49
votes
Does sleeping fewer hours than needed cause common cold?
There have been some studies directly linking sleep deprivation to increased risk of catching a cold ("Behaviorally Assessed Sleep and Susceptibility to the Common Cold Sleep". 2015;38:1353–9.).
...
- 3,313
17
votes
Does sleeping fewer hours than needed cause common cold?
A new study published in this week's journal SLEEP finds that people who sleep less than six hours are more likely to catch a cold. Researchers tracked 164 healthy men and women for a week at a time, ...
- 281
9
votes
Why do we sleep?
We don't actually know. But these two theories are strong candidates:
Sleep 'cleans' the brain of toxins. Metabolic waste products of neural activity are cleared out of the sleeping brain at a faster ...
- 501
8
votes
Why do some people become more aggressive when tired?
From Poor sleep as a potential causal factor in aggression and violence
In most people poor sleep will not evoke actual physical aggression, but certain individuals, such as forensic psychiatric
...
- 2,603
7
votes
Accepted
What's the technical difference between fainting (and being unconscious) and falling asleep (and sleeping)?
For this answer I assume that we are talking about sleep in healthy individuals as well as fainting as an isolated event without underlying disease or injury.
The most common form of what we call "...
- 1,127
7
votes
Accepted
What is "integrated spindle activity" in plain English?
Integrated spindle activity is just this paper's measure of the intensity of spindles. It isn't really a term of art, there is no defined thing "integrated spindle activity," it is just a description ...
- 44k
6
votes
How does waking up from an alarm clock work?
The brain does not "shut down" during sleep. While not everything about sleeping is understood, we do know that certain areas in the brain remain active during sleep. There is a good overview on sleep ...
- 2,258
5
votes
Why do we dream while sleeping?
Disclaimer: the shortest answer still remains we don't know...yet.
Talking from the evolutionary perspective, I have found as many as 8 theories about the purpose of dreaming, some of which even ...
- 14.1k
5
votes
Can adenosine be cleared?
In order to do this you would need to find a compound that does all of the following:
Crosses the blood-brain barrier. Many pharmaceuticals are not able to do this.
Binds strongly to, or has some ...
- 44k
5
votes
Accepted
Breathing with Clogged Nose during Sleep
Most people with colds/allergies/stuffy noses don't die in the middle of the night. Why?
Prevention of oxygen deprivation is powerfully regulated. If insufficient air intake is possible through the ...
- 24.7k
5
votes
Accepted
Melatonin production, sleep, and "cyan light"; how might this finding be possible?
Melatonin production is in response to photoreceptors in the eye, in part, the same photoreceptors in rods and cones that process and transmit information about the wavelength of light (eventually) to ...
- 8,751
5
votes
Why do morning people have shorter biological clocks?
Circadian rhythms are entrained by light via the suprachiasmatic nucleus, a part of the brain that receives signals from special retinal ganglion cells that are directly sensitive to (mainly blue) ...
- 44k
5
votes
Accepted
What are the essential criteria for sleep in living organisms?
I take it you did not even read the article. The article quite nicely expounds on this question. The whole idea is that sleep used to be considered as a human or psychological phenomenon that could ...
- 6,192
5
votes
Are there any biometrics that can measure tiredness (sleepiness)?
Most of the sleep-deprivation studies I've seen measure cognitive impairment as a way of quantifying sleepiness, similar to some of the metrics taken in drug and alcohol intoxication studies.
Here's a ...
- 4,671
5
votes
How are the receptors in the thalamus weakened/shut down during sleep?
Sleep research is a big field and the answer to your question can take many forms and fill libraries. Having said that, it is not so much inhibition of the thalamus per se, but a change in firing ...
- 52.3k
4
votes
Accepted
What is blue light?
Blue light means wavelengths that appear to the human eye as blue when they are presented alone. This light is important for sleep/wake cycle regulation because this is the wavelength that cells that ...
- 44k
4
votes
Why do some people become more aggressive when tired?
being tired affects the brain in some ways similar to being drunk, it is not so much making you aggressive as impairing your ability to suppress aggression. The amygdala routinely produces aggressive ...
- 41
4
votes
Accepted
Is it possible to have sleep paralysis while sleepwalking?
While it is hard to completely rule out this convergence ever happening (perhaps cases haven't been reported), it is highly unlikely due to the specific stages of the ultradian sleep cycle at which ...
- 351
4
votes
Accepted
Why is Sleep apnea only risk to males?
Wikipedia actually means that being male is a risk factor for sleep apnea, which is a jargony way of saying that males have been observed to develop sleep apnea more often than females.
The article ...
- 3,052
3
votes
Do Vaccinium membranaceum plants need a minimum amount of darkness per 24 hours?
Some plants are long day plants -- they require a certain number of days longer than a certain number of hours.
Some plants are long night plants -- they need nights that are longer than a certain ...
3
votes
Can adenosine be cleared?
As @Bryan Krause pointed out before me, unless you can regulate adenosine signaling in a selective way any manipulation is probably going to cause important side-effects.
If your goal is to regulate ...
- 1,198
3
votes
Names for effects of sleep deprivation on the brain & body
During extreme sleep deprivation you can briefly fall asleep, this is known as a microsleep. The disorientation that you experienced can be referred to as Hypogogia.
Hypogogia covers a range of ...
- 1,306
3
votes
Is it better to maximize sleep, or align to ~1.5 hr cycles
The thing about sleep is that there is no "one size fits all". Think about it, if we are all biochemical different, then why would we all need the same amount of sleep? Why would all of our sleep ...
- 556
3
votes
Is it better to maximize sleep, or align to ~1.5 hr cycles
Neither
Sleep cycles do not have a set length.
sleep for 7 hours every night and you won't interrupt a sleep cycle. 6 hours may be fine for a person but it is unlikely.
You feel tired when you ...
- 14.3k
3
votes
Does the effect of light on melatonin release adapts to light level over long periods of time?
This paper, for example, shows that indeed, melatonin is suppressed more in the light after a week of dim light exposure compared to after a week of bright light exposure.
However, the authors note ...
- 44k
3
votes
Why do the humans become sleepy after meals?
A relatively simple answer to explain your observation (yes, its not just you, it is something that actually occurs):
Orexin (or hypocretin) is a neuropeptide that controls arousal, wakefulness and ...
- 14.1k
3
votes
Why did the process of sleep evolve in many animals? What is its evolutionary advantage?
Why sleep persists is fairly easy, why it is needed is an unknown.
Sleep appears to be necessary in any organism with a brain, that is anything with any kind of concentration of neurons. That is when ...
- 14.3k
3
votes
What is the function of dreaming? Does a particular hormone secretion interfere with dreaming? Why do some people dream more?
Dreams are hallucinations that occur during certain stages of sleep. They’re strongest during REM sleep, or the rapid eye movement stage, when you may be less likely to recall your dream.
Research is ...
3
votes
Is once per day the optimal sleep pattern for all mammals?
So as we know that every mammal needs atleast some amount of sleep or a resting period to perform cognitive functions through out the their day, this however can vary drastically based on the mammal's ...
- 106
2
votes
Does sleep duration vary for animals based on time of the year?
Yes, people, as well as animals regulate their drowsiness by light. There's a well known experiment conducted by Michel Suffre on himself in 1972. When he spent a month with no light and no ...
- 2,430
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