Sleep

Tired and wired: sleep deprivation prevents emotional adaptation to prolonged and ambiguous threat A new study combining virtual reality, heart rate monitoring, and multidimensional experience sampling reveals that sleep deprivation blocks the brain’s natural ability to downregulate fear and anxiety in the face of sustained, unclear threats. The findings offer a mechanistic explanation for why […]

Associations of Bubble Tea Consumption with Sleep Disturbance and Anxiety in Adolescents A study of nearly 12,000 adolescents in Eastern China has found that frequent bubble tea consumption is associated with higher odds of anxiety symptoms, with the relationship following a clear dose-response pattern. The findings, published in *Nutrients*, add to a growing conversation about […]

Asymmetric sleep spindles after thalamic stroke brief Côme-Alexandre Meyruey and Pierre Mégevand of the Neurology Division at Geneva University Hospital report a case of asymmetric sleep spindles following thalamic stroke in the June 26, 2026 online edition of *Epileptic Disorders* (DOI: 10.1002/epd2.70324). Sleep spindles, bursts of 11-16 Hz oscillatory activity characteristic of NREM sleep, are […]

A postmortem study published in the Journal of Sleep Research reports an almost complete loss of corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) neurons in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus of a woman who lived with narcolepsy without cataplexy for nearly three decades. The finding adds weight to the emerging idea that CRH neuron pathology contributes to excessive daytime sleepiness […]

A new randomized trial finds that the dual orexin receptor antagonist suvorexant, given nightly to patients recovering from cardiac surgery, did not improve objective sleep measures or reduce postoperative delirium compared with placebo. The findings challenge the assumption that blocking orexin signaling can rescue sleep in the uniquely hostile environment of the intensive care unit, […]

A new study tracking daily sleep changes in people with depression undergoing bright-light therapy reveals a striking disconnect: sleep timing shifts measurably over three weeks, but it is the subjective sense of sleeping better, not the objective schedule change, that predicts mood improvement. The findings, published in Clocks & Sleep, add a nuanced layer to […]

For decades, sleep was treated as a biological off switch a passive state where the body simply idled until morning. A new mechanistic review from researchers at Mayo Clinic makes clear that nothing could be further from the truth. Sleep is a period of intense, dynamic autonomic nervous system activity, and when that activity goes […]

brief Nearly 13% of U.S. adults reported using a sleep aid most nights or every night in the past month, according to data highlighted in a new public education article from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. The piece draws on 2024 CDC data to examine how widely sleep aids are used and whether they […]

New research from Fudan University reveals that cholinergic neurons in the brain’s oculomotor nucleus are organized into two parallel circuits: one that moves the eyes and a separate one that helps terminate REM sleep. The finding solves a longstanding puzzle about how the brain selectively spares motor outputs during rapid eye movement sleep. During REM […]

A new study reveals that the retina and the brain’s central circadian clock respond to light through surprisingly different molecular and neural mechanisms, with major implications for understanding how our internal timekeeping system works. Light is the single most powerful signal for synchronizing the body’s internal circadian clock to the 24-hour day. But a study […]