The Jennette P Moreno Research Lab at BCM

08/14/2025

Further evidence that social interactions influence eating and weight status. Interesting work from the Children’s Nutrition Research Center.

Watching other mice eat affects how much food mice consume, even when they are not hungry; this effect occurs only with palatable foods and may be mediated by dopamine signaling.

08/11/2025

The Moreno Lab presented on our progress at the annual retreat. Thanks to Hafza Dadabhoy, our senior research coordinator, for presenting for our team.

06/26/2025

Dr. Erica Jansen discusses how your diet can impact your sleep.

A growing body of research is finding a robust link between diet and sleep quality. But it’s not just the usual suspects like caffeine and alcohol that can get in the way of restful sleep.

06/04/2025

📱Does screen use before bed affect your child’s sleep💤?

We are recruiting families who are interested in helping us learn how evening screen media use affects children’s sleep, memory, and attention. This is for a research study conducted by Baylor College of Medicine.

Compensation will be provided for participation. 🅿️Free parking. To learn more please visit: https://redcap.link/goodnight

You can also contact us at 713-798-0557 or GoodNightScreenMedia@bcm.edu

(Do not respond with personal health information on this social media forum. This public forum should not be considered private)

Help us make a difference! 🌟

Your participation in this study will help the investigators better understand: the effect of screen use before bed on the sleep and biological rhythms of young children. The knowledge gained will help to inform screen media use guidelines for children.

05/31/2025

Having fun sharing our research opportunities with the PNEUMA community this morning!

05/23/2025

School is out in Texas! Many children go to bed much later in summer compared to the school year, but later bedtimes are associated with getting less sleep which puts kids at risk of gaining weight at an unhealthy pace during summer. Start off the summer break strong and create the expectation for your children that bedtimes during summer will stay the same as during the school year. Starting this summer routine in kindergarten will help manage expections as they get older.

Summertime can disrupt your routine. Is it important to stick to your regular sleep schedule, or can you stray from bedtimes and alarm clocks in the summer?

05/21/2025

The Moreno Lab Birthday Celebration. Had fun celebrating new and old members of our team.

05/13/2025

Researchers have identified a structure in the brain that facillitates the adaptation of the brain to seasonal changes in the light/dark cycle and likely other types of synchronization such as jet lag, shift work and screen use. This may help in the development of more effective treatments for seasonal depression. So far this has only been identified in mice. Future work will explore this in humans. I also wonder if children's weight gain is seasonally regulated, could this area of the brain help us to understand accelerated summer weight gain.

Study illuminates circadian rhythms, disorders with seasonal flare-ups

05/09/2025

College students go to bed later and wake up later in winter compared to summer. This contrasts with findings from studies on humans camping without exposure to electrical light and controlled heating. Among college students, less light exposure during the daytime was related to sleeping later, suggesting that daytime light exposure in camping studies may have promoted earlier bedtimes.

A study measuring students' sleep patterns has turned up some surprises about how seasons impact when our bodies tell us to sleep.

05/06/2025

📣Exciting opportunity for 4-year-olds and their parents to participate in an innovative study to help us learn about the effects of 📺💻screen media use on children’s 💤sleep, 🧠memory, and attention.

What to know:
☑️To learn more please visit https://redcap.link/goodnight
☑️ Participants will be compensated for participation in the study.
☑️3 in-center visits to assess your child’s sleep, executive functioning, and circadian rhythms.
☑️We will measure height, weight, mental skills tasks (working memory, flexible thinking, and self-control), and saliva collection.
☑️ Free Parking

You can also contact us at 713-798-0557 or
🌜GoodNightScreenMedia@bcm.edu

This is for a research study conducted with Baylor College of Medicine. (Do not respond with personal health information on this social media forum. This public forum should not be considered private)
Join us in making a difference! 🌟

Your participation in this study will help the investigators better understand: the effect of screen use before bed on the sleep and biological rhythms of young children. The knowledge gained will help to inform screen media use guidelines for children.

05/06/2025

Doomscrolling, or binging negative information through various feeds, can take a toll on mental and physical health. A Baylor College of Medicine psychiatrist...

05/06/2025

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/body-clock-alignment-sleep-health-night

For a good night of sleep, consider getting your circadian rhythm back in sync with the sun. Here’s how to do it.