How can you improve the quality of your sleep at night and feel less tired during the day?
ercise for 2.5hrs a week: via Eurekalert A nationally representative sample of more than 2,600 men and women, ages 18-85, found that 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity a week, which is the national guideline, provided a 65 percent improvement in sleep quality. People also said they felt less sleepy during the day, compared to those with less physical activity. And: 'Our findings demonstrate a link between regular physical activity and perceptions of sleepiness during the day, which suggests…
1 min read
5 Easy, Scientifically Proven Tips To Make Your Holiday Shopping Easier
Want to pick a creative gift that the receiver will be surprised by? Don't do it. Studies show people are much more satisfied by presents they said they wanted. 2) Accept that context can warp your thinking. The music in a store, a "SALE" sign, and how many items are on a shelf can all affect what and how much you buy. 3) To control your spending, hide the credit card and make sure your wallet contains only big…
1 min read
This Is Why Americans Keep Getting Fatter
rget all the wild theories; it's actually quite simple: we eat too many calories. Table 2 shows changes in food consumption between the mid-1970s and the mid-1990s for males and females. The top row in each panel reports overall caloric intake. Reported consumption increased by 268 calories for men and 143 calories for women between the two surveys. This increase is more than enough to explain the increase in steady-state weight. So why did Americans suddenly start eating more calories?…
3 minutes
What makes the weekend more or less fun?
me quick bullet points below. Via Miller-McCune: Based on data that was collected by Gallup in a random telephone poll of 530,000 people of all ages, incomes and backgrounds, they find that: • Married couples get the biggest weekend boost, so long as their families are “well-functioning.” • “Blue Monday” is a myth. People report roughly equal amounts of happiness, enjoyment, laughter, worry, sadness, and anger on Mondays as on every other workday. • Full-time workers get twice the weekend…
1 min read
Can a promotion at work save your life?
omotions reduce the chance of developing heart disease: The positive relationship between SES and health is well documented but limited evidence exists regarding the effect of an exogenous manipulation of SES on health. This article estimates the effect of promotions on heart disease using data on British civil servants from the Whitehall II study. Differences in promotion rates across departments and cohorts generate plausibly exogenous variation in promotion opportunities. The results suggest that promotions may reduce the probability of developing…
1 min read
Is bad truly stronger than good?
b Sutton, professor at Stanford's MBA school and author of Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the Best... and Learn from the Worst reviews a very interesting study, "Bad is stronger than good." Sutton chooses some excellent excerpts worth highlighting: Let us briefly summarize the evidence. In everyday life, bad events have stronger and more lasting consequences than comparable good events. Close relationships are more deeply and conclusively affected by destructive actions than by constructive ones, by negative communications than…
2 minutes
Can writing speed physical healing?
s. Psychological stress impairs the healing of wounds. Writing about your problems can reduce stress and speed recovery. OBJECTIVES: Psychological stress is believed to impair wound healing via a down-regulation of the immune system. Since previous research suggests that disclosure of traumatic experiences can result in an up-regulation of immune function, the present study aimed to investigate the impact of a disclosure intervention on the progress of wound healing. DESIGN: The study used a prospective, longitudinal design with random assignment…
2 minutes
Does reading fiction make us nicer?
s. Reading fiction makes us more likely to do kind things for others: Theorists from diverse disciplines purport narrative fiction serves to foster empathic development and growth. In two studies, participants’ subjective, behavioral, and perceptual responses were observed after reading a short fictional story. In study 1, participants who were more transported into the story exhibited higher affective empathy and were more likely to engage in prosocial behavior. In study 2, reading-induced affective empathy was related to greater bias toward…
1 min read
