Most people know it from experience: After so many hours of being awake, your brain feels unable to absorb any more—and several hours of sleep will refresh it.

The roundworm C. elegans, a staple of laboratory research, may be key in unlocking one of the central biological mysteries: why we sleep.

The sleep patterns of patients in the intensive care unit are so superficial that they barely spend any time in the restorative stages of sleep that aid in healing, UT Southwestern Medical Center physicians have found.

Scientists proved that if children do not get enough sleep they may become obese. Researchers have found that every additional hour per night a third-grader spends sleeping reduces the child's chances of being obese in sixth grade by 40 percent. Third graders are usually around 8 or 9 years old; sixth graders are around 11 or 12.

In spring 2005 a large European research and training network was established to investigate the causes and implications of poor sleep from a medical as well as from a social point of view.

Genes responsible for our 24 hour body clock influence not only the timing of sleep, but also appear to be central to the actual restorative process of sleep, according to research published in the online open access journal BMC Neuroscience. The study identified changes in the brain that lead to the increased desire and need for sleep during time spent awake.

Researchers from the University of Warwick, and University College London, have found that lack of sleep can more than double the risk of death from cardiovascular disease. However they have also found that point comes when too much sleep can also more than double the risk of death.

Survey reveals most new mothers get only three hours' sleep or less each night Fathers get twice as much and only a quarter even wake when their baby cries Shattered parents' relationships suffer and 94 per cent of mums prefer sleep to sex

New research on the power of sleep as a painkiller is giving added weight to the power of the old cure-all of having a Bex and a good lie down.

Work time is the primary lifestyle factor with the largest reciprocal relationship to a person’s sleep time – the more hours a person works, the less sleep that he or she gets, according to a study published in the September 1 issue of the journal SLEEP.

A study has revealed that watching television and using the Internet before sleep causes sleep problems.

Our body’s production of urine follows a circadian rhythm. During the day, we experience greater urinary frequency; at night, urine production declines, enabling us to get uninterrupted sleep. The regulation of urine excretion during nighttime hours is influenced by many factors, including hormones, blood flow (hemodynamics), and sleep-related factors.