Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian
sleeplatest news & developments
Palestinians who left their homes and took refuge in Rafah try to survive under harsh conditions in makeshift tents they set up in the empty land as Israeli attacks continue on Gaza on April 22, 2024. (Photo by Hani Alshaer/Anadolu via Getty Images)

‘Flayed rams hang above our sleep’ as we witness the devastation of Gaza

As the world is ripped apart, the poems that sing the universal enable some respite

Night-night: The hormone adenosine suppresses brain cell activity, leading to an increased feeling of drowsiness the longer a person has been awake. During sleep, the adenosine is broken down. Caffeine binds to adenosine receptors, so it can help people stay awake. Photo: Aja Koska

Put your body clock to rights

An edited extract from a new book by Dr Michael Mosley called 4 Weeks to Better Sleep

Former Eskom chief executive André de Ruyter.

Q&A Sessions: ‘I cannot fix Eskom. But we can fix this’ — André de Ruyter

Meet the father, the cook and the chief executive of Eskom, who wakes up at 3am and writes speeches. André de Ruyter speaks to Athandiwe Saba about the future of the power…

(John McCann/M&G)

A dark spiral skewers sleep

Depression is a mood disorder that has physical effects, including disruption of a good night’s rest

Respect yourself, your resources of money and time, and deploy them wisely. (John McCann)

You don’t snooze, you lose

Billions of rands are lost because workers are just not getting enough shut eye

In a study on mice

​Keeping the lights on could make you sick

Harnessing light and ignoring millennia of evolving to live with natural light and dark cycles is not good for your health, according to scientists.

Only one in 10 of the children with the earliest bedtime grew into obesity

Sending children to bed earlier cuts obesity

Kids that go to bed before 8pm are half as likely to become obese as those that sleep after 9pm.

CES 2015: Now for a smart bed for kids

A company calling itself “a sleep innovation leader” has launched the SleepIQ Kids, a “smart bed” for kids, boasting a range of features.

Who has an alarm clock these days?

Night of the phone-loving zZzombies

The latest science shows that your phone might be stopping you from getting enough sleep, raising the risk of accidents, heart ailments and diabetes.

Good night

Dreaming of an early night

Some of us are born larks, not owls — but try explaining that to a bunch of drunk friends at a late-night party.

Research indicates nature sounds help to sculpt pleasant dreams and improve waking mood.

Sweet dreams made of tweets

A nightmare can ruin the day ahead, but a birdsong app may make for better dreams.

Police in New York say the best tactic is to stay on the move and nap in the passenger seat while your partner is driving.

Sleeping at work now has a name

Napping cops have inspired an addition to the workplace lexicon, the term "cooping".

It’s better to let sleeping teens lie

Research proves that adolescents could benefit from later starting times at high school.

In bed with the best of them

Cat Pritchard beds down on the conservative side of a R300 000 mattress at the Taj hotel and finds herself waking up slightly right of centre.

Hope for narcolepsy sufferers

If narcoleptics could be diagnosed and treated within a year of symptoms presenting the illness’s impact could be greatly reduced.

Can you recognise a snore?

A breakthrough in research at Stellenbosch University uses audio recordings to generate a ‘snoring index’, reports Marc Abrahams.