Restless legs syndrome (RLS), now also called Willis-Ekbom disease (WED), is a sleep-disrupting neurologic disorder that affects roughly 20–30% of pregnancies in some series and is linked to preeclampsia, increased cesarean delivery, and perinatal depression. A 2026 Nature and Science of Sleep synthesis turned 9 source documents into 27 practice recommendations across 5 domains, ending …
A 2025 iScience study found that nighttime caffeine increased motor impulsivity in Drosophila, with dose-dependent loss-of-inhibition events across n = 30-32 flies per behavioral condition and stronger effects in female flies than male flies.1 The result does not prove that an evening coffee makes humans reckless, but it sharpens a neglected point: caffeine’s alertness benefit …
A 2026 meta-analysis of 4 randomized trials found that GLP-1 receptor agonists reduced obstructive sleep apnea severity by 13.89 apnea-hypopnea events per hour compared with placebo, alongside 12.46 kg more weight loss than placebo.1 The effect looks clinically meaningful for obesity-linked sleep apnea, but high heterogeneity means the result should not be flattened into “GLP-1 …
A 2026 CARDIOSA-12 secondary analysis found that active hypoglossal nerve stimulation improved sleepiness, insomnia, snoring, and sleep-related function, but objective cognitive test performance mostly did not improve compared with partially therapeutic stimulation.1 Symptom relief and measurable cognitive recovery answer separate clinical questions in treated obstructive sleep apnea. Research Highlights Subjective outcomes improved: active HGNS improved …
Dreams transform waking life rather than replaying it directly. In a 2026 Communications Psychology study of 3,366 reports, dreams were more visual, spatial, social, and bizarre than waking reports, while attitude toward dreaming, mind-wandering tendency, sleep quality, and COVID lockdown stress each left measurable fingerprints on dream content.1 Research Highlights Dreams were not random word …
Restless legs syndrome (RLS) and opioid-withdrawal restlessness both produce night-worsening urges to move. A 2026 npj Parkinson’s Disease mouse study tied that overlap to hypersensitive striatal D1-mu-opioid receptor signaling in basal-ganglia motor circuits.1 Research Highlights 2 clinically similar states converged: restless legs syndrome and opioid-withdrawal restlessness both point toward a striatal D1-mu-opioid circuit that regulates …
A Wuhan cohort of 2,210 pregnant women found that mid-pregnancy sleep disturbance was common enough to screen for and associated with several birth-outcome signals. Depressive symptoms, pre-pregnancy alcohol use, and moderate-to-severe vomiting raised sleep-disturbance odds, while higher dietary variety was protective.1 Research Highlights 18.14% had sleep disturbance: Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) scores greater than …