Yesterday I stumbled across "40 Facts About Sleep You Probably Didn't Know (Or Were Too Tired to Think About)" from the National Sleep Research Project in Australia.
Here are some of my faves--and things I in fact did not know about sleep:
- Anything less than five minutes to fall asleep at night means you're sleep deprived. The ideal is between 10 and 15 minutes, meaning you're still tired enough to sleep deeply, but not so exhausted you feel sleepy by day.
- A new baby typically results in 400-750 hours lost sleep for parents in the first year
- REM dreams are characterised by bizarre plots, but non-REM dreams are repetitive and thought-like, with little imagery - obsessively returning to a suspicion you left your mobile phone somewhere, for example.
- Some scientists believe we dream to fix experiences in long-term memory, that is, we dream about things worth remembering. Others reckon we dream about things worth forgetting - to eliminate overlapping memories that would otherwise clog up our brains.
- Scientists have not been able to explain a 1998 study showing a bright light shone on the backs of human knees can reset the brain's sleep-wake clock.
- The NRMA estimates fatigue is involved in one in 6 fatal road accidents.
- In insomnia following bereavement, sleeping pills can disrupt grieving.
- Tiny luminous rays from a digital alarm clock can be enough to disrupt the sleep cycle even if you do not fully wake. The light turns off a "neural switch" in the brain, causing levels of a key sleep chemical to decline within minutes.
- Some studies suggest women need up to an hour's extra sleep a night compared to men, and not getting it may be one reason women are much more susceptible to depression than men.
- Exposure to noise at night can suppress immune function even if the sleeper doesn’t wake. Unfamiliar noise, and noise during the first and last two hours of sleep, has the greatest disruptive effect on the sleep cycle.
By Valerie Reiss. Amy's on vacation.
November 2006 Archives
Thursday November 30, 2006
Sleep Facts You Probably Didn't Know
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A Delicious, Natural Body Oil
After a long day yesterday, I stopped at ABC Carpet & Home, a mecca of pretty, pricey, spiritual things. Buzzing past all of the crystals and Marys and Buddhas, I went straight for the bodycare wall. The eco- and toxin-conscious store only stocks lotions and potions and pastes and masks and scrubs by all-natural companies like Dr. Hauschka, Pangea Organics, and my favorite of the moment, Red Flower. Completely synthetic- and paraben-free, the latter bodycare line is practically edible and surely divine.
I'm now madly in love with a Red Flower bottle of Amber and Cardamom Body Oil. Just a few dots on my hand, rubbed in, and sniffed deeply seemed to erase a day of intense stress. It's not cheap, but it's $44 worth of heaven. I think I know what I'm doing at my lunch break. At least for another sniff/smear. And it might be just the thing for the nuture-starved lovely on your holiday gift list.
Amazon sells it here.
By Valerie Reiss. Amy's on vacation.
posted by
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Thursday November 30, 2006
A Way to Give Giving This Holiday Season
Ok, it's not just the scrumptious body oil that wows me, it's the amazing Gifts of Compassion at ABC Carpet & Home's store and website. Many orgs offer a similar donation-as-gift program, but none have such diverse offerings--or packages for certificates as nice(ABC uses hand-sewn sari fabric).By partnering with organizations like Seva Foundation, The Ranforest Alliance, and V-Day, ABC has arranged it so you can buy a "kid for a kid"--a milking goat for a child in Haiti, for example. Or you can give a "Gift of Vision"--a much-needed eye operation for a child in a poor country. You can also make gift donations for the environment, literacy, and pet rescue.
All very cool, moving, beautiful stuff. Visit here to buy or learn more.
By Valerie Reiss. Amy's on vacation.
posted by
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Thursday November 30, 2006
Buddha's Take on Gift-Giving
"True charity only occurs when there are no notions of giving, giver, or gift."
--Buddha
From the book "Good Karma: How to Find It and Keep It".
By Valerie Reiss. Amy's on vacation.
--Buddha
From the book "Good Karma: How to Find It and Keep It".
By Valerie Reiss. Amy's on vacation.
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Wednesday November 29, 2006
Peace, Love, and Controversy
It always amazes me when the word—or symbol for—"peace" upsets people. A couple in Pagosa Springs, Colo. was recently told by a community association to remove a peace sign-shaped wreath from outside their house, reports The New York Times, lest they be fined $25 a day. They told the couple the symbol was politically divisive and one member later said it looked like "a sign of the devil."
When outrage broke out, the three members of the homeowner's association resigned and neighbors held a march, hung their own symbols, and created a 300-foot peace sign on a local soccer field.
One of the sign's owners said all he meant to promote was world peace.
This all brings back vivid memories from my Quaker boarding school days during the first Iraq war. A bunch of students wove blue garbage bags into a chainlink fence on our property that faced a highway to read "peace." Oh, the calls, the harassments, the threats. The school was inundated with demands for its removal. It was my first experience of wide-eyed shock at how something that seemed so instrinsic to me, so "duh" as to be cliché, could be so controversial.
We debated long and hard at our community meeting—I lost all respect for the librarian who suggested we take it down to avoid conflict—but ultimately, peace won.
And it looks like it's winning in Colorado. It still boggles my mind though, that it was ever a question in the first place. You know?
What are your peace-sign associations? Do you wear them, hang them, think they're bad?
By Valerie Reiss. Amy's on vacation.
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Wednesday November 29, 2006
9/11 and Cancer
Just wanted to spread this far and wide. This week's cover story in the Village Voice is about the link between 9/11 and blood cancers, especially Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. That's what I just recovered from. My exposure to Ground Zero was...
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@ 5:11pm
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Wednesday November 29, 2006
Are You Burned Out?
Really great article in this week's New York magazine, "The Science of Burnout" by Jennifer Senior. The subhead alone speaks volumes: "In a culture where work can be a religion, burnout is its crisis of faith." It's about how burnout—that...
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@ 5:09pm
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Tuesday November 28, 2006
Therapy for Your Home
If you have a modern-ish sensibility and live in an apartment or a small-scale house, you may love this blog as much as I do. Apartment Therapy.com has been my haunt for the last two years or so for home-related...
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@11:07pm
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Tuesday November 28, 2006
Julia's Quotes to Inspire
As her post-"Artist's Way" work has seemed more and more recycled, one thing I still love about Julia Cameron's books is the little quotes she puts in the margins. I'm always happy to dip into these bite-sized, short-attention-span founts of...
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Monday November 27, 2006
Addicted to Meaningful Jewels
My name is Valerie and I'm a Satya-holic. As often as I can afford (only a few times a year, really), I go to Satya, a wonderful "yoga-inspired" jewelry store. I walk across the slate floors and gaze at lotuses...
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Chattering Mind
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Monday November 27, 2006
What's in Your Paint?
I've just moved into a new apartment. In Brooklyn, land of my ancestors. It's sweet and cozy, and at 500 square feet just about double the size of my last place (I know, we're ridiculous here). I'm obsessive about making...
Sunday November 26, 2006
Readers Compete for Worst Thanksgiving
Wow, if you think your Thanksgiving was sub-par or just average, read a few of the thousands of posts Martha Stewart got when she asked readers to talk about the lessons they learned from their worst Thanksgivings ever. Burned turkeys,...
Wednesday November 22, 2006
The Turkey Wars
Thanksgiving can be a tough time for people who don't eat poultry, especially when their relatives are enthusiastic meat eaters. No doubt plenty of vegans are sitting down to a family meal that disgusts them, and families aren't always as...
Wednesday November 22, 2006
Cindy's Vegetarian Turkey
If your kids love to to sculpt their food before they eat it, they'll love this....
Wednesday November 22, 2006
Catholicism's Influence on Director Robert Altman
I found a choppy, but fact-filled run-down on the religious upbringing of late, great film director Robert Altman: "Catholicism was, to me, school,' he has said. "It was restrictions; it was things you had to do. It was your parents....
Tuesday November 21, 2006
The Power of Saying 'Thanks!'
Janene Mascarella wrote a wonderful piece for The Washington Post about the powerful experience of thanking people who'd been helpful to her in the past. Often nervous that the folks she was thanking would find her absurdly nutty, she was...
Tuesday November 21, 2006
Wearing Your Gratitude
Well, why not? The website TheGratitudeList.com sells aprons and T-shirts that will keep your gratitude close to your heart all year, not just on Thanksgiving. The blog at this site is just getting going, but you'll find several nice posts...
Monday November 20, 2006
Deepak on Life After Death
Deepak Chopra was schooled in medicine, but his greatest love has always been the study of the soul. His views in the new book "Life After Death: The Burden of Proof" seem especially relevant, as death seems--rightly or wrongly--closer to...
Monday November 20, 2006
'You Can't Be a Saint'
Sweet essay here on BustedHalo.com (the online mag for seekers in their 20s and 30s). In it, author Jeff Guhin gets into a conversation on saintly behavior with the Catholic teens he teaches....
Monday November 20, 2006
Have Your Cookies Take a Stand
Well, someone had to improve the standard cookie cutter....
Friday November 17, 2006
My Nuit of the Chestnut
I usually shell chestnuts the night before Thanksgiving. A couple of nights before Thanksgiving, if I'm smart. Chestnut purée was a standard side dish at my mother's Thanksgiving dinner, and in honor of her, I try to include it at...
Friday November 17, 2006
Do You Have Your Thanksgiving Prayer Ready?
Don't pass the buck! Bring a prayer to the Thanksgiving table this year! Here's a wonderful guide to prayers of many faiths and wisdom traditions....
Friday November 17, 2006
Zen Noir
"The basis for the new film 'Zen Noir' is a kind of funny concept," writes Beliefnet's spirituality editor Valerie Reiss in this short review. "A noir-style detective investigates a murder in a Buddhist temple. When he asks questions, he gets...
Friday November 17, 2006
What's Your Stand on Teflon?
The folks at DuPont have regrouped and are now fighting allegations from the EPA that their Teflon coating on non-stick cookware includes a chemical that is a "likely carcinogen." The gasses Teflon produces at high heat are certainly bad for...
Thursday November 16, 2006
Yusuf Islam Is Back on the 'Peace Train'
Yusuf Islam's new album "An Other Cup," is getting middlin' marks on Amazon--some fans are complaining that his voice sounds "weak." But the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens has a sparkling website with audio clips of him on anger,...
Thursday November 16, 2006
Holiday Cards for the Flea Market Lover
Ebay currently hosts some 26 pages of antique/vintage holiday cards, all fun, some in boxes, some loose. Here's a CD you can buy to download vintage holiday card images and then print out with a color printer....
Thursday November 16, 2006
Perhaps James Taylor Finds Christmas Depressing
I inwardly chattered all Tuesday night, worried I'd been mean to James Taylor in my review of his dreary Christmas album. I'm just not a natural-born critic, I guess. How do professional reviewers subdue their smug feelings of superiority? Many...
Wednesday November 15, 2006
For the Yogi Who Has Everything
After several months of steady use, your yoga mat's odor may get distracting in the nose-down positions of the cobra or locust. But, "once avidya is lifted, the best solutions are often the simplest," claims the ad copy for this...
Wednesday November 15, 2006
How Do You Stay Sane During Holidays?
I didn't marry until I was 36, so I had about 15 years of heartache-y holidays--alone, unprotected, and bummed that nobody loved me. Or so I thought. For many people, the period from Thanksgiving to New Year's is miserable and...
Wednesday November 15, 2006
O.J.'s New Low
I don't know if you've got plans the evenings of November 27th and 29th, but you may well be struggling with a weighty decision: whether or not to lower yourself enough to watch O.J. Simpson talking on Fox about how...
Tuesday November 14, 2006
James Taylor Offers His Stale Take on Christmas
James Taylor's newly-released holiday album is essentially a refurbished collection from 2004, and I've got to tell you, having just spent the morning with it: It retains its highs and lows. Old Baby James' renditions of "Jingle Bells" and "Winter...
Tuesday November 14, 2006
Is Your Will Ethical?
Oh, isn't this interesting? A whole website that teaches you how to make your last will and testament more ethical. I'm just passing it along....
Monday November 13, 2006
How You Sign Spiritual Correspondence
No Chattering Mind post has inspired as much mail as my inquiry into how folks are ending their spiritual correspondence. What follows is a list of all the marvelous ways people are ending emails and letters to their fellows on...
Monday November 13, 2006
We Become What We Worship
"That which dominates our imaginations and our thoughts will determine our lives, and our character. Therefore, it behooves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshipping we are becoming."--Ralph Waldo Emerson...
Friday November 10, 2006
Here's One Great Holiday Toy Catalog
Magic Cabin started as a hand-made doll catalog, and year after year, the lovely, natural toys and craft kits it features give me greater faith in all humanity! Get a paper copy of the catalog mailed to you or shop...
Friday November 10, 2006
In Love and Remembrance
"I love my life, and I know I love my life."--Ed Bradley, as recalled by Diane Sawyer in Friday morning's tribute to him on ABC's "Good Morning America."...
Friday November 10, 2006
Remember: It's About the Teachings, Not the Teacher
Take a walk down Memory Lane when you check out Beliefnet's slideshow of fallen religious leaders. And remember this advice from His Holiness the Dalai Lama: "Rely on the teachings to evaluate a guru: do not have blind faith, but...
Friday November 10, 2006
Readers on Handling Haggard
My warm thanks go to CM reader Daria for writing this in response to the revelations regarding minister Ted Haggard's secret life:"I read Ted Haggard's letter to his congregation and was surprised to find him taking responsibility, apologizing, asking for...
Friday November 10, 2006
That's a Little 'b' in 'Bible,' If You Please
Notice how, in this piece by Richard Dawkins called "Why I Am Hostile Towards Religion," Dawkins refuses to write the word "bible" with a capital "B" unless he's quoting a Christian author whose work was originally published with the "B"...
Thursday November 9, 2006
Are You Happy in Your Kitchen?
My friend Myra, a graduate of New York's Institute for Integrative Nutrition, has launched her own nutritional consulting business, and I signed on as a client last spring thinking I'd get good nutritional tips (that I could then pass on...
Thursday November 9, 2006
Blocking the Bad Guys with TVBoss.org
As a mother, I can really relate to this. Have a look!...
Wednesday November 8, 2006
Westin Hotels Snuff the Smoke
Westin Hotel's smoking ban is in full flower after a year's work and a $3 million investment in its (fittingly named) BREATHE campaign. Smokers will be billed an additional $200 room fee if they smoke anywhere in the hotels, but...
Wednesday November 8, 2006
'Callboy' or Hypocrite: Which is Worse?
Check out this "Code of the Callboy" editorial from today's New York Times by Dan Savage. An excerpt: "...today it is arguably more shameful and damaging to be a hypocritical closet case than it is to be a sex worker....
Wednesday November 8, 2006
Laughter Meditation
Thanks to Glittering Muse blogger David Garnet for alerting me to the existence of this laughing baby clip. Helps you understand while some people drink or take drugs to get to this luscious, open space. Of course, there are healthier...
Tuesday November 7, 2006
Mindful Politics
As I write this, the country is finishing up a day of voting. Whether you're voting red or blue or chartreuse, there's no doubt this has been a decidedly unspiritual past month, politically speaking; mud has been slung on all...
Tuesday November 7, 2006
How Important Are Holiday Sheets?
Gee, what got into me? I stayed up late shopping online for holiday bed linens again. And then, I didn't buy a thing. It's the same every year. I say to myself, "Oh, it's silly to buy bed sheets just...
Tuesday November 7, 2006
It's Hot Water Bottle Weather!
While you're browsing in the flannel sheet department, don't forget to get some hot water bottles--for yourself or to wrap as winter gifts. I actually put my growing boys (don't tell them I told you this) to bed with one...
Monday November 6, 2006
Craving Straight Talk on Gays and Spirituality?
Here's one of my favorite gay spirituality and culture blogs. In one post, writer Greg DiStefano quotes this passage from the "Gospel According to Thomas": "If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you....
Sunday November 5, 2006
There's Timeless Truth in "Elmer Gantry"
I went to our local Barnes & Noble Monday morning and picked up Sinclair Lewis's famous study of religious hypocrisy--the 1927 novel called "Elmer Gantry" (which became an Academy Award-winning film starring Burt Lancaster in 1960). In the novel, Elmer...
Friday November 3, 2006
Ted Haggard's Shadow Reveals Itself?
We don't really know yet which charges against Ted Haggard are true or false, but it's impossible to watch the unfolding of the evangelical pastor's alleged gay sex scandal without thinking of Carl Jung's writings on "shadow"—the least acknowledged or...
Thursday November 2, 2006
Our Final Resting Place?
As I grapple with a father and two in-laws who hate the idea of assisted-living communities, I keep insisting "As for me, I'm ready to move into one now." Who can beat daily yoga classes in the rec room, Tai...
Thursday November 2, 2006
Yes, KFC Has Long Way to Go, But...
Some of you guys seemed annoyed with me for saying anything nice about KFC (its executives have just agreed to use a healthier, trans-fat-free frying oil). I don't eat Kentucky Fried Chicken, but some 736 millions chickens are sold at...
Thursday November 2, 2006
Leroy Sievers' Cancer Commentaries
Veteran reporters like Leroy Sievers can work in relative obscurity for thirty years (he covered major stories for CBS and ABC, and then was Nightline's executive producer), before stepping fully in the public eye (opening up the whole world's heart...
Wednesday November 1, 2006
Get Inspiration Daily from Dr. Christiane Northrup
"Look in the mirror once or twice a day, full on, eyes into eyes and say, 'I accept myself unconditionally right now.' After 30 days, you'll find that your life and health will improve." Get more sensible advice and whole...
Wednesday November 1, 2006
Garrison Keillor Reflects on Time and Retirement
"It took me an hour to turn the clocks back an hour, coordinating all the watches and digital alarm clocks and oven clock and kitchen clock and car clocks to Central Standard Time, during which a man starts to question...
Wednesday November 1, 2006
Jackson Pollock Meditation
Click here, wait a moment, and then sink into your own cursor-created abstract painting. Relax!...
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