BLOG & PODCAST

This is an interesting podcast in which we were featured as part of the topic on Behavior Effects of Sleep.   This Behavioral Grooves Podcast is led by well know behavioral scientists, Tim Houlihan and Kurt Nelson: Click here to view podcast

Almost everyone has had the experience of waking up after a bad night of sleep feeling tired and a bit “off”. Our brain feels sluggish – like it’s not “hitting on all cylinders” – but does this directly affect our mood or behavior? The association between sleep disorders and mood disorders has been known for quite some time: it is … Read More

Throughout history, people have spoken of the value of music in helping one get to sleep. People have used song and soothing music to put babies and young children to sleep. This would suggest that music may be able to help those with sleep disorders to sleep better. This blog examines what the research into music and sleep disorders has … Read More

With the vast growth in wearables and apps claiming they help determine “sleep quality”, combined with a growing public movement led by celebrities such as Arianna Huffington, sleep is finally being recognized as an major part of our health and wellness.    Beyond just the health implications, we all understand, intuitively, that a bad night of sleep impairs our activities of … Read More

Have you ever said to someone, “I’m a little slow today — I didn’t get enough sleep”?   We all seem to innately know that being deprived of sleep results in changes in how we function mentally.  Most of us describe this as being “slow” likely due to the perceptible delay in how quickly we are able to perform different mental … Read More

Getting good sleep can change your life – it did mine. by Karen Underwood, MD MBA, Mother, doctor, businesswoman, & sleep advocate I knew that sleep was important, but for nearly my entire life I didn’t realize just how important it was to sleep well. Everyone feels better after a good night’s sleep, but few people realize that crucial processes occur during … Read More

Over the past 10 years, the boom in smartphones has led to a similar surge in all types of smartphone apps, particularly disease and wellness-related apps. By 2014, there were already over 40,000 of such apps available with the number probably approaching or surpassing 100,000 today. Industry estimates are that by 2018, over 50% of the more than 3 Billion … Read More

All of us have noted at one time or another that someone we know looks “tired”.  We often don’t give it a second thought but we are quite good at assessing someone’s sleep condition just by observing them.   As we have discussed in previous blogs, Americans generally don’t get enough sleep.  A 2014 Gallup survey (Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index) of … Read More

Over the past few years, there has been a lot of research linking sleep disorders and Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Anybody who has taken care of people with AD knows that the patients have very abnormal sleep patterns. The big question researchers have been asking lately is whether the sleep disorder is due to AD alone, or could sleep disorders, in … Read More

Welcome to the third part of this series examining: are fitness trackers fit to track your fitness? In this three-part series, we are reviewing the scientific data on the accuracy of such trackers for the three most popular uses: 1) activity/step count tracking, 2) heart rate tracking, and 3) sleep tracking. In our first part, we examined activity/step count tracking … Read More

Welcome to the second part of this series examining: are fitness trackers fit to track your fitness?  In this three-part series, we are examining the scientific data on the accuracy of such trackers for the three most popular uses: activity/step count tracking, heart rate tracking, and sleep tracking. In our first part, we examined activity/step count tracking noting that research … Read More

Fitness trackers have taken the world by storm, led by the popularity of FitBit and the Apple Watch. There are, literally, hundreds of fitness trackers available worldwide from all sorts of companies, from hard-core fitness/sport companies to digital technology companies to companies focused on narrow health areas, such as pediatric obesity. FitBit was one of the first to market the … Read More

Americans are terrible sleepers. Although overwhelming evidence suggests that getting less than 7 hours of sleep is bad for your health, we just can’t seem to find the time. Americans sleep 2 hours less than they did a century ago.  The reasons are many: increased work hours, faster-paced lifestyles, the stimulation of “always on” devices (smartphones and tablets), and a … Read More