For teens who need their beauty rest and then some in those key developmental years, nothing interferes quite as much as scrolling on social media late into the night. There’s the social angst, the blue light, and of course, the inability to stop that we’ve all experienced from time to time. For adolescents, social media use is often a rite of passage, but recent evidence suggests that social media use (SMU) can have an even greater impact on sleep than previously thought — especially for girls. In the recently released study in the Journal of Adolescence, researchers examined data from the 2 ..read more

The postpartum period is rough. Between sleepless nights, fluctuating hormones and caring for your new baby, it’s a recipe for overwhelm and stress, and a recent study finds that new moms and dads experience the postpartum period very differently. The study, which was released earlier this month, and published in Behavioral Sleep Medicine, found that the length of time in which parents experience sleep and stress struggles differ. (1) For fathers, sleep and stress trials lasted for two months, whereas mothers experienced the postpartum period for an average of eight months. The study also fou ..read more

If you’re one of the 90 million Americans who emit strange and disruptive noises while you sleep, you may be trying to figure out how to stop snoring. (1) Your nighttime cacophony may initially prompt some chuckles from your bed partner, but the joke can wear thin over time.  Snoring can stem from a wide range of causes: some temporary and others more serious. (2) No matter the cause, though, you have plenty of options to stop the snores, and we’ve gathered them all for you below. Note: The content on Sleepopolis is meant to be informative in nature, but it shouldn’t be taken as medical ..read more

TikTok can be a rabbit hole… especially if you have a habit of diagnosing yourself via the latest viral video, which just so happens to be about sleep. TikTok creator Olivia Lutfallah posted a video on April 1, 2024 that has already accumulated over 34 million views suggesting that the “T-rex arm” sleeping position is associated with being neurodivergent. (1) TikTokers had quite a few comments on the video — over 24,000 to be exact — with some people saying that they have ADHD and sleep in this position. “It’s just cozy. I do it for extra support, ” said one TikTok user. “I have ADHD and alwa ..read more

No one would be surprised to hear that sleep and mood are connected — feeling like you woke up on the wrong side of the bed or being considered “not a morning person” comes with a natural understanding that poor sleep keeps you from being your best self.  Researchers have also noticed a complex relationship between sleep, wakefulness, and mood, and plenty of studies aim to uncover how each aspect plays a role in daily life and functioning and the impacts of poor sleep on mental health and wellbeing. A recent University of Michigan and Dartmouth Health study found that mood patterns are c ..read more

Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is perhaps one of the most significant and challenging sleep health issues of our time. Today, drugmaker Eli Lilly reported promising results in the treatment of OSA. The company released data that showed that its GLP-1 drug, Tirzepatide, reduced irregular breathing in OSA patients. As part of a two-part trial on the effectiveness of the drugs, patients were given Tirzepatide, which is the active ingredient in Lilly’s Mounjaro and Zepbound. Mounjaro is used in the treatment of Type 2 Diabetes, and Zepbound is used to help in weight loss for patients battling obes ..read more

If you browse through Amazon looking for children’s natural sleep aids, you’ll stumble across products that market themselves as “melatonin-free.” Some are positioned next to supplements advertising that they contain melatonin — a  potentially confusing lineup for parents in search of a sleep aid for their little ones.  What some people don’t know is that melatonin is a hormone that is naturally produced by your body to regulate your circadian rhythm. Melatonin supplements are available over-the-counter in the United States, but are not approved by the FDA — and are available only w ..read more

When we pull the covers back on the finer points of our sleep architecture, or the organizational structure of our sleep stages and how we move through sleep cycles, one sleep stage in particular stands out for its importance to our well-being and cognitive function: deep sleep. (1)  While most people know that the REM sleep stage is when most dreaming occurs, they  probably aren’t familiar with the host of biological housekeeping functions that occur during deep sleep. (2) This sleep stage does the lion’s share of the work to make us feel restored and refreshed when we wake, but it ..read more

As we age, a variety of factors impede our ability to fall asleep, from circulating worries, to aches and pains, to more serious medical conditions. In addition, women report an increase in sleep issues during menopause, making it harder than ever to “sleep like a baby” the further and further we get away from our own childhoods. But, a new study reveals a potential strategy to ease severe insomnia in older women — yoga. The new study, published on March 29, examines 12 weeks of India-based participants between 60 and 70 years of age, who had severe insomnia. (1) Six days per week, for 60-min ..read more

Raise your hand if you remember when users needed a college-issued email address to join Facebook. Yep, it happened — I was there. I’m an elder millennial who proudly recalls my cellphone-free years, yet also wonders how we survived without Googling every ailment.  I limit my kids’ screen time and never let them use their tablets before bedtime (the mom who writes for a sleep website knows that kids’ screen time and sleep don’t mix!). But it’s a “do as I say, not as I do” situation, as I’m part of the 65 percent of millennials who use social media many or most nights before bed.  A ..read more