Insomnia Research News

September 16, 2025

Top Headlines

Sleepless Nights May Raise Dementia Risk by 40%, Mayo Clinic Reveals

Sep. 14, 2025 — Chronic insomnia may do more than leave you groggy, it could speed up brain aging. A large Mayo Clinic study found that people with long-term sleep troubles were 40% more likely to develop dementia or cognitive impairment, with brain scans showing ...

The Sleep Switch That Builds Muscle, Burns Fat, and Boosts Brainpower

Sep. 8, 2025 — UC Berkeley researchers mapped the brain circuits that control growth hormone during sleep, uncovering a feedback system where sleep fuels hormone release, and the hormone regulates wakefulness. The discovery helps explain links between poor sleep, ...

Seven Blood Molecules That Could Explain Why You’re Always Sleepy

Sep. 8, 2025 — Scientists discovered seven molecules in the blood linked to excessive daytime sleepiness, a condition that affects one in three Americans and raises the risk of heart disease, obesity, and diabetes. The study highlights the role of both diet and ...

Overworked Neurons Burn Out and Fuel Parkinson’s Disease

Sep. 3, 2025 — Overactivation of dopamine neurons may directly drive their death, explaining why movement-controlling brain cells degenerate in Parkinson’s. Mice with chronically stimulated neurons showed the same selective damage seen in patients, along with ...

Study Finds Cannabis Improves Sleep Where Other Drugs Fail

Sep. 2, 2025 — A long-term study following insomnia patients treated with cannabis-based medical products revealed sustained improvements in sleep quality, mood, and pain management over 18 months. Most participants reported better rest and less anxiety or ...

Losing Weight but Gaining Weakness? What Ozempic Might Be Doing to Your Muscles

Aug. 10, 2025 — Ozempic’s weight loss benefits might come at the cost of muscle strength, even if muscle size remains relatively stable. This raises significant concerns for older adults, who are already at risk ...

The Hidden Ways Light at Night Damages Your Brain, Mood, and Metabolism

Aug. 8, 2025 — Neuroscientist Dr. Randy J. Nelson explores how artificial light at night disrupts our bodies, from immune health to mood. His work bridges lab research, clinical trials, and everyday solutions while mentoring future ...

Tai Chi, Yoga, and Jogging Rival Pills for Beating Insomnia

July 17, 2025 — Yoga, Tai Chi, walking, and jogging may be some of the best natural remedies for improving sleep and tackling insomnia, according to a large analysis comparing various treatments. While cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) remains effective, ...

Can’t Sleep, Can’t Focus, Can’t Thrive? ADHD and Insomnia May Be a Vicious Cycle

July 16, 2025 — Struggling to sleep might be the hidden reason why adults with ADHD traits often feel less satisfied with life. New research reveals a strong link between insomnia and reduced well-being in people ...

Parkinson’s Reversal? One Drug Brings Dying Brain Cells Back to Life

July 3, 2025 — Stanford researchers discovered that dialing down an overactive enzyme, LRRK2, can regrow lost cellular “antennae” in key brain cells, restoring vital dopamine communication and neuroprotective signals in a mouse model of genetic Parkinson’s. ...

Daytime Boosts Immunity, Scientists Find

May 26, 2025 — Daylight can boost the immune system's ability to fight ...

Newfound Mechanism Rewires Cellular Energy Processing for Drastic Weight Loss

May 22, 2025 — Scientists have uncovered a startling metabolic twist: mice engineered to lack the amino acid cysteine, and fed a cysteine-free diet, shed nearly a third of their body weight in just a week. The ...

Latest Headlines

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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 ...

Timing, Consistency of Activity Linked to Better Fitness

May 28, 2025 — The timing and consistency of your daily activity might be associated with improved cardiorespiratory fitness and walking ...

A New Technology for Extending the Shelf Life of Produce

May 21, 2025 — Researchers developed a way to extend the shelf life of vegetables by injecting them with melatonin using biodegradable ...

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 ...

Survival Trick: Pathogen Taps Iron Source in Immune Cells

May 19, 2025 — The body defends itself against pathogens by depriving them of vital iron. However, this strategy doesn't always succeed against Salmonella. Researchers have discovered that these bacteria ...

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 ...

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 ...

Biological 'Clocks' Key to Muscle Health and Accelerated Aging in Shift Workers

May 5, 2025 — Muscle cells contain their own circadian clocks and disrupting them with shift work can have a profound impact on aging, according to new ...

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 ...

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 ...

Early-Life Exposure to Air and Light Pollution Linked to Increased Risk of Pediatric Thyroid Cancer

Apr. 18, 2025 — A new study suggests that early-life exposure to two widespread environmental pollutants -- small particle air pollution and outdoor artificial light at night -- could increase the risk of pediatric ...

Insomnia and Sleep Medication Use Connected to Disability in Older Adults

Apr. 18, 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 ...

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 ...

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 self-reported sleep satisfaction, and addressing ...

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 ...

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

Apr. 10, 2025 — Researchers identified a direct connection between cancer-related inflammation and the loss of motivation characteristic of advanced cancer. In a mouse study, they describe a brain pathway that ...

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

Apr. 9, 2025 — A new study found that people with cannabis use disorder (CUD) had elevated dopamine levels in a brain region associated with ...

Starch-Based Microplastics Could Cause Health Risks in Mice

Apr. 9, 2025 — Wear and tear on plastic products releases small to nearly invisible plastic particles, which could impact people's health when consumed or inhaled. To make these particles biodegradable, ...

Eating Only During the Daytime Could Protect People from Heart Risks of Shift Work

Apr. 8, 2025 — Numerous studies have shown that working the night shift is associated with serious health risks, including to the heart. However, a new study suggests that eating only during the daytime could help ...

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

Apr. 3, 2025 — Retired adults who habitually exercised outperformed sedentary adults in physical and cognitive ...

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

Apr. 2, 2025 — Patients prescribed medicinal cannabis in Australia maintained improvements in overall health-related quality of life (HRQL), fatigue, and sleep disturbance across a one-year period, according to a ...

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 production when completing cognitively demanding ...

Scientists Discover Why Obesity Takes Away the Pleasure of Eating

Mar. 26, 2025 — Why do some people lose the joy of eating, even when surrounded by irresistible foods? UC Berkeley researchers have uncovered a surprising brain mechanism that explains this paradox. They found that ...

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 ...

Routine Asthma Test More Reliable in the Morning and Has Seasonal Effects, Say Doctors

Mar. 12, 2025 — A lung function test used to help diagnose asthma works better in the morning, becoming less reliable throughout the day, researchers have found. Using real world data from 1,600 patients, available ...

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 ...