People who compensated for sleep deprivation with catch-up sleep did not have an increased risk of mortality. People who consistently slept too little without ever making it up did

A forty percent higher risk of dementia. Brains that function as if they are four years older. These are the figures from a study involving more than 2,700 adults with chronic insomnia

When you’re under pressure your body enters a state of alertness. The stress hormone cortisol keeps you vigilant. That’s useful in urgent situations, but the brain doesn’t distinguish between a caregiving task tomorrow morning and a lion around the corner. Under stress, the body remains in a heightened state of readiness, which prevents proper recovery during sleep. As a result, you either don’t get enough sleep or the quality of your sleep declines.

On TikTok and Instagram, it’s showing up more and more: people showering in the dark shortly before bedtime. Just warm, running water and darkness. They claim that dark showering helps them fall asleep faster. Is that true?

If you think you sleep poorly because your father or mother did too, and that it’s simply “in your DNA,” some nuance is needed. Predisposition explains why you may be more vulnerable. It doesn’t necessarily explain why you’re sleeping poorly now or why it just isn’t improving.

During a scroll through social media, I notice how persistent certain sleep myths still are. I’ve listed four common ones.

A study by researchers from the University of Salzburg compares eight popular sleep trackers with polysomnography, the medical gold standard for sleep research. The findings are surprising.

Various scientific studies confirm that listening to music before going to sleep can improve sleep. This is especially true for people with mild to moderate sleep problems.

Good sleep is rarely the result of luck. More often, it reflects a pattern of choices, signals, and rhythms that either support rest or quietly undermine it.

What makes caffeine sneaky is that it’s in more products than you think. Many people only think of coffee, but tea, cola, energy drinks, chocolate, and even some workout supplements and painkillers also contain caffeine. Together, they can add up to a stack bigger than you expect—and that your body still has to handle at night

Many people experience a surge of alertness shortly before bedtime. Why is that?

Yoga combines movement, breathing, focus, and relaxation. This appears to reduce stress and positively influence your nervous system. Interestingly, it's not about the gentle, slow yoga, but rather more intensive forms like power yoga or vinyasa flow

In my sleep coaching programs, I don’t treat questionnaires as just a 'test'. I use them as a starting point for meaningful change