Sleep is the single most effective thing we do each day to reset the health of our brain and body. It’s an extraordinary elixir that can help you age well and live longer. Here’s what we know about Mother Nature’s cure-all...
WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU HAVE TOO LITTLE SLEEP?
Short sleep is associated with an increased chance of having high blood pressure, a heart attack, and/or a stroke. Even the loss of a single hour of sleep can be heartbreaking, quite literally. There is a global experiment conducted on over 1.5 billion people across 70 countries twice a year. You know of this experiment. It is called Daylight Saving Time. According to a study published in 2014 in the journal Open Heart that looked at more than 42,000 hospital admissions for heart attacks, in the spring, when we lose an hour of sleep, there is a 24 per cent increase in heart attacks the next day.
Even your hormones take a turn for the worse when sleep is lost. Young healthy men sleeping just four hours a night for four nights end up with a level of testosterone equivalent to that of someone 10 years older, according to a small study published in the journal JAMA in 2011. In other words, inadequate sleep, even for a few nights, will ‘age’ a man by over a decade in terms of such hormonal virility. We see equivalent impairments in female reproductive health and hormonal profiles due to a lack of sleep.
Esta historia es de la edición May 2021 de BBC Focus - Science & Technology.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición May 2021 de BBC Focus - Science & Technology.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
WHEN'S THE BEST TIME FOR A CAFFEINE HIT?
Wakey-wakey! Find the sweet spot for a coffee shot and science says the benefits are grande
DEAD MAN’S FINGERS
Picture the scene. It's Halloween and you've gone for an ill-advised stroll through the graveyard on the edge of town.
What tipping point are climate scientists most worried about?
Collapsing ice sheets, loss of the Amazon rainforest, melting permafrost.……. Key parts of Earth's climate system are in trouble. Which could trigger disaster first?
PROFESSOR BRIAN COX
The biggest space missions yet are making their way to new parts of the Universe. In his new BBC Two series Solar System, Prof Brian Cox reveals what these explorations are discovering about life in our galactic neighbourhood. Noa Leach sat down with him to talk about the most exciting new missions, life in the Universe and his top behind-the-scenes moments of filming
KEEP YOUR HAIR ON
MORE THAN HALF OF MEN AND MILLIONS OF WOMEN ARE AFFECTED BY HAIR LOSS. IT CAUSES LOW SELF-ESTEEM IN SOME AND ANXIETY IN OTHERS. THANKFULLY, SCIENTISTS AROUND THE WORLD ARE GETTING TO THE ROOTS OF THE PROBLEM WITH PIONEERING NEW TREATMENTS
DAMAGE ASSESSMENT
Could we deflect an asteroid to stop it from hitting Earth? The success of NASA's DART mission suggests so, but only after ESA's soon-to-launch Hera mission has checked the results will we know if this approach to planetary defence is a viable possibility
SAVE THE SHARKS...SAVE THE OCEANS
RUTHLESS PREDATORS, MINDLESS KILLERS, MAN-EATERS... SHARKS HAVE A FEARSOME REPUTATION THAT BEARS LITTLE RELATION TO REALITY. THE TRUTH IS, THESE REMARKABLE CREATURES ARE STRUGGLING TO SURVIVE. BUT OUR WATERS WON'T BE ANY SAFER WITHOUT THEM. IN FACT, THE PLANET'S SEAS WILL BE IN EVEN GREATER JEOPARDY THAN THEY ALREADY ARE
COULD ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE BE THE CURE FOR LONELINESS?
Rates of loneliness are increasing worldwide. But big-tech companies think they have the solution...
Olive mill wastewater: a health-boosting tonic hiding in the leftovers
A by-product of the olive oil production process is packed with compounds that lower your cholesterol and reduce your risk of developing cancer.
Lab-grown meat may be better for livestock, but not necessarily for the environment
The move to put alternative protein on our plates is gathering pace but there are still questions to answer