Tag: sleep

Segmented sleep

[podcast]https://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/uploads//2012/02/Segmented-Sleep.mp3[/podcast] It’s happened to all of us at one time or another: we wake up in the middle of the night, have trouble going back to sleep, start worrying about the fact we’re having trouble going back to sleep, start worrying about the fact we’re worrying about the fact we’re having trouble going back to …

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Hypnic jerks

[podcast]https://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2011/06/Hypnic-Jerks.mp3[/podcast]

Remembering our dreams

It’s past your bedtime!

[podcast]https://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2011/01/Its-Past-Your-Bedtime.mp3[/podcast] Ah, New Year’s. A time for resolutions, typically focused on living more healthily. Apparently the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, not trusting us to do it ourselves, has decided to make our resolutions for us: it’s started 2011 with a series of stories lecturing Canadians on how unhealthy their lifestyle is, and started something called the …

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Now I’m even writing in my sleep

Just before I woke this morning, I was dreaming in an unusual fashion: in my dream, I was disembodied and observing other people, writing a running commentary in my head, very much like the process of writing fiction when I’m awake. I can’t remember ever doing that in my sleep before, but of course we …

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Sleep in a bottle

I love a good night’s sleep. I just rarely get one that’s quite as long as I’d like. I’m not alone in that, either. Although exactly how much sleep any individual needs varies according to that individual’s age, sex, genetic makeup and other factors, studies indicate that the “normal” sleep need for most adults is …

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Sleep in a bottle

I love a good night’s sleep. I just rarely get one that’s quite as long as I’d like. I’m not alone in that, either. Although exactly how much sleep any individual needs varies according to that individual’s age, sex, genetic makeup and other factors, studies indicate that the “normal” sleep need for most adults is …

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Sleep now, or forever hold your Zzzzzs

Are you getting enough sleep? Probably not: the average North American sleeps an hour less per night than was common 40 years ago. Ordinarily, if we fail to get enough sleep one night, our body attempts to make up for it during the next night by sleeping longer and/or sleeping more deeply. Since alarm clocks …

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"Help! I’m being eaten by PacMan!"

That was my first reaction on seeing the EnergyPod: It’s actually, though (according to Metronaps–great company name, eh?–its manufacturer): …designed for powernapping at work. A beautiful addition to the workplace, the EnergyPod improves employee morale while boosting the bottom line. Uh-huh.

Slow-wave sleep

The science of sleep was one of my earliest column topics, way back in 1991. And why not? After all, as I pointed out then, sleep is so important birds, fish, reptiles and mammals all do it, we spend a third of our lives doing it, and if we don’t do it, we die. Like …

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Making sleep optional

It’s a safe bet that there have been a lot of bleary-eyed people around Regina this week, following last week’s Grey Cup revelry.  But then, there are a lot of bleary-eyed people around all the time, since very few of us ever get as much sleep as we really need. That being the case, wouldn’t …

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The tick of the biological clock

Before I had a baby daughter to keep me sleep-deprived, I almost always woke up a few minutes before the alarm went off. It’s a common phenomenon, and it’s only possible because we each have an additional clock, not on our bedside tables, but in our heads.  These clocks regulate a number of bodily functions, …

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