https://medicalxpress.com/sleep-news/ en-us Latest health news and information about Sleep & Recovery Timing exercise to match body clock chronotype—the natural predisposition to morning or evening alertness—may lower cardiovascular disease risk among those who are already vulnerable, suggests research published in the open access journal Open Heart. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-body-clock-chronotype-cardiovascular-disease.html Tue, 14 Apr 2026 18:30:03 EDT news695294521 Humans and most other organisms have internal biological clocks that track the daily cycle of sunrise and sunset. These clocks help time our sleep, metabolism and other essential body functions over the course of a day, creating daily patterns called circadian rhythms. Research shows that when these rhythms are disrupted—by jet lag, lack of sleep or irregular work schedules—people can suffer long-term negative health effects. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-baby-body-clock-synchronize-local.html Fri, 10 Apr 2026 14:40:01 EDT news695048979 The numbers are sobering: nearly 80% of the world's teenagers don't get enough physical activity, according to the World Health Organization. But a new longitudinal study from Université de Montréal suggests the seeds of that sedentary lifestyle—or an active one—may be sown much earlier than anyone realized. Like when a child is 2.5 years of age. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-play-age-decade-motion.html Fri, 10 Apr 2026 10:00:06 EDT news695033641 Research from the University of Oklahoma and the University of Tulsa proposes a new model to explain why nightmares can persist over time in children and how therapy can be designed to break that cycle. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-nightmares-persist-children.html Fri, 10 Apr 2026 07:00:01 EDT news695015521 Mount Sinai researchers have created an analytic tool using machine learning that can predict cardiovascular disease risk in millions of patients with obstructive sleep apnea, a serious sleep disorder, according to findings recently published in Communications Medicine. The team said their study is the first to provide estimates of whether continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), a widely used therapy for obstructive sleep apnea, will increase or decrease an individual's cardiovascular risk. It highlights the potential for precision medicine and varied approaches to tailor clinical care and reduce cardiovascular disease risk in vulnerable patients. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-ai-cpap-massively-heart-apnea.html Thu, 09 Apr 2026 17:40:03 EDT news694971481 An estimated 55 million people live with dementia worldwide, and both its prevalence and cost are expected to increase, with global costs projected to reach $2 trillion dollars by 2030. Current treatments for preventing or treating dementia have limited efficacy; therefore, public health efforts have also aimed at healthy lifestyle factors to reduce the risk of dementia before symptoms occur. Healthy behaviors such as regular physical activity and good sleep hygiene are known to support cognitive health. However, there remains a need to better understand their relationship to dementia. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-physical-linked-subsequent-dementia.html Wed, 08 Apr 2026 14:00:01 EDT news694795416 Organoids are miniature, simplified versions of an organ. Over the past two decades, scientists have developed them for the gut, lung, liver, mammary gland, brain, and more. Now, researchers at Yale School of Medicine (YSM) have organoid-ized the pineal gland, a small structure in the brain that regulates sleep patterns through its production of the hormone melatonin. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-lab-grown-pineal-gland-organoids.html Wed, 08 Apr 2026 10:40:01 EDT news694860494 A bit of sugar before a class test, a piece of chocolate before an important negotiation, a muesli bar before a marathon—the important role glucose plays in coping with stressful situations has been well researched. When we consume sugar, the body reacts more strongly to stress by releasing more cortisol. In addition, our heart rate remains elevated for longer. This means that more energy is available in acutely stressful situations. The negative long-term consequences are also well known: increased risk of high blood pressure, obesity and cardiovascular disease. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-sugar-undermine-meditation-massage-calm.html Tue, 07 Apr 2026 17:50:01 EDT news694799701 People whose sleep apnea changes dramatically from night to night are 30% more likely to have a heart attack, stroke, or heart failure, reveals a new study from Flinders University. The research, published in the journal SLEEP, shows that it is not just how severe sleep apnea is that matters, but how much it fluctuates, with wide night-to-night swings in breathing problems during sleep linked to a higher risk of serious heart disease. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-patterns-reveal-hidden-heart.html Tue, 07 Apr 2026 11:20:06 EDT news694776661 A research team at Charité–Universitätsmedizin Berlin has developed a test that can determine a person's chronotype based on their hair roots. It is intended to lay the foundation for circadian medicine—that is, medicine that is more closely aligned with the human body's internal clock. Applied to approximately 4,000 people, the new method also reveals that women and men differ slightly in their biological rhythms, and that lifestyle has a greater influence than previously assumed. The results have now been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-body-internal-clock-hair-sample.html Wed, 01 Apr 2026 13:20:02 EDT news694264381 Sleep helps the brain to cleanse itself—and now this process can be measured in humans entirely noninvasively. Researchers at the University of Oulu have developed a method that allows the increased movement of brain fluids during sleep to be tracked quickly and safely, without the need for injected contrast agents. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-03-brain-fast-invasive.html Tue, 31 Mar 2026 15:40:03 EDT news694180922 Electrical signals from the brain could help identify potential issues in the organ's development, a new study reports. Scientists from the University of Fribourg in Switzerland and the University of Surrey investigated electrical activity in the brains of sleeping infants longitudinally, at ages 3 and 6 months. They examined three electrical signals with distinct frequencies: slow wave activity (0.75–4.25 Hz), theta (4.5–7.5 Hz) power and sigma (9.75–14.75 Hz) power, which are key markers of sleep depth and brain development. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-03-eeg-reveals-infant-brain-rhythms.html Mon, 30 Mar 2026 19:40:04 EDT news694102986 Our date of birth doesn't always match the age of our brain. How old our brain really is depends on our biological age, shaped by the wear and tear our cells experience over time. Genetics, environmental factors, and lifestyle choices all play a role in shaping how young or old our body's components are. A biological age higher than your actual chronological age can signal an increased risk of age-related diseases and health problems. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-03-subtle-brainwave-patterns-eeg-dementia.html Sun, 29 Mar 2026 13:00:01 EDT news693652249 When people think about ways to improve cardiovascular health, diet and exercise are often at the top of the list. But long-term health, especially in adolescents, might start with something more fundamental: sleep. A new study, led by a team from Penn State College of Medicine, has found that when teenagers go to sleep and when they wake up may be the driving force behind what teenagers eat and how much they move. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-03-teens.html Thu, 26 Mar 2026 18:40:04 EDT news693763081 Ahead of the beginning of Daylight Saving Time (DST) on 29 March, a comprehensive international review by researchers at the University of Kent has highlighted the complex arguments for and against scrapping the twice-yearly clock change, and the need for more evidence before a decision can be made. Calls to scrap Daylight Saving Time have intensified in recent years with campaigners often emphasizing the negative consequences it has on public health and well-being in the UK. However, a review of 157 studies from 36 countries led by the Medway School of Pharmacy in partnership with researchers at the University of Cologne suggests that this simple messaging can be misleading. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-03-scrap-daylight.html Tue, 24 Mar 2026 23:00:01 EDT news693581093 Researchers led by Guilio Bernardi at the IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca in Italy have discovered a key relationship between dreaming and the feeling of having had a good night's sleep. Published in PLOS Biology, the study shows that the feeling of deep sleep is not determined solely by slow-wave brain activity. Rather, immersive dreaming that comes with increases in wake-like brain activity leads to a greater feeling of deep sleep. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-03-vivid-deeper.html Tue, 24 Mar 2026 14:00:01 EDT news693474121 Researchers at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine), have demonstrated that caffeine can restore social memory impaired by sleep deprivation by targeting a defined brain pathway. Social memory enables us to recognize and differentiate familiar individuals, such as people we have met before. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-03-caffeine-memory-function-loss.html Tue, 24 Mar 2026 10:20:01 EDT news693564572 Children who use social media for more than three hours per day are more likely to develop greater levels of depression and anxiety compared to those who use it more moderately. The findings are the latest analysis to come from the SCAMP study, led by public health researchers at Imperial College London and based on data from more than 2300 children in schools across London. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-03-children-social-media-linked-depression.html Mon, 23 Mar 2026 11:20:05 EDT news693482643 A machine-learning analysis of brain waves recorded during sleep may help identify people at high risk of developing dementia, according to a study led by UC San Francisco and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. The study found that when a person's "brain age," estimated from sleep signals using EEG, exceeded their actual age, the risk of dementia increased. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-03-brain-aging-faster-key.html Sun, 22 Mar 2026 11:00:02 EDT news693140845 Researchers at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience have found evidence that type-1 narcolepsy, a condition known for its "sleep attacks," is caused by the body's own immune system. The work is published in the journal Annals of Neurology. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-03-autoimmune-trigger-narcolepsy.html Sat, 21 Mar 2026 17:00:06 EDT news693147092