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July 16, 2026

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When you can’t sleep, the clock can seem to be taunting you. “At least I’m getting seven hours,” you might think as you lie down, but if you’re still awake an hour later, then you’re only getting six hours, and six isn’t a lot. And if you’re still not tired, then it’s going to be less than six, and eventually you’re just lying in bed thinking about how screwed you’re going to be in the morning.

If this sounds familiar, it’s not just you. Sleep scientists have long recognized the idea of “losing sleep over losing sleep,” and it’s a well-known factor that can contribute to insomnia. It’s not necessarily the cause of your sleep problems, but it can make them worse. For example, say you have some minor issue that makes it hard to sleep. You get into a cycle of stressing out over the clock at night, getting poor sleep, and then being tired the next day. Then you begin to dread bedtime, because you know it’s going to happen all over again.

Before you know it, you may be taking medications to help you sleep, which have their own health risks (nightly Benadryl is not good for you). A 2023 study found that “time-monitoring behavior,” as they called clock-watching, may be driving people to take medications they wouldn’t otherwise need. So what can you do instead? Here's what sleep experts recommend.

Hide the clock

One of the authors of that study says that it can help to promise yourself you won’t look at the time. Turn the clock around, cover the display, or if you use your phone to check the time, put it out of reach. If the alarm hasn’t gone off yet, it’s still nighttime, and that’s all you really need to know.

Without the clock, you might worry that you don’t know if you’re getting enough sleep or not. But even with the clock, you aren’t necessarily counting the hours accurately. Those hours you think you’re fully awake, you’re often drifting in and out of sleep, and getting more of it than you think you are.

What do you think so far?

If you sleep with a watch or fitness tracker that tracks your sleep, only pay attention to the data if it's helping you. If you check your data in the morning and think "hm, I got more sleep than I realized," that's reassuring. But if checking the data ends up adding to your anxiety, try to get out of the habit of checking the app. Trackers aren't always 100% accurate anyway, and you may feel more tired if you think you slept poorly, even if your sleep was actually OK. Also consider these tips on how to use sleep tracking data more healthily.

Focus on relaxing

Here's a reassuring thought for those late nights: relaxation, even if you're awake, is almost as good as sleep. Close your eyes and calm your mind, and most importantly, tell yourself that this is exactly what your body needs right now. Relaxing this way may give you some of the benefits of meditation, and there’s even a hypothesis that meditation gives you some of the benefits of sleep. Whether it’s true or not, it’s a comforting thought when you’re lying awake in the middle of the night.

And if you need one more reason to stop worrying, remember that relaxation is one of the best ways to get to sleep—so whether you fall asleep or not, you’re helping your body and brain by finding a restful way to spend the remaining hours of the night.

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The updates come as Beehiiv positions itself as a creator platform beyond newsletters. In the last few months, the company has launched podcasts, webinars, and customizable paywalls. Some of these moves are already showing positive results. The company said that 50% of podcast users migrated their shows from elsewhere, for instance.

Beehiiv’s new Community tool will allow users to spin up a discussion forum within the platform. Today, creators often have a chat for members on a separate Discord or Slack server or in Facebook groups, but Beehiiv wants to bring those chats back to its own platform. Here, creators can also create paid membership tiers for exclusive access to certain chatrooms and to moderate conversations.

“People following your content have a shared interest in what you’re creating, but they can’t communicate with each other. Whether that interest is in sports, the World Cup, or politics, being able to have a community where your audience can actually engage with one another is super valuable,” Beehiiv CEO Tyler Denk told TechCrunch.

The platform is also introducing an additional revenue-generation opportunity with programmatic ads, which allows users to sell ad slots in their newsletters. They can earn money by choosing the ads that potentially offer the highest returns based on their audience, content, and performance.

The company already has tools like metered paywalls, paid trials, and a sponsorship storefront to sell their own slots in packages. Plus, Beehiiv said the publishers on the platform earn more than $1 million per month through their ad network.

Beehiiv is launching a new AI assistant called Copilot, as well, which can understand context like content, audience, subscribers, and performance to give users advice on how to manage their newsletter and grow their audience. The assistant can analyze the performance of various newsletters and podcasts, draft campaigns for outreach, and look for new money-making opportunities.

The assistant is one of several AI efforts underway. Earlier this year, the company launched a model context protocol (MCP) server, allowing users to connect their Beehiiv to other assistants like ChatGPT and Claude to ask questions and get insights. It’s also working on better AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), which helps a newsletter be cited in AI assistant answers more frequently.

Along with these updates, the company is shipping a redesigned editor that allows users to see editing and preview modes side by side, helping them to understand how the content they are writing would appear to readers.

Denk noted that in the coming quarter, Beehiiv wants to spend time educating users about these tools and teaching them about how top newsletters are using them to grow their publications.

The platform’s rivals are also evolving by launching new offerings. For instance, Riverside launched a newsletter publishing feature last month, and Substack launched a built-in recording studio product in March.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

Ivan covers global consumer tech developments at TechCrunch. He is based out of India and has previously worked at publications including Huffington Post and The Next Web.

You can contact or verify outreach from Ivan by emailing [email protected] or via encrypted message at ivan.42 on Signal.

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The planet in question, called LHS 1140b, orbits a small, cool type of star called an M dwarf, about 50 light years from Earth. Researchers have been searching for atmosphere-shrouded planets around M dwarfs for decades because they are the most common type of star in the galaxy, but with no luck until now – some researchers had even postulated that planets around these small stars might not be able to hold onto atmospheres.

But when Collin Cherubim at Harvard University and his colleagues observed LHS 1140b in 2024 at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, they found a promising signal: a line in the spectrum of the planet’s light indicating helium atoms in an excited energy state. There are several possible explanations for this, but the shape and strength of the signal led them to conclude that the helium was part of an outflow, leaking away from a planetary atmosphere. “By far the most simple explanation is that this helium that we see is from the planet itself,” says Cherubim.

This would put LHS 1140b in the category of helium worlds, a type of exoplanet that has been proposed but not definitively detected. “It’s different from what we would expect given the rocky planets in our own solar system,” says Natalie Allen at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. In some ways, a helium world could be more similar to a gas giant than any of the terrestrial worlds in our solar system, with a thick, heavy layer of atmosphere overlaying a rocky or icy surface.

“It’s exciting on its own merits, not as a new Earth,” says Sukrit Ranjan at the University of Arizona. “It might be habitable, but not in a conventional sense.” If it does have a thick atmosphere, pressures at the surface could be similar to those at the bottom of the ocean. If not, it could potentially be an ocean world more similar to icy moons in our solar system than any of the planets.

Right now, we only know that this world has an atmosphere that is leaking helium, but we know very little about the size and composition of the atmosphere itself. “Earth and Venus are very similar in size and both have atmospheres, but Venus’s surface isn’t habitable,” says Allen. “I think to have a real picture of habitability on this planet, we need to understand the bulk atmosphere.” As-yet-unpublished data from the James Webb Space Telescope could help clear that up, she says.

However, the very presence of an atmosphere, along with the fact that LHS 1140b orbits its star in what is known as the habitable zone, where temperatures are mild enough to preserve liquid water on its surface, makes it extremely promising. “This planet has now become the best place to search for life outside of our solar system,” says Cherubim.

There is a caveat, though. When Cherubim and his colleagues observed LHS 1140b again with the same setup in 2025, they didn’t see the signature helium line. They pored over the 2024 and 2025 data, consulted with other researchers and even had a separate team reanalyse all the data, and the results remained the same: the excited helium was there in 2024, and not in 2025.

That was surprising, but not altogether abnormal, says Cherubim. “When you make a measurement of escaping helium and then you go back and look at it months and years later, it is usually different and sometimes it isn’t there – and we don’t understand it,” he says. 

This particular helium signature is poorly understood, says Ranjan, so we can’t be sure why it might have appeared and then disappeared. It is possible that the shape of the outflow changed, or that stellar activity shifted the nature of the helium in the outflow. If the helium is still there but not in an excited state, we would expect the signature to disappear. Cherubim has plans to continue observing LHS 1140b in an attempt to figure it out: “Maybe we’ll never see it again, maybe we’ll see it every time, maybe we’ll see it half the time, but I’m feeling really good about it,” he says. %!s()

Now, as prediction markets are booming, legal experts increasingly speculate the CFTC's sibling agency — the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission — will have a role to play soon in this novel asset class. 

"The CFTC has come out saying that they have jurisdiction over the event contracts, but there's also some that seem like they're more in the SEC's realm," said Joe Zales, a partner at King and Spalding.

This question isn't just a hypothetical: it's one that the two agencies are currently sifting through. 

Last month, the SEC and CFTC issued a joint request for public comment regarding updating, clarifying and harmonizing certain definitions and issues. Included in the topics they're reviewing are definitions related to swaps — the derivative that event contracts are classified as — along with the treatment of "novel or emerging products."

Omar Marques | Lightrocket | Getty Images

A spokesperson for prediction market platform Polymarket confirmed to CNBC that the company has engaged with both the CFTC and SEC regarding definitional frameworks for prediction market products. Rival platform Kalshi declined to comment if it has interacted with the agencies or not on this matter. 

Some companies are already using the SEC as the launching pad for their event contracts. CBOE in a filing is seeking to operate in the SEC's regulatory orbit for creating binary options contracts on key performance indicators for a slew of major companies. 

Jurisdictional questions existing between the SEC and CFTC aren't new, especially when it's about emerging asset classes. But while the two agencies have been in a similar position before, that doesn't provide much direction on this issue. 

"This is really a jump ball," said Jeff Le Riche, a partner at Husch Blackwell and a former chief trial attorney at the CFTC. "Nobody knows how it's going to turn out."

The SEC's potential

Why the SEC may have a role in regulating prediction markets — despite not having one at the moment — is thanks to the 2010 Dodd-Frank law. The law says that while the CFTC typically regulates swaps, the SEC has jurisdiction over securities-based swaps.

Securities-based swaps are financial contracts that have ties to a singular security. If an event contract asks questions about a publicly traded company, that may look more like a securities-based swap rather than a traditional one. 

The seal of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is seen at their headquarters in Washington, D.C., U.S.

Andrew Kelly | Reuters

An easy example of this, according to legal experts, is a contract that asks traders, "Will Nvidia stock end the month up more than 5%?" That has a direct link to a publicly traded stock and the resolution of the prediction market depends on the shares' performance. 

But where it gets more complicated is that securities-based swaps also are defined as financial contracts that directly affect a company's financial statements or conditions. 

"The problem is that what 'directly affects' means has really been an open question," said Sarah Razaq Sallis, also a partner at Husch Blackwell. "That ambiguity is exactly what's being tested now in real time."

Take, for example, a contract on when Apple will release its new iPhone model. That isn't directly tied to the company's share price, but when it may launch a highly anticipated product could impact Apple's stock. 

Whether that contract would be a securities-based swap or not will decide how large of a role the SEC potentially will play. 

The SEC declined a request to comment from CNBC, while the CFTC didn't respond to one.

A complicated history 

If the SEC and CFTC split the work on prediction markets, it's by no means unprecedented. 

In the options market, the CFTC regulates futures contract-based options, while the SEC regulates those tied to securities. 

But despite examples of the two working together, the sibling agencies have a decades-long rivalry on who is in charge of what.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission headquarters in Washington, Dec. 23, 2022.

Ting Shen | Bloomberg | Getty Images

"These agencies have been at each other's throat jurisdictionally," said Jerome Tomas, a partner at Baker McKenzie and a former SEC employee. Most recently, the SEC and CFTC — before their harmonization efforts this year — clashed on who had jurisdictional control over cryptocurrencies. 

That's not to mention the two agencies work differently. The SEC is much larger, and has a longer history, while the CFTC is smaller and younger. 

"The two agencies, while similar structurally, have very different approaches to regulation," said Le Riche. "The way the rules are written at the CFTC and the way the rules are written at the SEC are fundamentally different approaches."

In March, the two agencies announced they agreed to a memorandum of understanding to establish clear regulatory definitions and jurisdictional boundaries, along with coordinating on oversight and increasing data sharing. Experts are now watching for whether the two agencies will be able to work seamlessly together despite past regulatory battles. 

"I think that they're trying to make sure that they're not stepping on each other's toes or trying to duplicate work," said Yelena Kotlarsky, a partner at King and Spalding. 

This is a convenient time for two Republican-dominated agencies to cooperate, said Aaron Klein, a senior fellow at think tank Brookings Institution. Both agencies require a five-person commission board but currently have vacant positions. 

Michael Selig, President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the Commodity Futures Trading Commission speaks during a Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on Nov. 19, 2025 in Washington, DC.

Andrew Harnik | Getty Images

Only three out of five commissioners at the SEC are currently seated and all of them are Republican. Meanwhile CFTC Chairman Michael Selig, also a Republican, is the only sitting member of the typically five-member board. Selig previously served as a chief counsel for the SEC's Crypto Task Force and was a senior advisor to SEC Chairman Paul Atkins.  

"I think this is the easiest time for these two agencies to get on the same page," Klein said.

More clarity, tighter protocols 

Legal experts broadly say though that the SEC will likely take on a more supportive role in regulating prediction markets, while the CFTC retains its primary one. That may be welcome news for the very platforms who previously had to interact with one federal agency. 

If the two agencies can avoid repeating past regulatory disagreements and provide clear definitions, the harmonization will be a benefit for prediction markets, said Peter Chan, a Baker McKenzie partner and former SEC employee. 

Kalshi is the largest regulated prediction market in the U.S., while Polymarket derives much of its volume from its international exchange. Polymarket's U.S. platform became available for domestic traders in May.

The Polymarket spokesperson added that the company is worried about potential duplicative or conflicting compliance requirements that could harm innovation. For that reason, it is encouraged by the agencies' willingness to work together to create efficient and harmonious structures. 

Kalshi and Polymarket.

Gabby Jones | Bloomberg | Martin Lelievre | Getty Images

Troy Dixon, co-head of global markets at Tradeweb Markets — a market infrastructure company that has a partnership with Kalshi — said getting clarification from the two agencies is critical for institutions who are looking to trade on prediction markets. Gaining Wall Street adoption has been a key priority for prediction market platforms of late. 

"To the extent that the SEC actually chimes in, and there's some sort of broad co-working between the two agencies… it expedites it pretty substantially," Dixon said about institutional adoption. 

Zales expects the SEC's involvement can mean tighter protections for traders, including a more cumbersome account opening process on the prediction market platforms. 

Despite the murky legal landscape, Chan believes the agencies should not rush to harmonize too quickly. Instead, he said the agencies should take the necessary time to understand the markets and products offered on event contract exchanges. 

"I think what is required is not necessarily real time rule making, but I think it requires real-time learning," Chan said. 

Disclosure: CNBC and Kalshi have a commercial relationship that includes customer acquisition and a minority investment. %!s()

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a slew of new tenant-protection proposals on Thursday, the result of his "Rental Ripoff Hearings" earlier this year. The plans included solutions for black mold, fire concerns — and a growing AI problem.

New York will now require real estate agents and listing sites to disclose the use of AI or digitally altered images and video in "misleading rental listings," Mamdani announced. "You shouldn't have to worry whether the apartment you are viewing online is real."

Then, Mamdani took a crack at one of New York's leading apartment listing sites: "It's called StreetEasy, not StreetHard."

The "Rental Ripoff Report" — a 68-page dossier of the hearing's findings and outcomes — includes more details of the mayor's AI proposal.

New York's Department of Consumer and Worker Protection will work with Zillow and StreetEasy to enforce the "clear and conspicuous disclosure" rule after it goes into effect, the report says.

"We agree with Mayor Mamdani that finding a new rental in NYC should be easy, and that's why finding an apartment on StreetEasy is… easy," a StreetEasy spokesperson wrote to Business Insider. "We look forward to continuing our work with the Mamdani administration, as well as state and federal officials, to ensure it stays that way. "

The spokesperson said the company expects listings to accurately represent a home, "whether AI is involved or not," and asked users to report listings they believed to be misleading.

It's not clear when the AI proposal will take effect. The report says the initiatives will all be implemented within the next three years, but the launches will be staggered.

Realtors told Business Insider in March that the AI misrepresentation problem was growing. They called it "housefishing." California also now requires AI disclosures in real estate listings.

Rental reforms were a key promise of Mamdani's mayoral campaign. He promised to freeze the rent for stabilized apartments, for example. For eligible tenants, that freeze will become a reality in October.

Mamdani's Thursday proposals also included universal inspection of heat complaints and easy rescheduling of inspections. "New Yorkers have been able to schedule food deliveries and the time they pick up their clothes at the dry cleaner for years," he said.

Mamdani said that the three biggest concerns the city hears about are pests, mold, and broken elevators. The mayor has plans for all three.

"No longer will landlords be allowed to slap a new coat of paint over a wall of black mold and pretend that the issue is fixed," Mamdani said, to applause from the gathered crowd in New York's Tenement Museum.

New York also plans to legally recognize tenant unions, Mamdani said.

Mamdani announced a proposal to digitize the process for cataloging landlord penalties, something he said would help spot repeat offenders — and support the landlords who "operate with integrity."

This is a key balance for Mamdani: punishing "bad landlords" without harming the good ones. Cea Weaver, director of the Mayor's Office to Protect Tenants, made that priority clear at the "Rental Ripoff Hearings."

"We know that not every landlord is a bad landlord," Weaver said, "but we want to be able to find the ones that are."

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