Why does the sound of water help people sleep?

wave-image-for-buxton-article-on-soothing-sounds Harvard Pop Center faculty member Orfeu Buxton explains why some sounds help us stay asleep, while other sounds disturb it in this livescience.com piece.

Photo: Chi Bellami on Flickr

Recent publications & news

Christina Cross in The Harvard Gazette: “Why living in a two-parent home isn’t a cure-all for Black students”

June 9, 2021
Harvard Pop Center Postdoctoral Fellow Christina Cross, PhD, has penned an op-ed in The Harvard Gazette in which she shares her forthcoming research on why a two-parent household is not a panacea for better educational outcomes for low-income Black students. Dr. Cross points to President Biden’s proposed American Families Plan as an example of a … Continue reading “Christina Cross in The Harvard Gazette: “Why living in a two-parent home isn’t a cure-all for Black students””
Mass vaccination campaign in India may have contributed to spike in cases

June 8, 2021
Professor S (Subu) V Subramanian, PhD, has authored a comment in The Lancet Global Health in which he cautions that the mass vaccination campaign in India may have contributed to the recent increase in COVID-19 cases there. He urges leadership in India to rethink its vaccination strategy to reduce virus spread by preventing overcrowding and … Continue reading “Mass vaccination campaign in India may have contributed to spike in cases”
Sung S. Park in NYT “Family Caregivers Feel the Pandemic’s Weight”

May 21, 2021
Harvard Sloan Fellow on Aging and Work, Sung S. Park, PhD, shares findings of her study published in The Journals of Gerontology on the differences in mental and physical health among non-caregivers, short-term caregivers, and long-term caregivers during the COVID-19 pandemic in this New York Times piece.
“In India, anything and everything is a super-spreader event”

May 21, 2021
Harvard Pop Center faculty member S (Subu) V Subramanian, PhD, tells The Harvard Gazette that “in India, anything and everything is a super-spreader event.” A visualization dashboard of COVID-19 vaccine distribution in India by Subramanian’s Geographic Insights Lab was also cited by The New York Times in an article describing the recent and devastating surge of … Continue reading ““In India, anything and everything is a super-spreader event””
PGDA study examines the role of chess performance on cognition

May 10, 2021
The Program on Global Demography of Aging at Harvard (PGDA) has launched a study examining the role of chess performance on cognitive ability. The Chess Cognition Study is led by PI David Canning. The study is currently looking for volunteers to complete a virtual interview, which includes a series of cognition tests. Participants must be at … Continue reading “PGDA study examines the role of chess performance on cognition”