You know you want that sleep, so really, turn off that TV. (I am not going to practice what I preach though... luckily I can wake when I want to, or when the cat jumps on me for food.)
About 5 percent of the population suffers from insomnia, and new research indicates chronic sleeplessness may be damaging their brains. Using an advanced MRI technique, researchers in China compared the brains of 23 patients with insomnia with the brains of 30 people with normal sleep habits. Those with insomnia had significantly less white matter, the communication system that relays neural signals to different parts of the brain, MedicalDaily.com reports. “If white matter tracts are impaired, communication between brain regions is disrupted,” says study author Shumei Li. Among the affected areas are the thalamus, which regulates sleep and alertness, and the limbic system, which is involved in learning, memory, and emotion. At this early stage, researchers caution, it’s not clear whether degraded white matter is a cause of insomnia—or a result.
And yet another tidbit taken from the April 22 edition of the Week Magazine.
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