Thinking, Not Sleeping “Honestly, I cannot sleep at night because I get so excited about doing good things for the world, changing the world,” says Miley Cyrus, the Hannah Montana star. Sadly, most of my sleep patients don’t complain of excitement at the wonderful things they are about to do to save our volatile, environmentally […]
Are you getting enough sleep? (3/7/11)
The CDC Measures American Sleeplessness Americans are progressively sleepless. The latest survey reported Friday by the Centers for Disease Control, found 35.3% of 75,000 adults were sleeping less than 7 hours a night. Some people don’t need much sleep. Yet most of us perform better with at least 7-8 hours of sleep. Too little sleep […]
Your kludgy brain (and how to use it – 3/2/11)
Seeing Without Sight Ever wondered how congenitally blind people “see” what they’re reading? It’s because they’re using the visual processing part of their brains to decipher words. It turns out your brain is a group of kludges – Rube Goldberg machines of tacked together parts that get the job(s) done. Darwinian evolution never went to […]
Dying to win – Internet gaming and sleeplessness (3/1/11)
An Unnecessary Death In 1967, Tom Simpson died on the 13th stage of the Tour de France. The superb British cyclist had won considerable fame in his short life, and was expected to join the greats of the sport. The autopsy showed small amounts of amphetamine and metamphetamine, a combination that killed him climbing stony […]
How your brain processes pain (2/25/11)
Does What You Expect Change What You Get? Pain is information, how the brain interprets certain stimuli to form sensations almost all humans fear and detest. As Oxford researchers reported last week in Science Translation Medicine, how we individually interpret pain is markedly changed by context: The Study Subjects – 22 healthy people Method – […]
