Sleep is a naturally recurring state characterized by reduced or absent consciousness, relatively suspended sensory activity, and inactivity of nearly all voluntary muscles. It is distinguished from quiet wakefulness by a decreased ability to react to stimuli, and is more easily reversible than being in hibernation or a coma.
Questions tagged [sleep]
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Can Software Help You Sleep?
I've come across software that claims to improve one's sleep and to help falling asleep in the first place, by listening to an audio track with spoken words, music, and ambient sounds. Here's one example of an iPhone app. The vendor also offers a…
Torben Gundtofte-Bruun
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Does sleeping on your left side, while pregnant, improve blood flow?
According to babycenter.com and countless other pregnancy sites and youtube videos, women should sleep on their left side while pregnant to improve blood flow to the fetus:
Sleeping on your side is best while you're pregnant. In particular,…
rishimaharaj
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Is it possible to solve problems without active thinking?
I am a mathematics major and I constantly hear people (including my professors) saying that when you are not actively thinking about a given problem and playing tennis for instance your subconscious keeps thinking about it.
When I take a rest after…
Xena
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Is there any correlation between sleeping position and personality?
I've read in various news sites (1, 2, 3) that sleeping position correlates with personality. Most go as far as describing what personality traits are linked to each different position but no mentions on the methodologies of the studies or how each…
Georgios Bitzes
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Do bullfrogs sleep?
Today I came across this picture:
So I searched a bit about it. In this wiki answer it is stated that:
Bullfrogs do sleep. They sleep underground from 2- 4 weeks.
Sounded ok, but in this website, frogmatters, it1 says the opposite, thus…
Alenanno
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Do sharks never sleep?
My friend was saying that shark never sleeps. Because to keep it afloat, it has to continuously swim, so that it can't sleep.
This claim is repeated in the Ocean of Know:
They certainly need to conserve their energy because they never really sleep…
user
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Is shared dreaming possible?
Mutual dreaming or shared dreaming is the claim that two or more people can share the same dream environment. I have experienced a numerous lucid dreams but I've never met a known person in such dreams.
So, is this phenomenon possible and if it is…
Pedja
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Are organic mattresses healthier than the alternatives?
Some stores sell "organic mattresses" or "non-chemical" mattresses (consisting of 'all-natural' latex, as if latex were not a chemical) for children.
Example
Example
Some of them make health claims, with an implication is that non-organic…
mmr
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Can audio played during REM sleep improve recall?
I was reading about sleep-learning - for example of the type depicted in The Simpsons episode, Bart's Friend Falls in Love:
Homer orders a subliminal cassette tape to help him lose weight, but is accidentally sent one that helps him increase his…
Mauricio Arias Olave
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Could this monk have lived nine days without food, water and sleep?
All over the news this week in Japan has been this story about a monk:
A Buddhist monk on Wednesday finished a grueling nine-day ritual of not eating, drinking, or sleeping as he chanted sutras 100,000 times.
[...]
He was the 13th monk to…
Ken Y-N
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Does eating dark chocolate eliminate night terrors?
In answer to a question on Parenting.SE about helping a child cope with night terrors, a user posted:
Here's what you do For the little guy. For his night terrors give him
1 to 2 small square of dark chocolate candy 2 to 3 hours before
bedtime…
Erica
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Does oversleeping lead to reduced alertness?
There are several studies (Example 1, Example 2) about the effect of sleep deprivation on alertness and cognitive performance.
Are there any studies investigating the opposite - The effect of too much sleep on alertness, also known as the Rip Van…
LTR
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Has hypnopaedia been proven to work? To what extent?
The idea of learning during sleep, say by listening to a recorded class, can be tempting to make a good use of roughly a third of the day. Has it ever worked though? If so what is the most efficient method to retain information?
Renan
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Does having your bedroom door closed while sleeping improve fire safety?
The UL (formerly Underwriter Laboratories) has a Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI) that claims that sleeping with the bedroom door closed reduces the risk of being killed in a fire:
UL FSRI research on fire service horizontal ventilation, begun…
John Doe
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Does Earthing Therapy reduce cortisol secretion and help sleep?
Earthing Therapy involves "earthing" and "grounding" the human body by electrically connecting it to the ground.
In the book Sleep Smarter, by Shawn Stevenson, he claims there is research that says grounding benefits human health, particularly…
Charlie Parker
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