Rods, cones, and…ipRGCs? For almost a century and a half, it was thought that the mammalian retina had just two types of photoreceptors: rods and cones. That assumption was not proven to be false until studies in the late 1990s proved the existence of a third kind of mammalian photoreceptor that differed greatly from rods […]
Measuring Sleep Regularity
What is sleep regularity and why is it important? Sleep regularity is a gauge of how consistent a person’s sleep patterns are, based on the day-to-day variability in their sleep–wake times. In general, having poorer sleep regularity, or irregular sleep patterns, has been shown to lead to many adverse outcomes in metabolism, mental health, and […]
What School Never Taught You About Sleep
I woke up feeling groggy and lazy almost every day in the past school semester leading up to this summer. I was already doing research on sleep at that point, and I had a general idea about what I was doing wrong, but when I tried to dive deeper into the hundreds of articles on […]
Shift Work Disorder
What Exactly is Shift Work Disorder? Shift work disorder, or SWD, is a type of circadian rhythm sleep disorder which is caused by working shifts that do not fall within the conventional working hours of around 9 am – 5 pm. These shifts overlap with periods of significant light sensitivity which can cause shift workers […]