Clear The Brain During Sleep For New Learning

A new theory about sleep's benefits for the brain gets a boost from fruit flies in Science. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found evidence that sleep, already recognized as a promoter of long-term memories, also helps clear room in the brain for new learning. More at...

If you've ever been sleep-deprived, you know the feeling that your brain is full of wool. Now, a study published in the April 3 edition of the journal Science has molecular and structural evidence of that woolly feeling - proteins that build up in the brains of sleep-deprived fruit flies and drop to lower levels in the brains of the well-rested. The proteins are located in the synapses, those specialized parts of neurons that allow brain cells to communicate with other neurons. More at...

A study in the April 1 issue of the journal SLEEP is the first to demonstrate that chronic insomnia with objectively measured short sleep time is an independent and clinically significant risk factor for hypertension. Results indicate that participants with insomnia and an objectively measured, severely short sleep duration of less than five hours had a risk for hypertension that was 500 percent higher than participants without insomnia who slept more than six hours. More at...

A new study from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health shows a positive link between the amount of the hypnotic (sleeping medicine) zopiclone in the blood and the chance of being assessed as impaired in a clinical examination. The study also included drivers who only showed alcohol in their blood test. More at...

People are more aware of the effects of lack of sleep than ever before, yet over a third take a stoical attitude and do nothing about it, a reflection of the increasing social acceptability of being tired, according to a new report 'Sleep in the Information Age' published today by the Future Foundation. The report was released with the launch of Sleep well, Live well, a new campaign aiming to raise awareness of insomnia and sleep problems. More at...