Because learning about your brain and sleep can be fun . . .
Perfect is the enemy of “done.” Learn to say está bien and mean it! On June 13th, Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Zack Greinke didn’t allow a single Washington National player to reach base—until the seventh inning. If he had kept every opposing player off the bases until the end of the ninth inning, it would have…
Sitting back with earphones while a tape or CD plays seems like an effortless way to learn. You might imagine your brain to be like a sponge or paper towel as if it would soak up information the way a kitchen sponge soaks up spills. The trouble is, that learning doesn’t work that way, especially…
When going to bed, people brush their teeth. They put on some loose, comfortable clothing. They tighten their bedsheets. It’s all part of a routine in getting ready to go to bed. Rituals like these routines help one get in the mindset for sleep success. According to a multinational 2013 survey, 50 percent of the people…
Bonzo, the monkey, knew what to have before bed. For people, it’s not so simple. This, in a nutshell, is the hungry person’s bedtime dilemma: if he or she eats something too heavy before bedtime, it’s going to sit in the stomach all night like a rock. Yet if the hungry person doesn’t eat anything…
Practice makes perfect. If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well. The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is practice. Those are the things people say about getting good at all kinds of activities. Individually these sayings have been applied to all kinds of sports, art, and games. Sleeping, on the other hand, is viewed as a…
When the day is trying you, try soaking in a tub with a lavender bath bomb while using lavender soap. Set your mind right, dry off, and head to bed. Some scents are more soothing than others. Lavender is one of those scents, along with roses, Roman chamomile, and jasmine, that have been demonstrated in…
Congratulations on both deciding to and being able to see the big, beautiful world on an intercity bus. This planet is full of adventure, both the good kind and the not-so-good. The key in life is to have more of the good kind of adventure and less of the bad. Yet even what seems to…
It has to be a thought thunk by every stick-in-the-mud who refuses to touch hallucinogens: I’m no fun. Here I am holding a regular job. Here I am fulfilling my responsibilities to my family and society. There they are. They’re tripping out. They sure look like they’re having a good time getting wasted. Damn them!…
Fifty-one years ago the nightly news was full of gory, gut-wrenching images from Vietnam. Nevertheless, the prospect of fighting that war or fleeing didn’t keep people up at night the way smartphones do today. The smartphone is apparently worse for sleep than a war. The effect of screens on sleep Adults often read and tell…
Ancient Greeks also had a mixed relationship with sleep. The stigma didn’t start with us. It might not have begun with them. Hesiod and other ancient Greek writers had a choice. They could have made the god of sleep part of a family of positive deities. They didn’t. Instead, the family consists of a bunch…