Talk of increasing levels of sleep deprivation in recent years appear to be just that, talk. Or possibly the product of a sleep deprived mind or two... The fact is that most adults get enough sleep, and our collective sleep debt, if it exists at all, has not worsened in recent times. Moreover, claims that sleep deprivation is contributing to obesity and diabetes have been overblown. My assertion is ... Read full entry

It was really the invention of the electric light bulb that precipitated a decline in sleeping hours since it became possible to stay up till all hours reading or even working. Add 24 hour television, and then the internet to the mix, and we're rapidly becoming a sleep deprived lot. According to a recent study, American adults are sleeping on average less than seven hours a night - down ... Read full entry

A whiff of coffee may be just as reinvigorating as drinking it, if tests on sleep deprived mice are anything to go by. A team led by Yoshinori Masuo at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Tsukuba, Japan, deprived rats of sleep for a day. When they examined their brains they found reduced levels of mRNA - messenger molecules that indicate when a gene is being expressed ... Read full entry