Sleep

Sleep

Aerial view of a river delta with branching waterways, shaped by natural intelligence, flowing into the sea and surrounded by green and brown land.
Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.
A red door with a gold doorknob is floating in the middle of a blue sky surrounded by white clouds.
"Ordinary dreams are, perhaps, the clearest articulation of what it is like to be."
Silhouette of a person standing with hands in pockets, surrounded by concentric oval lines resembling tree rings that symbolize lifespan, in various shades of brown.
Living longer is only half the equation. Here’s how to stay healthier for more of those years.
A child rests peacefully on a bed adorned with red and white striped sheets, wearing a blue outfit. It's as if their dreams are in sleep replay, caught in the tranquil rhythm of slumber, lying contentedly on their stomach.
Participants’ brains revealed they were doing a kind of “neural replay” of the game they had been manipulated to win.
A collage featuring a sleeping person, a 3D-rendered hand, and various graphs with dates and "gpt-4" labels, overlaid by the text "The Nightcrawler," subtly highlights themes of the attention economy.
Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.
Illustration of a prehistoric scene with a rodent-like mammal, possibly experiencing animal sleep deprivation, perched on a branch. In the background, two elephants are walking while a flying reptile soars under the moonlit sky.
Scientists still aren't sure how they perform without those restorative Z's.
Close-up of a hand holding a blue object, with a digitally altered, grainy effect and a circular line overlay on the image. The background features a mix of white, red, and pink hues.
GLP-1 agonists may be able to treat addiction, prevent Alzheimer’s, and more.
a collage of photos of people talking on their cell phones.
The Human Chronome Project finds that the average human sleeps for 9 hours but only works for 2.6 hours.
A woman's feet in a hammock on the beach.
It may seem as though top performers are always on, but the secret to their success is taking the time to recharge.
A collage of images capturing a woman with her eyes closed, hinting at the possibility of sleep deprivation.
Big Think recently spoke with sleep psychologist Dr. Jade Wu about the surprising consequences of forgoing sleep.
A close up of a fish's eye, revealing its intriguing anatomy.
Researchers are finding signs of multiple phases of sleep all over the animal kingdom. The ‘active’ sleep phases look very much like REM.
A group of people sleeping on a train.
Lucid dreamers may have “privileged access to their inner world,” with “heightened awareness... to the outside world.”
Two people laying down in a field, reflecting on their habits and contemplating their battles with depression.
A healthy lifestyle even protects those who are genetically predisposed to depression.
A woman wearing a sleep apnea mask with a bottle of water.
If not treated, the disorder drastically increases one's risk of death.
A painting depicting sleep deprivation and a woman asleep at a table.
Bad news: Sleeping in on the weekends probably won't cut it.
A man napping next to a horse in a painting.
Don't feel compelled to start a napping routine just yet.
A black t-shirt featuring pictures of friends.
Since 2012, the amount of time that teenagers spend socializing in person has plummeted. Is it a coincidence that depression is more common?
A black t-shirt featuring a picture of a man and a woman, causing brain zaps.
Synchronized activity between the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, and thalamus plays a role in memory consolidation.
dream advertising
A team of scientists has warned that marketers seek to advertise in our dreams. Will our sleep be commercialized against our wishes?
a blurry image of a man standing in front of a blue background.
A recently identified stage of sleep common to narcoleptics is a fertile source of creativity.
a collage of a woman sleeping on a pillow next to a bowl of food.
More than a third of Americans don’t get enough sleep. Diet is an important, under-recognized culprit.
a man sitting on the bow of a sailboat.
Biological age is a better health indicator than the number of years you’ve lived, but it’s tricky to measure.
a man sleeping in a bed with a clock.
Like toddlers, adults can also get "overtired."
In a study involving mice, scientists used two different techniques — one optogenetic and one pharmacologic — to recover "lost" memories.
A cup of coffee with a brain silhouette drawn on the foam.
Compared to people who took a placebo, the brains of those who took caffeine pills had a temporarily smaller gray matter volume.
sleep duration
If you want to sleep more, try working less, eating better, and exercising more. Alternatively, you could emigrate to Albania.