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Tag: sleep

  • Sleep Loss Robs Your Health And Wealth

    Sleep Loss Robs Your Health And Wealth

    Enjoy your extra hour of sleep this week, because most Americans switch to Daylight Savings Time Monday and will have to get up one hour earlier. However, sleep loss is a year-round problem that affects everything from your health to your wallet.

    Economic Impact Of Sleep Loss

    A Rand Corporation analysis found that the United States economy loses 2.28 percent of GDP each year due to sleep deprivation. That amounts to about $411 billion based on 1.2 million working days lost each year.

    The National Safety Council (NSC) estimates that absenteeism from insomnia costs employers an average of $976 per year per employee.

    Added Healthcare Costs Of Sleep Loss

    Sleep loss disorders add $94.9 billion to healthcare costs in the United States, according to a study by Mass Eye and Ear, a Bingham General Hospital.

    People suffering from sleep loss make twice as many doctor visits and receive twice as many prescriptions as those without sleeping problems, the study reports.

    Study author Neil Bhattacharyya, MD, FACS, who is also a professor at Harvard Medical School, thinks the costs are even higher than his study showed. He notes that many patients suffering chronic sleep loss are probably not yet diagnosed.

    “If we as a country continue this pattern,” said Bhattacharyya when the study was released in 2021, “this huge burden to the healthcare system will grow and affect patient care for everyone.”

    Get Your Seven Hours

    Benjamin Franklin knew the importance of sleep on well-being and finances when he wrote, “early to be and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” Accordingly, he lived his mantra keeping to a strict schedule of sleeping from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. 

    Franklin was on to something, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) which recommends at least seven hours of sleep for adults 18 to 60 years of age.

    The health risks from sleep loss include heart disease, stroke, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, anxiety, and other mental distress.

    Sleep Loss From Insomnia

    New research revealed last week showed that people who suffer from insomnia are 69 percent more likely to have a heart attack. The report was presented at a joint meeting of the American College of Cardiology and World Congress of Cardiology.

    If you get less than five hours of sleep, your risk of heart attack is greater, according to the study. In addition, women are more likely than men to suffer heart attacks. 

    “Not surprisingly, people with insomnia who also had high blood pressure, cholesterol or diabetes had an even higher risk of having a heart attack than those who didn’t,”  said Yomna E. Dean, author of the study. “People with diabetes who also have insomnia had a twofold likelihood of having a heart attack.”

    Benefits Of Good Sleep

    On the other side of the ledger, good sleep provides health benefits.

    Last week another study related to sleep demonstrated that people who get sufficient sleep are better able to stay with exercise and diet goals. The study was presented at a meeting of the American Heart Association. 

    According to the U. S. Department of Health and Human Resources, the benefits of getting good sleep on a regular basis include:

    • Fewer illnesses
    • Maintaining a healthy weight
    • Reduced risk of chronic diseases
    • Lower stress and better mood
    • Clearer thinking and better decision making
    • Improved relations with other people 

    Preventing sleep loss takes a plan, according to the CDC. It provides some tips.

    • Do what Franklin did. Go to bed and get up at the same time.
    • Make your bedroom dark, quiet, relaxing, and comfortable.
    • Remove electronic devices, such as televisions, computers, and smartphones from your bedroom.
    • Avoid large meals, caffeine, and alcohol before bedtime.
    • Exercise.

    If all that is too dry for you, take inspiration from Shakespeare. He wrote a lot about sleep. For example:

    “The deep of night is crept upon our talk,

    And Nature must obey necessity.” – from the play Julius Caesar

    (This post was first featured on savingadvice.com)

  • Quality of Sleep: Why it Matters

    Quality of Sleep: Why it Matters

    Recent world and national events have heightened stress, even more, bringing the total portion of stressed Americans to 80%. The ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine is a domineering contributor, alongside inflation’s price increases and supply chain concerns that have damaged product availability. 

    Burnout is Increasing

    National surveys are beginning to reflect how hardship is negatively affecting work ethic and work and motivation. The result of this mounting stress has pushed a current 25% of Americans to identify as “approaching burnout”. A large majority, over 60% of U.S. adults concur that they “desperately need a vacation”. Additionally, 2 in 3 Americans report being “often mentally tired even when they haven’t been physically active,” revealing the holistic exhaustion that’s nagging U.S. society.

    This growing stress is producing poor sleep, which negatively affects productivity, with studies revealing significant economic effects as a result. Individuals who report getting a consistent seven to eight hours of sleep per night have been proven to be 29% more productive during the day than those who sleep less than seven hours. Affecting performance on a national scale, this lost productivity results in a 2.28% American GDP decrease, and a loss of a whopping 1.2 million working days each year. Poor sleep produces poor performance.

    The Benefits of Quality Sleep

    A few of the myriad of benefits that good sleep brings include enhanced focus and memory, aiding both short-term and long-term memory. Work performance has been proven to receive an enhancement as well, as cognitive function is ignited and better oriented toward productivity. Emotional responses are better balanced, giving well-rested individuals the emotional intelligence to respond in both logically and emotionally appropriate manners. Lastly, the combination of these perks along with others produces more fortified and healthy relationships among those who sleep sweetly.

    While there are many proclaimed keys to good sleep, two simple ones bring more Z’s via comfort. First, the color scheme of your room changes how you relax in it. Neutral and deep hues produce more relieving and soothing ambiances according to psychology, producing a wind-down environment. Blue, purple, gray, and cream tones have been shown to settle the mind. If your room doesn’t need a facelift, studies show that opting for these colors as pillowcases proves effective in augmenting better sleep. 

    Research also shows that clean sheets elicit improved sleep. Washing new sheets after buying them, a step many customers skip, removes the stiffening properties added to them for display. Investing in additive-free laundry detergent helps significantly, decreasing the itchiness and skin irritability that some sheets seem to produce. Lastly, washing bedding more often has been shown to increase 73% of adults’ commitment and excitement to sleep, with clean sheets generating cleaner, more beneficial sleep.

    When investing in better bedding, compare thread counts. Thread counts ranging from 200 to 800 connote softer fabrics that are longer lasting with increased durability. Using your senses, and touching sheets of various thread counts is the best way to decipher which is right for you. Additionally, switching sheets to match the outside temperature has been proven effective. Warmer fabrics, like jersey and flannel, keep sleepers warm in the winter, while light cotton sheets keep us cool and calm in the summer..

    Self-care is crucial in acquiring and maintaining the healthy mental state we seek. Time is the key, as investing free time in mediation, wellness practices, and catching mindful moments throughout the day can create a world of serenity. Personal assistants, grocery delivery services, and taking more time off from work can help clear up your schedule to return more time to you. 

    Charging $25 per month to manage five of your daily time-consuming tasks, personal assistants can help free up time spent on the mundane. Cloud-based personal helpers are equipped to excel in time management, ensuring that your to-dos get checked off on time by handling bill payments, notifications for scheduled calls, and scheduling due/routine appointments among other responsibilities. Grocery delivery services save time by curbing the effort put into the commute, isle surfing, list checking, and sustaining patience in long checkout lines. On average, these services cost $100 per year, excluding tips, making your only responsibility list building; and, previous lists can be resubmitted.

    Opting for and inquiring about more time off is important in our hyper-productive society. A significant portion, 55% of Americans neglect their time off, failing to use all of their given time off. Many employees report increased difficulty with taking time off when working from home, as their assignments and perceived time to complete them increase. Definitively taking more of it is reinvigorating and reduces stress, making the time you do spend working upon return more productive and of higher quality.

    In Conclusion

    Catch your needed Z’s by taking more time for you and investing in higher quality bedding and sleep hygiene practices. Sweet dreams and learn more about the quality of sleep in the infographic below:

    Stressed & Not Sleeping — How you can improve your sleep
    Source: PizunaLinens

  • Why Successful People Value Their Sleep

    What do Jeff Bezos and Whitney Wolfe Herd have in common?  Both are billionaires, and both have spoken publicly on the value of getting enough sleep.  According to Bezos, “8 hours of sleep makes a big difference… that’s the needed amount to feel energized and excited.”  Herd agrees, saying that “nothing is more nourishing to your mind, body, and soul than a good night’s sleep.”  Many successful people agree; both Marie Kondo and Warren Buffet also claim to get the recommended 8 hours of sleep each night. 

    Outside the realm of public figures, science also preaches the benefits of sleeping well.  Regular sleep improves both declarative and procedural memory, making both fact retrieval and routine task mastery easier.  For jobs that require creativity and problem solving skills, it is true that solutions often come in the form of dreams; REM sleep is one of the biggest factors of nurtured creativity.  Just as valuable as doing well the first time is avoiding errors.  Sleep drastically reduces the number of clerical errors and mistakes people make.  The benefits of sleep go beyond mental; sleep also bolsters the immune system.    People who regularly get between 7 and 8 hours of sleep are 29% more productive than those who sleep less than 5, increasing their chances of success.

    Despite all this research singing sleep’s praises, many Americans are still hesitant to invest.  Some truly do remain ignorant, but others see the night hours as a scarce supply of free time.  It can be hard to commit to spending most of one’s non-working hours unconscious.  Yet getting enough sleep is a quality of life issue.  The more (and better) sleep one gets, the longer they live.  The better financial decisions they are able to make.  The safer they are behind the wheel.  Insufficient sleep costs Americans more than $411 billion every year.  “Sleep deprivation is an illegal torture method… but most of us do it to ourselves,” says Ryan Hurd, an independent researcher.

    How can people improve their habits?  There are several strategies out there.  Some tips apply to certain groups more than others.  For example, alcoholism devastates an individual’s sleep.  2 or more servings of alcohol a day reduces sleep quality by 39.3%.  On the subject of alcohol, all-nighters (going 48 hours without sleep) have similar mental effects to heavy intoxication.  The worst thing a person can do to their sleep schedule is get none of it.  For individuals with insomnia, a weighted blanket can turn the tide in moderate cases. 

    More common sleeping tips include washing one’s sheets more often.  73% of people say they are more excited to sleep with fresh sheets.  If possible, invest in a more comfortable mattress as well; 93% of people think their mattress contributes to their best quality of sleep.  It’s also worth it to give electronics a bedtime before one’s own.  Blue light exposure inhibits melatonin.  Above all, aim for the recommended amount of sleep, which is between 7 and 8 hours a night.  Consistently.

    why the rich and successful get a full night of sleep

  • Kendall Jenner’s Beauty Secret? Tea And Lots Of Sleep

    Kendall Jenner has been pretty busy recently.

    Jenner has walked for some very impressive clients, including Dolce & Gabbana, Diane Von Furstenberg, Tommy Hilfiger and Balmain. Following the Balmain show she caused something of a stir when she was photographed wearing a black and tan cut-out dress on the catwalk.

    There was some speculation that the 18-year-old was practically naked save for the horizontal and vertical black leather strips. That rumor has since been disproved.

    With Jenner impressing from New York to Paris, onlookers are curious as to how she stays beautiful despite her crazy schedule.

    The secret to her beauty and fitness is something that young Kendall credits to a few simple but important things.

    Firstly, there’s tea.

    Said Jenner, “I usually start my day off with a cup of detox tea.” She admits that detox tea is crucial for helping her get through the day.

    “I have like 12 cups a day.”

    Jenner is reportedly a BIG fan of Kusmi Detox Tea, the ingredients of which include green tea and lemongrass.

    When she’s not downing a dozen cups of detox tea, Kendall is keeping on top of her beauty sleep.

    “My beauty secret for fashion week is just getting a good amount of sleep,” said Jenner. “I feel like I at least need about seven hours, eight hours of sleep to function.”

    Amen to that.

    The average adult requires several hours of sleep to effectively recharge and greet the day ahead.

    Other beauty tips Kendall Jenner shared are predictable enough: She takes the time to get in regular exercise (cardio and running) and she sticks to healthy snacks (apples are a favorite).

    Did you catch all of that?

    Eat healthy, drink detox tea, exercise regularly, and get all of your required sleep and you will be well on your way to being the best and most beautiful version of yourself.

    It certainly seems to be doing wonders for Kendall Jenner!

  • Sleep Apnea Linked to Childhood Obesity

    Sleep apnea is a disorder where a person’s breathing is interrupted and may stop during the sleep schedule. Recent reports claim that this disorder may afflict not only adults, but also children. Previous research has focused on behavioral issues for children suffering from sleep apnea as well as other health concerns such as diabetes.

    CHEO Research Institute’s principal investigator Dr. Sherri Katz claims that there is a direct link between obesity and sleep apnea. “In the past we used to see predominantly preschool-age children who had large tonsils and large adenoids, that was the basis for their obstructive sleep apnea. As time goes on we are seeing a second wave of children with obstructive sleep apnea, predominantly over the age of eight, where obesity is the major factor contributing to their sleep disorder.” Dr. Katz said before adding, “Rates of sleep apnea are about three to 10 times higher in children with obesity. There aren’t sufficient pediatric sleep laboratory resources across the country to manage the growing demand.”

    Dr. Indra Narang, who is the director of sleep medicine at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, echoed the concerns voiced by Dr. Katz, explaining that a main determinant in children visiting the sleep medicine department that she oversees is due to obesity.

    “We are inundated with referrals for obesity-related sleep apnea. We also believe that probably 60 to 70 per cent of obesity-related sleep apnea isn’t even diagnosed because of a lack of an awareness of sleep apnea associated with obesity. I think the disaster is happening as we speak. Not only do they not sleep well at night, but these children are affected during the day. They are sleeping, they are tired, they don’t learn as well, they don’t do as well at school. They can’t participate in physical activity. Our concern is 75 per cent of obese children will become obese adults and will have untreated obstructive sleep apnea and what we will see is an epidemic of premature cardiovascular death because of obesity and because of related obstructive sleep apnea,” Dr. Narang said.

    Image Via Wikimedia Commons

  • Pandora Coaxes You Awake with New Musical Alarm Clock

    Pandora Coaxes You Awake with New Musical Alarm Clock

    If it’s not a loud, jarring buzzing noise, it’s not going to wake me up. Being peacefully coaxed awake by a beautiful piece of music sounds like a great idea, but the sad fact is that I’d sleep right through it. Oh well, Pandora’s new feature isn’t for me. But it may be for you.

    The streaming radio app has just announced Alarm Clock, a new feature that allows you to start the day right – with your favorite tunes.

    “The Alarm Clock allows you to wake up to your favorite Pandora music and includes key features like the ability to snooze. When the alarm goes off, your music will begin to play with album art scrolling in the background. At this point, you can choose to snooze, turn off the alarm, or keep listening to your music simply by tapping the song title or artist name on your phone screen,” says Pandora.

    You can access your new Pandora alarm clock on your iOS device and “set the snooze option for 5, 10, 15 or 20 minute increments. When the snooze option is activated, your music will pause and the amount of time remaining will be displayed along with a progress bar counting down how many minutes you have left before the alarm will go off again.”

    Pandora has also added the ability to shake your way to snooze town – just give your iPhone a good jiggle and you’ll be snoozing for however long you previously designated.

    The Alarm Clock mode comes on the heels of a new feature for the other end of your nightly slumber – the Sleep Timer. Alarm Clock works in tandem with Sleep Timer, as the app will automatically turn on alarm mode when it shuts off the music at night.

    For more on how to use Pandora’s new alarm clock, check here. For now, it’s only available on iOS but they promise it’ll come to Android very soon.

    Image via Pandora

  • Regular Bedtime Likely to Produce Good Behavior in Kids

    LiveScience reports a new study published this week by British researchers in the journal Pediatrics has concluded that young children behave worse when they go to sleep at a different time each night.

    10,000 children were enrolled in the Millennium Cohort Study, which was a long-term research project examining babies who were born in the U.K. between 2001 and 2002. The babies’ moms filled out questionnaires when the children reached ages 3, 5, and 7 regarding their kids’ sleep cycles and whether their child went to sleep at a regular bedtime. At age 7, mothers were also asked to evaluate their kids’ behavior, conduct, social relationships, emotions, and hyperactivity level.

    Of the children who participated, 9 percent had irregular bedtimes, and their behavior got worse as the bedtime extended into the night, particularly after 9 p.m. Erratic bedtimes were also found to have the largest influence on how hyper the kids were, as judged by their moms and teachers.

    The Guardian noted that, regarding those kids who did go to bed late, they were more likely to come from a socially disadvantaged background, have a poor routine, skip breakfast, not be read to by parents/guardians, and to possess a television in their bedroom. Thankfully, the study found that the process is reversible, and that kids’ behaviors self-corrected when they got enough sleep.

    “Family routines can be difficult to maintain when parents are working long and potentially unsociable hours,” the research said. “Thus policy development is needed to better support families to provide conditions in which young children can flourish.”

    Dr. Carloyn D’Ambrosio, director of the sleep center at Tufts Medical Center, the Floating Hospital for Children in Boston and a non-participant in the research, said that “This is a very well-done study that in many ways reaffirms what we already know about a lack of sleep.”

    “When people are sleep-deprived, they are a little bit moodier, have a shorter temper and their normal physiological processes aren’t as finely tuned,” Dr. D’Ambrosio continued. “Kids don’t say they’re tired, they typically act it out — most commonly by being hyperactive.”

    As a recommendation for parents, Dr. D’Ambrosio would suggest “[picking] a bedtime that works for you and your family… It may not work every night, but just keep trying. Sleep is one of the most important things you can do for a child’s health and behavior.”

    [Image via Wikimedia Commons]

  • Less Sleep Leads to More Calories, Shows Study

    For people with more to do and ever less time to do it in, poor sleep habits and a bad diet are almost an inevitability. Now, a new study has shown that those poor sleep habits might actually be driving people to eat higher-calorie foods.

    The study, published in the journal Obesity, showed that people who missed one night of sleep bought more calories the following day than those who got a good night’s sleep. The Swedish researchers behind the study believe that the sleep deprivation could increase hunger while impairing the judgement skills needed to avoid poor food purchasing habits.

    “We hypothesized that sleep deprivation’s impact on hunger and decision making would make for the ‘perfect storm’ with regard to shopping and food purchasing – leaving individuals hungrier and less capable of employing self-control and higher-level decision-making processes to avoid making impulsive, calorie-driven purchases,” said Colin Chapman, lead author of the study.

    Chapman and his colleagues rounded up 14 “normal-weight” men and gave them a fixed budget with which to buy groceries in a mock grocery store. Half of the foods in the store were high-calorie foods, and the other half were low-calorie. When the men had gone an entire night without sleep, they bought 9% more calories than they did after getting a full night’s sleep.

    “Our finding provides a strong rationale for suggesting that patients with concerns regarding caloric intake and weight gain maintain a healthy, normal sleep schedule,” said Chapman.

  • Being a Night Owl Could Lead to Weight Gain, Shows Study

    A new study published in the journal Sleep has linked late nights and less sleep with a susceptibility for weight gain.

    The study, conducted by researchers at the Sleep and Chronobiology Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania, showed that patients whose sleep was restricted gained more weight than those who slept long stretches. Patients who were restricted to sleeping only four hours, from 4 am to 8 am, gained more weight than patients who were allowed to sleep 10 hours a night, from 10 pm to 8 am. The study’s authors attributed this weight gain to the extra calories eaten late at night by sleep-restricted patients. In addition the calories from fat consumed by sleep-restricted was higher late at night.

    “Although previous epidemiological studies have suggested an association between short sleep duration and weight gain/obesity, we were surprised to observe significant weight gain during an in-laboratory study,” said Andrea Spaeth, lead author of the study and a doctoral candidate in the psychology department at the University of Pennsylvania.

    The study put 225 healthy, non-obese patients in a sleep laboratory, randomly assigning them to have four or ten hours of sleep for 18 consecutive days. Meals were served at set times, but food was always available in the lab’s kitchen. The patients were allowed to do sedentary activities such as reading, watching TV, or playing video games, but were not allowed to exercise.

    In addition to the weight gain link, certain gender and ethnic differences were uncovered during the study. Men were found to gain more weight than females when sleep-restricted, and sleep-restricted black patients also gained more weight than sleep-restricted white patients.

    “Among sleep-restricted subjects, there were also significant gender and race differences in weight gain,” said Spaeth. “African Americans, who are at greater risk for obesity and more likely to be habitual short sleepers, may be more susceptible to weight gain in response to sleep restriction. Future studies should focus on identifying the behavioral and physiological mechanisms underlying this increased vulnerability.”

  • Morgan Freeman Falls Asleep During Live TV Interview

    Morgan Freeman Falls Asleep During Live TV Interview

    Considering the fact that Morgan Freeman’s voice is one of the most soothing sounds that the human ear could ever perceive, it’s not too shocking that he may have put himself to sleep with his internal monologue on live TV.

    During an interview with Seattle’s FOX affiliate Q13 news, the 75-year-old actor seemed to have trouble staying awake, as he appeared to doze off a few times in the span of a few minutes.

    Freeman and Michael Caine, who had no problem picking up the slack, were there to promote their new film Now You See Me, set to release at the end of May. The crime thriller follows a group of illusionists who use their skills to pull off bank heists during their performances. The film also stars Isla Fisher, Mark Ruffalo, Jesse Eisenberg, and Woody Harrelson.

    Check out snoozin’ Morgan below:

  • Sleep Is The Subject Of This Google Tech Talk

    Google has shared a new Tech Talk (it actually took place on March 27) on YouTube called Sleep-posium 2013, in which a handful of doctors discuss sleep.

    Google is, apparently, “making a sleep a priority.”

  • Why You Should Stop Hitting the Snooze Button [VIDEO]

    To snooze or not to snooze?

    The answer, while simple, is a hard one to actually implement. Many of us are addicted to the snooze button. You may think that extra few minutes of fragmented sleep is helping you take on the day, but in reality it’s only screwing up your sleep cycles and making you more tired.

    [AsapSCIENCE]

  • Odom Falls Asleep During Child Custody Hearing

    The New York Post is reporting that Los Angeles Clippers star Lamar Odom during a custody battle over his 14-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son. The children’s mother, Liza Morales, was never married to Odom.

    The report states that while Odom’s and Morales’ lawyers spoke in another room, Odom managed to catch a 20-minute nap on a courthouse bench before being rudely awoken by a court officer. Odom claimed that he was both jet-lagged and flu-stricken.

    Despite playing in the NBA since 1999, being named to the NBA All-Rookie Team, and playing for the U.S. national basketball team in the 2004 Olympics, Odom is, perhaps, most known recently for marrying reality TV star Khloé Kardashian. The couple’s wedding was featured on the reality TV show Keeping Up With the Kardashians, and they were later featured in a spinoff reality TV show titled Khloé & Lamar. Part of the child custody battle is over whether the children can appear on Odom’s reality TV shows, or whether they will be a part of Morales’ reality TV show, Starter Wives.

  • If You Don’t Dream, You’re Probably A Little Crazy

    We all need sleep. Most of us love nothing more than sliding between soft sheets at the end of a long day, flipping the pillow over to the cool side, and heading to dreamland.

    But sleep is largely a mystery, even though science has devoted quite a few studies to it and why we need it so badly. What happens when we sleep is a little less mysterious–at least, from a physical perspective. Here are 16 things you might not know about sleeping, dreaming, and how common it is for couples to still sleep in separate beds.

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  • Cure Your Fear Of Spiders With Sleep

    Cure Your Fear Of Spiders With Sleep

    You’re probably afraid of spiders. You may argue that it’s a perfectly rational fear, but it’s strictly irrational unless your’re staring a Black Widow or Brown Recluse in the face. Most spiders are harmless heroes who only want to protect your house from the more dangerous bugs that carry disease. Well, fear them no more as science has found a way that may cure you of your arachnophobia.

    The University of Massachusetts, Amherst, recently conducted a study on 66 women to study the effects of sleep on arachnophobia. The researchers created four control groups to find out how “fear extinction is affected by sleep, wakefulness and time of day.” The women were subjected to a rather tame, and pretty funny video, on spiders.

    The time of day control groups watched the video 14 times in sessions that were two hours apart. These groups were used to rule out that time of day had any effect on fear. The two groups that are of interest is the sleep and wake groups. These groups watched the video 14 times in sessions that were 12 hours apart – either after being awake for 12 hours or being asleep for the same amount of time.

    Now this is where things get interesting. To measure the fear in those watching the video, the researchers would set off a loud noise in 60 percent of the viewings. They used a system that measured palm sweat to calculate fear. The women were then subjected to old and new spider videos. The fear was measured in accordance with the old and new videos to see if there was a change in response.

    The results might be a little surprising. They found that sleep did a better job of reinforcing a memory formed during exposure therapy. In essence, the women went to sleep with the memories of spiders fresh in their memory. By sleeping with these memories, it lessened the impact the spider videos had on them the next day.

    So what about the women who watched spider videos and then stayed awake for 12 hours? They were found to have a worse response to watching more spider videos at the end of the day.

    Interestingly enough, the sleep control group wasn’t even afraid of the new spider when it was introduced. The women who stayed awake were even more afraid of it.

    So what do we take from all of this? You should expose yourself to fears and then sleep on it. Your brain will reintroduce you to these fears whether you know it or not during your REM cycle. You might even dream about the fear in question. So far, it seems to only have positive effects though as it might even cure said fears.

    The study in question was only performed on those with arachnophobia because it’s probably the most prevalent fear among people. It opens up new avenues, however, of killing other irrational fears. My fear of flying may be a thing of the past if I’m able to get up in a plane and then sleep it off. Unfortunately, convincing myself to fly might be a little difficult.

    [h/t: Harvard News]