News by Subject Medicine & Health

Sleeping more than nine hours per night during pregnancy may be associated with late stillbirth, a new Michigan Medicine-led international study suggests.

intentionally controlled light can help regulate human health and productivity by eliciting various hormonal responses. Tailored LED wavelengths and intensities also can efficiently stimulate plant growth, alter their shapes and increase their nutritional value, opening a new world of scientific and technological possibilities for indoor farming.

People who sleep less than six hours a night may be at increased risk of cardiovascular disease compared with those who sleep between seven and eight hours, suggests a new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Poor quality sleep increases the risk of atherosclerosis -- plaque buildup in the arteries throughout the body -- according to the study.

Widely prescribed 'benzodiazepine' sleeping pills suppress the sleeping brain's ability to wake us when it senses a threat. But an alternative class of hypnotics currently under development could allow users to rouse in the event of an earthquake, fire alarm or intruder, according to a new study. Published in Frontiers Behavioral Neuroscience, the research takes millions closer to sleeping safe and sound.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis -- working with mice with sleep problems similar to those experienced by people with the genetic disease neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) -- believe the animals will help shed light on insomnia linked to NF1 or other factors.

Researchers at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience revealed that there are five types of insomnia. Type 1 scores high on many distressing traits such as neuroticism and feeling down or tense. Types 2 and 3 experienced less distress and were distinguished by their high versus low sensitivity to reward. Type 4 and 5 experienced even less distress and differed by the way their sleep responded to stressful life events.