Have you been feeling more blue than usual – for no apparent reason? It might be time to invest in blackout curtains for your bedroom! Because research now shows a strong link between depression and low-level exposure to light at night!
Dr. Kenji Obayashi is a professor at Japan’s Nara Medical University and in one of his studies he measured nighttime light levels in the bedrooms of thousands of adults. The participants were also monitored for symptoms of depression over a two-year period.
The result: The brighter the light levels in the person’s room, the more likely they were to be depressed.
Dr. Obayashi found that even a small amount of light at night reduces production of the sleep hormone melatonin, and that can lead to interrupted sleep. And Obayashi says if that happens night after night, it could gradually lead to depression.
So, if you want to sleep well, and lower your risk of depression – eliminate as many sources of light from your bedroom as possible.
Life Hacks
Do you have a good listener in your life?
If so, it can keep your brain younger, longer! That’s according to new research from NYU. They found that having someone to confide in, who will really listen, is a huge stress reliever – AND it improves brain health by slowing cognitive decline.
The study focused on people in their 40s and 50s……and those who DID NOT have a supportive listener in their lives had a cognitive age 4-6 years OLDER than people who did have a good listener.
That’s because conversations are like a workout for your brain……You have to get your points across, think of responses, and absorb what the other person is telling you.
To find the right listener, psychologist Dr. Kiki Ramsey says you want to find someone who gives you space to respond without interrupting and shifting the focus to themselves.
Find that person and you can turn back the clock on your brain age!
If you’re having trouble sleeping, here’s something that might help: Try using sleep affirmations – where you pick a short, calming phrase like, “I am still,” or “I am relaxed” – and repeatedly think it or say it out loud.
Neuroscientist Dr. Tara Swart says repeating an affirmation is a form of meditation. It gives you something specific to focus on, and helps over-write recurring negative thoughts, silencing your brain.
Repeating an affirmation can also quiet the brain area responsible for self-evaluation and rumination, which reduces stress and anxiety. And when you put that all together, it improves sleep quality.
And there’s no right or wrong way to do it. You can sit quietly for 5 minutes, eyes closed, and repeat a phrase like “I am safe and secure.” Or simply repeat your chosen phrase silently while you’re getting ready for bed or lying in bed trying to fall asleep.
Your best bet? Focus on the words until your mind believes what you’re telling yourself. Because, if you get to the point where you BELIEVE you’re feeling calm and relaxed, you’re more likely to actually sleep.
Try this self-test to check your balance.
Act like you’ve been pulled over for a DUI and walk in a straight line, putting one foot directly in front of the other – with the toes of your back foot touching the heel of your front foot.
Neurosurgeon Dr. Nancy Trevanian Tsai says, see how many steps you can take like that without wobbling off center. If you can’t take more than 4 steps, your balance needs work.
So try standing in that same position – one foot directly in front of the other – and raise your hands high above your head. Hold that position as long as you can. Because with good balance, you’re less likely to fall and injure yourself. And that’s important because 20% of elderly hip-fracture patients die within a year due to complications from the trauma.
You can also try tai chi. A study found that people who do tai chi once a week have much better balance
If you find yourself so stressed out that you just can’t fall asleep, try this tip: Wiggle your toes for 60 seconds.
That’s a little do-it-yourself reflexology – a type of massage that triggers pressure points in the body to relieve tension and treat illness.
Reflexologists say that a good toe-wiggling helps release energy in the feet, and triggers a relaxation response that gradually spreads through the whole body……
You’ll be able to drift off quickly, and then stay asleep.
Did you know that we tend to have our most creative ideas right around mid-morning.
That’s according to Cornell University neurologist Dr. David Perlmutter. And he recommends taking advantage of that creative brainpower surge by making your environment totally quiet for half an hour – between 10 and 10:30AM.
He says that half-hour of quiet will help increase communication between 11 different areas of our brain – which can boost our concentration and productivity by up to 67%. And as an added bonus, that 30-minutes of quiet can boost our mood for the next two hours.
So, grab a pair of earplugs – or noise canceling headphones – and get ready for a surge of creativity!
When you’re leaving home, how often do you go to the bathroom “just in case” before you leave? Well, experts say it’s a habit we should STOP.
This comes from Dr. Fei Zang, a pelvic floor therapist. She says, normally, when we have to “go,” it’s because receptors in our bladder have sent signals to our brain, saying our bladder’s “full.”
But when we regularly force ourselves to go – when our bladder’s NOT full – it can desensitize receptors in a way that makes our brain think we need a bathroom break, even if our internal tank is only at half, or even a-quarter, of its capacity. And that often leads to even MORE frequent urges to go.
Ideally, Dr. Zang says, if you can sleep all night without a bathroom visit, that’s a sign of healthy bladder control. And if you’re regularly hydrating throughout the day, it’s fine to go every two or three hours.
But here’s the bottom line: Forcing yourself to pee “just in case” is an unhealthy habit that could lead to bigger problems in the future.
I’m about to reveal the “sweet spot” for sleep that can help you maintain good mental and physical health.
Once we reach middle age, we need to sleep a certain number of hours each night to maintain good health. And that number is 7. No more, no less.
Researchers at the UK’s University of Cambridge analyzed data from nearly half a million people aged 38 to 73.
The result: 7 hours a night was the optimal amount of sleep for cognitive performance. The data also showed that fewer than 7 hours of sleep AND more than 7 hours was linked to reduced mental processing speed, visual attention, memory, and problem-solving skills.
Study participants who slept 7 hours a night also experienced less anxiety and depression, and higher overall wellbeing, compared to when they slept longer or shorter periods of time.
The researchers say one reason is that getting less than 7 hours a night means people are getting less “deep sleep.” And without that restorative deep sleep, damaging proteins build up in the brain, which is one of the hallmarks of dementia. Too little sleep also hurts the brain’s ability to flush out toxins, which can trigger inflammation and age-related brain diseases.
And sleeping more than 8 hours a night after middle age is linked to depression.
So, to maximize your brain function in middle age and beyond? 7 hours is your sweet spot.
If you want to stick to a budget and save money, both of those things can be accomplished with one technique……and it’s going viral.
It’s the “cash stuffing” trend, which has nearly 400-million views on TikTok. All you need is some cold, hard cash and a set of envelopes.
You start by dividing up your envelopes into categories and labeling them. For example, date night, rent, utilities, vacation, et cetera.
Then divide up your cash into the respective category, or envelope, it’s allocated for.
That’s it – you’re just putting cash in envelopes……so what’s the big deal?
Well, credit cards and payment apps raise the risk of overspending – because they’re so fast and easy……And it doesn’t seem like you’re spending real money. But according to researchers at Carnegie Mellon, Stanford and MIT, when we use cash money – we actually feel psychological pain. They’ve seen this in brain scans. It’s a fact that we spend less frivolously when we pay with cash.
Also, when you pay with cash, you can only spend what you actually have.
So there you go… that’s the “cash stuffing” trend.
According to the Journal of Veterinary Behavior, snuggling your dog can lead to a 166% reduction in anxiety!
But we now know your dog benefits too! In a recent study, owners either petted their dog for 3 minutes – or ignored them – and then the owners left the room, leaving their dog alone for a while.
What they found was: The dogs whose owners had petted them remained calmer and had a lower heart rate when their owner left the room – which is an indication of reduced stress – compared to the dogs who weren’t petted.
So the journal researchers recommend that before you leave the house, give your dog some love and attention, especially a little petting. It’ll help with separation anxiety, leaving them calmer in your absence. Just don’t make a big deal about walking out the door.
This can be tough because if your dog is like my dog, she hangs out by the door. I’ve thought about tunneling out of the house but my wife thinks I’m nuts.
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