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We are about a week away from the start of Daylight Saving Time in the US. That time change, obviously, means that we "lose" an hour of sleep. Fortunately, this is mostly a transient issue, since our biological clocks eventually recalibrate to the new schedule.

However, many of us are stuck in a chronic state of social jet lag — meaning that our biological clocks are constantly misaligned with the time when we are required to be awake and alert. This leads to a pervasive reduction in overall sleep year-round, which is accompanied by a host of acute performance decrements and potentially some long-term health issues.

One group in whom this has been studied extensively is students. Students are an apt model because they generally have strict schedules forcing them to wake up earlier, and because adolescents tend to have a delayed circadian phase that drives them to fall asleep later. This is obviously a recipe for inadequate slumber, and it likely has grim implications for their grades, as you'll see in the two new studies described within. Check out the newsletter to learn more: https://mailchi.mp/humanos.me/newsletter-252

One of the silver linings of the pandemic is that it has brought the issue of clean air to the forefront, and has elicited public discussion of possible long-term payoffs of improving ventilation in the buildings we spend most of our time in.

That dialogue, of course, is mostly oriented around reducing transmission of infectious diseases. But some preliminary evidence suggests that improving air quality by removing common indoor pollutants, like volatile organic compounds and fine particulate matter, could also improve our thinking and productivity.

For example, a study that looked at more than three hundred healthy office workers in 43 different commercial buildings found that higher concentrations of fine particulate matter in their workspaces were associated with slower response times and reduced accuracy in cognitive tests that were administered while they were at work. Importantly, these effects were evident at levels that are commonly observed in indoor environments.

The two studies that we will be digging into today examine effects of indoor air pollutants on expert chess players and on schoolchildren.

Head here to learn more: https://mailchi.mp/humanos.me/newsletter-251

Can Eating Collagen Build Stronger Tendons? - https://mailchi.mp/humanos.me/newsletter-248