Happy couples apparently make good bedfellows. New research says that when happy couples sleep together, they tend to have more — and less disrupted — rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. The REM phase of sleep is when you dream, and it’s been linked to emotion regulation, memory consolidation and creative problem-solving, the researchers said. “There is — even in the medical community — the notion that if you sleep with a partner, you might subjectively think that you slept well or better, but objectively, your sleep is more disturbed,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Henning Drews, a resident and post-doctoral scholar at the Center for Integrative Psychiatry in Kiel, Germany. But, he noted that the current study found that “if you want to share a bed with your partner, there is nothing to be said against it. It might even be very good for you.” For the study, 12 young, healthy couples between 18 and 29 years old volunteered to spend four nights in a sleep lab. They had been sleeping together most nights for at least three months. For two nights, the couples slept in different rooms. On another two nights, they slept together. Half of the group started apart, while the other half started the study together. Using polysomnography, the researchers simultaneously measured what went on during sleep in each partner. Polysomnography…  read on >

As the United States reported yet another record-breaking number of new coronavirus cases on Thursday, public health officials warned that younger Americans now account for an ever-growing percentage of infections. In Arizona, where drive-up testing sites were being overwhelmed, nearly half of all cases are being seen in those aged 20 to 44, The New York Times reported. In Florida, which has been routinely breaking records for new cases in the past week, the median age of residents testing positive for the virus has dropped to 35, down from 65 in March. In Texas, where cases are soaring and hospitals are nearing capacity, young people now make up the majority of new cases in several urban areas, the newspaper said. “What is clear is that the proportion of people who are younger appears to have dramatically changed,” said Joseph McCormick, a professor of epidemiology at UTHealth School of Public Health in Brownsville, Texas, told the Times. “It’s really quite disturbing.” The troubling news came as the United States recorded nearly 40,000 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, the Washington Post reported. COVID-19 infections in the United States had been slowing since the prior record of 36,739 cases back on April 24, but case counts have roared back in recent weeks, the Times reported. Coronavirus cases are surging the most in the South and West. On Thursday,…  read on >

Blood plasma transfusions from people who have developed antibodies to the new coronavirus appear to be safe for many COVID-19 patients, a large study suggests. The experimental treatment — called convalescent plasma therapy — is popular because no drug has been approved specifically to treat coronavirus infection. A week after 20,000 COVID-19 patients deemed at risk for progressing to a severe or life-threatening condition received plasma therapy, their risk of death dropped to 9%, compared to 12% in a previous study, Mayo Clinic researchers reported. Fewer than 1% had serious side effects, the researchers added. The study included men and women, and significant numbers of patients who were Black, Hispanic or Asian. “We’re optimistic, but must remain objective as we assess increasing amounts of data,” principal investigator Dr. Michael Joyner, a vice chairman for research at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., said in a clinic news release. The researchers can’t say for sure that the transfusions from recovered patients save lives. Joyner’s team pointed out that the results might be due to patients being less ill, or to better medical care. But because the treatment is being widely used with COVID-19 patients, study continues. Right now, convalescent plasma therapy is the only antibody treatment for COVID-19. Plasma is the liquid part of the blood. It contains both red and white blood cells, as well…  read on >

Dr. Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious disease expert, warned Congress on Tuesday of “disturbing spikes” in coronavirus cases, as seven states reported record-high numbers of hospitalizations and 33 states and U.S. territories saw sharp jumps in new infections. “The next couple of weeks are going to be critical in our ability to address those surges that we are seeing in Florida, in Texas, in Arizona and other states,” Fauci told members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, The New York Times reported. He noted that the country is still in the grip of the pandemic’s first wave, the Washington Post reported. “That’s something I’m really quite concerned about,” Fauci testified. “A couple of days ago, there were 30,000 new infections. That’s very disturbing to me.” On Tuesday, the United States recorded 34,700 new cases, the highest total since April 25, according to the Associated Press. New coronavirus cases have surged to their highest level in two months and are now back to where they were at the peak of the outbreak, the wire service said. During their testimony before Congress on Tuesday, Fauci and Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also warned of a perfect storm that could be unleashed this winter, when the flu season will intersect with the coronavirus pandemic, producing what Fauci described as…  read on >

Smoking, drinking too much and divorce are among the social and behavioral factors most strongly linked to dying early, a new study says. Researchers analyzed data from more than 13,600 U.S. adults between 1992 and 2008, and examined 57 social and behavioral factors among those who died between 2008 and 2014. The 10 factors most closely linked with dying were: being a current smoker; history of divorce; history of alcohol abuse; recent financial difficulties; history of unemployment; past smoking; lower life satisfaction; never being married; history of food stamps, and negative affectivity. “It shows that a life span approach is needed to really understand health and mortality,” said lead author Eli Puterman, an assistant professor of kinesiology at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver. He co-authored the study with researchers from Johns Hopkins University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of California, San Francisco, and Stanford University. Puterman noted, for example, that he and his colleagues looked at a 16-year history of unemployment, not just whether people were currently out of work. “It’s more than just a one-time snapshot in people’s lives, where something might be missed because it did not occur,” Puterman explained in a UBC news release. “Our approach provides a look at potential long-term impacts through a life span lens.” Life expectancy in the United States has stagnated for three…  read on >