Healing Body, Mind, Spirit
For better shut-eye, don’t count blessings or sheep at bedtime; take stock instead. A small but intriguing study found that writing a to-do list before turning in helps people get to sleep faster. The reason? The mental housekeeping “offloaded” worry about what’s upcoming, according to research in the Journal of Experimental Psychology. The study, led by … Read more
Forget warm milk. A new study from the University of Pennsylvania says that fish may be the key to a good night’s sleep. The paper, published Thursday in Scientific Reports, found an association between regular fish consumption and high sleep quality among Chinese schoolchildren, likely thanks to the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish. Largely as a result … Read more
Omega-3 fatty acids are most commonly derived from fish oils, including tuna and salmon, and they have been linked to numerous health benefits. But now, a new study suggests that having higher levels of omega-3 DHA is associated with better sleep. The researchers, from the University of Oxford in the UK, have published results of … Read more
Spending an extra 90 minutes in bed may not seem like the obvious way to lose weight, but according to a new study, it could be the key to shedding excess pounds. Scientists from King’s College London have discovered that people who sleep for longer are less likely to pick sugary treats, or reach for … Read more
Being interrupted during sleep is likely to affect your mood more than not getting enough sleep, a study suggests. Researchers at the John Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, USA studied 62 men and women and split them into three experimental conditions. One group were subject to “forced awakenings” during sleep, others went … Read more
Sleeping on your side rather than your back or stomach might play a role in helping reduce your risk of developing Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases, according to a new study. Side sleeping opens a passage in the brain called the glymphatic pathway that dispels waste and other chemicals, say the researchers from Stony Brook … Read more
A run of poor sleep can have a dramatic effect on the internal workings of the human body, say UK researchers. The activity of hundreds of genes was altered when people’s sleep was cut to less than six hours a day for a week. Writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the … Read more