Excerpt: Chapter 1 of “Make Sleep Your Superpower” — Sleep is the most underrated activity that affects physical well-being, energy level, mood, memory and thinking skills — for people of any age. Good sleep puts you in charge of your emotions, your actions and reactions, your productivity, your entire day. However, much of what you hear about sleep is…

Videos reveal an invisible plume of droplets, capable of packing infectious pathogens, shooting out ‘like a rocket’ and drifting to the ceiling — When you flush a toilet with the lid up, water droplets too small to see—and potentially packed with infectious viruses or bacteria lingering in the bowl from a previous pooper—woosh into a plume that stays airborne for minutes and spreads across the bathroom, new videos reveal.

Sexual satisfaction doesn’t have to decline with age — Older people who are sexually active report better physical and mental health and higher enjoyment of life in general. Good health later in life can, in turn, encourage a more positive view of aging, which has been shown, in further turn, to boost well-being. Now along comes a study that…

This sugar-free recipe helps people wake up, shake grogginess, and face the day more productively — Key ingredients in any recipe for daytime alertness, energy level and an upbeat mood include good sleep and lots of physical activity. No surprise there. But a new study finds a lesser-known yet important ingredient that can spice up your mornings: Eating a healthy breakfast high in complex carbohydrates and…

Workout timing can affect fat-burning, heart health and sleep — Exercising first thing in the morning is torture for me. I can do it if I must, but I prefer mid-morning through early afternoon. If I wait until too late in the day, I’m apt to get sidetracked or lose motivation. So I’ve long wondered if timing influences the effectiveness…

And you can too, no matter your age or fitness level — Jogging is just slogging when you first start out. Pounding the pavement, huffing and puffing, no reward in sight. It’s demonstrably brutal. Unforgiving. Sweaty and demoralizing. A stark reminder that you’re not an athlete. I was there a few weeks ago, though not for the first time, trying to get…

Soaring use raises concerns among doctors over long-term health effects and near-term effectiveness — Parents are giving kids melatonin supplements as a sleep aid in alarmingly growing numbers, despite mixed evidence of effectiveness and unknown, unstudied long-term health risks to developing brains and bodies. “I cringe when a parent tells me that their child asks for their melatonin every night,” Judith Owens, MD, a…

Working under Elon Musk’s new “hardcore” demands will be awful for physical, mental and emotional well-being — Twitter employees who agree to stay on and work under their demanding new boss, Elon Musk, will put themselves at higher risk for serious physical, mental and emotional health problems in the near-term and long run, based on what Musk just said he expects of them. In an email to…

The group joins sleep and safety experts calling for year-round Standard Time — Joining several other health organizations, sleep and safety experts and the national PTA, the American Medical Association today threw its heft behind a movement to persuade the U.S. Congress to end biannual time changes and go with permanent Standard Time. “For far too long, we’ve changed our clocks in pursuit…