Night Owls More Likely to Experience Nightmares

Roxanne Khamsi, Scientific American 

Like to stay up late? The downside may be more bad dreams, research suggests. CREDIT: Dreamstime

Night owls might think staying up late is a real hoot, but a new study hints that delayed sleep might have a sinister side. People who hit the sack late might have a greater risk of experiencing nightmares, according to scientists, although they add that follow-up research is needed to confirm the link.

"It's a very interesting preliminary study, and we desperately need more research in this area," says Jessica Payne, director of the Sleep, Stress and Memory Lab at the University of Notre Dame, commenting on the new findings.

Avoid eating after dark to lose weight: study

AFP Relax

Make your final meal of the day one that sets with the sun in order to lose weight.

That's the overriding conclusion of a recently published study which found that eating after dark could be a contributing factor to obesity.

It's a theory that correlates the metabolic cycles of different organs to eating schedules, researchers explained in the study published online in the journal Cell Metabolism last week. While other studies have examined how nighttime eating affects the body's circadian rhythms, the latest research also underscores how this unhealthy habit relates to the cycles of particular organs.

"Every organ has a clock," said lead author of the study Satchidananda Panda of the Salk Institute in a statement. "That means there are times that our livers, intestines, muscles, and other organs will work at peak efficiency and other times when they are -- more or less -- sleeping."