Silencing two brainstem neuron populations cut NREM sleep in mice by nearly 70% — yet most survived, stayed alert, and still formed memories, suggesting the pressure to sleep and the need for it are separable systems.
A double-blind trial of 171 PTSD patients found dronabinol, a prescription form of THC, eliminated recurring nightmares entirely for more than a third of participants, offering the first large-scale evidence for a pharmacological nightmare treatment.
A meta-analysis of nearly 365,000 people found smokers had higher rates of restless legs syndrome, but genetic analysis designed to test causation found no evidence smoking directly causes the disorder — pointing instead to shared underlying risk factors.
A new mouse study found that sleep deprivation significantly alters regulatory T cell populations tied to immune regulation, and that melatonin supplementation reversed several of these changes — offering mechanistic insight into how poor sleep weakens immune defenses.
A University of Missouri pilot study found that shifting emergency physicians' overnight hours earlier — from 10 p.m.-6 a.m. to 8 p.m.-4 a.m. — lowered inflammatory blood markers and improved sleep quality, offering a low-cost fix for one of medicine's most demanding schedules.
A study of more than 500 healthy adults found that brief nocturnal micro-awakenings, invisible to the sleeper, correlate with genetic Alzheimer's risk in middle-aged but not young adults, suggesting sleep architecture could serve as an early, low-cost risk marker.
A study of 1,089 Tokyo residents used machine learning to analyze more than 200,000 street-level images and found that neighborhood greenery and a sense of enclosure were linked to longer sleep and fewer insomnia symptoms, an effect partly explained by perceived safety.
