Here’s the sleep news for this week:
SLEEP annual conference wrapped up this week
SLEEP, an annual meeting that provides education on the science and clinical practice of sleep medicine, took place this past week in Indianapolis. The 37th Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (comprising the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society) included many research findings. Notable presentations included findings about the connection between sleep disturbances and depression in college athletes, as well as a finding that adults with regular sleep schedules and sufficient sleep duration had a 39% lower mortality risk than those who got irregular, insufficient sleep.
Survey finds that sex is as good as a sleeping pill
One of the many studies presented at SLEEP 2023 found that 75% of survey participants reported that they slept better after having sex close to bedtime, the majority of whom reported experiencing a moderate improvement in their sleep on those nights; 64% of respondents also felt that sleeping pills had a similar or worse effect on their sleep compared to sex. Lead author Dr. Douglas Kirsch shared that he is curious to know if the impact of sex on sleep is primarily a physiological process related to orgasm, and if not, could a meaningful, nonsexual connection between partners produce similar results?
Sleep loss impairs memory of smells
Researchers looked into the relationship between sleep and smell by studying roundworms. In a study published in Cell, scientists learned that when roundworms were trained to avoid a sweet scent (butanone), they still remembered to do so after 16 hours, as long as their post-training nap was uninterrupted. However, disturbing their sleep prevented crucial changes to their nervous system that are involved in forming long-lasting memories. Researchers hope this finding will compel scientists to delve into the processes that occur at the cellular and molecular level during sleep.
In more fun sleep news…
Are you someone who can’t sleep when even the slightest bit of light creeps in? Do we have the stay for you! A new hotel lets people sleep at the bottom of a Victorian mine, a quarter-mile underground in the UK. The Deep Sleep Hotel is located beneath the mountains of Snowdonia, also known as Eryri National Park, in North Wales and is being marketed as the world’s deepest hotel. The Deep Sleep Hotel comprises four private twin-bed cabins and a romantic grotto with a double bed, which can be hired out one day a week, on a Saturday night. A single-night stay for two in a private cabin costs £350 ($439.29), while the price for two in the Grotto is £550 ($690.31).
In sleep-centric social media news…
Many parents can relate to the bittersweet feeling of moving a child to their “big kid” bed. Brittany Mahomes, co-owner of the Kansas City Current of the National Women’s Soccer League, and Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback, recently experienced the feeling for the first time when they moved their 2-year-old daughter to her own bed. “Moved Sterling to a big girl bed today and I could cry. She went right to sleep,” Brittany shared on her Instagram.
