sleep

Noise pollution is a growing problem that isn’t confined to the ears: It can cause harm throughout the body. California is taking baby steps to address the din from traffic and illegally modified cars, but public health experts urge lawmakers to act more boldly.

Call it "precision waking" — the alleged ability to decide when you want to wake up and then doing so, without an alarm. If you think you can do it, you're not alone, though how is still mysterious.

More than a third of U.S. states now support the idea of making daylight saving time permanent. It's already in effect for about eight months of the year.

While researching his book, Breath, James Nestor participated in a study in which his nose was completely plugged for 10 days, forcing him to breathe solely through his mouth. "I felt awful," he says.

The number of workers getting less than seven hours of sleep a night is rising. Stress and our culture of constant connection may be to blame.

Lots of phone and tablet apps promise to improve sleep by filtering out the blue light from device screens. But that won't help if the reason you're not getting enough shut-eye is caffeine or stress.

"Human beings are the only species that deliberately deprive themselves of sleep for no apparent gain," says sleep scientist Matthew Walker.

New mom Maisha Watson uses one of the 20,000 cardboard boxes given out so far in New Jersey. She's glad to have a safe spot for her son to sleep. But some question the boxes' safety and effectiveness.

Avoiding your phone and TV at night and setting a firm bedtime might solve your problem if you feel tired a lot. But fatigue can also be a sign of disease.

Living most of life indoors can get your body clock out of phase. A fairly painless way to synch it is to spend a weekend camping, researchers say. Even the dim light of winter will do.