sleep

Neuro-sama is the AI ​​that has dethroned all human streamers on Twitch because it doesn’t need to eat or sleep

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2026 already has its first milestone in the history of streaming: for the first timethe channel with the highest number of active subscribers on Twitch does not belong to a human creator. Neuro-sama, a VTuber generated entirely by artificial intelligencereached 162,459 active subscribers at the beginning of the year, dethroning all flesh-and-blood streamers on the platform. This figure places the channel vedal987from where Neuro-sama emits, in an unprecedented position: an artificial entity that surpasses established rivals in paying audiences. More human than humans. The origin of Neuro-sama dates back to 2019, when the British developer known as Vedal designed an artificial intelligence system initially aimed at running games of the rhythm video game ‘osu!’. Three years later, in December 2022, the project evolved into its current format: a VTuber that combines multiple technological layers to simulate the presence and activities of a human streamer. According to its creator, Neuro-sama’s visual infrastructure is developed in C# using the Unity engine, while the artificial intelligence systems work in Python. It is expressed. Neuro-sama’s architecture rests on a LLM (Large Language Model), technology that processes billions of parameters to generate coherent conversations in real time. These models form the basis of chatbots such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini or Microsoft Copilot, and operate by predicting sequences of words according to patterns learned during their training. Added to this conversational core are voice synthesis systems that generate the characteristic high-pitched tonality, and an avatar animated using Live2D technology that reacts visually to interactions. The result is a digital entity capable of maintaining dialogues, playing video games and responding to chat without direct human intervention during broadcasts. Audience records. Neuro-sama’s upward trajectory in terms of viewership is completely unusual. In January 2025, during its second annual “subathon” (a continuous broadcast format whose duration depends on subscriptions received), the channel set a world record by reaching level 111 on Twitch’s Hype Train system, an indicator that measures the intensity of subscriptions and donations over concentrated periods of time. That milestone, which surpassed the 106 levels of the previous record, seemed difficult to match. However, just eleven months later, in December 2025, Neuro-sama pulverized its own brand. The channel completed a level 120 Hype Trainaccumulating 118,989 subscriptions and 1,000,073 bits in a limited period of time. This figure makes vedal987 the only channel that has managed to break the global Hype Train record twice in a row, a distinction that earned him a global Twitch emote usable by any user of the platform. You peel them. lThe economic implications are notable. According to data from TwitchTracker, with 162,459 active subscribers and applying Twitch’s standard revenue split (which varies depending on individual agreements, but is usually around 50% for the creator), the channel would generate approximately $400,000 per month exclusively from subscriptions, not counting direct donations, additional bits or advertising deals. Currently, vedal987 occupies the 3rd place in the historical ranking of channels with the most Twitch subscriptions. He has a sister. In March 2023, Evil Neuro was born, presented as the “twin sister” of the original character. Vedal conceived this second entity so that Neuro-sama could interact with herself, but the project resulted in a differentiated personality with its own voice, visual model, and behavior. Both AIs have transcended the streaming format: in December 2022, Neuro-sama premiered ‘LIFE‘, his first original song. In August 2024 both launched ‘NEVER‘, the first duet between the two entities. The problems. The phenomenon has problematic antecedents: Nothing, Forevera series inspired by Seinfeld and generated entirely by algorithms, was suspended from Twitch after making transphobic comments. The Rubius experimented Similar dilemmas with DegenerIAa channel where ChatGPT controlled all conversations. In fact, one of the DegenerIA characters made derogatory comments about the streamer Pokimane, showing that automatic moderation systems do not always filter inappropriate content. Neuro-sama herself faced a temporary ban in 2023 for controversial statements, a reminder that the conversational autonomy of these systems carries risks. The rise of VTubers with AI. Conventional VTubers, until now, were humans controlling virtual avatars in real time through facial and body motion capture systems. Hololive, the Japanese agency that dominates this sector, manages figures such as Gawr Gura, whose YouTube channel exceeds four million subscribers. These creators choose to represent themselves through animated characters for reasons ranging from protecting privacy to building digital identities. Neuro-sama represents a qualitative leap: here there is no human behind the avatar. The VTuber industry has experienced sustained growth that YouTube quantified like this: Between 2022 and 2024, VTubers-related content generated an average of 50 billion views annually on the platform. The market for tools to produce this type of content has also become democratized: platforms such as Akool, HeyGen and VTube Studio allow creators without advanced technical knowledge to generate interactive avatars with a very small investment. Doubts about the future. What is clear is that this boom of technology-driven VTubers is full of imbalances. Continuous broadcasting without the need for rest gives these entities a structural advantage over human streamers who need to sleep, eat or simply disconnect. The question of whether this constitutes unfair competition or simply technological evolution remains without a clear answer. In Xataka | We have a problem with AI. Those who were most enthusiastic at the beginning are starting to get tired of it.

massagers, weighted blankets, sleep rings and more gifts to care for your partner

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What are you going to give on Valentine’s Day? If you are not sure or are looking for ideas, in this article we are going to review some devices that can be very useful to use at homewhether while we sleep with headphones or rings or for when we want moments of relaxation with massagers. Xiaomi Massage Gun by 93.99 eurosa massager with several speed modes and three heads. Amazfit Helium Ring from 109.90 eurosa very practical smart ring for everyday use. Soundcore Sleep A30 by 179.99 eurosheadphones designed to be comfortable when sleeping on your side. Good Nite by 56.99 eurosa fairly large weighted blanket. Huawei Watch Fit 4 by 119 eurosa very beautiful and, above all, useful sports smartwatch. Xiaomi Massage Gun Among the devices that Xiaomi has in its catalog, which are not few, there is one quite particular. It is about the Xiaomi Massage Gunwhich has a price in PcComponentes of 93.99 euros. This is a massage gun with three heads and three power modes. According to the brand itself, it is ideal for muscle relaxation, especially after physical activity. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Amazfit Helium Ring In stores like Amazon we can find the odd smart ring, being the Amazfit Helium Ring one of the most interesting because of its price and because it is available in different sizes. Its price ranges from 109.90 up to 132 euros Depending on the size, it has an autonomy of up to four days and is capable of monitoring parameters such as sleep or heart rate. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Soundcore Sleep A30 Listening to our favorite songs can relax us quite a bit. If your partner can’t live without his music and wants to listen to songs during the night, the Soundcore Sleep A30 from Anker are designed for this. They cost 179.99 euros and are designed to be comfortable even if you sleep on your side. In addition, they have a theoretical autonomy of up to 45 days and have active noise cancellation. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Good Nite The weighted blanketsalso called weighted blankets, are blankets that distribute weight evenly and apply some pressure on the body, producing a calming effect and improving sleep quality. The Good Nite can be found on Amazon for 56.99 eurosalthough the price varies depending on the size. There are more expensive and cheaper ones. In this example, The 150 x 200 centimeter blanket weighs eight kilos and it is breathable. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Huawei Watch Fit 4 If a ring doesn’t convince you, smart watches or smartwatches can give us data on sleep quality. There is a lot to choose from here, but if we are looking for a very good value for money in a very useful device for exercising, the Huawei Watch Fit 4 is ideal for it, and now it has dropped to 119 euros. It has a very elegant design, its strap is resistant, it includes a rotating crown, It comes with many sensors, such as sleep, and has a good assortment of sports activities. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Image | Xiaomi, Amazfit, Anker, Good Nite, Huawei In Xataka | Best smartwatch in quality price. Which one to buy and 10 recommended smart watches In Xataka | Best wireless headphones. Which one to buy and 21 models from 15 euros to 470 euros

The key is not to sleep well, it is to wake up correctly.

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Getting up in the morning is, sometimes, the greatest effort What a person does when they leave the warmth and comfort of their bed. Above all, when it was it’s raining and it’s cold. However, the first hour after opening your eyes marks the beginning of a day full of energy if used well. This natural moment of the body surpasses any rapid stimulus. Cortisol skyrockets, making it the perfect fuel for doing certain things that will make you lazy later. Of course, not waking up in the appropriate way can cause the rest of the day you crawl. The morning peak that activates the body. As and as he explained Stanford neuroscientist Andrew Huberman on the podcast Modern Wisdom“the peak of cortisol in the morning is essential. If it does not occur, the body responds with more stress later and it is difficult to regain calm in the afternoon.” OK to the studio carried out by a group of researchers from different universities in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, your body works like a well-tuned clock: from early morning, cortisol begins to rise to reach a certain level that causes you to wake up. Researchers from the US and Mexico discovered that this cortisol peak is maintained for about 45 minutes, in which it draws energy from the sugars stored in the liver and puts the brain in alert mode, ready to face whatever comes without that feeling groggy in the morning. If you take advantage of this peak to stretch, walk or do any physical activity during that time, it will be much easier for you. create new habitsbecause the mind retains that moment better and assimilates it in a positive way. Enhance awakening. According to the expert, cortisol levels when you wake up are even higher than those recorded when experiencing stressful situations. However, in this awakening contextis natural behavior and should even be enhanced because that peak is what allows energy to be accumulated for the rest of the day. “The morning routine of natural light and hydration prepares the brain and body for the day,” Huberman said. One of the neuroscientist’s recommendations is to expose yourself as much as possible in natural light during that first hour. Open the window, go out to the balcony or take a short walk. That exposure sends a signal to the brain and prepares it to leave the state of drowsiness and start your “day mode”. In addition, the expert recommends drinking a good glass of water to compensate for the hours without drinking and rehydrate the body, and then start some gentle stretches or walk for a few minutes. Huberman recommends delay the first coffee about 90 minutes, since caffeine can interrupt that natural regulation of cortisol levels. Disrupting sleep routines does not help. A investigation from the University of South Australia studied the impact of changes in circadian cycles in cortisol levels, finding evidence that changes in sleep schedules imbalanced cortisol levels upon awakening. This meant that either the participants they woke up in the middle of the night or ate at odd hours and that, when they had to do so, their cortisol levels were insufficient to bring the brain out of its state of drowsiness, being out of adjustment throughout the day. Therefore, maintain sleep schedules Regular exercise helps the body know when it is time to raise cortisol levels to begin the awakening phase and prepare the brain to face the rest of the day. Getting ready to sleep. In the same way that Huberman suggests a certain preparation to have a more efficient awakening, he also recommends taking some measures to face the end of the day. “For the last hours, you should do the opposite: darken the environment, avoid stimulants and limit hydration,” explained the neuroscientist. In this sense, the expert highlighted that exposure to screens alters that hormonal pattern that means that cortisol levels must be low to allow you to fall asleep and initiate what he called the “maximum reset”: achieving a phase of deep sleep in which the brain eliminates the metabolic waste it generates during the day. through the glymphatic system. “Conscious breathing and visualization, such as mentally walking through a well-known place, are powerful tools for calming the mind before sleep,” Huberman explained in his interview. In Xataka | Neuroscientists believe they have found the trick to solving the most complicated problems: taking a nap Image | Unsplash (Adrian Swancar)

Women consistently sleep worse than men. And science has finally discovered why it is

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For years we have been able to have a perception in many homes: the women tend to sleep worse, wake up more and feel more tired than men. This is something that for a long time has been dismissed as a subjective perception, but Science has now wanted to close the debate, pointing out that it is not only a perception, but that there is a gender gap documented. The data. The Global Sleep Survey 2025carried out on a massive sample of more than 30,000 people in 13 countries, has produced a key figure: 38% of women have problems falling asleep more than three times a week, compared to 29% of men. Something that in Spain is not a very different situation, since according to the cross-sectional studies recently published in Naturewomen have much higher scores on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), indicating worse subjective quality. In this way, while 44.6% of Spanish women report poor sleep quality, in men the figure drops to 30.1%. A paradox. Tests with motion sensors suggest that women sometimes have higher “sleep efficiency” on paper, but it is perceived as greater exhaustion. The person responsible for this is the sleep fragmentationwhich is related to constant waking up or even in mothers due to having to get up to care for a baby, for example. The hormonal factor. It is undoubtedly one of the big differences that exist between men and women, since estrogen and progesterone levels fluctuate drastically during the menstrual cycle, pregnancy or menopause. In the specific case of menopause it can be seen as a drop in the level of estrogen, in addition to produce alterations in bone formationalso increases the immediate degradation of rest. The data indicates that 51% of the Menopausal women suffer from sleep disordersshown a big difference: 44% of women in this stage report serious problems compared to 33% of non-menopausal women. If we go to pregnancywe see something similar with physical (from discomfort) and hormonal disruptions that create a pattern of alertness that often doesn’t fully recover until years after childbirth. The mental load. Beyond the hormonal load, the social factor is, perhaps, the most difficult to correct. One of the most important is the role that women have in many cases regarding the care of other people. According to the data compiled by the University of Michigan and diverse reviews on BMJ Openemployed women wake up twice as often as their partners to care for children or dependent relatives, even when they are the main breadwinners of the home. This “caretaker” role keeps the brain in an “alert” situation, making it attentive to whether a baby cries at night or a dependent family member has any need. This causes 76% of caregivers to report poor sleep quality.since the brain cannot unconsciously disconnect to monitor the well-being of the environment. Its consequences. Poor sleep not only means being tired the next day, but also has more serious clinical consequences. One of the most important is the increase in the probability of having a metabolic diseasesuch as diabetes. In addition, it increases accelerated cognitive deterioration and causes an increase in anxiety and depression disorders. And what is interesting in this case is that the female brain in sleep deprivation is more vulnerable to emotional dysregulation. The solution. The scientific community, from the Sleep Research Institute (IIS) to publications in Frontiers in Psychiatryagrees that it is not enough to increase “sleep hygiene” by leaving your cell phone before going to sleep, for example. It mainly aims at social therapy, making changes in the structure of the home that avoid fragmentation of sleep by getting up to take care of someone, for example. But logically, if you are in a perimenopause situation, you should also choose to go to the doctor to receive pharmacological treatment whenever there is significant hormonal deregulation. Images | Slaapwijsheid.nl In Xataka | If you fall asleep in less than five minutes, you don’t have a “superpower”: it’s a warning signal from your brain

We thought insomnia was just not being able to sleep. Now we know that there are five different disorders

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insomnia is for many people a serious problem with which they deal daily, both day and night, and whose treatment is always based on three pillars: sleep hygienecognitive-behavioral therapy or hypnotic drugs. However, Sometimes what is useful for one person is useless for another.. Something that we now know is because there is not just one type of insomnia, but five. The study. With Spanish origin and published in the Journal of Sleep Research confirms what many specialists were suspecting: insomnia is not a unique disorder. As Francesa Cañellas, from the Son Espases University Hospital, points out, research has proven that there are five different subtypes of insomniaa finding that promises to revolutionize the way we treat sleep problems. Its evolution. The first hypothesis that was raised about the variability of insomnia comes from 2019, when some dutch researchers They already saw that this disorder had five faces. The problem is that these differences had to be proven according to the personality traits and biography of each of the patients. That is exactly what the Spanish team has done. Financed by the Spanish Sleep Society (SES), the study has analyzed data from eight sleep units in Spain using the Insomnia Types Questionnaire (ITQ). Using the patients’ responses in these questionnaires and the data obtained from each one’s sleep, it has been seen that these five profiles are true. Although the problem is that the most severe type is the most common. The different types. The interesting thing about this study is that it does not classify insomnia by the number of hours spent sleeping, but by personality traits or level of distress. Based on this, the classification proposed is the following: Type 1: a very complex group, since their peculiarity is that they have high anguish within them. In this way, they are patients with high levels of neuroticismtension and depression. Type 2: patients who have moderate distress, but who can respond to positive stimuli. In this way, they are able to overcome the problem thanks to cognitive-behavioral therapy, which is the usual standard treatment. Type 3: in this case the patients do not feel much anxiety, but they do have a great insensitivity to pleasure, which is known as anhedonia. This is a problem, because being emotionally flat, conventional treatments are not very effective. Type 4 and 5: They are the mildest forms, since they are due to specific problems in the life of each patient that increase their level of stress but without a psychological burden behind them. The bad news. Although it has been possible to classify insomnia into different types, the reality is that 82% of patients belong to subtypes 1 and 3. These are the ones that respond the worst to treatments and that cause greater psychological damage to people. Logically, these are the people who most frequently go to medical consultations and sleep units because They literally can’t take it anymoresince it is unlikely that a sleeping pill will solve your problem. In fact, the study highlights that these two groups are the ones with the highest consumption of hypnotics and anxiolytics, often with poor results. A precision medicine. The importance of this work lies in the fact that there is no effective standard treatment for insomnia. In this way, if a type 2 patient receives psychological therapy they will do wonderfully, but for a type 3 patient this treatment will do almost nothing. Likewise, type 1 may require a psychiatric approach to treat underlying anxiety and then treat the insomnia problem. With all this, we seek to stop treating the disease in isolation, and conceive that it will be associated with a person who has a specific biography and a personality that may require different care. Images | Solving Healthcare In Xataka | How close (and how far) we are from not sleeping at all: for the first time in history, we have a small way to try it

Some people believe that sleeping on your side or stomach creates “sleep wrinkles” on your face. It’s exactly the opposite

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The Internet is full of golden rules for have ‘eternal youth’this being the holy grail that many would like to have in their hands right now. Among these pieces of advice, there are several that can be quite annoying, such as that you should not sleep leaning on the side that is wrinkled. But… how true is this? The benefits of sleeping well. The sleeping position is essential to have a good rest. Because sleeping on your stomach is not the same as sleeping on your left side. In the first case, the cervical spine can suffer a lot and in the second the hated gastric reflux. can be seen reduced. But now it comes into play that sleeping on one side or the other can cause more wrinkles on the face due to the hated gravity that generates a mechanical effect that causes the face to fall and wrinkles to appear. But science disagrees on this one and puts the blame more on biology with cortisol and collagen. The myth of ‘Sleep Wrinkles’. The theory seems logical: if you spend 8 hours squishing your face into a pillow, that mechanical compression should leave a mark. There is often talk of “sleep wrinkles” (sleep wrinkles), which, unlike expression lines, caused by smiling or frowning, would be caused by having your face against the pillow. It is something that some experts defend like those of The Aesthetic Society, which suggest that sleeping on your stomach or side favors the appearance of vertical lines due to this chronic pressure. Other opinions. The clinical evidence It is quite limited in this casesince many of the statements that defend this myth come from the field of cosmetic surgery and with very limited groups of people. There are even articles that suggest that there is no clear relationship between sleeping in a certain way and having more wrinkles. The consensus right now is that sleeping on your back could theoretically reduce the formation of compression lines. But obsessing over this is not the best, since if having this position is uncomfortable and the quality of sleep decreases, then the biological weight it will entail will have a great impact on wrinkles. The real threat. This is where science stops being speculative and becomes blunt. If there is something that ages your skin, it is not the pillow, It’s sleep deprivation. When you get little sleep, the body enters a state of physiological stress, raising levels of the hated cortisol, the stress hormone. And elevated cortisol is the great enemy of our skin’s youth. This is because it can inhibit the cells that make collagen (the scaffolding of the skin), making the skin less elastic and increases metalloproteinases. This word, so long, is nothing more than an enzyme that breaks down that fundamental collagen that we have in our skin and that keeps it firm. If we do not produce it or destroy it, the wrinkles will appear there. With data. A key clinical study presented in ScienceDaily showed strong results: People with chronic poor sleep quality showed clinical signs of accelerated aging with fine wrinkles, uneven pigmentation, and sagging. But the most important thing is that if UV radiation from sunlight was also added to all these factors, the skin’s recovery would get worse. And this is where the need to have sun protection when going outside came in. Images | Katelyn G Isabella Fischer In Xataka | There is a ‘good’ fat that hides a secret to aging better and being in shape. All that remains is to get the pill

avoid cell phone use and sleep 12 hours

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While in Silicon Valley they brag about hugging the culture of “996” with eternal days With no time to rest, Pavel Durov, co-founder and CEO of Telegram, has built a routine that clashes head-on with that model. Instead of living glued to your cell phone, opt for long hours of rest and phone use reduced to its minimum essential expression. All this taking into account that he runs an app with hundreds of millions of users around the world. Sleep as a tool for creativity Durov does not forgive time to go to sleep. The millionaire explained in an interview on Lex Friedman’s podcast that books every night between 11 and 12 hours to be in bed. That It doesn’t always mean you sleep. all those hours, but the founder of Telegram, instead of getting nervous and getting up when he can’t fall asleep, simply limits himself to staying in bed thinking. “Some people hate it. They tell me ‘Take a sleeping pill’ but I never take pills. I love those moments because I have so many brilliant ideas, or at least they seem that way to me in those moments, while I’m lying in bed,” said the stoic millionaire. In fact, the scientific literature corroborates what Durov says and associates it with a moment in which inactivity causes the brain to wandera moment in which the brain’s abstraction mechanisms are activated that are responsible for assimilating knowledge and relating concepts. This process is closely related to creativity as it fosters new connections by helping to find solutions to complex problems. It is the same process that explains why the best ideas or solutions they occur to you in the shower or when you wash the dishes. The mobile phone is not the center of life Another curious habit of the founder of Telegram is that he avoids picking up his cell phone at all costs. just get upand delay as much as possible entering the torrent of notificationsnetworks and messages, as a deliberate way of protect your concentration. Friedman himself confirmed this point, ensuring that in the previous two weeks that he had shared with the millionaire I hadn’t seen him use his cell phone. to share content on social networks or respond to messages. Durov considers that the telephone is, above all, a constant source of distractions that prevents people from developing their own ideas and decide for themselves what they pay attention to. “If you open your phone first thing in the morning, what you end up being is someone who is told what to think about for the rest of the day,” Durov said. The millionaire summarizes his position with a very clear phrase: “My philosophy is quite simple. I want to define what is important in my life. I don’t want other people, companies or organizations of all kinds to tell me what is important today and what I should think about.” Durov’s case is even more striking if his career is taken into account: before Telegram, he had already founded one of the largest social networks in Russia, and now he is in charge of one of the most used messaging services in the world. He himself recognizes that it may seem contradictory to promote products that encourage constant connection and, at the same time, opt for the minimum possible exposure to mobile phones in their personal life. In Xataka | There are big billionaires obsessed with having dozens of children. And then there is the CEO of Telegram, who has 100 Image | Flickr (TechCrunch)

Years ago we discovered that our ancestors’ dreams were not like ours. There are now thousands of people trying to introduce biphasic sleep into their lives.

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It’s two or three in the morning and something clicks in your eyes. You wake up. There are five seconds of disorientation. You try to go back to sleep, but many people can’t. In fact, those early morning awakenings they become a curse. Therefore, when they see on social networks that there are experts who recommend sleeping in two blocks (either in more); What’s more, when they read that biphasic sleep It is ‘normal’ biologically speakingthey think maybe they don’t have a problem. Maybe, just maybe, society has the problem. What is true in all this? How human beings sleep. A few years ago, historian Thomas Ekirch discovered recurring references to “first dreams.” It was not something isolated: he found them in documents that covered not only the Middle Ages but also the modern age. Many centuries of “first dreams” that contrasted with the fact that, in short, he did not know what they were talking about. He decided to investigate it in detail and, with this, he managed compile a series of tests historiographical evidence of the existence of a biphasic dream in these periods: according to their research, the first dream lasted from 9 to 11 at night. Then there would be a period of wakefulness (which is dedicated to the most diverse activities: chatting, praying, visiting neighbors…) and, subsequently, there would be another period of sleeping again until dawn. It’s not just something historical. Seduced by Ekirch’s ideas, psychiatrist Thomas Wehr performed an experiment with 15 subjects who were left without artificial light. He found that under certain restrictions (basically limiting their leisure activities), participants adopted a biphasic pattern. This has triggered the ‘two-phase evangelizers’. And, in fact, it is increasingly common to find people who defend it. The problem is that this ‘natural’ pattern is highly debatable. Yes, in the pre-industrial European era many slept in two phases: but that is not ‘natural’. As Wehr himself discovered, it is, in any case, the natural adaptation to short days (around 10 hours). If we go closer to the equator, where the days are more stable, the anthropological evidence does not find the same patterns. What does this mean? That there are no magical ways. If we review the research on naps, for example, we will see cases in which there is a lower cardiovascular risk and others in which cardiometabolic risk skyrockets. Here we are defenders of the napbut only when it makes sense. The bottom line here is that lack of sleep or poor quality sleep has been linked to immunological problems, metaboliccardiac, psychological and cognitive. Not only that, the scientific literature is full of studies showing an increase in coronary heart diseaseof the diabetes and of the obesity. To make matters worse, social problems they are also on the agenda. The important thing, therefore, is to find a way of sleeping that works for us. And for this we have some tricks. a lot of tricks: turn sleep into a routine (whatever it may be), exercise throughout the day, do not consume substances that affect it, relax and use our physiology to our advantage. However, the central trick is not to overwhelm ourselves. As we said years agothe idea behind all sleep experts is that, we can use certain techniques to help us sleep, but the only way to cultivate restful sleep is to reconcile ourselves to it. Image | Mussi Katz In Xataka | When “dying of sleep” is literal: This is how not sleeping can kill us

Millions of Spaniards consume benzodiazepines to sleep at night. They do not know that it is an poisoned candy

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On July 13, 2010, two days after Spain won the World Cup in South Africa, a Facebook user He putas the name of a group of that social network a phrase for history as a title of a group of that social network: “I am Spanish, what do you want me to win?” He talked about sports, of course. But if I had to choose a non-sports land to beat almost any other nationality, I would have (sadly) clear: The consumption of benzodiazepines. And if we talk about sleeping medications, I would bet on Lorazepam. A medication … paradoxical. Lorazepam is a benzodiazepine of intermediate action. In general terms, it works in the brain as a specific agonist of most subtypes of the Gabaa receiver. That is what makes it act as anxiolytic, sedative, muscle, anticonvulsive and amnesic. But, generalized (and even if the lormatazepan is better), it is prescribed to sleep. Why does it help to sleep? This medication facilitates Conciliation (helps to fall asleep), increases the total sleep time (in the first shots – therefore, treatments of more than four weeks are not recommended) and reduces night awakenings. It is, as it is easy to see, a resource very helpful to a problem increasingly widespread. And why is it ‘paradogical’? Because those ‘benefits’ have costs. To start, leave hangover. Being an intermediate action drug, it can leave some drowsiness or stunning after awakening. But that is little. The worst thing is that it modifies sleep architecture. In essence, the deep sleep phase and the ReM phase tend to reduce. That makes the sleep more continuous and less repairing. As The Uxoa Olaizola Pharmaceutical“Maybe you sleep, but your brain is not resting.” As if that were not enough, you can create addiction. This is better known and, in fact, it is one of the problems with the benzos. About 10% of the Spanish population has consumed them without a recipe, and 7.2% do so daily. We have a problem and it is quite serious. “75% of Spaniards wake up at least once At night, and 3 out of 10 directly affirm that they suffer from insomnia. “And, eye, the scientific evidence available tells us that we tend to think that we sleep better than we really do. Reality, surely, is much worse. And he will go more; With all its consequences. Lack of sleep is related to immunological problems, Metabolic, Cardiovascular emotional and cognitive; With disorders such as diabetes or of the obesity. Not just that sleeping little causes us to be more tired and irritablebut Raise our stress levels And it makes us Assume more risks And make more wrong. Hopefully not to mistake on this. Image | Shane | Roberto Sorin In Xataka | Science has been trying to find out what is the best time to go to sleep. And it is already close to an answer

The science of sleep is clear about the ideal time to go to sleep

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Under normal conditions, six out of ten Spaniards sleep little and badly. What happens is that we are not “in normal conditions”, we are in September: a month in which the return to the routine and the autumnal asthenia They shake hands to immerse ourselves (hopefully temporarily) in a dreams of bad quality. And yes, that is a problem. Lack of sleep is related to immunological problems, Metabolic, Cardiovascular emotional and cognitive; With disorders such as diabetes or of the obesity. Not just that sleeping little causes us to be more tired and irritablebut Raise our stress levels And it makes us Assume more risks And make more wrong. But what is “lack of sleep? To get an idea, although optimal amounts change from one person to anotherall medical associations specialized in sleep recommend sleeping between seven and eight hours of sleep every night. Well then, According to the Spanish Sleep Societythe Spaniards sleep an average of 6.8 hours during the week. In addition, “75% of Spaniards wake up at least once At night, and 3 out of 10 directly affirm that they suffer from insomnia. “And, eye, the scientific evidence available tells us that we tend to think that we sleep better than we really do. Reality, surely, is much worse. And what do we do? The tips to improve “sleep hygiene” are known: Monitor food: A balanced diet, a light dinner and limited consumption of caffeine, alcohol or other stimulating substances. Create an adequate space: Quiet, pleasant, little illuminated and with a pleasant temperature. Exercise strategically: Fundamentally, playing sports regularly, but always a few hours before sleeping. And, above all, establish regular schedules: Go to bed and lift, as far as possible, always at the same time (including weekends). Although, of course, that leaves us a clear question: When are we going to sleep? That is, if we want to establish a clear and inflexible schedule, we need to know not how many hours we have to sleep, but what is the best time for it. And yes, this is hardly generalizable. Above all, because sleeping hours collide directly with things like our work, our family life or our leisure habits. However, we have some ideas that can help us. Let’s go to the data. The best study we have was carried out in 2021. In it, The European Cardiology Society used UK Biobank records, one of the most important medical and lifestyle information repositories in the world (with more than 500,000 volunteers between 37 and 73 years old). They selected 88,926 adults (with an average age of 61 years) that had taken some type of wrist device capable of registering the physical activity of the person for at least seven days. After analyzing a period of 5.7 years, they discovered that going to sleep between 22:00 and 23:00 at night is associated with a lower risk of developing heart disease (already other related problems). In comparison, going to sleep between 23:00 and midnight entails 12% more risk of having this type of disease. Risk that rises to 25% for those who go to bed after twelve at night and stands at 24% for those who go to bed before 22:00. Can we move it directly to Spain? No, the truth is that no. It would be naive to think that the recommended schedules for a culture of copious and early dinners (such as English) are the same as those of a culture of light and late dinners (such as Spanish). However, they are the best data we have and, as María José Martínez Madrid saysCoordinator of the Chronobiology Working Group of the Spanish Sleep Society, the key relationship “comes mainly because of the mismatch that produces falling asleep late in the biological clock.” Therefore, it is a good indicator to reflect on our sleep guidelines. Especially now that, after summer, the world “starts again.” Image | Shane In Xataka | Thus influences the time to go to bed in the risk of developing a heart problem: these researchers believe they have found the exact time to go to sleep

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