sleeping

Every once in a while, we need a friendly reminder about the importance of getting a good night's rest--after all, the average human spends about a third of his or her life asleep, and a chronic lack of rest can lead to memory loss, depression, higher risk of heart disease and stroke, and more! The Sleep Doctor Michael Breus is back with more tips on how to maintain a healthy sleep cycle and to address the growing concerns about sleep!

We're lucky to have Dr. Breus in the hot seat today to answer your questions about sleep. His schedule is filled with appearances on Martha Stewart Morning Living, a bi-weekly column on Huffington Post, a new Twitter account, and a line of temperature-regulated mattresses at Sleepy's Mattress Store!

On today's hour-long episode, we're spending a little extra time with the good doctor to answer your concerns about the importance of a healthy night's rest. We start with an experiment in Europe with cars that drive themselves, allowing commuters to catch up on sleep en route to work.

We're all still questioning our own abilities to fall asleep and trust that the car will get us to our destination in one piece, but the article brings up an interesting point about the dangers of sleep driving, since over 60 percent of Americans have admitted to driving drowsy. Next time you're feeling tired, pull over and take a nap-a-latte!… Read more

When it comes to nap time, I usually just go the Quaalude route, but some people don't have the same friendly doctor I have. So I would like the rest of you to meet the Wrap-a-Nap, or WAN for short. It's a combination blindfold/pillow/earmuffs that you wrap around your head to seal out the world around and have a soft place to rest your melon.

It's funny-looking but honestly a great idea from the "why didn't I think of this?" department. While I normally can find a decent place to nap, that'… Read more

Apple has released a couple of updates today, for iDVD and for the MacBook Air. The update to iDVD brings the version to 7.1.1 and fixes problems users have had with sending iPhoto '11 slideshows to iDVD. It also fixes some stability bugs in the program. The software update for the MacBook Air (late 2010 model) addresses a problem in which the systems would not go to sleep.

The updates should be available via Software Update, but can also be downloaded from the following locations:

iDVD 7.1.1

MacBook Air (Late 2010) Software Update 2.0

The … Read more

I don't know a single person who, from dusk to dozing off, isn't exposed to some kind of electrical lighting, especially in these darkest of winter days. Unfortunately, study after study is coming out linking this nighttime lighting to various ailments, almost always due to the effect light has on melatonin suppression.

The latest findings, via a study just accepted for publication in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, finds that exposure to electrical light between dusk and bedtime "strongly suppresses melatonin levels and may impact physiological processes regulated by melatonin signaling, such as sleepiness, thermoregulation, … Read more

LAS VEGAS--The truth can be so brutal.

After spending two days in the Fitness TechZone at the Consumer Electronics Show, I now know that my weight, blood pressure, and stress levels are all higher than I would have guessed. And now, thanks to the Fatigue Science ReadiBand I've been wearing since yesterday morning, I also know I need more sleep.

The band looks like a faceless black watch (warning: it draws attention to itself, at least here at CES) but it's oh so much more. The wrist movement detector tracks activity to calculate fatigue based on sleep levels, … Read more

Taylor Franklin Hide looks tired. Cute, but tired. (See video.) So it's hardly surprising that the Alabama-based inventor has been so focused on maximizing the quality of his sleep.

Enter the LUMImask, which he has recently unveiled on the creative funding Web site KickStarter. The plain, black mask with an almost-invisible little alarm on one side looks like a Trekkie's dream accoutrement (pun!), and it comes with an appropriately dramatic slogan: Light. Dark. Both. (Some things you just can't make up.)

You see, Hide faced a conundrum: he required darkness to sleep, but he loved it when … Read more

Leaving your computer running all the time isn't good for its performance or for your electric bill. Sometimes, though, you don't want to sit around waiting for a large download to finish so that you can turn off your computer before you leave or go to bed. Auto Shutdown - InBasic is a Firefox add-on that will automatically shut down your computer when your downloads are complete, provided you're using Firefox's download manager.

The extension installs easily, and once we'd made the required restart of Firefox, it appeared as a small power button icon in … Read more

Usually when troubleshooting problems there is some logical reasoning behind the issue that can be readily tackled, which is indicated by a steady, observable problem with the system. Even if the solution to the problem is a broad approach, such as reinstalling the operating system or replacing a hard drive, the reconfiguration usually clears the issue and the problem goes away. Despite this, every now and then a problem will crop up that is fairly perplexing.

We were recently contacted by MacFixIt reader Alan, who had a relatively minor though annoying problem where his system would crash under specific conditions … Read more

Apple continually releases knowledgebase articles that cover information about program features, new products, software updates, as well as troubleshooting for specific problems with various products including Macs and iOS devices.

Recently Apple released a few troubleshooting-related articles that may be of use to MacBook, MobileMe Gallery, and OS X Mail users.

Mac OS X: Why your Mac might not sleep or stay in sleep mode

This is really the highlight of the recent troubleshooting articles from Apple. The article covers numerous aspects of the OS X "Sleep" feature, including various ways to put the computer to sleep and … Read more