Tag: behavior and cognition

Don’t blame the turkey. Here’s what experts say is really behind your food coma | CNN

CNN
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Do you believe in the holiday food coma?

Many people do. A mainstay on the dinner table at this time of year, turkey contains tryptophan, which is widely believed to be responsible for the uncontrollable yawns and sudden snoozes common after huge family feasts.

“Tryptophan is an essential amino acid needed to make serotonin, a hormone that has many functions in our body, including balancing mood and sleep,” said sleep specialist Dr. Raj Dasgupta, an associate professor of clinical medicine at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine.

“The byproduct of the tryptophan-to-serotonin process is melatonin, another hormone that regulates our sleep cycle,” he said. “Our bodies do not naturally produce tryptophan, so we have to get it through the foods we eat.”

However, many foods besides turkey contain tryptophan, including cheese, chicken, egg whites, fish, milk, peanuts, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, soybeans and sunflower seeds, according to the National Library of Medicine.

Serotonin is one of the “feel-good” hormones, which can calm and relax the body. However, we don’t consume nearly enough turkey during a holiday smorgasbord — even if we go back for seconds — to create the amount of serotonin needed to make us sleepy, said Steven Malin, an associate professor in the department of kinesiology and health at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

To get the amount of tryptophan required to cause a food coma, he said, we’d have to eat about 8 pounds of turkey meat — about half of a typical bird meant to serve a crowd. The US Department of Agriculture recommends planning for 1 pound of turkey meat per person when preparing a holiday meal.

“Tryptophan from turkey is unlikely to enter the brain and make enough serotonin to make us sleepy,” Malin said.

So you can’t blame the gobbler on your table alone for your sudden sleepiness, said sleep specialist Kristen Knutson, an associate professor of neurology and preventive medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.

“Turkey doesn’t really make us sleepy,” Knutson said. “If we feel sleepy after a big meal, it is likely due to not getting enough sleep in the days leading up to the big event and finally being able to relax after the dinner is over.”

Overeating in general is also a major culprit for the fatigue one feels after eating, Dasgupta said.

“Remember all the delicious side dishes surrounding the centerpiece of turkey, such as sweet potato pie, casseroles and yummy desserts,” he said. “These tasty dishes contain a high amount of carbohydrates, which also contribute to post-meal sleepiness.”

Another reason you feel sleepy after a meal is a change in blood flow from the head to the digestive system.

“Eating a big holiday dinner causes increased blood flow to the stomach to help digest the meal, which results in less blood flow to the brain, making you tired and ready for bed,” Dasgupta said.

And don’t forget the impact of holiday drinking either. Many meals served at this time of year are washed down with wine, cocktails and champagne. Then there’s the omnipresent beer (or two or three) that often accompany the afternoon ball games.

“Let’s be honest. It’s the holidays, and there might be some family stress or travel fatigue, so maybe you drank more than your usual amount,” Dasgupta said. “Alcohol slows down your brain and relaxes your muscles, so after a few drinks you’ll likely feel sleepy.”

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November 20, 2023
Missing toddler found sleeping in woods using her dog as a pillow after walking 3 miles barefoot | CNN

CNN
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A 2-year-old girl who walked barefoot more than three miles with her family’s two dogs was found sleeping off a wooded Michigan trail using the smaller dog as a pillow, authorities said.

Troopers were called to a house in rural Faithorn, Michigan, around 8 p.m. on Wednesday after the toddler, Thea Chase, had wandered away from the home, Michigan State Police Lt. Mark Giannunzio told CNN on Friday.

Faithorn is a small town about a mile east of Wisconsin’s border in northern Michigan.

Brooke Chase, Thea’s mother, said she had an instinct to check on her daughter who had been playing in the yard, and learned the toddler’s uncle told Thea to go inside because she had no shoes on.

When Chase and her brother-in-law realized Thea wasn’t in the house, she said she began to yell. They searched for about 20 minutes before calling Chase’s husband and police.

“When we get a call like that, everything else stops,” Giannunzio said.

Michigan State Police put out requests for drones, search-and-rescue and canine teams, while members of the close-knit community formed their own search party to help locate the child, who was assumed to be somewhere in the heavily wooded area near the home, Giannunzio said.

Around midnight, four hours after police were first notified, a family friend searching for Thea on an all-terrain vehicle came across the Chase family’s rottweiler, Buddy, who started barking as he approached, according to Chase.

The 2-year-old was discovered a short way off the trail, sleeping on the ground with her head atop Hartley, the family’s English Springer. When the ATV driver tried to get near the toddler to wake her up, the smaller dog growled, Chase said.

“She has those dogs wrapped around her finger,” the mother said.

Chase added she was “in a fog” for the roughly four hours that search teams looked for her daughter. While she stayed in the home with Thea’s younger brother, troopers searched the house multiple times and tried to comfort the mother.

When Thea was returned home on the back of the ATV, the child was giggling and saying, “Hi, Mommy,” Chase said.

The outdoor temperature was about 60 degrees when the toddler was found. Thea was determined to be fine after a medical evaluation, according to Giannunzio.

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September 23, 2023
Using marijuana may affect your ability to think and plan, study says | CNN

CNN
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Remember those classic stoner dudes — Cheech and Chong, anyone? — spending their days in a weed-drenched room (or car), capable of little besides finding that next great high?

If you don’t, that’s not surprising. As more and more states move to legalize marijuana, the stereotypical mind-numbing effects of weed have become passé, often replaced by an acceptance of the drug as an acceptable way to socialize, relax and get better sleep.

But while society may have forgotten the impact that weed can have on the brain, science has not.

Studies have long shown that getting high can harm cognitive function. A January 2022 review of research, published in the journal Addiction, finds that impact may last well beyond the initial high, especially for adolescents.

“Our study enabled us to highlight several areas of cognition impaired by cannabis use, including problems concentrating and difficulties remembering and learning, which may have considerable impact on users’ daily lives,” said coauthor Dr. Alexandre Dumais, associate clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Montreal.

“Cannabis use in youth may consequently lead to reduced educational attainment, and, in adults, to poor work performance and dangerous driving. These consequences may be worse in regular and heavy users,” Dumais said.

Weed’s impact on the brain can be particularly detrimental to cognitive development for youth, whose brains are still developing, said Dr. Megan Moreno, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, who was not involved in the study.

“This study provides strong evidence for negative cognitive effects of cannabis use, and should be taken as critical evidence to prioritize prevention of cannabis use in youth,” Moreno said. “And contrary to the time of Cheech and Chong, we now know that the brain continues to develop through age 25.

“Parents should be aware that adolescents using cannabis are at risk for damage to their most important organ, their brain.”

The January 2022 review looked at studies on over 43,000 people and found a negative impact of tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, the main psychoactive compound in cannabis, on the brain’s higher levels of thinking. Those executive functions include the ability to make decisions, remember important data, plan, organize and solve problems, as well as control emotions and behavior.

Can you recover or reverse those deficits? Scientists aren’t sure.

“Research has revealed that THC is a fat-soluble compound that may be stored in body fat and, thus, gradually released into the bloodstream for months,” Dumais said, adding that high-quality research is needed to establish the long-term impact of that exposure.

Some studies say the negative effects on the brain may ease after weed is discontinued, but that may also depend on the amount, frequency and years of marijuana use. The age in which weed use began may also play a role, if it falls within the crucial developmental period of the youthful brain.

“Thus far, the most consistent alterations produced by cannabis use, mostly its chronic use, during youth have been observed in the prefrontal cortex,” Dumais said. “Such alterations may potentially lead to a long-term disruption of cognitive and executive functions.”

In addition, some studies have shown that “early and frequent cannabis use in adolescence predicts poor cognition in adulthood,” he added.

While science sorts this out, “preventive and interventional measures to educate youths on cannabis use and discourage them from using the substance in a chronic manner should be considered … since youths remain particularly susceptible to the effects of cannabis,” Dumais said.

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August 6, 2023
Sleep like a pro with these 6 expert tips | CNN

Editor’s Note: Dana Santas, known as the “Mobility Maker,” is a certified strength and conditioning specialist and mind-body coach in professional sports, and is the author of the book “Practical Solutions for Back Pain Relief.”

CNN
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How you sleep each night plays a vital role in how you perform in your daily life. So, it’s no wonder that professional sports teams tap the expertise of sleep doctors to ensure their elite athletes get the quality sleep they need to perform at the highest levels.

As a mobility coach who works in Major League Baseball, I can attest that during spring training, when every day starts early, players and coaches alike dread losing an hour of sleep when we “spring forward” for Daylight Saving Time.

It’s not just professional baseball players who struggle. A 2022 study found that more than 30% of adults have reported an hour of sleep debt — when you sleep less than your body needs — while nearly 1 in 10 adults had a sleep debt of two hours or more.

Adults need at least seven hours of solid sleep at night, according to the US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. Sleep debt and irregular sleep duration are linked to an increased risk of heart disease, dementia, obesity and mood disorders such as depression and anxiety.

I asked two of my favorite MLB sleep experts to share some of the same tips they provide to professional baseball players, so that anyone can learn to sleep like a pro.

It’s important to get the recommended seven-plus hours of sleep nightly.

Sticking with a regularly scheduled bedtime and wake time helps, according to Dr. Cheri D. Mah, a sleep physician specializing in the sleep and performance of elite athletes. “Our bodies like regularity and will anticipate sleep with a regular sleep schedule,” Mah said. “As a reminder, set a daily alarm on your phone to go off 30 minutes before you want to start your wind-down routine.”

Pay attention to what your body and brain are telling you about your sleep schedule, suggested Dr. Chris Winter, a neurologist and host of the “Sleep Unplugged” podcast. “If you go to bed at 9 p.m. but it always takes you two hours to fall asleep, why not try going to bed later?”

If you want to sleep better, you need an environment conducive to sleep. “Make your room like a cave,” Mah said, “You want it to be really dark, quiet and cool — as well as comfortable.”

She recommends getting comfortable bedding, using blackout curtains or eye masks, wearing earplugs and setting the room temperature at 60 to 67 degrees Fahrenheit (about 16 to 19 degrees Celsius).

Do you judge how well you slept based on how fast you fell asleep?

The amount of time it takes you to fall asleep, called the speed of sleep latency, is an inaccurate gauge for sleep quality, according to Winter. How long it takes to fall asleep varies from person to person. The consensus of most sleep experts, including Winter, is that the average sleep latency is five to 20 minutes.

“Someone who is asleep ‘before their head hits the pillow’ is not a champion sleeper any more than an individual who can eat their entire dinner in three minutes is a highly nutritious eater,” Winter said. “That can often be a red flag and not a sign of great sleep.”

Many people jump right into bed with a racing mind, Mah said, which results in difficulty sleeping. She suggests that her clients create a 20- to 30-minute wind-down routine to help them transition to sleep. Activities could include gentle yoga, breathing exercises and reading, “just not on a tablet or phone that emits sleep-disturbing blue light frequencies,” she said.

Both Mah and Winter report that getting people to refrain from technology use the hour before bedtime presents the biggest challenge for their clients. “It’s hard to convince people to change a behavior that doesn’t cause immediate pain,” Winter added.

Despite the popularity of “night cap” cocktails, Mah and Winter agree that alcohol is an impediment to sleep. They suggest that it be avoided entirely or at least not enjoyed in the hours before bed. They also recommend limiting caffeine intake later in the day. “Caffeine has a half-life of about six hours, so it’s best to cut it out in the late afternoon and early evening,” Mah added.

Along with all the other health benefits of regular exercise, research shows a strong link with better quality sleep, which Winter frequently points out to his clients. “If you are complaining about your sleep and not exercising, you better have a good reason for not doing it,” he said. “From a research perspective, it is far more effective at deepening sleep and improving its quality than any fad tech gadget in existence today … and it’s free!”

There is one caveat: Because some research has shown that the benefits of exercise are mitigated and can even hurt sleep quality when performed later at night, avoid vigorous exercise at least one hour before bed.

Sleep debt is the difference between your needed amount of sleep and the sleep you actually get, accumulating over time, if not paid back.

Many clients come to Mah without any knowledge of the concept of sleep debt and the need to repay it. More so, she said they are surprised to find that “it often takes longer than one night or one weekend to significantly pay back accumulated sleep debt.”

If you’ve built up sleep debt, try going to sleep an hour earlier or sleeping an hour later over a few days — or however long it takes for you to feel adequately rested.

Catching up on your sleep isn’t just good for increasing daily alertness — a 2020 study found that adults who caught up on sleep were less likely to show elevated inflammation levels, which contribute to chronic disease.

At the same time, it’s important not to stress about sleep, Winter said. Too much emphasis on things such as “falling asleep faster” or the notion that people “can’t sleep,” creates a sense of fear that he deems “highly problematic.”

“It’s physiologically impossible to not sleep at all, so nature has you covered,” he said. “Control the variables you can control, like schedule, environment, etc., and put it out of your mind.”

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March 17, 2023
What experts say about exercising when you’re tired | CNN

Editor’s Note: Seek advice from a health care provider if you have chronic sleep loss and also prior to starting a workout program.

CNN
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It’s the end of another long day at the office after a poor night’s sleep. As usual, you’re exhausted, yet you want to stop at the gym on the way home to get the exercise you need to stay healthy.

Should you work out when you are suffering from chronic sleep loss?

This conundrum is a widespread problem, considering 1 in 3 Americans are sleep deprived, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“It is definitely a bidirectional relationship, not one or the other,” said Dr. Phyllis Zee, director of the Center for Circadian and Sleep Medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.

“First, there is clear data to show that regular exercise improves sleep quality — moderate exercise in the morning, afternoon or very early evening can improve deep sleep,” Zee said.

Deep sleep is the healing stage in which your body repairs and restores itself. Also called “slow wave” sleep, it can only be achieved if your sleep quality is good, with few to no nighttime interruptions.

“Research also shows that if you sleep better, you’re more likely to be able to engage in exercise and your physical activity levels are going to be higher,” Zee said.

“So I would say that even if you have had a bad night’s sleep, you should maintain your physical activity.”

To be healthy, the body needs to move through four stages of sleep several times each night. During the first and second stages, the body starts to decrease its rhythms. Doing so prepares us for the third stage — a deep, slow-wave sleep where the body is literally restoring itself on a cellular level, fixing damage from the day’s wear and tear and consolidating memories into long-term storage.

Rapid eye movement sleep, called REM, is the final stage in which we dream. Studies have shown that missing REM sleep may lead to memory deficit and poor cognitive outcomes as well as heart and other chronic diseases and an early death.

On the flip side, years of research has found sleep, especially the deepest, most healing kind, boosts immune functioning.

Since each sleep cycle is roughly 90 minutes long, most adults need seven to eight hours of relatively uninterrupted slumber to achieve restorative sleep and be healthy, according to the CDC. Sleep debt, along with irregular sleep duration, has been linked to an increased risk of obesity, heart disease, dementia and mood disorders such as anxiety and depression.

One night of poor sleep shouldn’t have to impact your workout routine, but chronic sleep deprivation leading to multiple days of exhaustion is another matter, experts say.

It may not be wise to hit the gym or play a sport when you’re barely putting one foot in front of the other, said sleep specialist Dr. Raj Dasgupta, an associate professor of clinical medicine at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine.

“Without sleep, your muscles can’t recover from the stress you put them through during workouts. It doesn’t do you much good to keep breaking down your muscles without giving them time to recover and grow stronger,” Dasgupta said.

In addition, you’re more likely to suffer an injury when you’re exhausted, he explained, due to slowed reaction times from your tired brain working to make decisions during the workout or sport.

“Poor sleep can also affect your motivation to exercise in the first place. You might find yourself dreading your normal workouts and hating every minute in the gym, which is not good for long-term adherence to a fitness plan,” Dasgupta said.

In addition, sleep deprivation can lead you to make poor food choices, which affect your fitness and physical performance, he said.

So it’s not a good idea to work out while extremely tired, but you will also sleep better and get more out of exercise if you do. What’s the answer?

Use common sense, Zee said. “If you’re not sleeping well, don’t go for that intense workout, right? Walk or do yoga instead, but certainly maintain an exercise or physical activity regimen at the regular time of the day that you normally would be doing it.”

If you’re pressed for time, consider fitting in several short bouts of exercise throughout your day.

“Everything counts,” Dasgupta said. “Do anything that makes you feel happy and refreshed. This is about hitting the reset button for yourself, not doing some form of exercise because you feel obligated to.”

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January 20, 2023
Sleeping with light pollution linked to diabetes, study says | CNN

Editor’s Note: Sign up for CNN’s Sleep, But Better newsletter series. Our seven-part guide has helpful hints to achieve better sleep.

CNN
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Sleeping in a room exposed to outdoor artificial light at night may increase the risk of developing diabetes, according to a study of nearly 100,000 Chinese adults.

People who lived in areas of China with high light pollution at night were about 28% more likely to develop diabetes than people who lived in the least polluted areas, according to the study published Tuesday in the journal Diabetologia.

Ultimately, more than 9 million cases of diabetes in Chinese adults age 18 years and older may be due to outdoor light pollution at night, the authors said, adding the number is likely to increase as more people moved to cities.

However, a lack of darkness affects more than urban areas. Urban light pollution is so widespread that it can affect suburbs and forest parks that may be tens, even hundreds, of miles from the light source, the authors said.

“The study confirms prior research of the potential detrimental effects of light at night on metabolic function and risk for diabetes,” said Dr. Phyllis Zee, director of the Center for Circadian and Sleep Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, who was not involved in the study

Prior research has shown an association between artificial light at night and weight gain and obesity, disruptions in metabolic function, insulin secretion and the development of diabetes, and cardiovascular risk factors.

A study published earlier this year by Zee and her team examined the role of light in sleep for healthy adults in their 20s. Sleeping for only one night with a dim light, such as a TV set with the sound off, raised the blood sugar and heart rate of the young people during the sleep lab experiment.

An elevated heart rate at night has been shown in prior studies to be a risk factor for future heart disease and early death, while higher blood sugar levels are a sign of insulin resistance, which can ultimately lead to type 2 diabetes.

“Healthy sleep is hugely important in preventing the development of diabetes,” said Dr. Gareth Nye, a senior lecturer of physiology at the University of Chester in the United Kingdom. He was not involved in the Diabetologia study.

“Studies have suggested that inconsistent sleep patterns have been linked to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes,” he said in a statement.

The new study used data from the 2010 China Noncommunicable Disease Surveillance Study, which asked representative samples of the Chinese population about social demographics, lifestyle factors and medical and family health histories. Blood samples were collected and compared with satellite imagery of light levels in the area of China in which each person lived.

The analysis found chronic exposure to light pollution at night raised blood glucose levels and led to a higher risk of insulin resistance and diabetes.

Any direct link between diabetes and nighttime light pollution is still unclear, however, because living in an urban area is itself a known contributor to the development of diabetes, Nye explained.

“It has been known for a long time now that living in (an) urbanised area increases your risk of obesity through increased access to high fat and convenience food, less physical activity levels due to transport links and less social activities,” Nye wrote.

Strategies for reducing light levels at night include positioning your bed away from windows and using light-blocking window shades. If low levels of light persist, try a sleep mask to shelter your eyes.

Be aware of the type of light you have in your bedroom and ban any lights in the blue spectrum, such as those emitted by electronic devices like televisions, smartphones, tablets and laptops — blue light is the most stimulating type of light, Zee said.

“If you have to have a light on for safety reasons change the color. You want to choose lights that have more reddish or brownish tones,” she said. If a night light is needed, keep it dim and at floor level, so that it’s more reflected rather than next to your eye at bed level, she suggested.

Avoid sleeping with the television on — if you tend to fall asleep while it’s still on, put it on a timer, Zee suggested.

Dim ambient lights in the evening at least two to three hours before bedtime, and if you “absolutely have to use computer or other light-emitting screens, change screen light wavelength to longer ones of orange-amber,” Zee said. “Importantly, get light during the day — daylight is healthy!”

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November 14, 2022
Amazon’s $999 dog-like robot is getting smarter | CNN Business

CNN
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Amazon on Wednesday unveiled a collection of product updates that tie together its vast suite of services and help ensure it remains at the center of peoples’ lives and homes.

Nearly a year after Amazon

(AMZN) was met with criticism over its controversial vision for the future of home security, the company is doubling down on new features for Astro, its dog-like robot, to help it better patrol the household when the owners are away. Amazon

(AMZN) also announced a new sleep-tracking device as well as an updated Alexa-powered Fire TV that knows when you’re in the room, among a number of other products.

The new updates, announced at an invite-only press event, come a week after the company introduced four new Fire HD 8 tablet models and appear aimed at drumming up excitement for its products ahead of the all-important holiday shopping season.

Amazon, like other tech companies, must convince customers to upgrade or buy new gadgets at a time when fears are mounting about a possible global recession. At the same time, Amazon must also confront shifting comfort levels with its growing reach into the lives of consumers and how closely its household products may be tracking them.

Last month, Amazon agreed to buy iRobot, the company behind the popular automated Roomba vacuums, in a $1.7 billion deal that quickly raised concerns. The Federal Trade Commission is now probing the deal after more than two dozen groups wrote to the agency alleging the acquisition could help Amazon “entrench their monopoly power in the digital economy.”

Amazon did not mention the Roomba at Wednesday’s event, but Amazon clearly remains committed to investing to make every home a little more of an Amazon home.

Here’s a look at what the company announced:

Amazon is rolling out its first major software update to Astro, an autonomous 20-pound dog-like robot with large, cartoon-y eyes on its tablet face, and a cup holder. The robot – not unlike an Alexa on wheels – uses voice-recognition software, cameras, artificial intelligence, mapping technology and voice- and face-recognition sensors as it zooms from room to room, capturing live video and learning your habits.

Soon Astro will be able to detect cats and dogs in the home, take short video clips of what they’re up to when owners aren’t around and watch and talk to them in real time. Amazon is also adding the ability to monitor if windows or doors are left open, building on what the company said users have been already doing, such as checking to see if the stove was left on.

Amazon is also opening Astro up to the developer community by offering tools that enable them to build software or specific commands for the robotic pup. And Astro will now work with a real-time subscription service from Amazon’s smart-doorbell company, Ring, to provide security monitoring to small and medium-sized businesses.

The company emphasized that Astro was conceived with security and privacy as a priority, with data processed on the device itself and the ability to restrict where Astro can go in the home.

Astro is currently available for $999, which includes a six-month free trial of Ring Protect Pro. (Pricing will later jump to $1,499.)

Amazon unveiled a new series of Fire TV Omni QLED models – the first Fire TV to ship with Dolby Vision IQ.

Through adaptive technology, the 4K TVs know when you walk into a room and leave, so it can save on power and turn off when needed. It also features a gallery of 1,500 curated pictures that can be displayed when not in use – a concept similar to Samsung’s existing Frame TVs.

Its deeper integration with Alexa could be a true standout: with its built-in microphones, users can access widgets such as sticky notes, the calendar, the weather or dim the lights by talking directly to the TV. A 65-inch model costs $799 and 75-inch version costs $1,099.

Amazon is also rolling out a premium remote, called Alexa Voice Remote Pro, that includes a feature to make it easier to find when the remote gets misplaced.

Amazon is expanding its suite of Halo wellness products beyond wearables into sleep tracking. The new Halo Rise sits on the nightstand and monitors the sleeping and breathing patterns of the person closest. It also tracks humidity and light in the room, and presents a natural light to wake up to as an alternative to an alarm.

The device, which uses sensor tech and machine learning to approach sleep, works even if the person is turned in the other direction, or covered in pillows and blankets, as it can detect micro-movements, according to the company.

Amazon said it developed the product to offer consumers more choices around sleep tracking, noting many people don’t like sleeping with a wearable device and that batteries often turn off mid-sleep cycle.

Halo Rise is $139.99 and includes a six-month Halo membership, which provides workouts, insights and tools for health tracking.

Fifteen years after launching the Kindle, Amazon is introducing a higher-end version that also serves as a writing device.

With a 10.2-inch HD display and its first-ever Kindle pen, the Kindle Scribe allows users to write to-do lists, journal entries and review documents imported from their phone. Amazon said it will partner with Microsoft to support its suite of products on the Kindle Scribe early next year.

The new Kindle supports USB-C charging and has a battery designed to last for months. The device starts at $339 with a pen and 16 GB of storage and costs $369 for a premium pen and 32 GB. (The company did not go into specifics on the premium pen.) In comparison, a basic Kindle starts at $99, while its higher-end Kindle Oasis is $249.

Amazon updated its Echo Dot speaker lineup. The new devices feature twice the bass, updated processors and can serve as a Wi-Fi extender for the company’s Eero mesh system. Amazon is also rolling out a software update to its high-end Echo Studio speaker to include new spatial audio processing and improve sound quality. The speaker, which is $199, now comes in white.

The company is also taking another shot at getting Alexa into the car. Its Echo Auto device ($54.99) is now smaller, sleeker and can be more easily mounted in a vehicle. The gadget is intended to let users send hands-free messages, listen to music and podcasts, access navigation and seamlessly sift from the car to another device when you get home.

Amazon also announced a number of software updates coming to its existing Echo Show 15, a device the company said is especially popular in the kitchen.

The upgrade includes free access to Fire TV and a much more personal Alexa. The voice assistant can now rattle off a morning routine for each person in the home, including providing calendar updates, playing specific music and highlighting traffic reports for commuters.

Other new features include receiving alerts for weather forecast changes; the ability to record video messages that can be displayed on the Echo Show screen or via the Alexa app; asking Alexa to dim the lights up to 24 hours in the future; and receiving updates about when a Whole Foods Market curbside pickup order is ready. The updates will roll out in the coming months.

The Echo Show is also getting an interactive storytelling feature that lets kids pick from a handful of themes, such as an undersea or outer space adventure, and characters like an octopus or an astronaut, to create a story that is immediately animated on the gadget’s display and told by Alexa. The story is generated using a number of AI models that determine elements including the script and music, making it different each time.

“Amazon has invested in embedding more intelligence in its Alexa devices for awhile now and the ability to extend that capability into greater system-wide intelligence is significant,” said Jonathan Collins, a research director at market research firm ABI Research. “New functionality, including its Routines feature, could help make Amazon smart home systems more intelligent, responsive and helpful, and more tightly integrated with other Amazon offerings from grocery shopping and beyond.”

CNN Business’ Rachel Metz contributed to this report

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October 3, 2022
Amazon is always watching | CNN Business

CNN Business
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A TV that knows when you’re in and out of the room. A gadget that monitors your breathing pattern while you sleep. An enhanced voice assistant tool that highlights just how much it knows about your everyday life.

At an invite-only press event last week, Amazon unveiled a long list of product updates ahead of the holiday shopping season that appear designed to further insert its gadgets and services into every corner of our homes with the apparent goal of making everything a little easier. But the event was also another reminder of just how much Amazon’s many products are watching us.

During prior events, Amazon

(AMZN) raised eyebrows with blatant examples of surveillance products, including drones and Astro, the dog-like robot that patrols the home. But this year, Amazon

(AMZN)’s advancements in everyday tracking were a bit more subtle.

The new Halo Rise sleep tracking device, for example, sits on the nightstand and monitors a person’s breathing and micro-movements as they sleep without the need to wear a sleep tracker. The device is said to work even if the person is turned in the other direction, or covered up by pillows and blankets.

On the new Echo Show 15 smart display, Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa can now rattle off a morning routine for each person in the home, provide calendar updates and highlight traffic reports for the commute to the office. There’s also an option to ask Alexa to turn off the lights up to 24 hours in the future if they won’t be home.

Amazon continues to expand Astro’s features, too. It can now detect the faces of pets in the home and stream footage to owners when they’re out of the house. The robot can also make sure windows and doors are closed and it can perform deeper monitoring when the owner is away as part of a virtual surveillance subscription.

Amazon is far from the only tech company offering products that monitor users or collect data with the promise of improved conveniences, productivity and safety. But Amazon, perhaps more than any of its peers, has created a sprawling suite of products and services that arguably track more of our daily lives in and around our homes.

In the months leading up to the product event, Amazon made two big announcements that could expand its reach into our lives even more. Amazon agreed last month to acquire iRobot, the company behind the popular automated Roomba vacuums, some of which create maps of the inside of our homes. It also announced plans to broaden its reach in the health care market by buying One Medical, a membership-based primary care service.

In the process, Amazon is possibly testing customers’ comfort levels with how much any single company should know about our lives, and perhaps shifting our tolerance, too.

Jonathan Collins, an analyst at ABI Research, said the scope and breadth of the company’s consumer offerings may be a concern for some, but many may simply accept the tradeoff for conveniences.

“By and large, negative consumer attitudes to data collection across smart home and other areas have largely been ameliorated by the services received in return,” he said. “Even if not explicit, there is a tradeoff between lower priced or free services and the data sharing and collection that supports their availability.”

Stephen Beck, founder and managing partner of consultancy cg42, said the views of customers “will likely remain unchanged after Amazon’s event because items like a TV, smart speaker, or sleep tracker feel familiar and do not pose obvious, new threats to privacy.”

Amazon has a history of being caught collecting user data without consumers knowing. In 2019, reports surfaced that Amazon was recording snippets of conversations from Alexa users that were sometimes reviewed by humans. In the wake of backlash, Amazon changed its settings so people could opt out of this.

For its latest products, the company states on its website how Astro is designed to detect only the chosen wake word, and no audio is stored or sent to the cloud unless the device detects that word. It also emphasizes the sensor data that Astro uses to navigate the home is processed on the device itself and not sent to the cloud, and the robot only streams video or images to the cloud when a feature like Live View in the Astro app is in use.

The Halo Rise sleep tracking device, meanwhile, encrypts the collected data and stores it in the cloud, according to the company. Users can later download or delete it.

But Amazon’s continued rollout of products that can monitor customers to varying degrees comes at a time many Americans have more reason to be mindful of data collection given the shifting legal landscape around abortion. Digital rights experts have warned that people’s search histories, location data, messages and other digital information could be used by law enforcement agencies investigating or prosecuting abortion-related cases.

“The danger of this tracking has never been so clear,” said Albert Fox Cahn, founder and executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project and a fellow at the NYU School of Law. “Far too few customers think about how the information they give to companies can be misused by governments, hackers, and more.”

While some of the newly announced features, such as Astro’s increased monitoring of doors and windows, may be aimed at helping people feel more secure in their homes, Cahn worries these seemingly small updates also push people even deeper into Amazon’s ecosystem.

“Thankfully,” Cahn said, “even if you can teach an old robotic dog new tricks, you can’t change one fact: It’s still creepy.”

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October 2, 2022