Rods, cones, and…ipRGCs? For almost a century and a half, it was believed that the mammalian retina only had two types of photoreceptors, rods and cones. That assumption was not proven to be false until some studies in the late 1990s proved the existence of a third kind mammalian photoreceptor that differed greatly from rods […]
I recently got some blackout curtains for my bedroom. This was pretty long overdue: about thirty feet from my bedroom window is a cheerfully bright, energy-efficient street lamp, which—while great when I’m taking the dog out for a nighttime stroll—is the photic equivalent of somebody standing in my azaleas and playing “Seventy-Six Trombones” while I’m […]
I love my Apple Watch. The ability to track my exercise, heart rate, activity levels, and sleep has enabled a real awareness of how my physical and mental health changes over time. The ability to track personal health data over long time periods outside of laboratories is one of the most exciting developments of the […]
I have always been a good eater. Before I knew about time-restricted eating, back when I was in college—waking up at 4:50 am for crew practice, staying up until 1:00 am working on problem sets, and sleeping in until noon on my days off—I could eat pretty much any food in any amount at any […]
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 […]
Signs of Circadian Disruption In this blog post, I want to point to some common symptoms of circadian disruption. The role of circadian rhythms in sleep is subtle, and many times issues that are attributed to other sources really have circadian factors as the root cause. The two process model: To understand the interaction between […]
Lately, I’ve been watching clips from the Olympics, getting misty-eyed when the athletes hug at the end, and then stalking the winners on social media: a normal Saturday night in 2021. I have a shirt that looks like that, I think as I scroll through photos of them lifting approximately three times my body weight. […]
I recently went on a trip to California. Coming from the East Coast, this was a three-hour shift west. To adjust to California time, I needed to delay my circadian clock. One catch, though: my flight out was extremely early in the morning. That meant, like it or not, I was going to advance myself […]
A sleep story Today we had the pleasure of interviewing one of our own, Eric. He’s a skilled mathematician and AWS developer here at Arcascope. Everyone has their own unique experience when it comes to catching Zzz’s, or in Eric’s case, NOT doing that. We wanted to chat with him and learn more about these […]
