Marshalling the senses for a good night's sleep: Multiple studies have linked poor sleep to cancer and other negative health outcomes; in part 1 of a 2-part series, we explore how efforts to improve sleep patterns are focusing on aligning multiples senses and on correcting misconceptions: Researchers have long known that a poor night of sleep can lead to long-term consequences; multiple studies have linked disruptions in our sleep cycles with an increased risk of tumor formation or a worsening of existing disease. In a society that has long undervalued the importance of sleep, researchers are now increasingly focusing on how individuals can improve their ability to recharge. Fiona Barwick, PhD, a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and director of the Sleep and Circadian Health Program within the Stanford Heath Care Sleep Medicine Center in Stanford, California, says that our slumber depends on 3 main systems. Sleep drive is a biological drive that works much like hunger; it builds as we awaken and becomes active, and then it declines as we sleep. The second is a circadian system that regulates much of our behavior and physiology and is in turn regulated in large part by changes in the light-dark cycle. The third system is stress, which can disrupt sleep through a state of hyperarousal.
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