background preloader

Russell Foster: Why do we sleep?

Russell Foster: Why do we sleep?
Russell Foster is a circadian neuroscientist: He studies the sleep cycles of the brain. And he asks: What do we know about sleep? Not a lot, it turns out, for something we do with one-third of our lives. In this talk, Foster shares three popular theories about why we sleep, busts some myths about how much sleep we need at different ages — and hints at some bold new uses of sleep as a predictor of mental health. pin This talk was presented at an official TED conference, and was featured by our editors on the home page.

https://www.ted.com/talks/russell_foster_why_do_we_sleep

Related:  Teen brainSleeping bettersantéRestoration

Teenagers and sleep - Family Lives Understanding your teen's body clock "My son David almost missed one of his GCSE’s this summer because he just can't get out of bed in the mornings," says 38 year old Ellen, from Huddersfield. "I have to leave the house at 7.30 and then I'm worrying the whole time, phoning him every 10 minutes to try and make sure he gets up on time for school. But he’s been late several times because he just can’t wake up."

Eat yourself to sleep: the foods that can help get a good night’s rest Ahead of World Sleep Day next week – an awareness-raising exercise that should surely be renamed World Sleep Night – there has been increased focus on how much sleep we should be getting (more than we probably are) and how to get it. The event has prompted the strange claim that eating two kiwi fruits before bed leads to better kip – the result of a 2011 study at the Taipei Medical University – to resurface. However, the study was also “supported” by the world’s largest marketer of kiwi fruit, and had just 24 participants. Kiwis do have high levels of serotonin, which is critical to sleep – but what other foods could help? Poultry and nuts Turkey and chicken contain high levels of tryptophan, which also boosts serotonin.

Proposal for Living and Dying Well on a Warming Planet December 17, 2018 In thirty years the world may be unrecognizable to those of us born in the twentieth century. I’m thirty now, and according to a report issued in October by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, I will likely experience the effects of worsening food shortages, wildfires, coastal flooding, and the mass die-off of coral reefs as soon as my fifties, even as I live in the privileged industrialized west. Key word: worsening. Why Procrastinators Procrastinate PDF: We made a fancy PDF of this post for printing and offline viewing. Buy it here. (Or see a preview.) pro-cras-ti-na-tion |prəˌkrastəˈnāSHən, prō-| noun the action of delaying or postponing something: your first tip is to avoid procrastination.

Hormonal `alarm clock' is the key to waking on time SCIENTISTS HAVE discovered that the body has an internal "alarm clock" which can be "set" before people go to sleep. The discovery shows that waking up from a night's sleep can be consciously controlled so individuals can force themselves out of bed if they really have to. A study of a group of healthy volunteers has shown that the body's alarm clock begins to alert sleepers to the anticipated waking-up time about an hour beforehand. Rising levels of adrenocorticotropin, a hormone released during the day to deal with stress, start to prepare sleepers for the biological wake- up call, according to Jan Born, professor of neuroendocrinology at the University of Lubeck in Germany.

Cones Support Alignment to an Inconsistent World by Suppressing Mouse Circadian Responses to the Blue Colors Associated with Twilight: Current Biology (A) Schematic of experimental paradigm (left), spectral composition of L−S+(blue) and L+S−(yellow) stimuli (mid), and opsin sensitivity curves (right) for red-cone mice with corresponding quantification for stimuli at maximum intensity (ND0). See also Figure S1 for additional details of stimulus design. (B) Representative actogram for red-cone mouse under constant L−S+(blue) or L+S−(yellow) illumination at 0.01, 0.1, and 1× intensity level shown in (A) (ND2–ND0, respectively). (C) Circadian period for red-cone mice under L−S+(blue) versus L+S−(yellow) illumination at varying intensity (n = 7–8/intensity).

Blame My Brain The revised edition of Blame My Brain – The Amazing Teenage Brain Revealed - first published in 2005 and updated in 2007 and 2013. Signed copies available from my online shop, unsigned copies from all good shops, and the ebook from wherever you normally buy ebooks! BLAME MY BRAIN was shortlisted for the Aventis prize for science-writing, is internationally acclaimed, and has been reprinted many times and translated into other languages. It is highly unusual (possibly unique) in being written specifically for teenagers to understand their own brains. “Nicola Morgan has that rare gift of being able to communicate science and make it fun.

Sleep myths 'damaging your health' Image copyright Getty Images Widely held myths about sleep are damaging our health and our mood, as well as shortening our lives, say researchers. A team at New York University trawled the internet to find the most common claims about a good night's kip. Then, in a study published in the journal Sleep Health, they matched the claims to the best scientific evidence. They hope that dispelling sleep myths will improve people's physical and mental health and well-being. The Most Effective Way To Change Your Behavior And Improve Your Life Changing your environment is the easiest and most powerful way to change your behavior. Altering the things in your home and your office and carefully picking the people you spend time with will bring you greater and more effortless results than anything else. But you’re an objective, self-determined, independent, unique snowflake, you say? No, you’re not.

Secrets of the teenage brain Several years ago Frances E Jensen’s 16-year-old son wrote off a car. A few years earlier, her other son had returned from a friend’s house with his hair dyed jet black. The University of Pennsylvania neurologist was finding her teenagers’ erratic behaviour increasingly taxing, so she decided to study teenage thought processes and gathered her research in the book The Teenage Brain. She found that while much had been written about teen psychology and parenting, no one had explained the neurons and cerebral connections that make those years such a unique – and terrifying – part of growing up. Five ways to get a better bedtime routine 1. Go to bed at regular times Going to sleep and waking up at regular times – even on weekends – will strengthen your body clock, says Dr Lizzie Hill, a clinical sleep physiologist and a spokeswoman for the British Sleep Society. Regular mealtimes are also an important cue for your circadian rhythm.

Tether Yourself: The Enlightening Talk Parents Aren’t Having Can Keep Teens from a Damaging Drift “I'll take your hand when thunder roars And I'll hold you close, I'll stay the course I promise you from up above That we'll take what comes, take what comes, love.” -Imagine Dragons, Walking the Wire We bought my daughter a smartphone when we moved to a large metropolitan area three years ago. She was participating in a massive year-round swimming program where we knew no one. Her dad and I decided it would be best for her to have a phone to communicate with us. Over the years, we’ve implemented all the recommended parental restrictions, safe-search settings, and online safety guidelines. We’ve had on-going talks about cyber dangers like online bullying, predators, pornography, sexting, and what to do in each situation.

Four neuromyths that are still prevalent in schools – debunked It is no surprise that many teachers have an interest in neuroscience and psychology since areas such as memory, motivation, curiosity, intelligence and determination are highly important in education. But neuroscience and psychology are complex, nuanced subjects that come with many caveats. Although progress is being made towards understanding what helps and hinders students, there is still a disconnect between the research in labs and what happens in many schools.

The Neuroscience of Calming a Baby Every parent and caregiver knows from first-hand experience that babies calm down when they are picked up, gently rocked, and carried around the room. New research published in the journal Current Biology on April 18, 2013 shows that this is a universal phenomenon. Infants experience an automatic calming reaction when they are being carried, whether they are mouse pups or human babies. article continues after advertisement "From humans to mice, mammalian infants become calm and relaxed when they are carried by their mother," says Kumi Kuroda of the RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Saitama, Japan. Being held in a mother's arms is the safest place for a baby to be, and the mother can have peace of mind knowing her baby is happy, content, and relaxed.

Related: