Live Well
Napping: Not Just for Toddlers
Some of us left napping behind when we graduated from preschool to kindergarten—but many of us are back in the habit. Approximately 80 percent of American adults took at...
Feeling ‘Overloaded’? You’re Not Alone
The term “information overload” is frequently used to describe the common experience of feeling bombarded and inundated with incoming data. Is this a new kind of human experience, or...
Fending Off Dementia
We do not yet have medications that can halt or reverse dementia, but there are plenty of ways to help lower the chances of developing it—including some steps you...
The Mechanisms of Memory
Memory plays a powerful role in our everyday experiences, including how we learn and recall things, how we make decisions, and how we plan for our future. That is,...
When Sweating Won’t Stop
Heat waves that make June feel more like July or August. Higher year-round temperatures that extend summer weather well into fall. Even people who live in northern latitudes are...
End-of-Life Doulas: Thinking Ahead
Many people are familiar with the concept of doulas, with the term introduced in the 1970s to refer to women who help out during and after childbirth. (Doula comes...
When Sound Becomes Noise
According to recent data from the University of Michigan, about one-third of Americans are exposed to sound above the average levels considered safe. But standard metrics of loudness do...
Secrets of the Super-Agers
It’s not uncommon to lose a bit of our mental edge as we age, or even to develop some degree of dementia. Mild cognitive impairment affects more than one...
Breaking Down a ‘Brain Booster’
We all—at least those of us of a certain age—forget a word from time to time, misplace our keys, or walk into a room and can’t remember why. When...
Sleep and Dementia: A Possible Connection
In May 2023, the journal BMC Medicine published a study from a UC Berkeley team on the relationship between deep sleep—also known as slow-wave sleep—and Alzheimer’s disease. The paper,...
