For years, doctors have been discouraged by Americans’ disregard for and mismanagement of their sleep. But bragging about how little you sleep, a hallmark of the ’80s power broker, is starting in certain circles to come off as masochistic buffoonery. The sleep doctors we once ignored appear on morning shows to offer tips. Health professionals and marketers are hopeful that a new seriousness about sleep will continue moving out of a luxury-minded vanguard and into the mainstream. Sleep may finally be claiming its place beside diet and exercise as both a critical health issue and a niche for profitable consumer products. -- From "The Sleep-Industrial Complex," by Jon Mooallem, Nov. 18, 2007

• Sleep: Study Finds Many Are Too Tired for Sex
  A National Sleep Foundation report on ethnic groups’ habits found responses on tiredness and sex were similar for most groups.
  
  
• Behavior: Napping Can Prime the Brain for Learning
  Young adults who slept for 90 minutes in the afternoon were better able to learn new faces and names, according to a recent study.
  
  
• High Above Subway Repairs in Queens, but Deafened Anyway
  Some residents of Long Island City apartment buildings complain that on recent weekends, loud exhaust fans deprived them of sleep.
  
  
• The Claim: Counting Sheep Helps You Fall Asleep
  Do sheep have the power to lull you to sleep?
  
  
• More Than a Place to Rest
  The new beds on display at the 2010 winter Las Vegas Market furniture show promise to sit up, find the remote and stop a partner’s snoring.
  
  
• As Different as Night and Day
  What happens if the next generation remains nocturnal all their lives?
  
  
• Righting the Body’s Clock Through Chemicals
  Science is hard at work looking for ways to get circadian rhythms to snap back into place.
  
  
• Guests? Just Roll Out the Air
  Forsaking my own full-size mattress, I tested five air beds to find out how comfortable they really are.
  
  
• When Dreams Take Flight
  On a Thanksgiving Day flight, a tired attendant finds an unlikely spot to get some sleep.
  
  
• Sounds During Sleep Aid Memory, Study Finds
  People who heard specific sounds while sleeping had enhanced memories upon awakening, researchers said.
  
  
• When Jet Lag Comes With the Freebies
  After traveling through three foreign countries, a mother sees jet lag in a whole new way.
  
  
• A Dream Interpretation: Tuneups for the Brain
  A new theory suggests that dreams are a warm-up for the day ahead.
  
  
• For Elephant Seals, a Restful Downward Spiral
  A long-distance animal swimmer might use a maneuver called a drift dive, spiraling in the water like a leaf falling through the air, to rest.
  
  
• Exercise: Treating Sleep Apnea With a Golf Club
  Will treatment outcomes for sleep apnea improve if men with the condition thought treatment might improve their golf game?
  
  
• The Claim: A Person Can Pay Off a Sleep Debt by Sleeping Late on Weekends
  Studies have found that, even after increasing sleep, it can take a week or more for the cognitive and physiological consequences of too little rest to wear off.