FastStats: Sleep in Children

The National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH) looks at how much sleep U.S. children get.

• This page summarizes the most recent data on insufficient sleep among infants and children, ages 4 months to 14 years.
• The percentage of children who do not get enough sleep varies by age, state, and racial and ethnic group.

BBC One: The Truth about Sleep.

7 Benefits of Sleep Masks

by Jillian Ashley Blair Ivey | Updated: May 16, 2020

What are the benefits of sleep masks?

When you think of sleep masks, what do you think of? Holly Golightly groggily answering her door with her long-lashed, Tiffany blue sleep mask pushed up on her forehead? The frequent flyers sitting in business class that you pass on your way to your seat in coach?

Sleep masks are sometimes saddled with stereotypes that they’re feminine or frivolous, when in reality they’re a useful sleep aid that more people should probably be utilizing. After reviewing thirteen of them for Sleepopolis, I’m still not using a sleep mask every night, but I’m much, much more likely to grab one when I’m having trouble falling asleep, sick, staying in an unfamiliar place, or napping during the day.

Skeptical about whether sleep masks will help you get a better night’s sleep? Check out some of their many benefits below.

1. They’re cheaper than blackout curtains.
Researchers who study sleep are pretty unanimous in the assessment that the darker your room, the better your sleep. But most of us don’t live in caves, and so the only way to make your bedroom totally dark is with blackout curtains—a costly proposition if you’ve got big windows. As an alternative, you can simulate darkness by using a sleep mask to keep ambient light (or, if you’re a day-sleeper, daylight) from hitting your eyes. Blackout-style masks, like the MINDFOLD or Total Eclipse Sleep Mask, offer almost complete darkness, but even a blindfold-style mask like the Nest Bedding Luxury Sleep Mask or the Alaska Bear Sleep Mask will do a good job at blocking light.

2. They improve your sleep quality.
The primary reason that those scientists say you need darkness for good sleep is actually evolutionary. Humans—and our pre-human ancestors—are naturally diurnal, meaning we’re awake during the day and sleep at night. For thousands of years before electric lights allowed us to keep working or socializing late into the evening, humans naturally slept while it was dark and were awake during the day. Our brains are hard-wired into associating darkness with sleep, and they produce more melatonin (the hormone that controls our sleep and wake cycles) when they sense an absence of light.

In addition to increased melatonin production, scientists have also linked dark sleeping conditions to increased time in REM sleep and decreased wakefulness—meaning you’re more likely to sleep deeply and to sleep through the night. And they’ve found these benefits with sleep masks, not just in dark rooms.

3. They might help your insomnia.
Because our brains associate darkness with sleep, it may be possible to utilize a sleep mask in muting the “noise” (stress, anxiety, excitement, etc.) in our brains that’s keeping us up at night. Sleep masks also make it impossible for you to open your eyes and look at the temptations and distractions around your room or at your alarm clock, which sleep scientists say should be out of sight from your sleeping position anyway.

4. They’re safer than medication or alcohol.
A lot of people who have trouble sleeping use sleeping pills or self-medicate with alcohol in order to get some rest. But pharmaceutical sleeping aids—even non-prescription ones—can be habit-forming or come with side effects. (Plus, the chance of overdose is real.) And alcohol not only comes with the same risks as sleeping pills, but it also disrupts your sleep cycle and has a negative impact on the overall quality of your rest.

Because sleep masks trick your brain into believing it’s time for sleep, they’re a low-risk, non-chemical alternative to more conventional sleep aids, but you may find they’re just as effective.

5. They might help prevent dry eyes.
If you centrally heat or cool your home, dry air is filling your room and blowing on you while you’re sleeping—and, it can also stir up dust and pet hair that you didn’t even notice was lying around. Investing in a humidifier can be helpful here, but it won’t keep the recirculated air from blowing at your eyes. A sleep mask, however, can create a protective barrier over your eyes and protect them from your HVAC.

Sleep masks can also be helpful to people who have nocturnal lagopthalmos—the inability to close their eyes fully when they sleep. Because our eyes need the protection and lubrication our lids offer, people who can’t close their lids fully can experience extremely dry eyes, and may even suffer permanent damage. Sleep masks can help mitigate this, by creating a closed environment around the eye, but note that the highly “breathable” sleep masks many people seek might not be a good solution for lagopthalmos patients. Instead, they should work with their doctors to choose a sealed sleep mask that is specifically intended to help with eye hydration.

6. They can be good for your skin.
When you wake up with the impressions of your wrinkled pillowcase on your face, it doesn’t just look funny: over time, it can actually lead to wrinkles. If you sleep on your side or stomach, the combination of the pressure against your skin and any rubbing on your pillowcase that makes these impressions can lead to collagen breakdown—which means crow’s feet. You can try a special pillow or pillowcase to help this, or you can attempt to learn to sleep on your back (I’ve tried; it’s not easy), but if you’re happy with your sleeping habits, you can also get a sleep mask to protect the delicate skin around your eyes, where many people’s wrinkles first form. The sleep mask serves as a protective layer between you and your pillow and so that you’re less likely to wake up with sheet lines and therefore less likely to suffer collagen breakdown as rapidly.

If your skin concerns are less wrinkles and more acne, it is possible that your chance of breaking out might increase a bit under your sleep mask. To mitigate this risk, make sure you choose a mask made from 100% natural, breathable materials like cotton or silk, and wash it regularly with scent-free detergent and no fabric softener. That being said, your sleep mask might still do more good for your acne than harm: because acne can worsen due to insufficient or poor sleep, using a sleep mask to improve your bedtime habits can have a positive impact on your acne right away.

7. There are lots of kinds to choose from.
You may have tried a sleep mask once and decided they weren’t for you. But maybe it’s just that that particular mask, rather than all sleep masks, wasn’t right for you. If you don’t like pressure on your eyelids, there are masks that sit away from the eye. If you don’t like masks that adjust with Velcro there are masks that utilize lingerie-like sliding straps for resizing. If you don’t like masks that are too big and bulky, there are literally hundreds of low-profile, blindfold-style masks to choose from. If you don’t think that the masks block enough light to bother with, try one of the blackout-style masks.

In other words, the possibilities are endless. Try a few masks with reasonable return policies (or price points that are low enough that if you dislike the masks, you won’t feel ripped off) and see what style is right for you. I know that if I hadn’t tried several on for size, I probably wouldn’t think sleep masks were right for me either.

So go on: do a little research (you can use my reviews on Sleepopolis as a starting point) and try a sleep mask or two for yourself. You’d be surprised at how great you might feel in the morning.

FAQs

Why would I need a sleep mask?

People need sleep masks for many reasons including suffering from insomnia, people who have to work at night and sleep during the day, and even people who are sick or staying in a place they are unfamiliar with.

Can a sleep mask help me sleep better?

Not only does sleeping in darker conditions increase melatonin production, but scientists have also discovered that dark sleeping conditions lead to increased time in REM sleep and decreased wakefulness

Are sleep masks safe for my skin?

It can be beneficial for protecting the delicate area around the eyes. The sleep mask serves as a protective layer between you and your pillow. If acne from a sleep mask is a concern, buy a mask made from 100% natural, breathable materials like cotton or silk, and wash it regularly with scent-free detergent and no fabric softener.

WRITTEN BY

TheSleepJudge Editorial Team

Sleep masks can get a bad rap: They’re easy to dismiss as accessories for the picky and pampered. But scientific evidence suggests that sleep masks, which cover your eyes while you sleep to block out ambient light, could help virtually anyone enjoy more restorative rest.

Additionally, experts recommend them to ease certain painful conditions, such as migraines and dry eyes. Sleep masks can also offer cosmetic benefits, protecting the skin around the eyes and preventing puffiness.

Do these sleep mask advantages pique your interest? By understanding the upside of covering your eyes at night, you can make an informed choice about wearing a sleep mask yourself. Moreover, by learning about the functions and features of various sleep masks, you can decide which kinds might suit your nighttime needs.

In this article, we’ll present some compelling reasons to consider wearing a sleep mask at night. We’ll take you through the research on sleep mask benefits so you can choose whether to add one to your sleep routine.

Eight Important Reasons to Use a Sleep Mask at Night

1. Sleep Masks Block Out Light to Improve Your Sleep and Health

Light is a crucial factor in the regulation of your body’s circadian rhythm, the biological schedule that dictates sleep and wakefulness. In our prehistoric past, humans’ routines corresponded roughly to the amount of light available: Sundown signaled it was time to settle in for the evening.

In our modern context, however, we’re inundated with artificial light that can disrupt our sleep schedules. Even when we darken our bedrooms to the greatest extent possible, light from the street or other rooms has a habit of creeping in. Accordingly, our bodies receive mixed messages from the outside environment and our circadian rhythm suffers.

Aside from undermining our sleep quality, light exposure has been linked to a number of other troubling health problems. One recent study linked even tiny amounts of light in the bedroom to depressive symptoms among older adults. Other research suggests that intrusive light may elevate diabetes risk.

Sleep masks solve all these problems related to intrusive light, granting the total darkness you deserve for great sleep. By sitting directly over your eyes, they can create a pitch-black environment in the brightest of bedrooms.

Even better, sleep masks tend to be more affordable than alternative measures, such as blackout shades. They’re also superior to blackout shades in one essential way: They can block out blue light from devices inside your bedroom.

Indeed, the blue light that emanates from your smartphone and other screens has been shown to disrupt sleep cycles, much like the light from outside sources. When it’s time to limit your exposure and drift off to sleep, a sleep mask can block out the phone’s light.

2. Sleep Masks Minimize Distractions

We’re all familiar with the temptation: Seconds after crawling into bed, we feel the urge to check our phones. But researchers say that bedtime scrolling can undermine sleep quality, making it harder for us to drift off and get real rest.

Whether you’re checking Twitter, watching Netflix, or sending one last email, screens increase our alertness at precisely the wrong time. Communication and entertainment are poorly suited to relaxation, which we desperately need at the end of long days. Moreover, we often spend more time on these digital activities than intended, finally crashing long after we intended to head to bed.

Sleep masks are the perfect antidote to this unhealthy compulsion. By putting yours on the minute you get into bed, you establish a boundary between yourself and your smartphone. While you can always take your sleep mask off and check your phone, this additional obstacle can be surprisingly helpful in maintaining sleep hygiene.

If you wake up in the middle of the night, sleep masks can also aid in another struggle: the urge to check your alarm clock. Staring at the clock will only increase your frustration at being up and your stress about the day ahead. A sleep mask encourages you to get back to sleep by blocking other stimuli.

3. Sleep Masks Can Protect Your Skin and Prevent Puffiness

You might want to check also: Best Anti-Aging Pillows

If you’re concerned about crow’s feet and other kinds of wrinkled skin around your eyes, certain sleep masks possess anti-aging powers. When you sleep without a mask in place, contact with your pillow can stretch the skin surrounding your eyes. Some sleep masks, made with silk or other extra-gentle fibers, protect this area of your face with a gentle caress.

Sleep masks can also address a perennial morning problem: puffiness or bags around your eyes as you awake. This is particularly likely to occur when you’re short on sleep, so a mask may help you simply by ensuring that you get more rest. But some sleep mask products use innovative technologies to go the extra mile in the fight against puffy eyes.

Certain masks use specific materials, such as charcoal, to reduce puffiness and dryness in the skin around your eyes sockets. Others use cool temperatures to address swelling: You stick them in your fridge or freezer, then let the cold work wonders as you sleep.

4. Sleep Masks are Terrific for Travel

Planes, trains, and automobiles are hardly ideal sleep environments. But sleep masks can go a long way toward creating your own sleep sanctuary, even amid the chaos of coach. Plane cabins are particularly rife with “junk light,” which can seriously disrupt our sleep cycles. Block out light from windows and screens and get the sleep you need to arrive well-rested.

Some brands specialize in travel-centric sleep masks, with durable materials for use on the road or dual-purpose designs that can also serve as a pillow in a pinch. Others come with complimentary earplugs, so you can shut out the screaming child a couple of rows back.

5. Sleep Masks Can Help Treat Dry Eyes

Dry eyes are another source of pain that sleep masks can address – at least during the period of time that you spend in bed. And those with chronically dry eyes know just how uncomfortable mornings can be.

Overnight, your eyes can be exposed to dry air, dust, and other irritants. Some individuals even suffer from a condition called nocturnal lagophthalmos, which prevents them from completely closing their eyes while they’re asleep.

Sleep masks provide a protective cocoon as you sleep, allowing you to wake without irritation. Some models can even be paired with soothing eye mist for maximum effect. Allergy sufferers will be glad to hear that sleep masks designed for this purpose are usually hypoallergenic as well.

6. Sleep Masks Can Mitigate Migraines

For people in the throes of a migraine, even the smallest exposure to light can be excruciating. Light sensitivity is a common feature of chronic migraines – and particularly problematic if they strike during daylight.

Sleep masks provide the total darkness you crave when a migraine hits. When the only thing to do is crawl into bed, your mask will ensure that light doesn’t interfere with your recovery.

Moreover, some masks provide cooling or heating features specifically designed to ease migraine pain. Many sufferers swear by masks that you can freeze or refrigerate, using the cold to numb out the throbbing effects of migraines. Even if you don’t experience migraines, these features may be appealing: These cold masks work just as well for hangovers and minor headaches.

7. Sleep Masks Can Include Soothing Scents

Aromatherapy is all the rage, and many sleep masks incorporate calming fragrancesconducive to sleep. Lavender is the classic scent associated with sleep, with several studies demonstrating its capacity to improve sleep quality. Cedarwood and bergamot have also been linked with better sleep in controlled trials.

If you’re worried about olfactory overload from a mask perched above your nose, choose a product that affords some flexibility. Some allow you to remove the scented pouch or swap it for another smell. Moreover, some scents can be lovely but poorly suited to slumber. Citrus smells, for example, will give you energy when you need it the least.

8. Sleep Masks Can Be Weighted for Extra Relaxation

You may have heard about the benefits of weighted blankets, which have become increasingly popular in recent years. Their pressure provides a sense of security, much like being wrapped up in a loving hug.

According to experts, weighted sleep masks can provide many of the same benefits.These masks exert gentle pressure on your face, stimulating the production of melatonin and serotonin for a pleasant sense of relaxation. These effects can be particularly helpful for those with sleep disorders or symptoms of psychological distress.

For some, the feeling of any weight on your face at night can be alarming. But for those who appreciate a dose of calming pressure, adding some heft to your sleep mask could augment its benefits.

side-sleeper, for example, make sure you pick a sleep mask that won’t slide off when it rubs against your pillow.

Consider materials carefully as well: If you’re particularly sensitive to synthetic fabrics, opt for a non-irritating or hypoallergenic textile like silk. Be similarly cautious about the fragrances you choose in scented sleep masks. While a particular smell might be irresistible in small doses, it could become cloying over the course of a full night.

Once you’ve purchased a sleep mask, settle in for a period of adjustment. If you haven’t used one before, the experience of having your eyes covered could be uncomfortable at first. Give yourself at least a week with the sleep mask you choose, wearing it on a consistent basis. If it still doesn’t feel right, move on to an alternative that will resolve your specific complaints.

Once you find the right sleep mask, more restorative rest is likely to follow. We hope that darker nights will lead to brighter mornings – and all the energy you need throughout the day.

These things are the secret to a better night's sleep.

By Colleen Stinchcombe

Pop quiz: What is a contributing factor in both car accidents and heart disease, causes innumerable injuries every year, plays a role in diabetes and depression, and can make you an unproductive grump at work?

It's a lack of sleep. And those aren't random complications we're describing-that's what the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has linked to poor sleep. (Okay, the unproductive grump is from personal experience.) The problem, the CDC says, is that a third of U.S. adults report getting less sleep than the health organization recommends.

It's a serious issue, which is why it may seem silly that we have one small, simple suggestion that could genuinely help you get a better night's sleep: Wear a sleep mask. (Okay, sleeping naked could help, too.)

Sleep masks aren't just a fashion statement-you can net some serious sleep mask benefits, experts say. All you have to do is block out that ambient light.

Why Blocking Light Is So Important

Although some aspects of how and why we sleep are still a mystery, doctors do have a basic framework for how sleep works. According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, there are two processes that heavily influence our desire to sleep. One is a compound called adenosine, which increases in your brain while you're awake and tells your body it's time to sleep when it peaks (before then beginning to break down).

The second process is the "body clock," also known as your circadian rhythm, and light-natural or otherwise-is a major element that helps your body clock figure out whether it's time to be awake or go to sleep. Basically, it works like this: If there's a lot of light flooding in, then your circadian rhythm thinks it's time to be awake, so it suppresses a myriad of chemicals, including big-time player melatonin. A 2011 study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolismnoted that exposure to light suppressed the onset of melatonin by about 90 minutes-that's a big chunk of time to not be sleeping when you're supposed to be. (Related: Does Getting Enough REM Sleep Really Matter?)

If it's dark, then more melatonin is produced and your circadian rhythm thinks it's time for bed. In addition to making us feel sleepy, "the amount in your body [also&91; increases as you sleep to push you farther into the sleep cycle," explains Chris Brantner, certified sleep science coach and founder of SleepZoo.

Increased exposure to light could have other consequences, too. A 2017 study in the American Journal of Epidemiology linked nighttime light exposure to depression in elderly people, even when it was adjusted to account for other sleeping parameters. Some experts have even gone so far as to suggest that it's not a lack of sleep we're struggling with, but a lack of darkness. Researchers analyzed sleep patterns in Tanzania, Namibia, and Bolivia, and found that they slept an average of 5.7 hours a night. Despite it being less than what's recommended by the CDC, it seemed to be working for them, and researchers hypothesized it was because they slept in significantly more darkness, without artificial lighting, resulting in better quality sleep. (Related: This Is What a "Good Night's Sleep" Really Means)

Which brings us back to eye masks. If we can't erase modern artificial lighting, are we likely to get any real benefits from sleep masks?

What to Know About Eye Masks

Although sleep experts would still encourage you to put away your phone before bed and not fall asleep watching television, a study published in Critical Carefound that patients in simulated ICU units who wore earplugs and eye masks got more REM sleep and had elevated melatonin levels. So it's no joke that this small, tiny change can have an impact on how we sleep. "Light is one of the primary things we can control to minimize sleep disruption," says Brantner.

So what kind of eye mask should you look for? First, Brantner says you want one that actually blocks light, meaning it needs to properly fit your face. Options that have the nose carved out or that lie flush against your cheek and brow bones may work best. You'll also want to find a fabric that feels comforting to you. Brantner prefers silk, but velvet, faux fur, and fleece are other popular options.

To block out both sound and light, there are also wrap-around eye masks that help muffle noise while you're immersed in total darkness. Pillow-size masks exist too, and they're shaped to rest over your head while still giving you breathing room, smothering ambient light and sounds.

Your sleep mask doesn't have to be purely about shut-eye, either. Companies like NIGHT sell masks with cooling gel inserts to help reduce puffiness, while others sell masks with rounded eye patches so that long-lashed folks don't have to worry about getting their eyelashes smushed.

Even if you don't notice major changes in your sleep habits right away, Alex Dimitriu, M.D., a sleep medicine and psychiatry expert, says you may enjoy the mask anyway. "There's something also very soothing about having a soft mask over the eyes, [and it&91; can have a calming effect for some," he adds.

So yes, with all these sleep mask benefits at your disposal, you should definitely embrace the glamour. Your body will thank you for it.

By Colleen Stinchcombe

It's often difficult to sleep in a well lit room or one that is noisy.

Unfortunately, patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) of most hospitals are not exempt from being subjected to light and noise as hospital staff care for them and other patients. Is it possible for patients to get good quality sleep in a busy ICU?

Yes, according to Chinese researchers who simulated an ICU environment to carry out research which found that ear plugs and eye masks can help alleviate some of the negative physiological and psychological effects of ICU noise and light.

The study applied polysomnography tests to the study's participants and subjected them to a variety of sleep conditions.

Some participants were allowed the use of earplugs and eye masks.

During the study the participants' urine was analyzed for melatonin and cortisol levels and they were made to report on their perceived sleep quality. The study found that nocturnal melatonin and cortisol secretion levels differed significantly by sleep condition even when anxiety levels did not vary.

According to the researchers, the use of earplugs and eye masks resulted in more REM time, shorter REM latency, less arousal and elevated melatonin levels. The study concluded that ear plugs and eye masks promote sleep and hormone balance in healthy subjects exposed to simulated ICU noise and light. Learn more about the effects of noise, light and other factors on your sleep environment – and check out the study.

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Carolyn Y. Johnson

Science reporter

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January 24

Za’miya New, 4, at her home in Indian Head, Md., this month. She was participating in a study by University of Maryland researchers on napping. They put a helmet on Za'miya to simulate how she might feel in an MRI scanner. (Calla Kessler/The Washington Post)

In the screen-lit bustle of modern life, sleep is expendable. There are television shows to binge-watch, work emails to answer, homework to finish, social media posts to scroll through. We’ll catch up on shut-eye later, so the thinking goes — right after we click down one last digital rabbit hole.

Brain research, which has pushed back hard against this nonchalant attitude, is now expanding rapidly, reaching beyond the laboratory and delving into exactly how sleep works in disease and in normal cognitive functions such as memory. The growing consensus is that casual disregard for sleep is wrongheaded — even downright dangerous.

Preschoolers who skip naps are worse at a memory game than those who snooze, even after the children “catch up” on sleep the next night. An alarming new line of research suggests poor sleep may increase the risk of Alzheimer’s, as even a single night of sleep deprivation boosts brain levels of the proteins that form toxic clumps in Alzheimer’s patients. All-nighters push anxiety to clinical levels, and even modest sleep reductions are linked to increased feelings of social isolation and loneliness.

“It used to be popular for people to say, ‘I’ll sleep when I’m dead.’ The ironic thing is, not sleeping enough may get you there sooner,” said Daniel Buysse, a professor of sleep medicine at the University of Pittsburgh.

The research is changing policy in some areas, with school officials, for example, considering whether to push back school start times to better match teenagers’ sleep cycles. The National Sleep Foundation will hold its first consumer expo in March with a wide range of offerings, including mattresses and sleep trackers — a visible sign of the burgeoning sleep industry. Meanwhile, a growing number of scientists, not normally known for being advocates, are bringing evangelical zeal to the message that lack of sleep is an escalating public health crisis that deserves as much attention as the obesity epidemic.

“We’re competing against moneyed interests, with technology and gaming and all that. It’s so addictive and so hard to compete with,” said Orfeu Buxton, a sleep researcher at Pennsylvania State University. “We’ve had this natural experiment with the Internet that swamped everything else.”

The sleep research community, formerly balkanized into separate sleep disorders such as insomnia and sleep apnea, has begun to coalesce around the concept of “sleep health” — which for most adults means getting at least seven hours a night. But time in the sack has been steadily decreasing.

In 1942, a Gallup poll found that adults slept an average of 7.9 hours per night. In 2013, the average adult had sheared more than an hour off that number. In 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that a third of adults fail to get the recommended seven hours.

In the blink of an eye, in evolutionary terms, humans have radically altered a fundamental biological necessity — with repercussions we are still only beginning to understand.

“When you are asleep, it’s the most idiotic of all things: You’re not finding food, not finding a mate. Worse still, you’re vulnerable to predation,” said Matthew Walker, a psychology professor at the University of California at Berkeley. “If there was a chance to shave even 10 percent to 20 percent of that time, Mother Nature would have weeded it out through the process of evolution millions of years ago.”

For most of human history, scientific understanding of sleep was limited to asking people how they felt afterward. The discovery in the early 1950s of rapid-eye-movement sleep, when the brain crackled with electrical activity and dreams, changed the field forever. Electroencephalography (EEG) research revealed the sleeping mind cycles through active stages of light and deeper sleep that repeat about every 90 minutes.

For years, animal studies have shown that learning activities are reactivated during sleep, a critical part of how lasting memories are formed. More recently, Princeton postdoctoral researcher Monika Schönauer asked 32 people to sleep in the lab after they had been asked to memorize 100 pictures of houses or faces. By analyzing their patterns of electrical brain activity, she found she could effectively read their minds, predicting which images they had been studying while awake — because they were replaying them.

Even as scientists elucidate the role of sleep, it is not always clear how to do it right. For example, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that preschoolers get 10 to 13 hours of sleep each day, including naps, but does not say how that time should be carved up.

“Why do we know so little about this really critical function?” said Tracy Riggins, a developmental psychologist at the University of Maryland. “I always think of growth charts at the pediatrician’s office. Physical growth: You study thousands of children. You know exactly that your child is in the 63rd percentile for kids her age. Why do we not have that for the brain?”

Riggins teamed with Rebecca Spencer, a neuroscientist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, to study how naps affect memory in preschoolers — a critical scientific and policy question as more schools offer prekindergarten. Spencer had previously foundthat preschoolers who were taught a memory game performed better after a nap than if they had been kept awake. This summer, she found that napping helped strengthen complex emotional memories, but only when combined with a night of good sleep.

Now, the pair are recruiting families to try to understand the brain differences between children who nap and those who have stopped. It is an experiment already taking place in the real world as some preschools offer French lessons, swimming or other enrichment in lieu of nap time. Napping for two hours may seem like a waste — unless sleep itself is crucial.

Riggins and Spencer’s idea is that napping performs a function a little bit like clearing off a desk, organizing and filing papers so they can be retrieved later. If the desk is not cleared, the piles can get mixed up.

“This is the drive some people have to be the best and the brightest — some of these high-income preschools are trying to cram so much into the day that they’re minimizing nap time,” Spencer said. “The idea is they’re not napping, so they can learn more. But they may lose the attentiveness to be able to learn more.”

Sleep problems have long been recognized as a symptom of psychiatric and neurological disorders, including depression and Alzheimer’s. But increasingly, researchers are exploring the two-way street between disrupted sleep and disease. And researchers who started out interested in cognitive functions such as memory or brain development are finding themselves focused on sleep because it is so fundamental.

Insomnia, for example, is both a risk factor for depression and a complaint of people with depression. Adults over 50 with lots of insomnia symptoms were more likely to fall than those without, according to one study. Studies have linked pain to poor sleep, showing that older people with sleep problems are more likely to develop pain, and vice versa.

“A lot of medical approaches have ignored sleep,” said Ken Paller, a cognitive neuroscientist at Northwestern University. “People think about [poor sleep&91; as one of the complaints someone with depression or other disorders might have, rather than a critical part of the whole etiology of the disease, which is a new idea.”

That idea has spawned fresh interest in finding ways to enhance sleep for therapeutic benefit. One thread of research focuses on slow-wave sleep, which diminishes as people age. A small study presented at the Society for Neuroscience conference last year found early evidence that playing “pink” noise — similar to white noise but with different frequencies — in a specific pattern could increase the proportion of time people spent in restorative deep sleep.

“It’s one of those things thought to be a fountain of youth,” Buxton said.

Others are examining whether sleep’s memory consolidation qualities can be enhanced. In Paller’s research, people learned to associate sounds with visuals placed on a grid — for example, a cat’s meow with a picture of the actor Brad Pitt and the sound of a violin with a picture of the Eiffel tower. Then they napped, and researchers played half the sounds — quietly enough so people didn’t wake up — to see whether they could reactivate the memories.

After waking, the researchers found, people were more likely to forget the placement of visuals whose sounds were not played while they slept.

Paller hopes the approach can be used to help reinforce learning during rehabilitation — for example, among stroke patients learning to use their arms again.

There is growing interest in sleep outside the lab, too. At the massive annual CES electronics show in Las Vegas, sleep-tech products got their own marketplace in 2017. The National Sleep Foundation show in Houston this March will host 200 brands and companies and is expected to draw 10,000 consumers.

While interest in sleep is soaring, many sleep researchers worry that the risks of too little sleep still are not taken seriously. Doctors routinely measure blood pressure and weight, they say, but many never ask patients how they are sleeping.

“You had a lecture at school that was about safe sex, drinking, drugs,” Walker said. “Why didn’t anybody come in and tell you about sleep?”

An Underappreciated Key to College Success: Sleep

Many college-bound students start out with dreadful sleep habits that are likely to get worse once the rigorous demands of courses and competing social and athletic activities kick in.

By Jane E. Brody

Attention all you happy high school graduates about to go off to college, as well as the many others returning for another year of higher education. Grandsons Stefan and Tomas, that includes you.

Whatever you may think can get in the way of a successful college experience, chances are you won’t think of one of the most important factors: how long and how well you sleep. And not just on weekends, but every day, Monday through Sunday.

Studies have shown that sleep quantity and sleep quality equal or outrank such popular campus concerns as alcohol and drug use in predicting student grades and a student’s chances of graduating.

Although in one survey 60 percent of students said they wanted information from their colleges on how to manage sleep problems, few institutions of higher learning do anything to counter the devastating effects of sleep deprivation on academic success and physical and emotional well-being. Some, in fact, do just the opposite, for example, providing 24-hour library hours that encourage students to pull all-nighters.

(I did that only once, to study for an exam in freshman year, and fell asleep in the middle of the test. Lesson well learned!)

An all-nighter may help if all you have to do is memorize a list, but if you have to do something complex with the information, you’ll do worse by staying up all night, J. Roxanne Prichard, an expert on college sleep issues, told me. After being awake 16 hours in a row, brain function starts to decline, and after 20 hours awake, you perform as if legally drunk, she said.

Many college-bound kids start out with dreadful sleep habits that are likely to get worse once the rigorous demands of college courses and competing social and athletic activities kick in.

I’ve yet to meet a parent whose teenage child, especially if male, doesn’t sleep until 11 a.m. or later on weekends, throwing their circadian clock out of whack in a perpetual struggle to make up for a serious midweek sleep debt. It’s as if they travel across three or more time zones every weekend, then spend Monday through Friday recovering from performance-robbing jet lag.

In the process, they knock out of whack one in 20 genes governed by a circadian rhythm. The substances produced by those genes are not released at the right times and the body fails to perform at its best. Both cognitive and physical abilities are likely to suffer. In a study at Stanford University, when men’s varsity basketball players got an optimal amount of sleep, their free-throw and three-point field goal percentages increased significantly.

College students who fail to adopt more wholesome sleep habits are more likely to find themselves unable to handle their chosen course load and less likely to reach their academic potential, according to a national study of more than 55,000 college students.

The study, by Monica E. Hartmann and Dr. Prichard of the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn., found that for each additional day of sleep disturbance a college student experienced each week, the likelihood of dropping a course rose by 10 percent and grade point average fell by 0.02, even when most other factors known to influence academic success were taken into account.

“One in every three or four students nationally fails to graduate,” Dr. Prichard said in an interview. “If their sleep were improved, their likelihood of graduating would too. Nothing gets worse with better sleep, and a lot of things get better.”

Dr. Prichard, a professor of psychology and neuroscience and scientific director of the university’s Center for College Sleep, said the sleep habits of college students represent “a major public health crisis” that institutions of higher learning pay little attention to. Of 26 risks to well-being that colleges consider important to inform students about, sleep ranks second to last, just above internet addiction, she said.

“There’s definitely room for improvement in educating students about sleep,” Dr. Prichard said in an interview. “If all you do is ask students how they’re sleeping, chances are they’ll say ‘great’ because they’re so chronically sleep-deprived, they can fall asleep anywhere!”

When Dr. Prichard, who had been studying rats, began teaching college full time, she said she witnessed firsthand the “delirium and exhaustion of students struggling to stay awake” and switched her research attention to college students, looking to identify the factors that most influenced their lack of good quality sleep.

“I was surprised to discover that feeling stressed was the main reason for poor student sleep, while consumption of alcohol and caffeine were not significant predictors of sleep quality,” she said based on a study of 1,125 college students she and co-authors published in 2010 in the Journal of Adolescent Health. “Lots of students are suffering from depression, anxiety and A.D.H.D., all of which can be symptoms of sleep deprivation or worsened by it.”

Knowing this prompted her to find ways to help students better manage their stress and anxiety. Working with the St. Thomas Student Wellness Center, she organized a freshman morning get-together with a healthy breakfast and conversation about issues that were causing student stress, testing this intervention against emailed information. Those who attended the morning sessions reported feeling much less stressed and got more sleep and were less sleep-deprived at finals time, Dr. Prichard said.

Also critically important, Dr. Prichard said, is practicing good “sleep hygiene” — the behavioral measures that can help to assure a full and restful night’s sleep. She and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine offer these suggestions:

Nov. 11, 2016

Jane Brody is the personal health columnist, a position she has held since 1976. She has written more than a dozen books including the best sellers “Jane Brody’s Nutrition Book” and “Jane Brody’s Good Food Book.” 

By Tim Newman | Published Wednesday 27 June 2018

Fact checked by Jasmin Collier

A new study finds that even relatively minor sleep disturbances can increase the risk of high blood pressure in women. This increase was measured even in women who slept for the recommended duration.

For some time, we have known that insufficient sleep increases blood pressure, and, therefore, the risk of heart-related diseases.

Recently, researchers from Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York conducted a study to assess whether or not less serious sleep issues could cause measurable cardiovascular effects.

An estimated one third of people in the United States do not get enough sleep. And, women seem to be affected more often than men.

There are several reasons why sleep problems are more common in women. For instance, women are more likely to be carers for children and elderly relatives, and they also experience shifts in hormones both monthly and across their lifespan.

For this reason, the scientists decided to focus their study on women. Lead study author Brooke Aggarwal explains why the prevalence of sleep disturbance in women is particularly worrying.

She says, "[S&91;tudies have shown that sleep deprivation and milder sleep problems may have a disproportionate effect on cardiovascular health in women."

Investigating sleep disturbances

To investigate, the scientists studied 323 healthy female participants aged 20–79. As well as more severe sleep problems such as sleep apnea — wherein a person stops breathing for short periods of time while asleep — they tested for more minor problems, such as poor sleep quality, difficulty dropping off, and insomnia.

Their results were published recently in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

In other words, even when the amount of sleep was at recommended levels, sleep disturbances still increased the risk of hypertension. The researchers conclude:

"[R&91;elatively mild sleep disturbances such as poor sleep quality, prolonged time to fall asleep, and insomnia are associated with increased blood pressure and vascular inflammation in women, even in the absence of sleep deprivation."

Vascular markers

Of the participants, 26 women also allowed the researchers to sample endothelial cells — the cells that line blood vessels — from the vein in their arms. The team assessed the samples for a protein called endothelial nuclear factor kappa B, which is related to inflammation and can signal the development of cardiovascular disease.

As expected, the scientists found a relationship between sleep disturbance and inflammation in endothelial cells.

"Our findings suggest that mild sleep problems could possibly initiate the vascular endothelial inflammation that's a significant contributor to cardiovascular disease. Results of an ongoing clinical trial may confirm these results."

– Brooke Aggarwal

Although the research was carried out on a relatively small sample (particularly the endothelial cell investigation), the findings merit further work. Indeed, the scientists are involved in ongoing experiments into this interaction.

As we await confirmation, Aggarwal concludes that "[i&91;n the meantime, it may be prudent to screen women for milder sleep disturbances in an effort to help prevent cardiovascular disease."