What do people regret the most before they die?
in 25K+ readers. No spam, ever. Enter your email here: Bonnie Ware worked in palliative care for many years, tending to people during the last three to twelve weeks of their lives. A handful of themes cropped up in the things they regretted during their final days: 1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. 2. I wish I didn't work so hard. 3. I wish…
1 min read
How vital is a good mattress to quality sleep?
bsp; Not at all. People slept as well on concrete floors as high end mattresses. Via Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep: Dement— one of the premier researchers in the history of sleep science who you may remember from an earlier chapter— received a commission from a company that had recently built a prototype of a high-tech mattress. Inside of it, warm air flowed through billions of tiny, ceramic beads. The end result was the feeling of a…
1 min read
Do sleeping pills like Ambien work because of the placebo effect?
bsp; Sleeping pills on average only make people fall asleep 12 minutes faster and sleep 11 minutes longer during the night. The placebo effect makes people relax. Also, these pills cause a form of amnesia so even if you did toss and turn for hours you might not remember it the next day. Via Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep: A number of studies have shown that drugs like Ambien and Lunesta offer no significant improvement in the…
2 minutes
Are sleep and dreams the key to learning?
s. "The challenges that the brain had grappled with during the daytime replayed in the mind as the subject went to sleep... (S)ubjects who spent more time dreaming... demonstrated a greater improvement in their skills..." Via Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep: Subjects who did not get to sleep before their second shot at the puzzle showed little improvement. Those who slept eight hours, meanwhile, solved the task 17 percent faster. But that wasn’t all. The subjects…
2 minutes
Does product placement on TV really make you more likely to buy?
bsp; Yes, it does, especially when the item is used by the main character. Via Shiny Objects: Why We Spend Money We Don't Have in Search of Happiness We Can't Buy: Research into that very question by Moonhee Yang and David Roskos-Ewoldsen found that the level of “brand integration” impacted a product placement’s effectiveness. 27 Yang and Roskos-Ewoldsen identified three levels of brand integration: (1) background, (2) used by main character, and (3) an integral part of the story. A…
1 min read
Can your smile tell me how long you’ll live?
bsp; The span of a person's smile in photos is predictive of how long they will live. Via Smile: The Astonishing Powers of a Simple Act (TED Books): A Chinese proverb states that “every smile makes you a day younger.” The spirit of this ancient saying was supported by another surprising study that found that big, beaming smiles may be the secret to more than just a sense of well-being. A 2010 research project at Wayne State University in Michigan,…
1 min read
How much has the past 40 years of US economic growth affected our happiness?
bsp; It hasn't. Via Shiny Objects: Why We Spend Money We Don't Have in Search of Happiness We Can't Buy: Join 25K+ readers. Get a free weekly update via email here. Related posts: What are seven things that can make you happier in seven seconds? What do happy people have in common? 8 ways that money can buy happiness
1 min read
Deep down, do we all believe in karma at least a little bit?
search shows when we want something good to happen that we don't have much control over, we're more inclined to help others. Innately, we think it will improve the chances of our wishes coming true: People often face outcomes of important events that are beyond their personal control, such as when they wait for an acceptance letter, job offer, or medical test results. We suggest that when wanting and uncertainty are high and personal control is lacking, people may be…
3 minutes
