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SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 18, 2023--

Animal has always been a wild child. Introduced on The Muppet Show in 1975, he

Welcome to Travel Week, a seven-day stretch where we celebrate our wanderlust with the best buys on everything from stylish packing cubes to keep you organized to once-in-a-lifetime vacations. Whether you’re planning a local staycation or traveling across the world, adventure awaits. Away we go!

TL;DR: As of June 18, get a refurbished Apple iPad Mini 2 for only $106.99

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Hitting the snooze button on the alarm clock once in a while might actually support the brain’s process of waking from deep sleep, according to a new study. People sometimes want to go right back to sleep even after the alarm goes off in the morning, using the snooze button in clocks and cell phones. Decades of previous research suggested that hitting snooze can have negative effects, both on sleep and the brain’s ability to wake up, but until now there hasn’t been any direct evidence of this, say scientists. The new study, published in the Journal of Sleep Research, assessed how common snoozing is and what effects this behaviour has on sleep, sleepiness, mood, and the brain’s cognitive abilities. Researchers found that those who snooze on an average sleep slightly shorter and feel more drowsy in the morning compared to those who never snooze. But they also saw that there were no negative effects of snoozing on the release of the stress hormone cortisol, mood, or sleep quality throughout the night. In the study, 1732 individuals answered questions about their morning habits, including how often they hit the snooze button with many – especially young adults – reporting that they use the alarm feature regularly. The most common reason for snoozing, according to participants, is feeling too tired to get out of bed when the alarm goes off. In another small follow-up experiment, 31 regular snoozers spent two nights in a sleep lab in order to measure their sleep in more detail. On one of the mornings, they were allowed to snooze for 30 minutes, and on the other, they had to get up right when the alarm went off. While in the first case, participants’ sleep was disturbed during the half hour of snoozing, most of them still got more than 20 minutes of sleep – meaning that their total night’s sleep was not affected much. In the snooze condition, no one had to wake up suddenly from deep sleep, and the snoozers performed a bit better on cognitive tests right upon waking. There were also no clear effects of snoozing on mood, sleepiness, or the amount of cortisol in the saliva. The results hint that half an hour of snoozing may not have negative effects on night sleep and could have some positive effects like a decreased likelihood of waking from deep sleep. However, researchers caution that the second experiment was small and only included people who are regular snoozers who find it easy to go back to sleep after each alarm. They say snoozing is most likely not for everyone. Jennifer Kanaan from the University of Connecticut in the US, who is another sleep scientist unrelated to the study, said the latest findings should be interpreted with caution as it could send the wrong message to people. “If you’re coming in and out of sleep for 30 minutes, after the alarm goes off the first time, you’re costing yourself 30 minutes of uninterrupted, quality, restorative sleep,” Dr Kanaan said in a statement. Instead of trying to figure out how to manipulate our alarm clocks, she says people should make a consistent good night’s sleep a greater priority and be less reliant on snooze buttons. “Simply put, instead of hitting the snooze button they should get more sleep,” Dr Kanaan said. Read More Study reveals why millions of women wake up at 3.29am Consistent lack of sleep may increase risk of future depressive symptoms – study Breakthrough study allows scientists to communicate with people as they sleep How to support a child with a stammer ‘I lost nearly a stone on Ozempic, but now it’s run out what am I to do?’ Miriam Margolyes now has part of a cow’s heart as she opens up about health

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Women who smoke during pregnancy are 2.6 times more likely to give birth prematurely compared with non-smokers – more than double the previous estimate, new research suggests. The University of Cambridge study also found smoking meant the baby was four times more likely to be small for its gestational age, putting it at risk of potentially serious complications including breathing difficulties and infections. There was no evidence caffeine intake was linked to negative outcomes. We’ve known for a long time that smoking during pregnancy is not good for the baby, but our study shows that it’s potentially much worse than previously thought Professor Gordon Smith, University of Cambridge Professor Gordon Smith, head of the department of obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of Cambridge, said: “We’ve known for a long time that smoking during pregnancy is not good for the baby, but our study shows that it’s potentially much worse than previously thought. “It puts the baby at risk of potentially serious complications from growing too slowly in the womb or from being born too soon. “We hope this knowledge will help encourage pregnant mums and women planning pregnancy to access smoking-cessation services. “Pregnancy is a key time when women quit and if they can remain tobacco free after the birth there are lifelong benefits for them and their child.” The NHS recommends that women who are pregnant should stop smoking and limit their caffeine intake because of the risk of complications to the baby. When the toxins from smoke travel through the bloodstream to the baby, it struggles for oxygen. When this happens it affects their development, and is linked to premature birth and low birthweight, though it has also been linked to a reduced risk of pre-eclampsia (high blood pressure during pregnancy). High caffeine intake has also been linked to lower birthweight and possibly foetal growth restriction. But caffeine can be more difficult to avoid than cigarette smoke as, as well as being found in coffee and tea, it can be found in chocolate, energy drinks, soft drinks and certain medications. Researchers say studies looking at the links between smoking and caffeine and their impact on pregnancy tend to rely on people reporting how much they have consumed, or exposure to smoke, data which is not always reliable. Blood tests for metabolites – chemical by-products created when substances such as tobacco and caffeine are processed in the body – might be more accurate. Researchers at Cambridge and the Rosie Hospital, part of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, recruited more than 4,200 women who attended the hospital between 2008 and 2012 as part of the Pregnancy Outcome Prediction (POP) study. The team analysed blood samples taken from a group of these women four times during their pregnancies. To assess exposure to cigarette smoke, the team looked at levels of cotinine, which can be detected in blood, urine and saliva. Only two out of three women with detectable levels of cotinine in every blood sample were self-reported smokers, showing that this measure is a more objective way of assessing smoking behaviour, researchers say. A total of 914 women were included in the smoking analysis. Of these, 78.6% were classified as having no exposure to smoking while pregnant, 11.7% as having some exposure and 9.7% as having consistent exposure. The study, published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, found that compared with those without smoke exposure while pregnant, those with consistent exposure were 2.6 times more likely to experience spontaneous preterm birth. According to the researchers, this is more than double the previous estimate of 1.27 from an analysis of multiple studies. They were also 4.1 times as likely to experience foetal growth restriction. Additionally, babies born to smokers were found to be on average 387g lighter than babies born to non-smokers – that is, more than 10% smaller than the weight of an average newborn. This increases the risk that the baby will have a low birth weight (2.5kg or less), which in turn is linked to an increased risk of developmental problems as well as poorer health in later life. Unlike in previous studies, the team found no evidence that smoking reduced the risk of pre-eclampsia. To assess caffeine intake, researchers looked for the metabolite paraxanthine in 915 women. Of these women, 12.8% had low levels of paraxanthine throughout pregnancy (suggesting low caffeine intake), 74.0% had moderate levels and 13.2% had high levels. The researchers say there was little evidence of an association between caffeine intake and any of the negative outcomes. However, because the researchers did not study all possible adverse outcomes of pregnancy, and some of the outcomes not studied – such as stillbirth – have been associated with higher caffeine intake in previous studies, they cannot interpret the findings as indicating that current recommendations around caffeine intake should be changed. The work was supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre and the Medical Research Council. 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Gearing up for another year in college can feel a lot like New Year’s Eve: There’s anticipation, some nervous excitement and the knowledge that change is soon to come. Much like January 1, September is always a good time to take stock of your personal and academic life, make new goals, shed bad habits and assess new opportunities. This back-to-school mindset is fertile ground for personal growth and positive change — and there’s no reason it has to end by the time October rolls around (even if you’re not a student anymore).