New parents take note

How disturbed does your sleep need to be before your memory is disturbed? New parents and those on acute stroke thrombolysis rotas know that an impaired night's sleep has an impact on the next day's performance—but interrupting a third of the total sleep time has been shown to disrupt memory consolidation. Texan researchers specifically targeted hypocretin/orexin neurons in mice to fragment sleep without affecting the number of hours or the composition of (rapid eye movement (REM)/non-REM) sleep. Mice with interrupted sleep performed significantly less well on new object recognition tasks. Sleep fragmentation may well impair memory in people with obstructive sleep apnoea, alcohol dependence or those taking regular psychoactive medications.

PNAS 2011;108:13305–10.OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text

Ticking tinnitus

Cave canem! Or even beware of your sleeping partner. The incredible photograph below is of a tympanic membrane complete with the American dog tick (Dermacentor variabilis). The 47-year-old woman was …