SLEEP ON THIS | A daily snooze at your desk may be just what the doctor ordered. Researchers who tracked the siesta habits of 23,681 Greek men and women – controlling for age, physical activity and other heart-risk factors – reported last month in the Archives of Internal Medicine that thrice-weekly nappers were more than a third less apt than non-nappers to die of heart disease. Working men benefited the most: Even if they took a siesta less often, their risk of a heart-related death was 64 percent lower than that of their peers who didn’t nap. A nap may reduce stress, says Dimitrios Trichopoulos, a study author and an epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health.
MORE TESTS, FEWER TOASTS? | Pennsylvania State University will spend nearly $600,000 over the next three years to combat a culture of “dangerous drinking” on 20 of its campuses, according to a report in Penn State’s student paper, The Daily Collegian. Some ideas are conventional strategies like offering social alternatives to the traditional boozefests. Another is the more scary prospect of increasing the number of Friday exams. | U.S. News & World Report
