial reflex humans developed during the evolutionary process to prevent them from falling off the trees they slept in.

Did you know?
People with irregular sleeping habits tend to have these hypnic jerks more often.

When NREM Stage 2 sleep kicks in, things get serious!
Defining features

Stage 2 sleep, which usually lasts about 20 minutes, is characterized by a slowing heart rate and a decrease in body temperature. Your body reduces its activity to prepare you to go into a deep sleep.

It becomes harder to wake you up.

Your brain starts to emit larger waves.

Your blood pressure also decreases, and other metabolic functions slow down too.

The 2 first stages of NREM Sleep together are often referred to as light sleep.

Did you know?
We spend most of our nights in Stage 2 sleep (around 45% of total sleep duration).

This sleep stage refers to the combined stages of what was previously separated into Stage 3 & 4 sleep.
Defining features

This stage typically starts 35-45 minutes after falling asleep.

As electroencephalograms show, our brain waves slow down and become larger.

At this point, you sleep through most potential sleep disturbances (noises and movements) without showing any reaction.

If you actually wake up during NREM Stage sleep, there's a high probability you are going to feel disoriented for the first few minutes.

Did you know?
Other names for this stage include "slow-wave sleep" and "Delta sleep."

This is the final stage of a standard sleep cycle. The first Rapid Eye Movement sleep stage lasts around 10 minutes and usually happens after having been asleep at least 90 minutes.
Defining features

As its name indicates, your eyes move rapidly in all directions during Rapid Eye Movement sleep.

It is during this stage of sleep (the deepest) that powerful dreams usually happen. Same goes for sleepwalking and bedwetting episodes.

This stage is also characterized by an increase of the heart and respiration rates, and their rhythms may become irregular.

REM stages typically get longer and longer as the night goes by, and the last REM stage can last an hour.

Did you know?
REM sleep is also known as "paradoxical sleep." This is because the brain waves emitted during this stage seem contradictory to sleep: Although you are sleeping, your brain waves look at lot like what can be recorded when you are fully awake. Another aspect of this paradox is the fact that even though your brain shows heightened activity, most of your muscles are paralyzed.

The image above shows the different stages of sleep, as they appear when you record your brain waves.

Thanks for reading! Now go on and get in those 8 hours.

View all articles

Sleep more.

People that average more than 7 hours of sleep a night are 21% less likely to feel stressed.

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The 4 Different Stages of Sleep - Nokia Health

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When we sleep at night, we typically go through several sleep cycles. And each one of these cycles consists of 4 different stages of sleep. Let's go through what differentiates these stages and what we know about each of them. This stage occurs after you have decided to sleep and your eyes are closed.

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Also referred to as Clinomania
The difficulty of getting out of bed in the morning
(Kyle Enberg & Joey Harriosi)

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Dysania, also referred to as Clinomania, is the term for having trouble getting out of bed in the morning.

The condition is not formally recognized, but it has been used to rally those who suffer from an extreme difficulty of taking that important first step every day. It also has not yet been recognized as a valid reason for not showing up to work on time, but hopefully one day it will be.

We all know people who claim to have no trouble hopping out of bed each morning and starting their day off with a great attitude. And we appropriately assume that they belong to some sort of elite breed of human, or that they're just liars. If they are indeed telling the truth, they live dysania-free lives.

It seems the rest of us could make a compelling argument we suffer from a mild case of dysania, but it's not as common as ordinary sluggishness. Plenty of people feel tired, lazy, apathetic, or even exhausted when the alarm goes off, but people with dysania often experience actual anxiety under these normal circumstances. Of course, as is the case with many mental disorders, it can be challenging to draw definitive lines regarding who should and shouldn't be be diagnosed, or to what extent they suffer from it.

A good litmus test for whether or not you suffer from dysania is to write out specific words to describe how you feel when it's time to get out of bed. If you find it difficult, tiresome, frustrating, or challenging, you're probably like the rest of the population. However if you find the experience stressful, anxious, overwhelming or even debilitating, it's probably a good idea to talk to your doctor for more analysis and possible treatment or coping options.

While there isn't necessarily a cure for the rest of us who just wish we could sleep in a little later, there are good ideas that can serve as "treatment options." Some practical steps include getting more sleep and using different types of alarm clocks. There are sleep and alarm apps such as the Sleep Cycle app, which promises to wake you during lighter cycles of sleep and leave you feeling less tired. Alarmy is an alarm app that advertises itself as the most obnoxious alarm. It forces you to do something that requires enough effort to wake you up, like taking a picture of your bathroom sink.

Regardless of whether you seriously suffer from Dysania or just wanting to sleep in a little longer each morning, one of the best solutions is simply allowing more time to sleep. If you have a strict work schedule that requires early morning arrival, make it a priority to go to bed sooner. Conversely, if you work evenings, set the alarm an hour or two later each morning, if possible. If you find it difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep, try reBloom, an all-natural sleep solution designed to leave you refreshed in the morning.

As for the super humans out there who hop right out of bed each day, you may never know what someone with Dysania experiences, but at least now you know what to call it.

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Dysania: What it is and How to Overcome it - The Rise & Shine

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Dysania, also referred to as Clinomania, is the term for having trouble getting out of bed in the morning. The condition is not formally recognized, but it has been used to rally those who suffer from an extreme difficulty of taking that important first step every day.

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Is there a connection between sleeping positions and personalities? (Eden & Julian)

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Is there a connection between sleeping positions and personalities? (Eden & Julian)

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- there are 9 different sleeping positions linked with personalities.
-  only 5% of people say they sleep in different positions every night.

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Researchers, psychologists and sleep scientists alike have been studying the most common sleep patterns to get an inside scoop about what they mean. It turns out, there are 9 different sleeping positions, and each can tell a lot about the sleeper's personality. Let's take a look at each position, from most to least popular:

The Most Common Sleeping Positions and What They Say About You

1. The Fetal Position

The fetal position is when you curl your knees in towards your chest like you're tucked into a safe little ball.

In a study done by Chris Idzikowski, director of the UK's Sleep Assessment and Advisory Service, 41% of the sleeping participants adopted this position. In fact, double the amount of women slept in the fetal position compared to men in this experiment.

Personality Traits: Those who find comfort in this natural postition can be described as having a hard shell: tough on the outside, but a huge softy on the inside. They are typically shy when you first meet them, then tend to open up and relax quickly.

2. The Log

15% of people seem to find passing out like a log (lying on their side with their arms by their side) as the best way to catch some precious z's. Does this boring, stiff sleeping position mean the sleeper is boring too? No! In fact, the opposite is true.

Personality Traits: People who sleep like a log are known as social butterflies. Although they are friendly, carefree, and popular, these social, trusting people are known for being gullible.

3. The Yearner

As if reaching out for something, the yearner is the position where you sleep on your side, but have your arms stretched out in front of you.

Personality Traits: People who sleep like this are a little complicated: they are open-minded, yet cynical; slow and suspicious when making a decision, but stick to it once their minds are made up.

4. The Soldier

Exactly as it sounds, the soldier position is where you sleep on your back with your arms by your sides. Only 8% of sleepers claim to get the most sleep this way.

Personality Traits: Those who find themselves sleeping this way are typically quiet, reserved, and hold both themselves and other people to high standards and strict moral codes.

5. The Freefaller

Having trouble imagining this one? It's where you're lying on your stomach with your arms wrapped around your pillow and head turned to the side. Sleeping on your stomach is something many people find uncomfortable, but those who enjoy this position wouldn't have it any other way.

Personality Traits: Freefalling sleepers are bold and sociable on the outside, but typically don't have the thick skin to deal with criticism or absurd situations.

6. The Starfish

Another position that looks just the way it sounds: starfish sleepers sprawl out over the entire bed, comfortable and carefree. Another name you may be familiar with to describe it would be " spread-eagle ". If you're one to stretch out like this, chances are you're a great friend.

Personality Traits: Starfish sleepers are always eager to lend an ear or give a helping hand to their friends in need. They don't necessarily like being the center of attention, but don't mind if they find themselves there from time to time.

7. The Stargazer

This position may not be the most popular, but it's definitely a favorite position of mine. Stargazers find themselves lying on their back with their arms wrapped around their head.

Personality Traits: They make their friends a priority and do anything in their power to help those they hold dear to them. People who sleep in this position tend to have a positive, "happy-go-lucky" outlook on life.

8. The Pillow Hugger

People who are pillow huggers love to get snug and cuddled in bed, and are similar in personality to those stargazers above-they hold high value to the close, personal bonds in their life.

Personality Traits: Whether it be family, friends or a significant other, pillow huggers cherish those relationships over everything else.

9. The Thinker

Last but not least, this position is similar to the fetal position, except you'll always have a hand gently resting on your chin.

Personality Traits: Emotions run high and tend to vary between two extremes for whoever finds themselves sleeping in this manner.

It's fascinating to see the truths behind personality types and sleeping positions, and just like how your personality doesn't change over time, neither does the way you sleep. Only 5% of people reported that they sleep in a different position every night, while all other people and positions remained consistent.

Before you go to bed tonight, check out the position you find yourself in right before you fall asleep. Does your position and personality type match up?

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What Your Sleeping Position Says About Your Personality

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Researchers, psychologists and sleep scientists alike have been studying the most common sleep patterns to get an inside scoop about what they mean. It turns out, there are 9 different sleeping positions, and each can tell a lot about the sleeper's personality.

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Trevor and Tyler: Given and average human span of life, how much will they sleep?

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Trevor and Tyler: Given and average human span of life, how much will they sleep?

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If someone lives for about 75 years, they sleep about 25 years of their lives which is 9,125 days- Fun fact: If you sleep every leap day for 25 years you will get an extra 5-7 days of sleep. Work Cited- https://www.theguardian.com/notesandquires/query/0,5753,-50504,00.html

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Hannah & Emily - Can we learn during sleep? 

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Hannah & Emily - Can we learn during sleep? 

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We can't learn during sleep, but we can reinforce the knowledge we already have in our sleep. According to a study from the Swiss National Science foundation, language learners were better able to remember the words they had learned if they had listened to them again while sleeping.

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You can swot up on vocabulary in your sleep -- but only if you don't confuse your brain in the process. Researchers funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation have invited people to their sleep lab for a Dutch language course.

You can't learn new things in your sleep. Nevertheless, if you've been learning vocabulary in a foreign language, it can be highly effective to hear these words played over again while you sleep, as was already shown a year ago by researchers from the university of Zurich and Fribourg. Their new study, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, demonstrates that this only works if the brain can do its job undisturbed.
Translating doesn't help
The researchers got 27 German-speaking test subjects to learn Dutch words, then let them sleep for three hours in the sleep lab. The scientists already knew that playing back this vocabulary softly would help the test subjects to remember the words. Now they wanted to give them more information while they were asleep. The research team, led by biopsychologist Björn Rasch from the University of Fribourg, wanted to enhance the technique's impact by supplying German translations after the Dutch words. They also wanted to achieve the opposite -- in other words, they hoped that supplying incorrect translations would make the test subjects forget what they'd learned.

"To our surprise, we were neither able to enhance their memory, nor able to make them forget what they'd learned," says Rasch. He was able to confirm the original findings -- that simply cuing the Dutch vocabulary during sleep enabled the subjects to recall about ten percent more words. "But playing a second word right after the first seems to disrupt the relevant memory processes that had hitherto been activated," says Rasch. He and his team have concluded that it's not the total information offered to the brain that is important. Instead, the brain just needs a nudge in order to enhance the ability to recall.
Only in the lab -- for now
The results of this memory test were reflected in the brain wave patterns of the test subjects. While individual Dutch words were being played, the researchers recorded an enhancement in the waves characteristic of sleep and recollection (sleep spindles and theta-oscillation). But these activity patterns disappeared completely as soon as another word followed on from the first.

In a subsequent experiment, the researchers were also able to demonstrate that the time span between word pairs was of decisive importance. If the German translation followed only after 2 seconds instead of after 0.2 seconds, the disruptive effect disappeared. But there was still no enhancement of impact.

"For us, these results are further evidence that sleep promotes memory formation, with the brain spontaneously activating content that it had learnt beforehand. We were able to enhance this effect by playing back the words," says Rasch. It's as yet uncertain whether there will soon be an app to help people get better marks in their vocabulary tests. "Now we really want to get out of the controlled situation of the sleep lab, to see whether the impact we've observed can also be reproduced under realistic conditions in everyday life," he says.

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sleep disorders; language acquisition; insomnia; obstructive sleep apnea; child development; infant and preschool learning; intelligence; literacy

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You can swot up on vocabulary in your sleep -- but only if you don't confuse your brain in the process. Researchers funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation have invited people to their sleep lab for a Dutch language course. You can't learn new things in your sleep.