Are Memories Permanent? The brain creates memory through a near endless conversation. To move ideas from short term, working memory to long term memory the cortex and hippocampus communicate again and again. It may take ten years or more for “permanent” memories to encode in cortical locations – where they first registered as thoughts […]
Will fabric softener make you sleep better? (1/24/11)
Can Comedians Sell Sleep? Having trouble sleeping? You’re not alone. Only about 5% of Americans claim to sleep well every night. And Proctor and Gamble now says it will help out all the rest. Their plan is to advertise Downy fabric softener as a way to sleep better – via cleaner, crisper bed sheets. And […]
Your different states of consciousness (1/3/11)
Coma and Wakefulness – Anesthesia Creates Coma, not Sleep Does anesthesia put you to sleep? A long review of what really happens in anesthesia, published recently in the New England Journal, points out what cognitive scientists have known for a long time – our usual layman’s terms give little credence to the extraordinary variety of […]
Can sleepwalking kill me, or is inattention more lethal? (12/13/10)
A Killing in Scarborough In 1987 Kenneth Parks, a 23 year old embezzler and gambler who had recently lost his job, drove 14 miles to the home of his mother and father-in-law in Scarborough, Ontario. Taking out a tire iron he beat them both before stabbing them with kitchen knives, killing his mother-in-law and leaving […]
Facebook for Sleep? (12/07/10)
Another Facebook Effect The Facebook effect may bring communities together on a host of different issues, but more people are using Facebook as a bedtime fix. Internet forecasters often like to say this time is different – this time they may be right. Travelodge Tells It You don’t expect hotel companies to put out surveys […]