Relax Like A Pro: 5 Steps to Hacking Your Sleep I once went almost five days without sleep in 1996 just to see 1) if I could make a week (I couldn’t), and 2) what the side-effects would be. I was a new neuroscience major at Princeton at the time and hoped to do research with famed serotonin pioneer, Barry Jacobs. Hallucinations cut my sleep deprivation trial short, but I’ve continued to experiment with sleep optimization and variation as a means of improving performance. Here are a few effective techniques and hacks I’ve picked up over the last five years from sources ranging from biochemistry PhDs to biologists at Stanford University… 1. Consume 150-250 calories of low-glycemic index foods in small quantities (low glycemic load) prior to bed. Morning fatigue and headache isn’t just from sleep debt or poor sleep. 1-2 tablespoons of flaxseed oil (120-240 calories) can be used in combination with the above to further increase cell repair during sleep and thus decrease fatigue. 2. 3. 4. Test “caffeine naps” between 1-3 pm. 5. Sweet dreams.
How To Take A Compliment Energy and Calm: Brain Breaks and Focused-Attention Practices When presented with new material, standards, and complicated topics, we need to be focused and calm as we approach our assignments. We can use brain breaks and focused-attention practices to positively impact our emotional states and learning. They refocus our neural circuitry with either stimulating or quieting practices that generate increased activity in the prefrontal cortex, where problem solving and emotional regulation occur. Brain Breaks A brain break is a short period of time when we change up the dull routine of incoming information that arrives via predictable, tedious, well-worn roadways. When we take a brain break, it refreshes our thinking and helps us discover another solution to a problem or see a situation through a different lens. 1. I always carry a bag of household objects containing markers, scrap paper, and anything that one would find in a junk drawer -- for example, a can opener or a pair of shoelaces. 2. 3. Movement is critical to learning. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 1.
The Most Successful Techniques for Rising Early ‘The proper response to life is applause.’ ~William Carlos Williams By Leo Babauta Waking early is one of my favorite things in the world. The morning is quiet as the world hasn’t begun stirring, the perfect time for meditation, writing, exercise and some quiet reading. Waking early can give you an hour or three of extra time for focus and creativity. I haven’t written about waking early for awhile, mostly because my waking time is in constant flux. I’ve learned a thing or two about how to change your wake-up time with joy, and today I’ll share the most successful techniques in my many experimentations. The Gradual Method The best method for changing the time you wake up is to do it gradually — 10-15 minutes earlier for 2-4 days, until you feel used to it, and then repeat. That might seem too slow to most people, and you’re free to disregard this advice. Sudden changes of an hour earlier or more in your waking time are difficult, and not likely to last. 3 Steps to Actually Get Up
What Are Affirmations and How to Use Them By Remez Sasson What Are Affirmations Affirmations are sentences aimed to affect the conscious and the subconscious mind. The words composing the affirmation, automatically and involuntarily, bring up related mental images into the mind, which could inspire, energize and motivate. Repeating affirmations, and the resultant mental images, affect the subconscious mind, which in turn, influences the behavior, habits, actions and reactions. What Affirmations Do? They motivate. When and How to Repeat Affirmations 1) Devote some special times during the day for repeating them. 2) Repeat them wherever you are, and whenever you want and have the time. Before starting, ask yourself whether you really want to get what you want to affirm for. Affirm with love, faith, feeling and interest, and feel and believe that your desire has already been fulfilled. Examples Affirmations for success: It is easy and simple to achieve success. Affirmations for happiness: I am letting happiness manifest in my life.
Fysisk aktivitet lika bra som KBT eller läkemedel vid depression Med depression avses här egentlig depression med avgränsade episoder som varar minst 2 veckor med tydliga förändringar i tankar (tänker negativt om sig själv, andra människor och om framtiden; i värsta fall självmordstankar), känslor (bedrövelse och missmod), kroppsliga funktioner (sömn, matlust och energinivå) och beteende (tillbakadragenhet och inaktivitet) och med förbättringar av individens tillstånd mellan perioderna. En depression kan graderas som lindrig, måttlig eller allvarlig. Depression är den största enskilda orsaken till förlorade friska levnadsår i västvärlden [1] och är dubbelt så vanlig bland kvinnor som bland män. Någon enkel orsak till depression finns inte. Sjukdomsförlopp och prognos Risken för recidiv beräknas till 50 procent efter den första episoden, och risken ökar i takt med antal depressiva episoder [4]. Under de senaste åren har sjukskrivningar på grund av psykisk ohälsa, där depression ingår, ökat [7]. Fysisk aktivitet vid behandling av depression Prevention.
The Miracle and Mystery of Sleep: 12 Remarkable Psychological Studies “Sleeping is no mean art: for its sake one must stay awake all day.” ~Friedrich Nietzsche What beautiful rewards sleep delivers– if you can get enough of it. Sleep has profound effects on our memories, desires, self-control, learning, relationships and more. Here are twelve studies which demonstrate some of the psychological benefits of sleep and a few of the dangers of not getting enough. 1. Sleep is slippery beast, not least in how it’s susceptible to our perceptions of its quality. If we think we’ve had a wonderful sleep last night, we feel and perform better, even if our sleep was actually the same as usual. This is what Draganich and Erdal (2014) found in a study which had participants hooked up to sensors which they were told were measuring the quality of their sleep. Actually the sensors weren’t measuring anything. When they were given a cognitive test the next day, those who’d been told they slept the best also did the best in the test. The researchers dubbed this ‘placebo sleep’. 2.
Sleeping and Memory Memory is an aspect of cognitive functioning that involves the encoding, storage, consolidation and recall of experiences, learning and recognition. The process of memory formation is afforded by the ability of the brain to make basic structural changes within the synapses (the junction between neurons). These changes create biochemical associations with the events being recorded. Although memories are encoded very quickly in the brain (in milliseconds), they are also being changed during consolidation. Beyond instantaneous encoding of memories, the other processes of memory formation require sleep. Memory stabilization proceeds faster during sleep whether daytime nap or nocturnal sleep. The Different Stages of Sleep Cycle Although sleep appears to be a linear progression of rest and dreams, it is really a cycle of 5 stages. The 5 stages of sleep are divided into REM (rapid eye movement) and NREM (non-rapid eye movement) sleep. During wakefulness, beta waves are active. In Conclusion
20 Wonderful Effects Exercise Has on the Mind Studies find exercise increases stress resilience, fights anxiety, speeds up the mind, protects against dementia, is more fun than we predict, and more… If everyone got a little exercise, we could put half the doctors in the world out of a job. But it’s not just doctors who’d be out of a job if people could take the stairs every now and then, it’s also psychologists. Here are 20 wonderful psychological effects that exercise has on the mind. 1. Studies on mice have shown that exercise reorganises the brain so that it is more resistant to stress (Schoenfeld et al., 2013). It does this by stopping the neurons firing in the regions of the brain thought to be important in the stress response (the ventral hippocampus). This may be part of the reason that exercise… 2. Exercise has a relatively long-lasting protective effect against anxiety (Smith, 2013). Both low and medium intensity exercise has been shown to reduce anxiety. 3. Not only this, but participants who exercised had better spatial memory.
Get Better Sleep: 5 Powerful New Tips From Research Ever have trouble getting to sleep? Or staying asleep? Or you get plenty of shut-eye but you’re not refreshed? Everyone wants to get better sleep. But sleep trouble is incredibly common. And feeling tired the next day isn’t the half of it. Via Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School: Take an A student used to scoring in the top 10 percent of virtually anything she does. And losing “beauty sleep” really does make you less attractive. Want to be miserable? Via NurtureShock: The result is that sleep-deprived people fail to recall pleasant memories, yet recall gloomy memories just fine. And if that’s not enough, lack of sleep could contribute to an early death. Via Night School: The results, published in 2007, revealed that participants who obtained two hours less sleep a night than they required nearly doubled their risk of death. We need answers before sundown. On his YouTube channel he has a number of great videos including this one on sleep tips. Sum Up