To Sleep…. To Age…. perchance to dream…..
ABOUT SLEEP: A roller coaster
As we get older, how we sleep changes. Personally I enjoy a short nap in the afternoon otherwise I can’t keep going in the evening and I miss all the fun!
Prof. Lack on the ABC TV show Catalyst described sleep as a roller coaster. The graph below shows how we all go down into deep sleep, then come into light sleep about ninety minutes later, then back into deep sleep, back into light sleep, and so on across the whole night.
LESS SLEEP: in the older person
Well as we age the ride gets shorter of course. There is much less sleep in the older person. And it gets less exciting as well.
Healthy older adults average 6.5 hours sleep and healthy young adults average 8 hours. Children age 10 years need 9.5 hours sleep……
“As we age there’s more lighter sleep, and more awakenings across the night, as you can see. Probably a majority of the older population deals with these changes without any difficulty. …. most of the older population don’t actually report any sleeping difficulty, so we don’t want to give the impression that everybody’s going to have poor sleep and suffer from that as we get older,” says Professor Leon Lack of Flinders University’
LIFESTYLE THERAPY: the importance of exercise
Encouraging exercise is a key component of a sleep program developed at the University of Sydney. Associate Professor Michael Nicholas‘s research has shown that as we age, lifestyle therapy can be effective in easing the vicious cycle between sleep and pain.
SLEEP MEDICATION
Many people wonder if an approach which emphasises changes in lifestyle could mean that people don’t need to take medication for sleep.
“Um, the answer of course is yes”, says Professor Nicholas.
- So change your life style,
- get exercise,
- seek new challenges,
- maintain social connections and
- blow the cognitive cobwebs away with some intense training on the Posit Science programs 0r a brain workout of your own choice.
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Strange mind…can you read this?
fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too.
My grandson Owen reading in bed.
Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.
i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!
Note: I have been unable to trace the Cambridge University research!
Twins and a gene for religiosity……?
My non-identical twins were born in 1963, and are part of the Australian Twins Study, so I have been following twins research for some time!
My Twins Boys: 1964
Scientists have been debating for a long time on the relative contribution of nature versus nurture in human development. They have examined the behaviour of monozygotic twins (identical twins) and dizygotic twins (non-identical twins derived from two separate ova) who have either been reared together or reared apart for many years.
Now of course we have the human genome which changes things considerably.
Thomas Bouchard : “my most important discovery on the behaviour of identical twins “
Thomas Bouchard, Director of the Minnesota Center for Twin and Adoption Research has spent the whole of his life working on the behaviour of identical twins reared together or apart.
At an international twins conference Thomas challenged the 600 experts on twins, that they would not know the answer to the following question
What is the only type of behaviour that will always be identical in both twins, regardless of whether they have been adopted into different environments or not? There is only one of all the types of behaviour in which both twins always behave identically.
There was absolute silence, and Thomas Bouchard said, ‘Well, I’ll tell you. It’s religiosity.’
A Gene that controls Faith
The experts nearly fell through the floor. (“How amazing that there’s a God gene.”)
They now think they’ve got it mapped on chromosome 9. It is a gene or a group of genes that controls faith.
A Common Spiritual Belief System which unites
Nicholas Wade, author of The Faith Instinct, has looked at all human societies and has shown how it was absolutely essential to live as a society with this common belief system which unites us. He shows that the concept of faith in something is deep within our genes and has been responsible for social cohesion of communities. We are after all, social beings. In Australia, Aboriginal belief systems do not have a God, but they have a real spiritual concept that is a unifying theme and it differs a bit between differing communities. It seems to be something far more cultural and widespread rather than God-like.
What do you think? Does this give you a new perspective on religion or perhaps a new respect for religion?
The Science Show: abc Radio National: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/scienceshow/stories/2011/3243359.htm
A New Perspective on Religion : http://www.nicholas-wade.com/the-faith-instinct/
How to talk to someone with a hearing impairment
In the late sixties my aunt became quite deaf. She was in her eighties. My neighbour who is 84 currently has difficulty hearing. But there are large differences between the way they respond to their hearing loss. My aunt seemed to become rather is0lated: we would be sitting round the table catching up with news and she would sit quietly looking around, smiling shyly. My neighbour is very different. She calls for her hearing aids and sits forward animatedly when we chat. I tend to keep largely to her topic of conversation: it just makes things flow better and we have a good time.
These two older people clearly have different personalities but they are also living in very different eras with (I hope) different attitudes to aging…..
Attitudes to aging and hearing loss
However, even today older people can get isolated through hearing loss and lose interest in life. Depending on what you and others in your social circle understand (or believe) about aging, a negative view of aging can be reinforced and internalised by the aging person. “I must be getting old….”.
Not expecting much
And by not expecting much of an older person, their family and social network confirm their negative belief. The age stereotype can slowly infiltrate and in the case of hearing loss isolation and decline follows. People, sadly, are confirmed in their negative belief about themselves.
One in six Australians is affected by hearing loss Read more…
Mindless…..a near miss on “the Pokies”
A Mindless form of gambling BANNED in pubs and clubs in Western Australia
A Royal Commission into gambling in Western Australia in the 70′s found that
…poker machine playing is a mindless, repetitive and insidious form of gambling which has many undesirable features. It requires no thought, no skill or social contact. The odds are never about winning…. Historically poker machines have been banned from Western Australia and we consider that, in the public interest, they should stay banned.
Outside the Casino, in pubs and clubs , suburbs and towns in Western Australia, you will not find poker machines. We are seen today as a “pristine State”.
The odds are never about winning
In the long run, we are all going to lose lots of money playing these games of chance.
In the state of Victorian, $2.56 billion was lost on poker machines last financial year – more than $7 million a day. This figure excludes the amount lost at Crown Casino’s 2500 machines. In January and February of this year hotels and clubs in Queensland collected $294 million, New South Wales collects $1.8 billion a year. Western Australia has consistently had the country’s lowest level of gambling losses per adult. In our state, gaming taxes contribute only about 6 per cent of government revenue as opposed to Victoria’s 18.4% in 2006. The Eastern State Governments of Australia are financially dependent on their huge gambling revenue.
Regulation of Poker Machines in Australia demanded by Independents: re problem gamblers
We currently have a minority government in Australia. To secure support for certain legislation going through Parliament at the moment, two Independent Members of Parliament are demanding that the government should do something about “the pokies” and their dire effect particularly on low income people. A Productivity Commission report found 40 per cent of poker machine revenue came from problem gamblers.
The regulation required by one Parliamentary member is a one dollar bet limit on all poker machines nationally and a $120 an hour loss limit.
The “near miss”.
My gambling is limited to the occasional “Scratchie”, but I seldom win. If I have got two matches of $10 out of three possible matches what is it about the “near miss” (two out of three) that makes me keep going at this dumb game? I feel that I might just get the three matches next time. It was a close call. Why do I keep going even if I know that the odds are stacked against me?
It is all in the brain: the “near miss” is inevitable when you are learning
The “near miss” provides us with an unwelcome side effect of a remarkable process in our brain. Read more…
Oldest man in the world dies….wise at 114!
Walter Breuning was old enough to be my father! It would have been great if my father had lived to this great age……I would have had so many things to ask him!
“From a childhood without electricity to the rise of radio, through two World Wars, the Great Depression, and everyday since, Breuning maintained a healthy regimen of eating less, working more, and taking care of others, crediting this behavior with keeping him youthful.” Over the years, Walter generated a lot of wise remarks,
“Everybody says your mind is the most important thing about your body. Your mind and your body. You keep both busy, and by God you’ll be here a long time.” —Walter Breuning
” Maybe Breuning’s two meal a day diet, his active life, and his strong social bonds were enough to sustain him”, writes Aaron Saenz. And he never took more than an aspirin.
He also embraced technology
“I think every change that we’ve ever made, ever since I was a child — 100 years — every change has been good for the people…My God, we used to have to write with pen and ink, you know, (for) everything. When the machines came, it just made life so much easier.”
Read more
from Scientific American Mind May/June 2011 www.ScientificAmerican.com/Mind
MIND BEHAVIOR •BRAIN SCIENCE •INSIGHTS
