How to end bedtime procrastination

Explore a series of bedtime exercises to improve sleep

Low-impact, mindful movements can potentially help the body and mind relax before sleeping. Such exercises could be a helpful complement to regular exercise during the day.

The benefits of power napping

Research shows it may not be beneficial to fight that mid-afternoon drowsiness: Power naps can make you more alert, reduce stress, and improve your cognitive function.

The brain will attempt to rest itself in periods of chronic sleep deprivation

Skimping on sleep lengthens reaction times and blunts decision-making skills. At a certain point, the brain will try to sneak sleep where it can, shifting sections offline even as you remain awake. Going without sleep raises blood pressure, undermines the immune system, and increases one's risk of dementia.

Studies suggest when you sleep is as important as how much you get, and syncing with your circadian rhythms may lead to less fatigue and improved long-term health outcomes

There is a best way to wake up—but not a best time

Sleep and circadian rhythm researchers say that waking up at a consistent time each day—even on weekends—and viewing morning sunlight are the best ways to keep body functions running at their peak. (Some users may encounter a paywall.)

Sleep training: risks and benefits

Sleep training, which can range from implementing a nighttime routine to letting your baby cry it out, is controversial, but does it work? While dozens of studies have found sleep interventions to be effective, it appears that many of these studies...

Forty to 110 minutes of deep sleep is recommended per night

Adults typically spend 10% to 20% of the night in deep sleep, also known as slow-wave sleep, with the rest of the night spent either in light sleep or REM states.

The US loses roughly $400B a year in productivity due to sleep deprivation

For an article about a woman who built a business empire telling bedtime stories, the Hustle created this graphic showing the estimated GDP loss associated with chronic insomnia. The United States had a much more significant loss than other countries.

Eliminating distractions is essential to improving one's attention span

Setting a baseline, removing distractions, establishing focus rituals, taking breaks, and finding purpose in your task are five science-backed practices that can help address a short attention span. Bestselling author Daniel Pink breaks down how to approach each part of the plan and introduce these habits to your life today.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

A quick technical overview of insomnia

Insomnia is one of the world's most common sleep disorders. Characterized by difficulties falling and staying asleep, long-term struggles with insomnia can prelude or contribute to health difficulties. Treatments range from sleep hygiene management and relaxation therapy, and medication, including antidepressants and melatonin.

How to cope with postvacation blues

While it might seem counterintuitive, new research shows that experiencing exhaustion or a lack of motivation postvacation is fairly common. While travel itself can, of course, be tiring, the contrast between vacation freedom and endless Slack messages can be even more so. This article explores why the return-to-work existential crisis happens, and offers advice for beating the post-vaycay blues. Read it here.

Dangers of a record-breaking, sleep-skipping stunt

In 1963, 17-year-old Randy Gardner decided to stay awake for as long as it took to break the current world record. He managed to stay awake for 11 days. In 2017, the then-71-year-old Gardner told NPR that his experience had come back to haunt him as insomnia. The challenge has since been removed from the Guinness Book of World Records due to its dangerous consequences.

The neuroscience of REM atonia disorders, where patients act out dreams

What prevents the typical person from acting out their dreams? Temporary paralysis of skeletal muscles, usually leading up to, and during, REM sleep. This academic article and related graphics explore what happens when this process doesn't go as planned, leading to REM sleep behavior disorder.

How your subconscious influences your decisions

How much of your desires and daily choices are truly yours? One of the most effective ways to influence someone's subconscious is when they're asleep. To study this possibility, researchers trained participants to be able to dream lucidly, a phenomenon that occurs when a dreamer knows they're dreaming.

How to help teens balance social media use and mental healthcare

While initially alluring, excessive social media use is proven to lead to increased feelings of isolation, mental health declines, increased stress, and general dissatisfaction among teens. Conducting digital audits to track screen time, adding friction (or obstacles) to app usage to reduce mindless scrolling, and investing time in offline activities and hobbies may help.

A third of US couples have opted for a 'sleep divorce'

A 2023 survey of roughly 2,000 US adults showed roughly a third of the participants opted to stay in a different room from their partner at night. Reasons for the so-called "sleep divorce" varied, from snoring issues to offset schedules. The survey, run by the American Academy for Sleep Medicine, also revealed the most sleep divorces within millennials. See the study for more on this change in sleep habits.

'Slow productivity' as a humane approach to work

Work is increasingly encroaching on every part of our lives, while digital technologies enable supervisors to micromanage every part of an employee’s day. “Slow productivity” is a movement to alter the pace and quality of one’s work to avoid burnout and provide a more humane approach to work.

How to know if you're a workaholic

Are you a workaholic, or do you simply enjoy work? As it turns out, there's a big difference between putting in long hours at the office because you enjoy your job and actually having a work addiction. If you're reading this on hour 12 of your 14-hour workday and wondering which category you fall into, peruse this article to find out.

A closer look at why people snore

Snoring is simply noise caused by improper airflow during sleep—and while it’s something that most people will do at some point in their lives, it can also be indicative of larger health problems. Generally speaking, snoring occurs when soft...

'Zeitgebers' like light are external cues for the circadian clock

German for "time giver" or "time cues," common external zeitgebers include sunlight, food, and physical activity. The timing of these external influences can shift circadian clocks or lead to irregularities: A 2018 study, for example, found that later light exposure and meals were linked to later timing of peak activity and bedtimes.

How the feared self fuels OCD

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is characterized by intrusive thoughts that prompt people to enact compulsions—behaviors intended to relieve the anxiety or stress from the obsession. A significant intrusive thought OCD sufferers endure is the fear they will become a dangerous or immoral person. Therapeutic approaches try to show patients this is just a story that can be set aside.

Researchers believe the brain consolidates memories, processes emotions, and plans for the future during dream states

In recent years a child anxiety expert has created and tested a novel phobia and anxiety treatment approach for children, focused on changing how parents respond to the fears.

Bug-bitten and bedeviled: a delightful dive into the bedbug

Bedbugs can live up to 6 months without food—meaning they can lurk in your bedroom while you try to eradicate them and give you a sense that you've effectively annihilated them. What else do we know about these pesky little pests? This deep, deep...

How grudges mostly hurt ourselves

Grudges feel like revenge against those who have done us some wrong and are very common. In this "Hidden Brain" podcast, psychologists explain how grudges end up only hurting us rather than those we hold them against. By using historical examples, the researchers show the counterintuitive danger of grudges and how people can learn how to avoid them.

A mother goes viral for sharing tips for making her home a "hang out" spot for her son and his friends

A mom shared an Instagram reel of her college-aged son and friends hanging out and playing cards in her dining room. She wrote a note explaining how she helped make this happened, and provided tips to other parents hoping to keep their children visiting home for a long time. She encouraged parents to keep snacks in the house, say yes when their kids asked to hang with friends, and to be okay with a bit of a mess, among other things.

Board games can improve life satisfaction and coping self-efficacy

They provide distraction, foster self-determination, and promote personal transformation. Purposeful engagement with games builds the capacity to face real-life problems.

How to get out of debt

This article provides a few helpful tips for getting out of debt, such as learning more about the debt itself and asking for better interest rates. It also explains the popular "debt snowball" and "debt avalanche" methods for getting out of debt. Curious to learn more? Read the full article here.

Use this tool to calculate the dollar value of your parental mental load, from meal planning to coordinating after-school care, then see resources that help generate solutions.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

To reduce wrinkles in clothing, research recommends gentle wash cycles with more water and tumble drying with smaller loads and longer times.

Apeirophobia is an overwhelming fear of living forever, perhaps stemming from the brain's inability to conceptualize an infinite life.

Massive 3D printers have been used to build homes by stacking layers of 'concrete toothpaste,' a fire-resistant material that effectively insulates against outside noise.

Play the role of a student in a game where you try to navigate college and remain debt-free, selecting different income levels, high school experience, race, ethnicity, and more.

The Dracula character, now seen as the vampire archetype, was inspired by a seafood-induced nightmare its creator experienced.

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

When you complete a CAPTCHA on a website to prove you are human, you may be unknowingly training algorithms for self-driving cars, whose systems require training data to help identify crosswalks, bicycles, and other outdoor objects.

After the Boston Tea Party, colonists switched to coffee, which became the main morning drink for revolutionaries.

Some renewable energy sources may weaken the resiliency of electric grids by removing outage buffers provided by coal- and natural gas-fired plants, which provide the system with more time to find a new power source if a plant goes down.

In 2009, the nation was gripped by the story of a missing young boy who was believed to be floating over Colorado in a homemade balloon, until it was revealed that he was at home the whole time.

Read a deep dive on the 'all-purpose healing' peptide BPC-157.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

Explore a list of the 100 best novels of all time, compiled by some of the world's best living writers, including Salman Rushdie, Stephen King, and Jennifer Egan.

Apollo astronauts left items in the moon's 'toss zone,' including golf balls, family photos, and bags of human waste, to make room for lunar rocks.

Learn more about the history of fireworks, which dates back to an accidental invention during an alchemist's quest for information about immortality.

70 years ago today, city officials in Santa Cruz, California, banned rock 'n' roll to protect its youth from corruption after witnessing a 'provocative' concert the night before.

Coral polyps reproduce via broadcast spawning, where entire reefs simultaneously release reproductive cells for about one hour, once a year.

Watch contemporary footage covering the US-backed Shah of Iran fleeing the country in the face of the 1979 Iranian Revolution

Domino's Pizza's 30-minute delivery guarantee was responsible for the chain's 1980s surge, but it was discontinued after the company was found liable for delivery driver accidents.