Restoration capacity
Sleep, rest, and recovery
5 briefs · 10 sources read and checked · 1 the evidence firmly supports
Does magnesium help you sleep?Possibly, by a small margin, on weak evidence. Pooling three randomised trials of 151 older adults, magnesium reduced time to fall asleep by 17.4 minutes against placebo. Total sleep time rose by 16 minutes and did not reach significance. Every trial carried moderate to high risk of bias and the authors graded the evidence low to very low.1 source checkedDoes sleep hygiene actually work?The standard advice is not what fixes insomnia. In a component analysis of 241 randomised trials covering 31,452 people, sleep hygiene education was not essential, with an odds ratio of 1.01. What worked was cognitive restructuring, sleep restriction, stimulus control and mindfulness-based components. Relaxation procedures appeared to work against the others.1 source checkedDo naps help, and how long should one be?Afternoon naps improve cognitive performance, with alertness benefiting most and the effect lasting around two hours. Early afternoon works better than late. Almost all of this was measured in laboratories rather than real workdays. The widely repeated warning that long naps damage the ageing brain is weaker than it sounds: across 95,719 older adults, napping showed no association with cognitive decline in either direction.2 sources checkedDo screens before bed really ruin your sleep?Evening blue light does suppress melatonin, and that part is well established. Whether wearing blue-blocking glasses improves measured sleep is where it falls apart: a meta-analysis of randomised crossover trials found no significant effect on sleep onset, total sleep time, efficiency or time awake in the night. The screen probably costs you more through what you are doing on it than through the light it emits.1 source checkedDoes non-sleep deep rest actually work?The practice has a real effect on how rested you feel, and measurable changes show up in brain activity and in stress hormones. The effects reported in the best controlled trial are small, most other studies are small and uncontrolled, and the term NSDR itself has no research base of its own.5 sources checked
Strength of evidence
emerging
Strength of evidence
evidence-based
Strength of evidence
evidence-informed
Strength of evidence
emerging
Strength of evidence
evidence-informed
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