It is late at night and you are still awake.Should you take a sleeping pill? People who take pills often come to depend on the drugs.So you lie awake knowing that the new work day will soon arrive.If this happens to you for at least one month, you may have primary insomnia.There are millions of you…us…around the world.
A new study has found that you might fall asleep quicker and stay asleep longer if you try “cerebral hypothermia”.No, cerebral hypothermia is not a complex medical process.It just means cooling down your brain.
Eric Nofzinger and Danniel Buysse of the University of Pittsburgh Medical School led the study.They examined twelve people who had insomnia.Twelve others had no sleep problems.Each of them wore a soft plastic cap on their heads at bedtime.
The caps had tubes inside filled with water.The researchers moved the water through the tubes and then changed the temperature of the water.Other studies showed that people who had trouble sleeping often had more chemical reactions in the front of their brains.The researchers thought lowering the temperature of the brain might help.
The first two nights of testing, the patients wore no water caps.During the next two nights, the caps were worn, but the water was not cooled.Then the researchers cooled the water a little for two nights.On the final two nights of the study, the temperature of the water was made much cooler.
The researchers found that the water caps did not help the insomnia patients until the temperature was about fourteen degrees Celsius.Most of the patients fell asleep faster and slept better when the coolest water was moving around their heads.
Dr.Nofzinger and Dr.Buysse noted that this is only the beginning of the brain temperature study.But they believe that they have discovered something important that needs more research.They presented their results in June at a meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
(1)
What’s the passage mainly about?
[ ]
A.
How to deal with sleep problems.
B.
Cooling the brain may help people sleep.
C.
How the water-filled caps work.
D.
A research about brain temperature.
(2)
The underlined word “insomnia”(Para 1)probably means _________.
[ ]
A.
Inability to sleep.
B.
Chemical reaction in the brain.
C.
Ability to sleep.
D.
Severe depression.
(3)
How long does the experiment last?
[ ]
A.
4 nights.
B.
6 nights.
C.
8 nights.
D.
12 nights.
(4)
In which edition of a newspaper can we read the passage?