Insomnia News

June 25, 2025

Top Headlines

Humans Are Seasonal Creatures, According to Our Circadian Rhythms

May 30, 2025 — It's tempting to think that, with our fancy electric lights and indoor bedrooms, humanity has evolved beyond the natural influence of sunlight when it comes to our sleep routines. But new research shows that our circadian rhythms are still wild at ...

Don't Hit Snooze on New Research About Waking Up Each Morning

May 21, 2025 — Sleep experts recommend against snoozing after a wake-up alarm, but a study shows the practice is common, with more than 50% of sleep sessions logged ending in a snooze alarm and users spending 11 minutes on average ...

Scientists Discover New Way the Brain Learns

May 14, 2025 — Neuroscientists have discovered that the brain uses a dual system for learning through trial and error. This is the first time a second learning system has been identified, which could help explain how habits are formed and provide a scientific ...

Lack of Sleep Can Increase the Risk of Cardiovascular Disease

May 9, 2025 — Even a few nights with insufficient sleep promote molecular mechanisms linked to a greater risk of heart problems. This has been shown in a new study in which the researchers investigated how sleep deprivation affects biomarkers (in this case ...

Discovery of Dopamine Receptors in a Previously Overlooked Part of the Brain Sheds Light on the Complex Circuitry for Anxiety and Depression

May 7, 2025 — Researchers have discovered distinct roles for two dopamine receptors located on nerve cells within the portion of the brain that controls approach vs. avoidance ...

Dopamine Signals When a Fear Can Be Forgotten

May 4, 2025 — A new study shows how a dopamine circuit between two brain regions enables mice to extinguish fear after a peril has ...

Link Between Heart Attack Severity and Circadian Rhythm Unveiled

Apr. 23, 2025 — The molecular mechanism behind why heart attacks can vary in severity depending on the time of day has been uncovered, potentially paving the way for innovative treatments that align with the natural circadian ...

Adolescents Who Sleep Longer Perform Better at Cognitive Tasks

Apr. 22, 2025 — Adolescents who sleep for longer -- and from an earlier bedtime -- than their peers tend to have improved brain function and perform better at cognitive tests, researchers have shown. But the study of adolescents in the US also showed that even ...

How Dopamine Helps Us Learn to Avoid Bad Outcomes

Apr. 22, 2025 — Dopamine is the brain's motivational spark, driving us to chase what feels good, say scrolling another reel on social media, and steer clear of what doesn't, like touching a hot stove. But scientists haven't fully understood how dopamine helps us ...

Insomnia and Sleep Medication Use Connected to Disability in Older Adults

Apr. 19, 2025 — For adults over the age of 65, higher levels of both insomnia symptoms and sleep medication use were associated with higher risk of disability a year later, according to a new ...

How Disturbed Signaling Pathways Could Promote Epileptic Seizures

Apr. 16, 2025 — Focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) type 2 is a congenital malformation of the cerebral cortex that is often associated with difficult-to-treat epilepsy. In the affected areas, nerve cells and their layer structures are arranged in an atypical manner, ...

How Circadian Clocks Maintain Robustness in Changing Environments

Apr. 15, 2025 — New research has uncovered how a simple circadian clock network demonstrates advanced noise-filtering capabilities, enhancing our understanding of how biological circuits maintain accuracy in dynamic natural ...

Latest Headlines

updated 12:07pm EDT

How Can We Make Fewer Mistakes? US Navy Invests $860k in Placekeeping

June 19, 2025 — With $860K in Navy funding, MSU psychologists are developing tools to spot people who can handle complex tasks under pressure. The key? Mastering "placekeeping" staying focused and accurate even when ...

Sleep-in Science: How 2 Extra Weekend Hours Can Calm Teen Anxiety

June 13, 2025 — Teens might finally have a good reason to sleep in on weekends within limits. A new study reveals that teenagers who get up to two extra hours of sleep on weekends show fewer anxiety symptoms than ...

Brain Pathway Links Inflammation to Loss of Motivation, Energy in Advanced Cancer

Apr. 14, 2025 — Researchers identified a direct connection between cancer-related inflammation and the loss of motivation characteristic of advanced cancer. In a ...

Sleep Matters: Duration, Timing, Quality and More May Affect Cardiovascular Disease Risk

Apr. 14, 2025 — Healthy sleep includes multiple components, such as number of hours of sleep per night, how long it takes to fall asleep, daytime functioning and ...

Stress, Depression Factor Into Link Between Insomnia, Heavy Drinking

Apr. 14, 2025 — A new study suggests that perceived stress and depression factor into the relationship between insomnia and hazardous drinking -- perhaps not a surprise. But because the relationship between insomnia ...

What Links Cannabis Use and Psychosis? Researchers Point to Brain's Dopamine System

Apr. 11, 2025 — A new study found that people with cannabis use disorder (CUD) had elevated dopamine levels in a brain region associated with ...

Medicinal Cannabis Is Linked to Long-Term Benefits in Health-Related Quality of Life, Study Finds

Apr. 9, 2025 — Patients prescribed medicinal cannabis in Australia maintained improvements in overall health-related quality of life (HRQL), fatigue, and sleep ...

Beyond Jet Lag: New Study Unveils Extent of Travel-Related Sleep Disruption from 1.5 Million Nights of Data

Apr. 9, 2025 — A collaborative study found that while sleep duration recovers quickly, sleep timing and sleep architecture can take significantly longer to realign ...

Exercise as an Anti-Aging Intervention to Avoid Detrimental Impact of Mental Fatigue

Apr. 4, 2025 — Retired adults who habitually exercised outperformed sedentary adults in physical and cognitive ...

PET Imaging Confirms Direct Involvement of Dopamine in Cognitive Flexibility

Mar. 28, 2025 — Scientists have confirmed a neurobiochemical link between dopamine and cognitive flexibility. PET imaging shows that the brain increases dopamine ...

Scientists Discover Why Obesity Takes Away the Pleasure of Eating

Mar. 26, 2025 — Many obese people report losing pleasure in eating rich foods -- something also seen in obese mice. Scientists have now discovered the reason. Long-term high-fat diets lower levels of neurotensin in ...

Sleepier During the Day? For Some Older People, It's Linked to Twice the Dementia Risk

Mar. 19, 2025 — For women in their 80s, experiencing increasing sleepiness during the day over a five-year period is associated with double the risk of developing dementia during that time, according to a new study. ...

New AI Model Analyzes Full Night of Sleep With High Accuracy in Largest Study of Its Kind

Mar. 17, 2025 — Researchers have developed a powerful AI tool, built on the same transformer architecture used by large language models like ChatGPT, to process an entire night's sleep. To date, it is one of ...

Dopamine's Unexpected Role in Memory Devaluation

Mar. 12, 2025 — New research expands on current understanding of the brain chemical dopamine, finding that it plays a role in reducing the value of memories associated with rewards. The study opens new avenues for ...

Dopamine Signals in Primate Brains

Mar. 12, 2025 — We're all familiar with Pavlovian conditioning, in which a reward-anticipatory behavior follows a reward-predicting stimulus. Perhaps you experience it yourself when passing a cafe or restaurant ...

Clinical Trial Tests Novel Stem-Cell Treatment for Parkinson's Disease

Mar. 9, 2025 — A recently launched Phase 1 clinical trial is examining the safety and feasibility of a groundbreaking treatment approach for Parkinson's disease in which a patient's stem cells are ...

When You Get Hurt Matters: Circadian Rhythms Affect Muscle Repair

Mar. 5, 2025 — The body's internal clock doesn't just dictate when we sleep -- it also determines how quickly our muscles heal. A new study in mice suggests that muscle injuries heal faster when they ...

The Pupil as a Window Into the Sleeping Brain

Mar. 5, 2025 — For the first time, researchers have been able to observe how the pupils react during sleep over a period of several hours. A look under the eyelids showed them that more happens in the brain during ...

Role of Hormone in Influencing Brain Reward Pathway and Food Preferences

Feb. 25, 2025 — When faced with multiple food options and ultimately choosing one, the factors of that decision-making process may be more physiological than previously assumed. A group of scientists recently ...

How Humans Learn to Optimize Working Memory

Feb. 24, 2025 — Working memory is what allows humans to juggle different pieces of information in short-term scenarios, like making a mental grocery list and then going shopping or remembering and then dialing a ...

Impacts of Workplace Bullying on Sleep Can Be 'Contagious' Between Partners

Feb. 21, 2025 — Workplace bullying affects not only the employee's sleep but their partner's too, according to new research published ...

Biological Clock Plays Critical Role in Driving Teens' Late-Day Eating Habits

Feb. 17, 2025 — The causes of obesity are complex and influenced by many factors. While research has highlighted connections between sleep, eating patterns and weight gain, scientists remain uncertain of the role of ...

Research in Fruit Flies Pinpoints Brain Pathways Involved in Alcohol-Induced Insomnia

Feb. 6, 2025 — Research in fruit flies has identified specific groups of cholinergic brain cells that are involved in alcohol-induced insomnia. This work could ultimately lead to targeted treatments for ...

'Sleep Hygiene': How FIFO Workers Can Get a Better Night's Sleep

Jan. 29, 2025 — Better sleep hygiene could see fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) mining shift workers get a better night's sleep, new research has ...

Delayed REM Sleep Could Be an Early Sign of Alzheimer's

Jan. 27, 2025 — Scientists have recently shown that both the quality and the amount of sleep we get may influence our risk of developing Alzheimer's ...

What Drives Mood Swings in Bipolar Disorder? Study Points to a Second Brain Clock

Jan. 27, 2025 — A brain rhythm working in tandem with the body's natural sleep-wake cycle may explain why bipolar patients alternate between mania and depression, according to new research. A new study marks a ...

Researchers Track Sharp Increase in Diagnoses for Sedative, Hypnotic and Anxiety Use Disorder in Young Adults

Jan. 23, 2025 — The prevalence of diagnosed disorders from recurrent use of sedative, hypnotic and anti-anxiety medications in adolescents and young adults has increased sharply since 2001, according to researchers. ...

A Way for Smartwatches to Detect Depression Risks

Jan. 22, 2025 — A international research team developed a digital biomarker for predicting symptoms of depression based on data collected by ...

Scientists Identify Neurons in Mice That, Once Activated, Can Change Body's Metabolic Rate, Induce Hibernation-Like State

Jan. 21, 2025 — A new study has identified a group of neurons that, when activated, can induce a hypometabolic state, akin to hibernation. The discovery could have far-reaching implications for conditions like ...

Brains of People With Sickle Cell Disease Appear Older

Jan. 17, 2025 — A new study has found older-looking brains in adults with sickle cell disease, helping to explain the cognitive challenges experienced by such individuals. A brain image from a healthy individual ...