Children obtain better and more age-appropriate sleep in the presence of household rules and regular sleep-wake routines, according to sleep researchers.

The researchers found that well-established rules for getting good sleep, such as limited caffeine and a regular bedtime, led to sufficient sleep quantity and adequate sleep quality. In contrast, when parents and children had electronic devices on in the bedroom after bedtime, sleep deficiency was more likely.

Reducing the encroachment of technology and media into sleep time and supporting well-known sleep hygiene principles should be a focus of public health intervention goals for sleep health, the researchers said.

People 60 or older, especially minorities and women, have a lower risk of stroke if the top number (systolic) in their blood pressure is below 140 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg), according to a study presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2015.

A report published in JAMA in 2014, advised doctors to aim for blood pressure readings of less than 150/90 mm Hg when treating patients 60 or older who do not have diabetes or chronic kidney disease. That raised the standard for systolic blood pressure, by 10 points from previous guidance, stirring controversy among healthcare providers, agencies and professional groups.

Some of the coldest air of the 2014-2015 winter season is settling over the eastern two-thirds of the U.S., an Arctic air mass that brought wind chills from below zero to the single numbers from the Midwest to the Mid-Atlantic.

It is certainly cold on the surface, but infrared NASA satellite imagery revealed even colder temperatures in cloud tops associated with the air mass.

Evolution starts species off on different paths and even if they arrived in one spot from common descent in the past, they can't reproduce. So in modern times an elephant is not hybridizing with a manatee, or a human with a lemur. Tree frogs...well, yes, but who can explain tree frogs? That did happen, two species were able to interbreed after 34 million years, and sunfish who hybridized after nearly 40 million years.

There may be a new explanation for why fad diets tend to cluster in pockets - and it may help companies spend their marketing money a little smarter also.

A 10-year retrospective study of 383 children is the first to examine the prevalence of positive drug screens in pediatric patients undergoing  multiple sleep latency test (MSLT) for narcolepsy.

The results in Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine showed that 43 percent of children with urine drug screens positive for marijuana actually had test results consistent with narcolepsy or abnormal REM sleep patterns. No child younger than 13 years of age had a positive urine drug screen. The data showed that males were more likely to have a positive urine drug screen and MSLT findings consistent with narcolepsy.  

Many of us have asked ourselves in the past few days: can you really falsely remember something as significant as being in a helicopter that was shot down?

And many of us probably think “No way,” and quickly conclude that NBC news anchor Brian Williams invented this story to embellish his public image as a news anchor who put his life in danger.

But before condemning Brian Williams as a narcissistic liar, let’s take a closer look at what memory research has to say about false memories and memories of traumatic experiences. This work suggests it’s plausible that Williams is truthfully describing what he remembers.

Suppose we we tell you everything quantum mechanics can tell you about a quantum particle; what do you really know? Unfortunately, you still cannot predict with certainty the outcome of a simple experiment to measure its state. All quantum mechanics can offer are statistical probabilities for possible results.

This indeterminacy is not a defect, it's a defining feature of its undefined nature. The particle's state is not merely unknown, but truly undefined before it is measured. The act of measurement itself forces the particle to collapse to a definite state.

Researchers from Paragon Vision Sciences, Innovega, Pacific Sciences and Engineering,  EPFL and the University of California, San Diego and Rockwell Collins have developed a novel method to electronically switch the wearer's view between normal vision and telescopic - a wink.

That kind of switching functionality is crucial for the lenses to be widely useful for non-AMD sufferers who would still like to be able to have magnification "on demand", like if they want to read something.

The obvious problem is that we 'wink' every second, but they are instead blinks.

Problem solved, in a new prototype system. The electronic glasses use a small light source and light detector to recognize winks and ignore blinks.