From the Editor-in-Chief: Is Worrying About Sleep Keeping Us Up?

Plus: Insomnia Isn’t Just Exhausting — It May Raise Your Risk of Stroke, Dementia

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October 3, 2026

From the Editor-in-Chief Letter From the Editor-in-Chief: Is Worrying About Sleep Keeping Us Awake? Happy weekend, Healthliners. If a small person with strong opinions about dinosaurs has already had you up since six, this one’s for you. Another week, another sleep study - but this one is built differently. Researchers using UK Biobank data tracked more than 95,000 people over a multi-year timeline and found that more REM sleep was linked to a lower risk of 83 diseases, including dementia, Parkinson’s, and MS. It’s peer-reviewed science of significant depth and scale, and for a self-confessed “bad sleeper,” it makes for slightly uncomfortable reading. The problem is that plenty of us are already lying awake in the early hours, fretting about poor sleep (and, in my case, anticipating the arrival of the aforementioned small person at 6 am on the dot with burning questions about the natural world). Nearly 70% of Americans say anxiety costs them sleep, and for some, the tracker that follows them to slumberland is feeding the issue rather than fixing it. There’s even a name for the phenomenon: orthosomnia, where obsessing over your sleep score results in sleep deterioration and, in extreme cases, insomnia. In this week’s column, I take a candid look at life as a “very busy person” with a very early alarm clock and explain why I’m choosing to take the useful data my sleep tracker provides while leaving the anxiety it can bring behind. It’s a reminder to be kind to yourself and to remember that neither your sleep nor your wider health journey is linear — and that is A-Ok. You can read the piece in full here and, as ever, let me know what you think by emailing me here. Wishing you sweet dreams, a long lie-in, and a very healthy week ahead. Robin Robin Hough Editor-in-Chief Read more

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Until next time, Take care of yourself, and we'll see you again soon!

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