Author: Lance Garrison
When you think about improving your heart health, food and exercise may come to mind. Sleep is just as crucial – even though many people treat it like a luxury, not a necessity.“Just like we talk about eating a low-fat diet to minimize your cholesterol and maintain your heart health, maintaining your sleep health is important for your overall well-being,” says Susheel Patil, MD, PhD, director of the Sleep Medicine Program for University Hospitals.And yet, many people view sleep as a luxury, not a necessity. “Most Americans are probably sleep-deprived to some extent,” Patil says. According to the CDC, 1…
Ask clinical psychologist Michael Breus, PhD, a.k.a. The Sleep Doctor, for his No. 1 tip for having more energy and sleeping better, and he doesn’t hesitate to share his own morning routine: He rises at 6:15 a.m. daily, drinks a big glass of water, and meditates as he waits for the sun to come up. Then at 7 a.m. sharp he walks his two dogs, Hugo and Moose, around the block, making sure to leave his sunglasses at home.“Every single human, just as soon as possible after waking up, should go outside and get at least 15 minutes of direct…
To the Editor:Re the “At the Brink” series (Opinion, March 10):Thank you for highlighting the existential threat of nuclear weapons.President Ronald Reagan and the last Soviet president, Mikhail Gorbachev, issued a joint statement in 1985 saying “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.” But we squandered the opportunity at the end of the Cold War to abolish these weapons.Today we are entering an extremely dangerous new arms race and risking direct military confrontation with a revanchist Russia, while other nuclear conflicts loom around the world.The United States, as you report, is expected to spend up to…
Men may talk about it more often, but women do it, too.More than half of American women 18-49 masturbate at least once every 3 months, according to a study from The Kinsey Institute, and that’s true for single women and those who are coupled up. Self-pleasure doesn’t have the stigma it once did, says Nicole Prause, PhD, but myths still affect the way that some women feel about it — and how they do (or don’t) touch themselves.Here are five things you should know about masturbation.Masturbating increases blood flow throughout your body and releases feel-good brain chemicals called endorphins. “That…
Last September, I drove to a protected wetland near my home in Oakland, Calif., walked to the end of a pier and started looking at birds. Throughout the summer, I had been breaking in my first pair of binoculars, a Sibley field guide and the Merlin song-identification app, but always while hiking or walking the dog. On that pier, for the first time, I had gone somewhere solely to watch birds.In some birding circles, people say that anyone who looks at birds is a birder — a kind, inclusive sentiment that also overlooks the forces that create and shape subcultures.…
If your sleep life tends to not be great and you find yourself dreading bedtime, it’s time to flip the script. Your thoughts about sleep can frame what happens when you shut your eyes. Will it be the restful night you need, or are you in for hours of tossing and turning?Sleep can go awry for many reasons. While changing your sleep mindset can’t counteract poor sleep habits or a health issue that’s keeping you up, your expectations do matter.Yale Medicine behavioral sleep medicine expert Susan Rubman, PhD, puts it this way: “The way we approach sleep is mission-critical.” And…
For several weeks, Haitian political parties, civil society organizations and diaspora groups have been negotiating what Haiti’s transitional government will look like after Prime Minister Henry resigns, as he has pledged to do. Many hope for a representative council that can re-establish security, rebuild institutions and inspire Haitians’ confidence to vote for a new government in elections later next year. The Caribbean Community, or Caricom, has brokered negotiations, mostly over Zoom, that have created a transitional presidential council, including both democracy advocates and members of several political parties. That council will select a new interim prime minister.As these negotiations have…
Did you recently start excessively sweating even in comfortable temperatures? Do you wake up at night soaked in sweat?These may be signs of secondary hyperhidrosis — excessive sweating due to medications or a medical condition. Normally, your body sweats to regulate its temperature, and you sweat more during exercise, hot conditions, and stressful situations. Your body cools down as sweat evaporates from the skin.With secondary hyperhidrosis, your sweat glands overreact throughout the body due to medications or a medical condition, producing more sweat than is necessary.Heavy sweating that’s new and unusual after age 25 is often caused by a health…
The Supreme Court this week heard the first major challenge to abortion rights since it struck down Roe v. Wade two years ago — an attempt to severely limit access to mifepristone, the most commonly used abortion pill in the country, by a group of doctors who are morally opposed to the practice.The justices seem prepared to throw out the lawsuit. During oral arguments, they questioned whether the doctors had suffered the harm necessary to bring the suit in the first place.But that should come as small comfort to anyone concerned for the future of reproductive freedom in America. Judges…
With little notice, the United States may be crossing a historic milestone in family structure, one that may shape our health, wealth and happiness.Historically, most American adults were married — more than two-thirds as recently as 1970. But the married share has crept downward, and today only about half of adults are married. Depending on the data source, we may already have entered an epoch in which a majority are not married.“Our civilization is in the midst of an epochal shift, a shift away from marriage,” Brad Wilcox, a sociologist who directs the National Marriage Project at the University of…