1. Plenty of R&R (rest and relaxation) can boost your mood, focus and energy. Conversely, people with poor sleep habits experience higher levels of stress, depression and anxiety.

2. Want your kids to get A’s and B’s? Make sure they catch their Z’s. Well-rested equals alert in the classroom, and a regular sleep routine may boost math and literacy scores. Some schools are even starting later in an effort to help kids improve learning.

3. Reap the benefits of beauty sleep. When the body is sleep-deprived it produces more of the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol can cause weight gain and oily skin.

4. Getting your eight hours in could cut your risk for chest pain, heart attack and stroke. A recent study by West Virginia University indicates that people who sleep five hours daily are more than twice as likely to experience these problems.

5. Rest is a responsibility, and apparently so is justice. In a study that appears in SLEEP, Swedish naval officers were more likely to act morally and make moral judgments when fully rested.

1. Your thyroid helps regulate your sleep patterns. An overactive thyroid (hyperthyroidism) can cause difficulty sleeping, fatigue and irritability.

2. Believe it or not, menstruation can affect your sleep patterns. Two in three women experience menstrual insomnia—disturbed sleep due to tossing and turning and general menstrual discomfort.

3. Maybe you do sleep, but continue to experience tiredness regardless of how much sleep you get? If you snore, have a dry throat on waking or regularly become irritable, you may want to talk to your doctor. This could be a symptom of sleep apnea.

4. Your sweetie slumbers soundly while you lay awake at night, so you decide to wake him up. Sound familiar? Ladies, you may have a case of sleep envy. You’re not alone, either. Up to 40 percent of women envy the ease with which their darlings doze. Jealous much?

5. Some people toss and turn through the night before finding sleep. If this is caused by painful or irritating tingling or tugging in your lower limbs, you may have a condition known as restless leg syndrome (RLS).

Want to keep up with the latest sleep science? Visit the National Sleep Foundation site or check out the journal SLEEP.

Studies come from North Carolina State University, where researchers noticed that children born just before the kindergarten enrollment cutoff date, who are among the youngest in their class, were more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than their older classmates. The researchers determined this wasn’t a likely coincidence.

"We believe that younger children may be mistakenly diagnosed as having ADHD, when in fact they are simply less mature," lead researcher Dr. Melinda Morrill explained in a university news release cited by MSNBC.

Children diagnosed with ADHD may be more talkative, forgetful, or fidgety, and may have more difficulty playing quietly and taking turns. Frequent daydreaming and disruptive behavior also characterize ADHD.

“We are not downplaying the existence or significance of ADHD in children,” Morrill says. “This indicates that there are children who are diagnosed, or not, because of something other than underlying biological or medical reasons.”

Misdiagnosed ADHD can mask other issues, including learning disorders, hyperthyroidism, Asperger’s syndrome, or other forms autism. According to Mayo Clinic, as many as one in three children diagnosed with ADHD may also have one of these other conditions. The fear is that these conditions may be overlooked and that children may be put on ADHD medication unnecessarily.

Paying close attention to all of your child’s symptoms and making a careful assessment of his or her behavior with your doctor can help avoid misdiagnosis. See the full story from MSNBC.

Even modest weight gain can cause damage, according to a report in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Forty-three participants of a normal, healthy weight were asked to either gain 4 kg (about 9 pounds) or maintain their current weight over a period of 16 weeks.

Those that gained weight experienced “impaired endothelial function, even in the absence of changes in blood pressure.” It was the visceral fat (fat that surrounds the organs), not the subcutaneous fat (the thin layer of fat under the skin) that had the greatest effect on cell function.

Dr. Virend K. Somers of the Mayo Clinic School of Medicine says endothelial function is a good indicator of blood vessel health.

“There is something about fat deposited in the belly that makes it potentially hazardous to health, because impaired endothelial function has been linked to increased risk of high blood pressure and blood vessel disease,” he told Health Day.

Endothelial cells line the insides of blood vessels. When these cells dysfunction, blood vessels and arteries may have difficulty contracting. This can cause high blood pressure and, further down the road, cardiovascular disease. Good reason to lose weight, right? The good news is endothelial cells begin to function normally following weight loss.

Want to learn more about how belly fat (visceral fat) affects your body? Visit Mayo Clinic. You can also read the full story by Health Day or see the report in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.