Committing to a consistent sleep schedule – going to bed and waking up at the same time every day, even on weekends – helps to regulate your body’s natural sleep-wake cycle. Of course, creating a sleep-friendly environment is just as important. A cool, dark and quiet bedroom promotes ...
What is the sleep-wake cycle? The sleep-wake cycle involves two pathways in your brain: a wake pathway and a sleep pathway. Each pathway has many neurotransmitters that send signals to determine whether you are awake or asleep. Under regular conditions, sleep occurs when the wake neurotransmitte...
Regulates Your Body Clock: Our bodies have a natural circadian rhythm that dictates when we feel sleepy and when we’re alert. A consistent sleep schedule helps synchronize your body clock with your chosen sleep times, making it easier to fall asleep and wake up at the desired hours. Enhances...
we get pretty much all of our deepest sleep in the first half of the night. This means that after just a few hours of sleep, our body has likely got all the deep sleep it needs.
Welcome to their first major sleep regression. Four-month sleep regression signs include frequent night waking, shorter naps and increased fussiness. As your little one’s sleep cycle matures, they spend more time in lighter sleep stages, which means more frequent wakeups. Plus, they’re becoming...
Sleep syncing, also known as circadian synchronization, is theprocess of aligning our sleep patterns with our body's natural circadian rhythm. The circadian rhythm is a 24-hour internal clock that regulates various physiological processes, including the sleep-wake cycle. It governs when we feel ale...
Holth JK, Fritschi SK, Wang C, Pedersen NP, Cirrito JR, Mahan TE, Finn MB, Manis M, Geerling JC, Fuller PM, Lucey BP, Holtzman DM (2019) The sleep-wake cycle regulates brain interstitial fluid tau in mice and CSF tau in humans. Science 363(6429):880–884. https://doi.org/10.11...
Right now, we're in the middle of one such cycle. While that's going on, the boundary line that defines the Arctic Circleretreatsabout 46 to 49 feet (14 to 15 meters) northward per year. Remember Grimsey Island, the Icelandic outcrop we mentioned? Well, scientists project that the Arctic...
Sleep Paralysis: a demon in my room? Working for Greenpeace as an energy campaigner, I had been through one of the most challenging events of my life. The combination ofextreme stress and lack of sleephad left me exhausted on a new level. When I finally returned home, I fell into a de...
Tryptophan is an essential amino acid. Your body can’t produce it by itself, so it needs to find it in the food you eat. Tryptophan can be made into serotonin, which can in turn be made into the melatonin hormone. Melatonin regulates your sleep-wake cycle. Your body produces it mostly...