Athletes at all levels of play have access to a powerful tool to improve their performance, one that won't break any laws or put anyone's health at risk. What's this wonder drug? Sleep.

It's all too common for people to shrug off their episodes of insomnia, to do their best to function and cope. This kind of "power through" strategy is rampant in our busy world, but there's no real escape from the consequences that insomnia can bring.

It won't surprise me to see more sports teams adopting a sleep-better-to-perform better strategy similar to the one the Jets have put into play this season. But using sleep to improve performance isn't just the purview of athletes.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School investigated how a daily yoga practice might affect sleep for people with insomnia and found broad improvements to measurements of sleep quality and quantity.

The Web is not a doctor. The Internet can deliver information with amazing speed and volume, but it can't listen to your child's heartbeat or look into your baby's eyes while engaging in a conversation about your newborn's sleep habits.

Researchers found that opting to delay bedtime in favor of studying was linked to an increased risk of both types of academic difficulty. And this was true regardless of the total amount of students' study time.

Summer is coming to an end, and with fall and winter come cold and flu season. Want to give your annual flu vaccination a powerful boost? Start sleeping more.

Sleep apnea has traditionally -- and erroneously -- been seen as a "men's disorder." The truth is, obstructive sleep apnea is a common sleep disorder among women. And a new study indicates that the frequency of sleep apnea among women may be higher than we previously believed.

Here's the flipside to the story about foods that can help you sleep better: Eating a diet heavily composed of the "wrong" foods can interfere with your sleep.

As a society, we still wear our sleep deprivation, and our ability to function on minimal rest, as a badge of honor. The most important change we could make to turn our collective sleep habits around? We could start taking sleep a whole lot more seriously.

The truth is, we don't know very much about sleep problems on a global level, particularly in developing nations. A new study addressed this gap in research and returned some striking results, estimating that as many as 150 million people worldwide suffer from sleep problems.

A group of studies, all conducted independently, have reached a similar sobering conclusion: Sleep problems -- including several common sleep difficulties faced by millions of people on a regular basis -- may, over time, lead to cognitive impairment and even dementia.

We know that sleep has a great effect on how we eat. But does how we eat -- or more precisely, what we eat -- have an effect on our sleep? One thing we might not be talking about enough is how choosing the right foods can help strengthen sleep.

Do you ever feel forgetful and a little sluggish of mind? Do you wish you could pick up new skills more quickly and easily? Here's a tip: You can boost your learning power by beefing up your sleep routine.

When you think of sleepwalking, what comes to mind? Sleepwalking is a very real sleep disorder that affects adults as well as children, with consequences that can range from the embarrassing to the downright dangerous.

A recent study brings most welcome and important news for men with obstructive sleep apnea -- and their partners. Keeping up with your CPAP routine can help to improve your sex life and your relationship, as well as your sleep.

Protecting and encouraging sleep among pro athletes may be one way to enhance and even prolong players' career-long levels of performance.

These two studies are the first to establish a link between OSA and cancer in humans. Previous studies have shown evidence of a relationship between cancer and sleep apnea in mice.

Sleep-disordered breathing in children, no matter how mild it appears, should never be ignored. By addressing these issues before they become serious, we can help keep our kids sleeping well and growing well.

It's a mantra from physicians, sleep experts and other health professionals we've come to expect: Teenagers are short on sleep.

Be aware of your bedtime routine as the clock springs forward -- otherwise you might fall back asleep at the wrong time.

Circadian rhythms -- our own internal biological "clock" -- govern our sleep-wake cycle and several other daily rhythms of the body. It's a complicated and finely-tuned system of hormonal and bio-chemical reactions that helps us live in rhythm with the 24-hour day.

There's still a great deal of information about the effects of sleep on the brain that we don't yet understand, so any research that sheds light on this subject is exciting and potentially important.