Trevor Ponder Human Memory

Noticed any difference in your kids’ grades if they sleep late? Teens that miss out on a full night’s sleep during the school week will most likely have degraded school performance due to low energy, poor memory, and will most likely gain weight. This is according to a study led by Professor Olds (University of South Australia) of more than 4000 children. You should be concerned because Adults are no different.

Experts agree that brain development is continuous but is only impeded or degraded by physical limitations, human evolution and sleep deprivation. According to them, your brain is like a muscle. Sleep plays a key role in its development. If Bodybuilders build lean muscle mass by working their bodies hard, followed by a period of restorative rest; the same is true for the brain. As muscles require periods of rest, so does your brain need some time off to process events and unwind. Neuroscientists now believe sleep is not only crucial to brain development, but is also necessary to help consolidate the effects of waking experience – by converting memory into more permanent and/or enhanced forms.

So what happens if we are sleep deprived?
Neurologists believe that as we grow older, our brain activity and memory retention slows down over time. By depriving sleep, we speed up this process. Adequate sleep is crucial to proper brain function – no less so than air, water, and food. Any amount of sleep deprivation will diminish mental performance, cautions Mark Mahowald, a professor of neurology at the University of Minnesota Medical School. “One complete night of sleep deprivation is as impairing in simulated driving tests as a legally intoxicating blood-alcohol level.”  Brain Tissue repairs and organ functions are slowed down when we don’t get enough sleep. When repairs are slowed, the cells itself may die. Since most of our memory processes are entirely dependent on these cells for storage, those who are sleep deprived will experience degraded memory.

Sleeping is also needed to restore body en energy and vigor.
If we don’t get enough rest, the brain doesn’t get enough energy to either store information or process it. In addition, sleeping problems are almost always involved in mental disorders, including depression, schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, as well as head injury. Although sleep deprivation does not directly cause those mentioned, experts agree that not getting enough sleep increases the likelihood. Previous work by Dr. Van Cauter, a professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, found that “metabolic and endocrine changes resulting from a significant sleep debt mimic many of the hallmarks of aging. We suspect that chronic sleep loss may not only hasten the onset but could also increase the severity of age-related ailments such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and memory loss.”

So, if ever you’re thinking of till-dawn-night out, ditch it and sleep!
Worried about getting fired from your job? The best thing you can do to make sure you stay sharp and increase your chances of keeping your job is to make getting enough sleep a top priority.
Not feeling sleepy? Exercise about 5 to 6 hours before going to bed. Daily exercise often helps people sleep. Lastly, eat right at the right time. Avoid drinks that contain caffeine, which acts as a stimulant and keeps people awake while Alcohol robs people of deep sleep. Self – discipline is the key for proper and balanced diet.

Lifestyle for Better Memory sleep

This is a continuation of http://trevorponder.com/2009/07/introduction-meditation/

How Meditation Might Work

Practicing meditation has been shown to induce some changes in the body. By learning more about what goes on in the body during meditation, researchers hope to be able to identify diseases or conditions for which meditation might be useful.

Some types of meditation might work by affecting the autonomic (involuntary) nervous system. This system regulates many organs and muscles, controlling functions such as the heartbeat, sweating, breathing, and digestion. It has two major parts:

• The sympathetic nervous system helps mobilize the body for action. When a person is under stress, it produces the “fight-or-flight response”: the heart rate and breathing rate go up and blood vessels narrow (restricting the flow of blood).
• The parasympathetic nervous system causes the heart rate and breathing rate to slow down, the blood vessels to dilate (improving blood flow), and digestive juices to increase.

It is thought that some types of meditation might work by reducing activity in the sympathetic nervous system and increasing activity in the parasympathetic nervous system.

In one area of research, scientists are using sophisticated tools to determine whether meditation is associated with significant changes in brain function. A number of researchers believe that these changes account for many of meditation’s effects.

It is also possible that practicing meditation may work by improving the mind’s ability to pay attention. Since attention is involved in performing everyday tasks and regulating mood, meditation might lead to other benefits.

A 2007 NCCAM-funded review of the scientific literature found some evidence suggesting that meditation is associated with potentially beneficial health effects. However, the overall evidence was inconclusive. The reviewers concluded that future research needs to be more rigorous before firm conclusions can be drawn.

Side Effects and Risks

Meditation is considered to be safe for healthy people. There have been rare reports that meditation could cause or worsen symptoms in people who have certain psychiatric problems, but this question has not been fully researched. People with physical limitations may not be able to participate in certain meditative practices involving physical movement. Individuals with existing mental or physical health conditions should speak with their health care providers prior to starting a meditative practice and make their meditation instructor aware of their condition.

If You Are Thinking About Using Meditation Practices

• Do not use meditation as a replacement for conventional care or as a reason to postpone seeing a doctor about a medical problem.
• Ask about the training and experience of the meditation instructor you are considering.
• Look for published research studies on meditation for the health condition in which you are interested.
• Tell your health care providers about any complementary and alternative practices you use. Give them a full picture of what you do to manage your health.

Lifestyle for Better Memory meditation

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Meditation is a mind-body practice in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). There are many types of meditation, most of which originated in ancient religious and spiritual traditions. Generally, a person who is meditating uses certain techniques, such as a specific posture, focused attention, and an open attitude toward distractions. Meditation may be practiced for many reasons, such as to increase calmness and physical relaxation, to improve psychological balance, to cope with illness, or to enhance overall wellness. This Backgrounder provides a general introduction to meditation and suggests some resources for more information.

Key Points

• People practice meditation for a number of health-related purposes.
• It is not fully known what changes occur in the body during meditation; whether they influence health; and, if so, how. Research is under way to find out more about meditation’s effects, how it works, and diseases and conditions for which it may be most helpful.
• Tell your health care providers about any complementary and alternative practices you use. Give them a full picture of what you do to manage your health. This will help ensure coordinated and safe care.

Overview

The term meditation refers to a group of techniques, such as mantra meditation, relaxation response, mindfulness meditation, and Zen Buddhist meditation. Most meditative techniques started in Eastern religious or spiritual traditions. These techniques have been used by many different cultures throughout the world for thousands of years. Today, many people use meditation outside of its traditional religious or cultural settings, for health and wellness purposes.

In meditation, a person learns to focus attention. Some forms of meditation instruct the practitioner to become mindful of thoughts, feelings, and sensations and to observe them in a nonjudgmental way. This practice is believed to result in a state of greater calmness and physical relaxation, and psychological balance. Practicing meditation can change how a person relates to the flow of emotions and thoughts in the mind.

Most types of meditation have four elements in common:

• A quiet location. Meditation is usually practiced in a quiet place with as few distractions as possible. This can be particularly helpful for beginners.
• A specific, comfortable posture. Depending on the type being practiced, meditation can be done while sitting, lying down, standing, walking, or in other positions.
• A focus of attention. Focusing one’s attention is usually a part of meditation. For example, the meditator may focus on a mantra (a specially chosen word or set of words), an object, or the sensations of the breath. Some forms of meditation involve paying attention to whatever is the dominant content of consciousness.
• An open attitude. Having an open attitude during meditation means letting distractions come and go naturally without judging them. When the attention goes to distracting or wandering thoughts, they are not suppressed; instead, the meditator gently brings attention back to the focus. In some types of meditation, the meditator learns to “observe” thoughts and emotions while meditating.

Meditation used as CAM is a type of mind-body medicine. Generally, mind-body medicine focuses on:

• The interactions among the brain/mind, the rest of the body, and behavior.
• The ways in which emotional, mental, social, spiritual, and behavioral factors can directly affect health.

Uses of Meditation for Health in the United States

A 2007 national Government survey that asked about CAM use in a sample of 23,393 U.S. adults found that 9.4 percent of respondents (representing more than 20 million people) had used meditation in the past 12 months-compared with 7.6 percent of respondents (representing more than 15 million people) in a similar survey conducted in 2002. The 2007 survey also asked about CAM use in a sample of 9,417 children; 1 percent (representing 725,000 children) had used meditation in the past 12 months.

People use meditation for various health problems, such as:

• Anxiety
• Pain
• Depression
• Stress
• Insomnia
• Physical or emotional symptoms that may be associated with chronic illnesses (such as heart disease, HIV/AIDS, and cancer) and their treatment.

Meditation is also used for overall wellness.

Examples of Meditation Practices

Mindfulness meditation and Transcendental Meditation (also known as TM) are two common forms of meditation. NCCAM-sponsored research projects are studying both of these types of meditation.

Mindfulness meditation is an essential component of Buddhism. In one common form of mindfulness meditation, the meditator is taught to bring attention to the sensation of the flow of the breath in and out of the body. The meditator learns to focus attention on what is being experienced, without reacting to or judging that experience. This is seen as helping the meditator learn to experience thoughts and emotions in normal daily life with greater balance and acceptance.

The TM technique is derived from Hindu traditions. It uses a mantra (a word, sound, or phrase repeated silently) to prevent distracting thoughts from entering the mind. The goal of TM is to achieve a state of relaxed awareness.

Sources:  National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Lifestyle for Better Memory meditation