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13 Scientific Facts We Never Knew About Sleep

If you go to bed with a soft furry toy, know that you’re very much not alone.

13 Scientific Facts We Never Knew About Sleep

September 03, 2021

You might think that adults who sleep with a soft furry toy wouldn’t be too numerous … but if you did, you’d be wrong. Here’s the full story, plus 12 others:

13

One theory says that sleep basically made humans what we are today. It holds that moving from the trees to the ground meant we could sleep more deeply (because we were safer), which made our brains work better. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source: BBC

12

Daylight savings time, makes us depressed (because we're sleep-deprived). In one study, right after the DST change in fall (but not in spring), hospitals dealt with 11% more depressive symptoms -- that's been linked to loss of sleep. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source: UT Southwestern

11

Sleep deprivation negatively affects your ability to control your thoughts. The more sleep deprived you are, the less you're able to suppress any unwanted thoughts - perhaps because it messes up prefrontal cortex control. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source: SagePub.com

10

Drockling

There's a name for repeatedly waking up and falling asleep in the morning. It's called drockling, and it can be harmful - if you do it a lot, you're confusing your body and putting pressure on your nervous system. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source: Careica Health

9

Koalas

Koalas spend the majority of the day sleeping because of 0 their diet. They sleep for 18 to 22 hours, because their food, eucalyptus leaves, is so toxic that their digestive tracts have to work really hard at digesting it. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source: National Geographic

8

Many, many adults - about one third - - go to sleep with a soft furry toy. One survey found that 34% adults sleep with one (according to a University of Bristol professor, it's probably more common among women). NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source: The Guardian

7

In the Victorian era, sleeping in separate beds was considered healthier. the Cloo Doctors at the time thought that, at night, the weaker person would drain the vitality of the stronger one if they slept in a double bed. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source: The Guardian

6

If you don't need much sleep, a single gene might be responsible for that. A 2019 study found that three generations of a family of short sleepers carried a mutant gene (but many genes ultimately control sleep and waking). NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source: NIH

5

You might be suffering. from obstructive sleep apnea without even knowing it. 85% of people with apnea are undiagnosed, and it can have pretty serious consequences including heart disease, hypertension, and depression. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source: NIH

4

Mood Disorders

Having a hard time waking up is linked to having a mood disorder. People with a mood disorder are disproportionately likely to have a hard time waking up (and mood disorder treatments might target that someday). NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source: NIH

3

Sleep

Sleeping for a long time is positively associated with testis size. A 2018 study found that, the longer you sleep, the larger the size of your testis, even after age and body mass index were adjusted for. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source: NIH

2

Giraffes in the wild only spend a total of 5-30 minutes per day in deep sleep. One theory says this is because they're so vulnerable to predators - they need all the alertness they can get to protect themselves. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source: BBC

1

Exploding Head Syndrome

A disorder called exploding head syndrome makes it hard to fall asleep. After falling asleep, people with EHS sometimes wake up, feeling as if a loud bang went off. Nothing else happens, and the cause is unknown. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source: NIH

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