When you check into a hotel room or stay with a friend, is your first night of sleep disturbed? Do you toss and turn, mind strangely alert, unable to shut down in the usual way? If so, you’re in good company. This phenomenon is called the first-night effect, and scientists have known about it for over 50 years. “Even when you look at young and healthy people without chronic sleep problems, 99 percent of the time they show this first-night effect—this weird half-awake, half-asleep state,” says Yuka Sasaki from Brown University.

iza:

I heard someone talking about this on the radio earlier. She explained an experiment they did with birds where they had them all sleep in a line. The ones in the middle slept with both sides of the brain but the ones on the ends only slept with half (the side facing the other birds), presumably to stay alert for predators.

posted 2925 days ago