The idea of beauty sleep has been around forever, but is there any scientific basis for it or is it just an old wives' tale? New research suggests that it actually does work.

The British Medical Journal (BMJ) has published a paper called Beauty sleep: experimental study on the perceived health and attractiveness of sleep deprived people. The researchers set out to discover whether or not people suffering from sleep deprivation are perceived as less attractive than those who've had a good night's sleep. 23 volunteers were photographed when well rested and again after a period of sleep deprivation. The photos were then presented to 65 untrained observers who rated them for attractiveness.

Well rested photos were rated both healthier and more attractive than the sleep deprived ones. The researchers conclude:

Our findings show that sleep deprived people appear less healthy, less attractive, and more tired compared with when they are well rested. This suggests that humans are sensitive to sleep related facial cues, with potential implications for social and clinical judgments and behaviour.

So don't skimp on the sleep if you want to look your best.

Sleep deprivation is generally an undesirable state that can cause various problems. But it seems that it might also have some uses as well.

Sleep is known to have a role to play in the "laying down" of new memories and lack of sleep can result in less effective memory formation. That's normally a bad thing - but what when the memories are something we want to forget? Memories, for example, of a traumatic experience. Could controlled sleep deprivation actually help in reducing the long term effects of fear memories and reduce the symptoms of anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)?

New research published in the journal Biological Psychiatry suggests it could. The paper, Sleep Deprivation Facilitates Extinction of Implicit Fear Generalization and Physiological Response to Fear, reports on research with healthy young volunteers. The volunteers were exposed to unpleasant road traffic accident film. Then over a ten day period half were allowed to sleep normally and half subjected to sleep deprivation. After three days the sleep deprived group showed a lower level of negative response to the initial exposure:

...in the sleep-deprived group, generalization of implicit fear recognition for nonaversive stimuli on Day 3 and all physiological and generalized fear responses on Days 3 and 10 were comprehensively extinguished

The paper concludes:

Clinically, trauma-exposed victims often experience acute insomnia, indicating that such insomnia might provide prophylactic benefits in reducing the development of posttraumatic stress disorder via extinction of the fear-magnifying effects of memory

Shift work isn't natural, our bodies haven't (yet) evolved to handle it. Working unusual shift patterns and nights has been implicated in a number of health issues ranging from sleep deprivation to cancer.

The latest study on the subject has found a significant link between shift work and the potential for injury. Their paper, Shift work trends and risk of work injury among Canadian workers, is published by the Scandanavian Journal of Work, Environment and Health. The researchers found a significant link between night work & rotating shifts and increased work related injury.

The researchers conclude:

Rotating and night shift workers appear to have a higher risk of work injury, particularly among women. Regulatory agencies and employers need to identify and mitigate factors that give rise to increased work injury among these types of shift workers.

People who enjoy socialising and partying often get too little sleep. Now a new study suggests that they might suffer worse effects from sleep deprivation than less social partygoers.

A new study, Socializing, Personality and the Effects of Sleep Deprivation, looked at the effect of sleep deprivation following exposure to "socially enriched" or "socially impoverished" environments. The researchers further categorised participants as either extrovert or introvert. During the period of sleep deprivation the volunteers were tested using the Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) tst to assess their responses.

The study found that following social enrichment the extraverts performed worse on the PVT tests than the introverts. The researchers conclude:

The effect of social exposure on vulnerability or resiliency to sleep deprivation was modulated by introversion and extraversion. Extraverts exposed to social environments were more vulnerable to subsequent sleep deprivation than were introverts.

New research has shown an interesting link between night owls - those who regularly go to bed late and dislike mornings - and the likelihood of being a smoker.

The research from the University of Helsinki, Finland, is to be published in the journal Addiction. The team led by Dr Ulla Broms studied identical twins. They found that night owls were more likely smoke than morning types.

This doesn't necessarily imply a direct medical or genetic connection between sleep patterns and incidence of smoking. The relationship is likely to be complex. For example night people are likely to be exposed to situations where smoking is the social norm and the stimulant effect of nicotine might be one of the things that keeps them up late at night.