Author Archives: Kevin Zheng

Sleep deprivation

I enjoy blogging about things that I’m interested in or things that I can relate with. Something that I really can relate with is sleep deprivation. There’s a common misconception of what the definition of sleep deprivation is. Sleep deprivation is when someone is being robbed of sleep through experiments or in real life. The inability to fall asleep is insomnia, a whole different topic. Sleep deprivation is extremely common among people my age, especially kids in either high school or college. Let’s do a little test to see how deprived of sleep you are.

In my psychology class last year, we had a chart of the seven days of the week. The recommended amount of sleep suggested for kids our age is 8 hours (this varies). That means you should be getting on average 56 hours of sleep a week. Write down the approximations of how many hours of sleep you get each day of the week (taking into consideration that weekends you typically get more sleep). What mine came out to be was that I was nearly 10 hours deprived of sleep per week. If you think that sounds like a lot, take that number and multiply it by 52. Instead of weekly sleep deprivation, you now have your yearly sleep deprivation. I’m 520 hours deprived of sleep in a year! That’s almost 22 full days! This is bad and something that to me has always been something that was difficult to fix.

Why do people get so deprived of sleep? Well there are many factors. People could be extremely stressed out and not go to bed early enough. People might have commitments that last really late, which will force them to go to sleep late. Or a lot of the times (including with myself) people trade sleep to finish work or do other things such as hang out. All these factors are key in sleep deprivation. We sometimes have it cursed upon is, or sometimes do it to ourselves. It’s not a good thing at all, nonetheless.

Some health factors that can be caused by sleep deprivation are decreased performance and alertness. Of course, if you’re tired because of a lack of sleep, you won’t be able to do things that you would normally be able to do when you have full energy. It is also said that you can impair your memory through lack of sleep. Stress levels can dramatically increase as well. For more outcomes of sleep deprivation, you can locate them here.

Finally, to show you what other college kids are feeling, a study in 2001 from Brown University was conducted to see what kind of sleep college kids were getting. It was found that only 11% of college students claimed that they had a sufficient amount of sleep nightly. 73% said that they have occasional sleep problems. 73%! So if you’re curious to see if you were a select few that had sleep problems, you are not alone. At all. Sleep deprivation isn’t good. In order to prevent sleep deprivation, you should go to sleep at a set schedule every day, don’t consume heavy meals late at night prior to your sleep, and many more ways.

Prioritize your time. I know that for a fact that this blog not only goes out to the readers, but also to the writer himself! I definitely need to prioritize my time and sleep and more appropriate hours. It’s important because sleep is good for you, and with a lack of it, I’m only hurting myself.

Sources:

http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/features/important-sleep-habits

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sleep+deprivation

http://www.brown.edu/Student_Services/Health_Services/Health_Education/common_college_health_issues/sleep.php

http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/preventing-sleep-problems

http://www.personalwellnessconsultant.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/sleep-deprived.jpg

Cell Phones and Cancer?

I’m sure everyone has heard of rumors that say that cell phones increase the risk of cancer. I’m here to tell you that this claim is not entirely accurate. But note that I say not entirely accurate. There are reasons that there are these claims. Some scientific facts will make people believe that this in fact is true. However, we know that science is never completely 100% accurate.

If this was true and people knew that cell phone usage was a cause of cancer, then the cell phone market would probably dramatically experience a decline. Let’s be honest, we are all on our cell phones throughout the day more than we anything else. I’ll step forward and admit that I’m on my cell phone almost all day. Cell phones are essential nowadays, which may or may not be such a great thing. But that’s not the point of this blog. What I’m trying to transition into is what about cell phones make people think that it causes cancer. Cell phones contain electromagnetic radiation, which consists of either ionizing or non-ionizing radio-frequency. Being exposed to ionizing radio-frequency is known to increase the risk of getting cancer. There is no evidence that says non-ionizing radio-frequency increases the risk of getting cancer.

There are some studies currently being conducted to test if cell phone usage will cause cancer. About 290,000 participants that are 18 years or older are currently in a study called COSMOS. They will be followed for the next 20 to 30 years. This unfortunately means that we do not have data that can help us conclude anything. But soon we will know once they fill out a survey that talks about their current health at the time. If you want to know about more studies about cancer and cell phone correlation, read section seven here.

The last thing I wanted to mention is the question of whether or not kids have a higher risk of getting cancer through cell phones than adults. As mentioned before, cell phones aren’t conclusively a link to cancer, but if you were talking about the ionizing radio-frequency aspect, children have a less developed nervous system, so they are in fact more vulnerable to “cancer through cell phone radiation”.

In conclusion, the myth about cell phone radiation causing cancer has not yet been proven due to lack of evidence. There are studies being measured currently, but we will not know about them for a bit of time. I would say just to be safe, avoid radiation when it is not necessary, but don’t worry too much about cell phones being harmful. I know for a fact I’ll still be using my phone as much as I normally do!

 

Sources:

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/cellphones

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/electromagnetic+radiation

http://s.tmocache.com/content/dam/tmo/en-p/cell-phones/apple-iphone-6/space-gray/stills/browse-apple-iphone-6-space-gray.jpg/_jcr_content/renditions/cq5dam.web.280.280.jpeg

 

Studying before bed

Remember the days in high school where you had sports, clubs, or other commitments after school? Sometimes people came home at night. I remember coming home sometimes at 10:00 at night, with a countless amount of work to do. I like to work during the day and not procrastinate, but sometimes I had no choice. I would be up until 2:00 in the morning, just finishing my work. Luckily, I found some facts in a couple of articles that say that studying before bed can actually be beneficial.

Supposedly, sleeping right after you study, you retain a lot of what you learned the next morning. A study was done in which 207 participants were asked to memorize pairs of words and the next day they were to take a quiz to see if they remember the pairs. Half of them studied at 9 AM the day before, the other half at 9 PM, and soon after went to bed. The results came out that both of them did equally well on the exam, but the ones who went to bed after they studied were able to pair up unrelated words significantly better than the 9 AM people. This shows that those who slept right after studying retained more information than the others. For the full study, you can read about it here.

Does this mean that procrastinating until the final night is a good idea? I am absolutely not condoning that, but I do know now that if you attempt it you won’t be in too much trouble. Definitely work prior to the night that your exam or assignment is due. But just know that after sleep, you are able to retain information effectively whether you think about it or not!

 

Sources:

http://lifehacker.com/5896513/study-before-bed-for-significantly-better-retention

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0033079

http://magazine.good.is/articles/if-you-sleep-after-you-study-you-ll-remember-more?full_site=1

http://wamu.org/sites/wamu.org/files/styles/headline_landscape/public/images/attach/sleep.jpg?itok=tLUsq9_6

Fruit Allergies

Something I’ve had to deal with all my life was being allergic to fruits. Fruit allergies are a form of a food allergy in which someone has an abnormal immune reaction to the proteins found in fruits. It’s just my luck too that I absolutely love fruit, and can’t go a day without eating one. Luckily, I am not allergic to all fruits. I am able to eat grapes, watermelon (and mostly all melons), oranges, etc. A lot of my favorite fruits are still available for me to safely consume. Unfortunately, a lot of my other favorite fruits will eventually bite me in the bottom later. Or in this case, bite me in the throat.

The symptoms of fruit allergies are a nuisance. Your throat begins to close up or become extremely itchy. Your ears, tongue, and lips can all become extremely itchy. Sometimes you grow temporary hives around your lips that are excruciatingly painful. These can last somewhere between 5 minutes to an hour. Depending on the consumption of fruits that you were allergic to. Personally, I suffered some painful symptoms in my days of fruit eating. I had no self control and because I so loved pears, mangoes, plums, and cherries, I just ate them!

This brings a topic of whether or not people can grow out of these allergies. I’ve researched this and found that some people have lifelong allergies and there is no evidence that people could potentially outgrow it. No studies were found to suggest that it grows worse overtime, but by personal stories I can say that my allergies gradually got worse. The more I ate fruits that I was allergic to, the worse the symptoms got (I know, I have serious self-control issues!).

The most common allergies in fruits are found in the rosaceae family. The fruits in that family consists of apples, plums, pears, mangoes, cherries, and peaches. Of course those are all my favorite fruits and I’m unable to eat them. However, something I noticed was that I am allergic to most fruits that have skin that people typically peel off. This brought me to another question. Do the pesticides on fruit play a factor in my allergic reactions? I found that many people get fruit-allergy symptoms through the pesticides found on the fruits that are used to prevent bugs from eating them. The pesticides then contaminate the whole fruit, so peeling the skin off does not help remove the pesticides.

This is something that bothers me. There are no cures to this allergy and that’s very upsetting to me and those who have fruit allergies. I’ll never be able to enjoy a nice succulent apple without enduring the pain afterwards. I’m curious to see if anyone else suffers the same problem as me? If so please share your comments below!

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit_allergy

http://www.swallergy.com/fruit-vegetable-allergy.html

http://www.allergyuk.org/allergy-to-fruit-and-vegetables/allergy-to-fruit-and-vegetables

http://www.medicaldaily.com/antibiotic-pesticide-residue-food-may-cause-severe-allergies-fruit-contaminated-300926

http://srxa.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/fruit1.jpg

Twin Telepathy?

Telepathy is something that science has not yet proven. It is sometimes referred as the sixth sense for human beings. The first five which consist of touch, smell, taste, hear, and see are things that human beings heavily rely on. Something that people are beginning to suggest is the development of an extra sensory perception of telepathy. Something that has been a recent interest in science is the idea of twin telepathy. Are twins able to channel their thoughts even in distant situations?

An observational study was done in which a pair of twins were being observed. One of the twins was enrolled in guitar lessons, while the other did soccer. The soccer twin picked up the guitar later on without having any prior knowledge and was able to play it as if he had taken lessons. These skills are believed to be developed through twin telepathy. It’s a phenomenon that is almost supernatural. How can someone develop guitar skills without even picking it up once prior to this encounter of one? Is twin telepathy really responsible for this outcome?

An experimental study was done in which a pair of twins were being tested. One twin was put in an empty room and the other was put in a room with a bucket of ice water and a rubber snake. When the twin was dunked in the ice cold water or scared by the rubber snake, the other one who was completely left unharmed felt the same feelings. We know this because the twin in the empty room was hooked up to a polygraph, and showed discomfort even though the twin was not subject to it.

Is this enough evidence to prove that twin telepathy is real? If you research some examples, you’ll truly be amazed as to what you read. The idea of twin telepathy is something that I myself can’t even believe. But researching more has intrigued me a lot. Although there is no scientific proof that telepathy is real, there also isn’t any proof that it’s fake. With the examples, it’s a good example of how correlation does not equal causation. Telepathy can be interpreted in a myriad of ways. I’m extremely interested in seeing how the studies begin to progress. Will there ever be proof? It’s very possible, and something that we will all have to wait for.

 

Sources:

http://multiples.about.com/od/funfacts/a/twintelepathy.htm

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/twin-telepathy.html

http://blog.lib.umn.edu/meyer769/section16&17/twin%20telepathy.jpg

Subjectivity vs. Objectivity

I find it difficult to believe that someone’s grade can be determined by the feelings of others. It has been an issue that I’ve dealt with for a lot of my educational life. Subjectivity is basically when someone uses their own personal perspective to judge another. Objectivity is when there’s only one perspective of something. It’s the difference between thinking internally and externally. Something that has always bugged me was that subjectivity is used in a majority of grading throughout educational systems, and this is something that I believe to be extremely flawed.

Math is one thing where 2 + 2 will always equal 4. This is a case of objectivity, where externally there is only one clear cut answer. This way, everyone is graded evenly. When you write an English paper, the teacher grades it based off of a “rubric” that has different requirements. But are these requirements universally interpreted in the same way? That’s the issue here. I could not find many studies to help support this topic, but I can claim without reluctance that subjectivity happens all the time throughout every school. Including to myself.

I took a psychology class last semester in high school where we learned all about subjective grading. I learned that there are many things that can affect the grading of someone’s paper. For instance, if the teacher is feeling ill that day, they might not review a paper thoroughly enough, which will affect the outcome of that person’s grade. If a teacher really favors a student, they might be more lenient on the grading. To me, I think that that is extremely unfair. Graders do not have the same mindset as every other grader, which means that different outcomes are extremely likely in grades.

What can be done about this? Realistically, nothing can be done. An English paper is never going to be 2 + 2. Unless graders are universally trained to think exactly the same when it comes to grading written assignments, subjectivity will be present everywhere. This greatly affected me throughout my educational career, not always in a bad way but it has been bad in many experiences. People grade differently based off of what they are feeling at the moment. So how is that remotely fair to the student? What can possibly be done to help train graders to think the same way? It’s an extremely difficult case to overcome, and it most likely never will be solved. But it’s something to take account in. If you, the readers, believe that you received a grade on your paper that you didn’t deserve, chances are you’re correct.

Sources:

http://www.diffen.com/difference/Objective_vs_Subjective

http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Subjectivity

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/subjectivity

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Objectivity

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5-ae3zp8eaE/UE1H90BL3JI/AAAAAAAAAMk/_kB1cCNuaOM/s1600/Resizedd_subjective-by-michael-kloran.jpg

Is being a vegetarian the healthier option?

Imagine having a nice succulent steak sitting in front of you, with pork chops on the side, barbecue ribs, and a nice healthy serving of fried chicken. Is your mouth watering? Well wipe the saliva off the side of your mouth because I’m here to give you some shocking information. Eating fatty meats, red meats, or potentially unsanitary meats can truly frighten some people. Those things play an impact on individuals’ health. Therefore, some people like to resort to becoming a vegetarian.

Is this really a better option? Vegetarians eat vegetables, fruits, and healthy things right? There’s no way that being a vegetarian could possibly harm the human body. Vegetarians tend to have a diet that consists of low saturated fats, cholesterol, and animal proteins. The diets are higher in fiber and folate. They also have a reduced risk in obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and some sorts of cancers. They tend to live longer, smoke less, and exercise regularly. Being a vegetarian sounds like the ideal lifestyle doesn’t it? This could be right and wrong.

Vegetarians are assumed to be healthier. But not all vegetarians choose a healthy path. There are many substitutes for meat that involve unhealthy options. Substitutes such as high-fat cheeses, junk food, brownies, and candy are all things that vegetarians can eat. Just because they avoid fried chicken, fatty bacon, or red meat, doesn’t mean that they are the better option.

Without meat in their diet, they also are lacking in many nutrients. They’ll get less protein, iron, calcium, zinc, and vitamin B12. Children, athletes, and pregnant females really need those nutrients to help maintain their health stability.

Some other downsides of being a vegetarian are that they are twice as likely to have allergies, a 50 percent increase in heart attacks, and a 50 percent increase in incidences of cancer. They were also reported to have higher levels of impairment from disorders, chronic diseases, and “suffer significantly more often from anxiety/depression”.

But why am I bashing on vegetarians so much? Is it because I eat wings three times a week? No! It’s only to inform. What I’m saying should not throw you off because being a vegetarian is not always bad. If anything, yes it is a very healthy option. But the point in this is saying that you should not resort to being a vegetarian if you are interested in being instantly healthy. To be healthy, you have to control your own diet, your own habits, and other factors that could potentially help. Being a vegetarian isn’t an instant way of becoming healthy, but I’m not saying that it’s an unhealthy option. Anything is possible if you are able to control yourself!

Sources:

http://www.whatworksweightloss.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/vegetables.jpg

http://atlanta.cbslocal.com/2014/04/01/study-vegetarians-less-healthy-lower-quality-of-life-than-meat-eaters/

http://www.calorieking.com/learnabouts/Are-Vegetarians-Healthier-Than-Non-Vegetarians_OTM3.html

Obesity – Hereditary or Environmental?

Being obese and being overweight are two different things. You can be overweight by having too much muscle. Obesity is only linked to an excess amount of fat. Although it is possible that being overweight can cause you to be obese (reverse causation!), but being obese will definitely mean that you are overweight. It is measured based off of your Body Mass Index, or BMI for short. There are charts in which you can see what the different rates of obesity are. Obesity is a serious thing. The United States is ranked in the list of top 10 obese nations in the world. That is not something to be proud of. The mortality rates due to obesity is 300,000 individuals per year!! That is the second leading cause of death in the nation just behind tobacco use. 300,000 people die every year due to this (controversially addressed) disease of obesity. Something that some of us have not clarified is whether or not obesity is due to genes or the environment.

The answer to this controversy is that both genetics and your environment are responsible for obesity. This means that if obesity runs in the family, you’re likely to get it as well. Unfortunately, genes are something that we as human beings cannot control. If you are born with something, you more than likely must stick with that. It’s unfortunate in cases where diseases are hereditary through a family, and obesity is no different.

The good news is, you are able to control obesity. This is where the environmental role comes into play. By saying environmental factors, I’m not talking about the weather or the pollution, but by things around you. For instance, the foods that you eat, how much food you consume, physical activity, etc. By maintaining yourself to a healthy routine, obesity can be controlled. I wouldn’t say that it’s easy, because some people have a faster metabolism than others. What this means is that someone with a faster metabolism than someone else could eat the same amount of food as that person, and not gain as much weight due to a quicker digestion rate. That’s a major issue in obesity as well.

There are many ways where you can address this issue. Obesity prevention is something that is being incorporated all around the world. We have PE classes in schools, healthier choices in food courts, and many more. Some ways where you can balance your weight are as followed:

1. Exercising regularly – if you can exercise on a daily basis, then your body will maintain a healthier state. This is important because you can burn off any excess calories that you might have consumed, and stay in nice physical shape.

2. Monitor your weight – if you keep track of how much you weigh daily, then you can potentially stop a gain in weight and work on losing it (or maintaining it if you are at an ideal weight).

3. Be consistent – this means that you must maintain your drive in being healthy. Motivation is hard to keep consistently, but if you can push yourself every day then it is more than possible to accomplish a goal of preventing obesity, or even losing a lot of weight.

There are many different obesity prevention tips that can be followed, and if you want to see more, click here. Obesity is something that we as people cannot take lightly. It is responsible for many people’s lives, and preventing it will only benefit us. Stay away from junk foods, exercise, and be motivated. By taking little steps, it’s quite possible to decrease the obesity rates and move on to a healthier world.

Sources:

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/obesity/basics/prevention/con-20014834

http://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/Contexts/Uniquely-Me/NZ-Research/Obesity-genetic-or-environmental

http://win.niddk.nih.gov/statistics/

http://www.wvdhhr.org/bph/oehp/obesity/mortality.htm

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/obesity-prevention-source/obesity-causes/genes-and-obesity/

http://workers-compensation.usattorneys.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/obesity.jpg

Electric Cars – good or bad?

Nowadays, global warming is a big deal. We all hear methods of ways to protect the environment from pollution. People practice recycling, turning the electricity off when not in use, brushing their teeth without running water, etc. There are many ways that we attempt to conserve things to help out our environment from the frightening threats of global warming. We are in an age where more and more people are beginning to realize that conserving things are good for the environment, which will help us in the long run.

Something that has been stirring was the use of electric cars. These are vehicles that run purely off of electricity through a battery rather than a gas tank. They were first introduced in the 1880s, and became popular in the late 19th and early 20th century. There are many different types of electrical vehicles. There are Hybrid Electric Vehicles, Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles, Extended-Range Electric Vehicles, and Battery Electric Vehicles. If you’re interested in learning about these specific types of electrical vehicles and more, click here

The controversial question about electrical cars is whether or not they are truly better for the environment. The argue behind this is the time and energy it takes for the engine to recharge. The goal for the usage of electrical cars is to cut the pollution that a regular car produces out of its gas engine. By using electricity, there won’t be pollution when transporting. However what many people do not know is how the electricity is produced. Most of the energy used to power the engine in electrical cars is created by burning fossil fuels. Burning fossil fuels is a huge factor in pollution in our environment. This makes people question the usage of electrical cars, and more importantly the effectiveness of it.

A disadvantage linked to this is that the battery that is installed into an electrical car weighs a lot more than a regular engine. This means that it takes more energy and will reduce the range of the car on one fully charged battery. It could ultimately lead to more energy being consumed due to the weight. This is a potential issue with using these electrical vehicles. It seems minor, but it could add up to be something major.

Fortunately, according to the Electrical Vehicle Association of Canada, the amount of fossil fuels burnt in the process of producing the energy in these cars cut the carbon emission nearly in half. This means that electrical cars are proven to be more beneficial than using a regular fuel engine car. So it is a smarter choice to use these electrical cars.

The rise of these cars helps generate a new outlook on ways to help the environment. It opened me up to start being more conserving of what I do. I plan to recycle more, use less water (of course I’ll use water when I need to, just not excessively!), and other things. Writing this blog post helped me think like this and I hope it can send a message out to you guys!

Sources:

http://www.50waystohelp.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_car

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/fuel-efficiency/vehicles/electric-car-battery3.htm

http://www.utahpeoplespost.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Chinese-Officials-are-bound-to-Use-Electric-Cars.jpg

http://www.tva.gov/environment/technology/car_vehicles.htm

Stay Sanitary!

Imagine eating a bag of Cheetos (or a bag of any favorite snack of yours), and you’re enjoying it to the very bottom of the bag. But then the last mouthwatering Cheeto lies between your thumb and index finger, and you finish it. You’re now feeling unsettled, almost empty inside. You really wanted another one or two bites, but you’re not hungry enough for another bag. At this point, people would revert to what is infamously known as “the best part of the snack”: Licking your fingers.

Stop!

Imagine what you touched prior to that bag of Cheetos. You could have touched a door knob that thousands of other people also touched. You may have just recently used the bathroom. There are endless possibilities that could have occurred. Licking your fingers is the unsanitary option to do. There are probably many things that you don’t realize you are doing that is extremely unsanitary. I researched a few common things that people don’t initially think of that is unsanitary to help everyone out.

An intriguing fact that most people are unaware of is what the dirtiest part in the human body is. People would assume it to be the genital, anus, or mouth. Billions of bacteria are located in these areas, which could make them to be great assumptions. Shockingly, this isn’t the case. The body part that can be classified as the dirtiest is the navel (or the belly button). Dead skin, old hairs, and sweat all accumulate within the belly button. It’s also rarely washed with a majority of humans, leaving it to be extremely dirty. For more information on belly buttons, click here. Make sure you always wash your belly button in the shower because it is commonly disregarded.

For the ladies out there who wear cosmetics, lipstick is a prime location for bacteria. Once applied onto the lips, bacteria remains on the lipstick, awaiting the next encounter. A tip to cleaning it is to dip it in alcohol and wipe it off with a clean tissue.

Something that can benefit everyone in society is the fact that cell phones are extremely dirty as well. Imagine where you put your cell phone. Constantly in your hands, on your face, on tables. This makes them extremely prone to bacteria and germs. Suggestions to keep them clean are to buy sanitizing wipes that are extremely affordable to clean them once in a while. A gross thing that could stress out the dirtiness is that a lot of people’s cell phones are dirtier than toilet seats. Imagine putting a toilet seat to your face to make a phone call. It is technically cleaner than most cell phones. Think about that the next time you use your phone!

There are a lot more sanitation issues that could be resolved by just taking more meticulous care of hygiene. For more places that are unsanitary that you might not realize, click here. Sanitation is extremely important because it helps correlates to an individual’s health. By staying clean, you avoid bad bacteria and germs. Always wash your hands before eating, take showers when necessary, and be aware of dirty things around you. It’s important to stay clean, so think about that more when you are doing things that could potentially be unsanitary!

 

Sources:

http://www.chickrx.com/articles/top-10-unsanitary-things-you-re-doing-and-don-t-realize

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/09/18/germiest-things-phones-toilet-seat_n_3948311.html

http://www.blog.greatzs.com/2012/06/dirtiest-part-of-body.html

https://www.governmentjobs.com/Content/Images/CategoryIcons/sanitation.png

Music while studying?

According to Bob Marley, “One good thing about music [is], when it hits you, you feel no pain.” Music is something that a lot of people would claim that they could not live without. People listen to it in the car, at parties, in the shower, etc. It’s an inevitable aspect in most people’s daily lives.

A huge controversy exists with whether or not listening to music affects your studying positively or negatively.  A lot of people claim that they can’t study without listening to music. Personally, I cannot focus well while listening to music. There are different reasons as to why this is so, but there are also many reasons that studying with music can potentially benefit you.

Music stimulates different parts of the brain. The question is, do people listen to music differently? An experiment was done by Daniel Abrams, a researcher at the Stanford University to test whether or not music is heard differently by different people. After using seventeen participants, researchers concluded that there were many synchronizations involved in key areas of the brain while listening to the same music. In other words, each participant experienced the same effect on their brain after listening to the same piece of music.

The problem is, what makes people capable of listening to music while studying, and others unable to? This could be attributed to other regions in the brain that are not connected directly to the auditory region. There are parts in the brain that control movement, planning, memory, and more relative to this topic, attention. People can focus differently based off of their attentive capabilities. If we add this together, if people experience the same auditory affects in their brains, there must be something that explains how some like listening to music while studying, and how others do not. The answer to that is that people can focus more than others can. I for one have a very small attention span and cannot remain focused on something for a given amount of time. If you forced me to work with music, I would be unable to do so. Some people enjoy music because they are extremely capable of focusing on more than one thing at once. So in other words, if people listen to the same music, they will receive the same auditory senses in their brain. But their attentiveness or other factors in different regions of the brain could affect the idea of studying with music.

Some tips that are useful in listening to music while studying is to listen to songs that don’t have any lyrics. When focusing on a song with a catchy chorus, it’s difficult to remain attended to the work that you are studying. Instead, music such as classical music or instrumentals could actually benefit you more than your favorite Drake or Jay-Z song. Some tips on listening to music and studying simultaneously can be found here. A favorite tip of mine that I learned in my psychology class in high school was that video game music is good for studying. The music is designed to complement multiple tasks. In other words, when you’re playing a video game with background music, the music will rarely distract you from the object of the game. Likewise, it should work the same as when you’re studying. If you’re interested in experimenting this, open a video game soundtrack and study at the same time and leave your feedback in the comment section!

Ultimately, people have different views on listening to music while studying. It could potentially hurt someone, or benefit them. Unfortunately, I did not find any research that answered the question of whether or not someone is capable of training themselves to adapt to being capable of listening to music while studying. If anyone does know the answer to that, leave a response in the comment section! I know for a fact that I’ve tried it and I was very unsuccessful!

Source:

http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/15/health/brain-music-research

http://www.phoenix.edu/forward/student-life/2013/08/should-you-listen-to-music-while-studying.html

https://www.examtime.com/blog/music-for-studying/

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_music.html

http://thesnapper.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/music_exams.jpg

Experiment: Napping

Previously, I blogged about the benefits of power napping. If you haven’t read that blog post, and you want to, you can locate it here. If not, the post basically explains the benefits of napping in different time intervals. When meeting with Andrew over lunch recently, we had a conversation that lead to the aspect of power napping. I told him that I wrote a blog post on that topic, and he suggested that I set an experiment to test if the facts were true. I thought about it, and with little reluctance I decided that I was going to do it!

Basically, what I did was set up times to power nap. I experimented with a 20 minute nap, a 30 minute nap, and a 60 minute nap. I did this to test the different ways I would feel after waking up and to see if they matched up with the facts in my previous blog post. I made sure that prior to all my naps I was tired to see if there was a positive occurrence after the nap. I was also aware of the potential effects that could happen to me after each nap.

The 20 minute nap is said to boost alertness and energy. After 20 minute naps, it’s said that someone can wake up with full energy. I found this very true when I had tested this. I shockingly woke up with energy, not knowing that the idea of taking such a short nap could immediately boost my energy. I found this to be the most effective nap out of the four naps that I tested. After I woke up from this nap I was able to get right out of bed to get to my next class instead of struggling and laying in bed for an additional few minutes.

The 30 minute nap is said to have a delayed reaction. After a 30 minute nap, people are supposed to feel a little groggy for an additional 30 minutes until feeling energized again. I have to relate to this as well. After my 30 minute nap the next day I didn’t want to get out of bed. You may think that an additional ten minutes has no affect. But according to my experiment, it did!

Finally, the 60 minute nap. This nap is said to have an impact on your memory. When I took this long nap, I didn’t notice any differences with my memory. I felt very groggy when I woke up and it took me longer to get out of bed than the first two naps. I didn’t really feel all that well after the nap, and I noticed that I was unable to sleep at night due to the long nap that I took earlier in the day.

The things I took out of this experiment was that the 20 minute nap was the one I preferred of the three. It seemed to be more time efficient and ultimately had the best outcome. I felt great afterwards and also had more time to do more things.

Some things that might have been flawed in this experiment was the level of fatigue that I had before each nap. Also, if I was not in a consistent environment each time I took a nap, a different outcome could have occurred.

I recommend that people take power naps with shorter periods. This was a great experiment because I got to take a nap for a class and then write about it. Napping is a great thing to do, especially in college. So try it out yourself. See what best suits you as an individual. Feel free to leave any comments on your personal napping habits!

Sources:

http://lifehacker.com/how-long-to-nap-for-the-biggest-brain-benefits-1251546669

http://mydadnapping.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/img_1693.jpg

The benefits of power naps (Zzzzzzzz)

As college kids, we are bound to experience nights where we get little to no sleep at all. This is a normal situation for most of us given the amount of work and priorities that we have to take care of. The sleep deprivation that comes along as a consequence is something that will distract us from our classes and clubs. There must be a remedy to solve this.

First thing’s first, the main remedy is to actually prioritize your time and sleep with a good schedule. But sometimes that’s very difficult to do. So the next best option is to take naps! Something you might not have known is that there are benefits for taking naps with different durations. Have you ever took a nap and ended up sleeping longer than you had expected? Then once you woke up you were even more exhausted than when you first wanted to take that nap. In this article, it is suggested that you take 10-20 minute power naps. That sounds absurd to a lot of college kids who could take naps that could go for hours. However, power naps that last 10-20 minutes can heavily improve your energy and alertness. Naps that go for even 30 minutes is close to naps that last for hours because you can wake up with what is called sleep inertia.

Long periods of napping can have many drawbacks. For instance, if you take a long nap during the day, you won’t be able to fall asleep at night which distorts your good sleep schedule that every college kid should try so hard to achieve. Therefore, you might want to take shorter naps.

There are ways where you can keep a consistent nap schedule to help you function well throughout your day. As stated before, you should take naps that go up to 20 minutes. Also, you should nap in the afternoon at a consistent time. Finally, make sure your environment for napping is a good one (not during class!).

Naps are a great thing. Unfortunately, some people (like myself) never take naps because they just can’t, but if you do take naps, you should use these tips to help be extra efficient.

Sources:

http://www.webmd.com/balance/features/the-secret-and-surprising-power-of-naps

http://lifehacker.com/how-long-to-nap-for-the-biggest-brain-benefits-1251546669

http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/adult-health/in-depth/napping/art-20048319?pg=2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_inertia

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Ha Ha Ha Ha

Why did the bee get married? Because he found his honey.

Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?

Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.

If those jokes didn’t make you die of laughter like it did to me, then it’s probably because they weren’t really all that funny. However, if it did make you laugh, then you’re helping yourself! Everyone should laugh daily because it does more than just humor yourself. Laughter is the ultimate medicine for many things. The ironic thing is that laughter is contagious! Have you ever heard a bad joke (for instance, the three jokes up top), and it wasn’t funny at all. But then someone around you laughs hysterically and then you start laughing solely because of their laugh. That’s because laughter is truly contagious. The more you laugh, the better it is for you.

Laughter is good for your health. Having a good laugh can help relax your body from stress for up to 45 minutes. Something some people don’t know is that laughter can help enhance your immune system by reducing stress hormones and increase immune cells which helps give you resistance to diseases. Endorphins are released while laughing (also smiling). Endorphins give off a sense of well-being in the body. Finally, endorphins improves the function of blood vessels, which ultimately helps make the heart healthier.

Here is the following benefits of laughter that could be found here

The Benefits of LaughterT
Physical Health Benefits:

  • Boosts immunity
  • Lowers stress hormones
  • Decreases pain
  • Relaxes your muscles
  • Prevents heart disease
Mental Health Benefits:

  • Adds joy and zest to life
  • Eases anxiety and fear
  • Relieves stress
  • Improves mood
  • Enhances resilience
Social Benefits:

  • Strengthens relationships
  • Attracts others to us
  • Enhances teamwork
  • Helps defuse conflict
  • Promotes group bonding

Laughing is essential to help people stay healthy. Watch comedic shows/movies, hang out with friends, and always smile. Those are great ways to laugh and stay happy and ultimately make you a healthier individual.

 

Sources:

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/endorphin

http://academictips.org/funny-jokes/42-funny-one-liners/

http://www.helpguide.org/life/humor_laughter_health.htm

Is being clean dangerous?

Showering is a necessity in everybody’s lives. We shower after we workout. We shower before or after going to bed. We shower sometimes for relaxation. But what a lot of us fail to recognize is that showering too much could potentially harm us rather than soothe us.

You may think that showering helps clean your body off from germs and other harmful things that could have caught onto your body, and all of that is true. But an excess amount of “care” for your body could actually harm you. Your skin contains protective oils that keep out bacteria from the outer environment. Removing this protective barrier is possible by taking too many showers. Also, the protective oils on your skin helps keep yourself moisturized. Too many showers can cause your skin to become very dry. This is a common problem in a lot of people, and it’s very difficult to overcome. So if you are wondering why your skin is so dry, taking one too many showers can be what’s responsible for that issue. The same thing applies with skin care products such as moisturizers.

There are many ways to take care of your skin. Like previously stated, you should shower to remove the bacteria and germs on your body, but not too often. Taking warm showers is better than using hot water in that it helps retain the lipid barriers found on the skin. It’s also said that liquid soaps are less healthy for your skin as opposed to having natural soaps. Don’t expose yourself to the sun too often to help protect your skin. You can find more facts to keep your skin better here.

Showering is essential, but there are many drawbacks that come along with it. Take these tips and avoid the dangers that come along with over “taking care” of your skin!

 

Sources:

http://kidshealth.org/teen/your_body/take_care/skin_tips.html

http://www.toomuchof.com/showering-bathing/

http://herrickhealth.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/skin-care.jpg

Only Five Senses?

There has long existed a common misconception that the human body only contains five senses. This claim is inherently false. The five basic senses that humans possess are: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. However, there are myriads of other things that our body are capable of doing.

Located in just your skin alone, there are many nerve endings that further expands on the sense of touch. There is the sense of heat, cold, pain, itch, and pressure.

Additionally, there are two senses that people feel all the time: hunger and thirst! Also, there is a sensor located in the bladder that tells you it’s time to use the bathroom, and one in your intestine that tells you that you’re full.

Your muscles and joints have senses that allow you to be aware of different parts throughout your body with the motion and tension of muscles. This is how you’re capable of touching different parts of your body knowingly even without sight. The specific term for this sense is called Kinesthesia.

Synesthesia on the other hand is a phenomenon that stimulates other sensations throughout the body. For instance, a correlation of sight and hearing is an example of synesthesia (hearing something can make you see a shade of a color). However, this rare sense occurs in 1 in 1000 individuals and it’s normally associated with the correlation of numbers/letters with colors Savants (persons who have profound or extensive learning) are able to connect things mentally through the sensation of synesthesia.

There are other senses that accumulate to form all of the senses in the human body. There are many senses that people won’t consider actual senses, and some that people will. There are some that have not even been discovered yet. But many can argue with a lot of backup that there are senses that exceed the five main ones. What we fail to acknowledge is that the senses that we don’t think of are closely correlated to the five basic ones. This makes people eliminate the idea of there being more than just five senses. Looking in more depth shows that there are more senses in the human body. And even more possible, there are probably more senses that we have that have not yet been discovered.

 

Sources:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tiJbVJLOCc0/TZnsckHSodI/AAAAAAAAAAM/euSmgUsUw5E/s320/5-senses.jpg

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/savant?s=t

http://www.scientificpsychic.com/workbook/chapter2.htm

http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/question242.htm

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/07/humans-have-a-lot-more-than-five-senses/

A Dangerous Alternative?

When you eat too unhealthy for a while, what alternative do you resort to?

When you are very out of shape, what alternative do you resort to?

When you struggle in a class, what alternative do you resort to?

All three of these alternatives have one thing in common: they will do nothing but benefit you. When eating unhealthy, you change your diet to a healthier option such as fruits and vegetables. When you’re out of shape you can go to the gym or play a sport. When you struggle in class, you study more and do well on the next exam. Alternatives in this case are all positive ones.

Electronic (E) cigarettes are designed to help smokers quit smoking cigarettes. They look exactly the same as a regular cigarette, but don’t contain the dangers of tobacco that can be consumed through the burning of cigarettes. They can be disposed, or even reused by use of a battery. It sounds like the perfect way to help lessen the bad habits of smoking cigarettes.

However, this could be argued that it is only an alternative that attempts a benefit. The real question is if it’s actually a safer second option. Unfortunately, there is a lack of research that can detain people from knowing the truth behind e-cigarettes. According to the National Youth Tobacco Study, the percentage of high-school students who have tried e-cigarettes more than doubled from 2011 to 2012. The same study stated that 76% of e-cigarette users (youth) also have tried regular cigarettes.

Now what does this say about e-cigarettes? Are they really an “alternative” to smoking? Or are they just a “gateway drug” to regular cigarettes. It is true that smokers can resort to electronic cigarettes at an attempt to quit smoking regularly, but we also are seeing a trend in which non-smokers begin to smoke cigarettes due to their exposure to e-cigarettes. Also, e-cigarettes aren’t the ideal alternative in that they contain addictive nicotine in them. When you ultimately stop using e-cigarettes, you can experience different symptoms such as irritation, depression, fatigue, and anxiety.

Scientists are still trying to figure out the precise pros and cons in e-cigarettes, but for now, proceed with this alternative with caution

Sources:

http://www.cancer.org/cancer/news/electronic-cigarette-use-doubles-among-teenagers

http://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/northwestgeorgianews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/7/ef/7eff0148-1984-11e4-ab9d-001a4bcf6878/53db9e2b8d02c.image.jpg

http://www.webmd.com/smoking-cessation/features/electronic-cigarettes

I love science…

Coming to New Student Orientation, I had no clue what to expect of classes. I found out that day that taking a science gen-ed was required for my major. I had explored my options during scheduling. Physics, Bio, Chem. I just couldn’t decide what to choose because they all sounded so amazingly intriguing (complete sarcasm). Fortunately, my advisor and I knew each other due to prior encounters. This helped me when it came to scheduling because she’s heard both positive and negative feedback from her students about different courses. The reason that I am taking this course is simply because my advisor advised me to do it. Luckily, I do not regret it because my first experience in this class was a very uplifting one.

Unfortunately, I do not plan on pursuing science in any way for my career path. The only reason why is because I feel that business better suited me as an individual. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate science and all the different sub categories of them. But becoming a scientist was not for me. I don’t think that working in labs or doing endless research on things that might not even exist would interest me for the rest of my life. Being a business man is something that I strive to do, but that’s another topic.

Business Man vs. Scientist

The following clip is a video of a little 3 year old who might potentially become a scientist when he grows up. The reason for me posting this link is to show what could have been me had I had a passion for science. Picture the complete opposite of this little boy and that’s probably what I was when I was a three year old, except with a different skin color and smaller eyes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gmx6dNX7_xQ