Why are parents using melatonin to help their kids sleep?
What you should know about melatonin for sleep problems in children – International Pediatric Sleep Association
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The Guardian
7 hours ago
- The Guardian
The 1am shut-eye: what is the prime bedtime for your health and happiness?
Name: Bedtime. Age: Bedtimes vary depending on how old you are, so if you're a newborn … A very clever, early-developing, Guardian-reading newborn. If you were a newborn, you wouldn't really have a bedtime; you'd sleep in bursts of a couple of hours, night and day. They do need a lot of rest. But this is about adults – and a new study. I was waiting for that, the new study. Go on. A survey of 2,000 Americans, conducted for a mattress company, found that the average time people fall asleep is 11.18pm. Seems quite late. For those who stayed up later than they planned, 29% said they were kept up by chores. But 21% said they stayed up because night was their favourite time of day. Anyway, the average American begins their going-to-bed routine at 10.15pm. How long does that take? Twenty-one minutes. They're tucked up by 10.36pm. Then it takes them 42 minutes to nod off, on average. What are they doing? Reading? Scrolling? Tantric sex? The survey is about bedtimes, not what goes on in them. And is there a prime time to go to bed? Good question. Thank you. Research from 2021 suggests that going to sleep between 10pm and 11pm is linked to a lower risk of heart disease. Better research than the mattress-company survey? More scientific, certainly, using data from more than 88,000 participants aged 43 to 74, published in the European Heart Journal. But even so, as the British Heart Foundation points out, it doesn't prove cause and effect, just shows an association. What else you got? A study from last year by researchers at Stanford University, published in Psychiatry Research, which analysed the sleep patterns of nearly 74,000 adults. Sounds legit. It found that staying awake too late can be bad for your mental health. What time? I need a time. They recommend lights out by 1am. What! Too late? Then do what the twentysomethings are doing, apparently. Which is? Going to bed at 9 o'clock. What! How long are they staying there? Asleep? Nine hours and 28 minutes, on average. That was from analysis in 2022, up from eight hours and 47 minutes in 2010. It's probably about 12 hours now. No partying? A 19-year-old told the Wall Street Journal: 'Nothing good happens after 9pm.' Generation Zzzzzzz. Of course, that might all change when they get a job … on the night shift. Do say: 'Early to bed and early to rise makes a zoomer healthy, wealthy and wise.' Don't say: 'Elon Musk tweets all night and he's doing OK.'
The Guardian
14 hours ago
- The Guardian
Houseplant clinic: why is my mistletoe cactus turning brown?
What's the problem? My mistletoe cactus (Rhipsalis) thrived for more than five years, but recently started to brown, with strands falling off. I repotted it into a slightly larger pot with no drainage holes and a layer of gravel at the bottom, but it continues to decline despite weekly watering. How can I save my plant? Diagnosis Your mistletoe cactus probably isn't getting sufficient hydration. Cautious watering can lead to soil that is superficially damp but remains dry at a deeper level. This often manifests as browning stems, shrivelling and segments dropping off as the plant becomes stressed due to a lack of moisture at the roots. Prescription Repot into a pot with drainage holes, or use a nursery pot inside the decorative pot. Use compost specifically designed for succulents or cacti. After repotting, give it a thorough watering until water flows from the drainage holes. Then, let it dry out somewhat between waterings, typically every one to two weeks. Mistletoe cacti thrive on consistent moisture but detest waterlogged conditions, so good drainage is essential. Prevention Ensure that pots used for succulents and cacti have sufficient drainage holes. Regularly checking soil moisture by touching the soil a few centimetres down helps you accurately judge watering needs. Got a plant dilemma? Email saturday@ with 'Houseplant clinic' in the subject line
The Guardian
16 hours ago
- The Guardian
Scientists identify bacterium behind devastating wasting disease in starfish
A decade after the onset of a sea star wasting disease (SSWD) epidemic considered the largest ever documented in the wild, researchers have identified the microbial culprit responsible: a strain of the bacterium Vibrio pectenicida. In 10 years the bacterium has ravaged sunflower sea stars (Pycnopodia helianthoides), a large sea star or starfish, along the western coast of North America, with a loss of 5.8 billion since 2013 – or 90% of the total global population. The sunflower sea star is now included on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's red list of critically endangered species. Previous studies had tested for V pectenicida in tissue samples and yielded inconclusive results. Instead, by examining the sea stars' coelomic fluid, which acts like blood, researchers were able to confirm with certainty V pectenicida's role in causing SSWD due to its high abundance there. Infection with the V pectenicida strain FHCF-3 begins with exterior lesions, leading to limb loss and contortion, and ultimately kills afflicted individuals by melting their tissues into a white, mucus-like paste. Identifying the disease in afflicted sea stars was impossible without a known pathogen, as sea stars can respond with similar visual signals to other stressors such as low oxygen, salinity variation and extreme heat. The indirect link between rising ocean temperatures and SSWD remains a key area of interest, since V pectenicida is known to proliferate in warm water during seasonal variations and anomalous marine heating events. The research, published this week in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, was led by Dr Melanie Prentice and Dr Alyssa Gehman of the Hakai Institute in British Columbia, Canada, as part of a four-year international collaboration involving the University of British Columbia, the University of Washington and the Nature Conservancy, among other parties. The decline of sunflower sea stars has ramifications for marine ecosystems beyond the loss of a single species. 'Identifying the cause of SSWD is incredibly impactful,' Prentice said. 'In the absence of sunflower stars, [kelp-eating] sea urchin populations increase, which means the loss of kelp forests, and that has broad implications for all the other marine species and humans that rely on them.' Kelp forests provide a habitat for thousands of marine creatures, support local economies through fisheries and recreation, and are culturally important for First Nations and tribal communities. They also stabilise sediments, protect coastlines from storms, and are an important carbon sink for sequestering carbon dioxide. Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion Though the epidemic is still ongoing, the hope is that this breakthrough will aid recovery and treatment efforts for various sea star species across the world and the ecosystems affected by their decline. Methods being explored include captive breeding for resistant individuals and developing probiotic solutions which can be introduced to ecosystems. 'Now that we have found the causative agent of disease, it makes me hopeful that we might actually be able to do something for sunflower sea stars,' says Gehman. 'We can be really targeted in how we work with them, and I think that's going to help us move a lot faster and to try to tackle SSWD.'
