It’s ironic that I’m sitting here about to write a blog on how important sleep is while i’m loosing vital hours of sleep. It is common knowledge that sleep is highly important to our health, but it sleep that important that we should be prioritizing it above stuff like school work or a job?

While you sleep your body works to support your physical and mental health. Lack of sleep motherly known as sleep deficiency can eventually leave people with chronic health problems if not taken care of. In addition lack of sleep can negatively affect how one interacts with others, learns, thinks, and reacts. The brain is severely affected because while one rests the brain is able to heal itself and renew itself for the next day. Without sleep almost every aspect of one’s well being is negatively affected.

Sleeping not only heals and repairs your brain but it also does this to one’s vital organs like the heart and blood vessels. Due to sleep’s effect on our bodies vital organs like the heart lack of sleep can eventually be a result of many heart related issues like high blood pressure, heart disease, and kidney disease. In addition to heart health lack of sleep is a major cause of weight gain. One study conducted on people demonstrated that for every hour of sleep an individual lost their chances of eventually becoming obese increased. This is because sleep balances hormones and specifically the hormones that make people hungry and full which are called gherlin and leptin. When one loses sleep they become more hungry because the hormone gherlin increases and the hormone leptin decreases leaving one very hungry. If these negative effects of sleep don’t convince you of sleep’s importance than the benefits definitely will.

If one is able to get a good nights sleep every night the benefits are plentiful. One benefit of sleep is a better sex life according to the Nation Sleep Foundation, “According to a poll conducted by the National Sleep Foundation, up to 26% of people say that their sex lives tend to suffer because they’re just too tired. There’s evidence that in men, impaired sleep can be associated with lower testosterone levels — although the exact nature of the link isn’t clear.” In addition to a better sex life sleep can also help people who experience chronic pain, or just general pain which is most likely the result of sleeps ability to repair the body mentally and physically. The bodies immune system is stronger when the body is well rested which enables the body to fight off colds and flus.

The negative affects were enough to encourage me to prioritize sleep a little bit more, but learning about the benefits has me heading up to bed right about now.

http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/sdd/why

http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/features/9-reasons-to-sleep-more?page=2

For centuries women have played the maternal roles in society in America, it was not until recently that this social norm has begun to die. More and more women are entering the work place and taking over powerful positions. Due to women’s late entrance into the working world, women have definitely experienced many challenges. Despite the  obstacles women continue to persevere through the discrimination they face. When thinking about my own future I already consider the difficulties I may face as I begin to look for internships and jobs in the next couple of years. I know that young women across the country just like me have the same insecure thoughts as I do. This realization of mine brought me to conclude that women must have to focus strongly on their demeanor in the workplace especially because in some situations their every move is being watched. If all women including me were more confident about themselves, I feel that women would be more successful.

Over the course of the past ten years research has shown that women continue to have less self confidence than men and this lack of confidence is impending on women’s success. Claire Shipman an author of The Confidence Code shares that there is a large confidence gap between men and women. Shipman goes on to say that one is not born with confidence, they learn it, and with this she gives three recommendations on how to achieve confidence in the image below.

These three tips definitely sound helpful but exercising these skills in real life would be challenging.

The tips given to women trying to be more confident always connect to masculinity and achieving the level of confidence and assertion that men have. Shipman’s research has found DNA testing results and brain studies that highlight the differences between women and men that cause men to have a higher confidence level than women. One study proved that women’s brains are wired more to worry than males brains. Thus explaining why men are able to take more risks in the work place than women. Also studies have found that women are mainly raised to follow the rules while men are taught to be overconfident. Not only are women and men taught this at a young age but society also implements these societal norms through media. Transferring the findings of Shipman’s studies into the business world it can be assured that with more masculine traits women might be able to achieve more career wise.

The Standford Graduate School of Business recently published a new research using surveys, interviews, and observational data to determine how a women should act in the business world to achieve the most success. This study found that women who are able to have and control their aggression, confidence, and assertion, receive more promotions than most other women and men. This control of behavior is known as self monitoring, which is when an individual regulates their behavior to accommodate a certain social situation. Olivia O’Neil an assistant professor of management at George Mason University states, ”Women may have a ways to go, but their ability to be flexible in how they behave is leading to some extraordinary results. Some women are starting to go very high in the managerial ranks using this strategic approach.” O’Neil’s statement lines up with the findings of the research which were that self monitoring, masculine, women recieved, “1.5 times more promotions than masculine men, and about two times as many promotions as feminine men, regardless of whether the men were high or low self-monitors. They also received 3 times as many promotions as masculine women who were low self-monitors” (Rigoglioso, Marguerite). This behavior pattern clearly majorly benefits women in the work place. Although the last fact proves that in able to successfully use this behavioral pattern women must be both self monitoring and masculine.

From these studies I can conclude that with the balance of confidence, aggression, self monitorization, and assertion, women can definitely improve their behavior in the workplace to help them to be their most successful self!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anjali-varma/is-confidence-the-key-to-_b_7637504.html

https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/researchers-how-women-can-succeed-workplace

https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/researchers-how-women-can-succeed-workplace

This morning on the Blue loop I uncomfortably squeezed in between two people to grab the last open seat. The second I sat down I instantly noticed a stench coming from the man sitting right next to me. I began to move closer and closer to the women on the other side of me. This unfortunate situation led me to think about scent and attraction. Obviously when someone smells good it is more attractive than if a person smells bad, but can your own individual scent attract a specific person?

I found that the answer to this question is yes. Each person has an individual scent that is made up of genes that make up their immune system. The, “‘Odor print’ is part of a region of genes known as the major histocompatibility complex (MHC)” (Dove, Laurie). The major histocompatibility complex’s of mens are different from our own and we are attracted to the, “odor prints”, of men who have different immune systems than us. For example if I had a really weak immune system I would be more attracted to men with an “odor print” or scent that represented a strong immune system.

In a recent study , that looks further into scent and attraction, a group of males wore told to wear the same shirt two days. These shirts were then randomly assorted and given out to a group of women. The study found that, “Women were most attracted to men with an MHC most dissimilar from their own, while T-shirts worn by guys with similar MHC profiles tended to be rated as ‘fatherly’ or ‘brotherly’ but not sexually attractive” (Dove, Laurie).

The findings of this study prove that opposites really do attract.

http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/13/the-power-of-smell-in-picking-sex- partners/

http://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/men/sweating-odor/attractive-man-smell1.htm

If you’ve ever people watched at the library, which you probably have considering any sight is better than the work in front of you, you’ve probably noticed that the majority of people have headphones in. Personally, I can’t do school work without listening to my current favorite music, but I know that “studying music” varies from person to person. I am currently sitting at the library right now listening to “Circle Down” by Ayer wondering if the catchy lyrics are distracting me from writing this blog. I know that I need music to do work, but would listening to music without lyrics or no music at all improve my ability to focus and or the quality of my work? This definitely isn’t the first time I’ve asked myself this question so I decided to look into the effects of listening to instrumental music, music with lyrics, or complete silence while studying.

According to the University of Phoenix, listening to music with lyrics can be distracting while you read, study, and write. The study found that your brain can struggle to process musical lyrics and do school work simultaneously. Doing these two actions at once is considered multi-tasking and research has found that multitasking can decrease your IQ by ten points.

In addition to this study researchers at the University of Wales Institute in Cardiff, United Kingdom found that students were able to study more efficiently in quiet environments than in environments with music playing. The study involved twenty five participants who were given a list of things in order to memorize. Participants were then tested on the list they had to memorize. It was found that those who listened to complete silence while studying did the best while students who listened to music while studying did the worst. Researchers concluded that the changing notes and words of music while memorizing an ordered list impaired one’s cognitive abilities. It makes sense that listening to music with lyrics hinders your minds ability to study as efficiently as it can without music. How can one resist repeating their favorite songs lyrics in their head or out loud as they jam along to it while studying, but singing those lyrics can easily distract one from the current material their studying. Imagine listening to “What do you mean” by Justin Bieber while memorizing terms for a bio exam, are you going to be focusing on the bio terms or remembering all the good times you had listening to this song? This led me to the last option besides silence; classical music.

In an experiment done by Macquarie University Professor William Forde Thompson, and his team played Mozart piano sonata while two groups of students read a passage. One group of students listened to a slow version of the Mozart piano sonata and the other group listened to a fast version of the Mozart piano sonata. Forde concluded that the student’s comprehension was only affected if they were in the group listening to the fast music. Forde proceeded to note that he thinks, “The reason why music doesn’t impact our thinking as much as it should is because music has the ability to put us in a better mood, which therefore increases our IQ.”

There are clearly various different opinions on listening to music while studying, but I think that the general take away is students should do what works best for them, whether its listening to silence, classical, or music with lyrics. Maybe if you feel your grades could potentially be better try switching up your background noise.

http://education.seattlepi.com/listening-music-doing-homework-affect-grade-school-1365.html

http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2010/07/27/music-may-harm-your-studying-study-says/

http://www.spinedu.com/listen-music-studying/#.VhsZ3Xg-Dq0

I will be the first to admit that I am the friend that is always last to the dinner reservation, the student that barges into class minutes after it started, the one that is late no matter how important the event is. I constantly get yelled at by authority figures for being late and sometimes even by my own friends. In result of my issue of always being late I decided to look further into the reasons why i’m always late because no matter how hard I try, I still find myself being late.

The correct term for someone who is always late is a chronically late person. The word chronic makes lateness sound like a disease or something and that’s because health issues can be the result of certain individual’s lateness. Diana DeLonzer, the author of Never Be Late, conducted a study at San Francisco State University involving chronic lateness and found that of the two-hundred and twenty-five people in the study, seventeen percent of them were chronically late. The seventeen percent who were found to be chronically late, “Demonstrated trouble with self-control (were more prone to habits such as overeating, drinking too much, gambling and impulse shopping), showed an affinity for thrill-seeking and displayed ADD-like symptoms like restlessness, trouble focusing and attention issues” (Schupak, Amanda). DeLonzer’s study results give a clear insight into the many factors that attribute into a person being chronically late. In addition to DeLonzer’s findings, Pauline Wallin a psychologist in Camp Hill, PA, has found that a major cause of lateness is anxiety. Similarly to Wallin’s conclusion, Psychologist Linda Sapadin, PhD, also agrees that anxiety can cause lateness, “There’s a fear factor in which people are anxious about going at all or about getting there too early and having nothing to do” (Sapadin, Linda). I can definitely see how anxiety could trigger lateness especially when considering if someone has low confidence they could be anxious to be seen by other people or just to be in public outside of the comfort of their own home.

After learning about the multitude of issues a person can have to cause their lateness I wanted to know how one would go about solving their issue of constantly being late. DeLonzer recommends looking deeper into the reasons one is late. In the image below DeLonzer lists and describes seven of the most common types of late people.

Identifying the causes of why one is late is the first step and it’s big one because it leads to discovering the underlying causes of one’s lateness. The causes can also help one uncover what type of late person they are from the list above. Once one is able to recognize themselves as a late person they can come to realize how much one underestimates how long a task will take to do. This is formally known as a Planning fallacy which is when one underestimates how long a task will take. Experts say that is said to be one of the most difficult behavioral patterns to change. A way to change this is by “Relearning to tell time”, a strategy developed by DeLonzer to improve one’s perception of time. Relearning to tell time is the first step in DeLonzer’s three step plan to overcome lateness. These three steps are listed and described in the image below.

If you are a person who is constantly late and wants to change your ways, don’t fret, there is clearly tons of ways to crush this bad habit. To all the other late people who see no hope for changing their ways this article about how late people are more optimistic may make you feel better about yourself. Lastly, Famous English Humorist Edward Verral Lucas did once say, “People who show up late for things are always so much more cheerful than the people who have to wait for them” (Lucas, Edward).

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/28/always-late-be-on-time_n_2534109.html

http://www.webmd.com/balance/features/help-chronically-late

http://www.wsj.com/articles/we-know-why-youre-always-late-1422900180

Everyday there is a new diet trend in the media, whether its munching on cotton balls to clench your hunger or substituting cabbage soup in place of all your meals. People are willing to try anything to look their best. Although diet trends do work for some people, everyones metabolisms are different so it’s hard to determine whether a diet fad will work for you or not. Aside from diet trends, I think that in general, people who are trying to loose weight eat the least they can. The question is, does eating less really make you loose weight?

In this recent article written by Jonathan Bailor, he writes that it is a complete myth that eating less will cause fat loss. Bailor argues that eating less not only slows down your metabolism completely, but also burns muscle tissue.

Bailor explains that when we deprive ourselves of food our body hangs on to body fat and burns muscle. When you’re starving and your body needs energy it holds on to body fat because body fat is stored energy. He further explains that our bodies begins to burn muscle tissue because our metabolisms are trying to savor the last bit of energy or amount of food we have left in our systems. Muscle tissue burns a ton of calories so our bodies get rid of it to savor energy.

When one stops starving themselves and begins to consume regular amounts of food, the body thinks that you are overeating because it does not have as much muscle tissue to burn calories. Overeating is what creates new body fat. In addition to gaining new body fat, “After our metabolism is starved, its number one priority is restoring all the body fat it lost and then protecting us from starving in the future. Guess how it does that? By storing additional body fat” (Bailor, Jonathan), this large build up of fat is known as, “Fat Super Accumulation”.

I think that people should rethink the feeling of accomplishment from skipping a meal, because it definitely won’t make your jeans looser.

Sources:

http://www.bengreenfieldfitness.com/2013/12/diet-myth-news-flash-eating-less-cause-fat-loss/

After seeing the yellow labrador retriever puppy in the HUB I can’t help but miss the comfort of my own pup at home. Growing up with a dog it’s strange not constantly being in the presence of one. Anyone who has a dog knows that they are the most loving creatures on the planet. I personally think that nothing compares to the excitement that a dog has when they greet you after a long day and act like they haven’t seen you in a year. It’s no surprise to me that almost fifty-percent of Americans own dogs, whats not to love? How do dogs make us fall in love with them so easily? I decided to research further into the benefits of owning a dog and this is what I found……

Dog’s certainly can’t walk themselves and as owners know even on the coldest of winter mornings it’s their job to get up and walk them. If that’s not true love I don’t know what is. In an 2006 Canadian study it was found that people who owned dogs, “Walked an average of 300 minutes per week, compared with non-dog owners, who walked an average of 168 minutes per week” (Jacques, Renee). Even if its just a quick walk it still counts as exercise which is widely known for increasing mood.

Not only do dog owners release endorphins while walking their dogs, they are also more likely to be involved with their community and the people in it. This was found in a recent study at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University  which found that you are almost forced to socialize with people when you have a cute, furry, friend, by your side. People are bound to ask the age, breed, and birthplace of your pooch or they might just ask to say hi.

In addition to potentially giving you a better social life, just being with your pup can boost your mood immensely. In a study done in 2009 by Miho Nagasawa of Azabu University in Japan proved that ones level of oxytocin largely increased after being in the presence a dog.

It’s been proven I think that many of these benefits of owning a dog are over looked. After reading more into the benefits its definitely understandable how a dog owner might not think anything of their frequent morning walk or small talk with neighbors. Our dogs might be bringing a lot more  to the table for us than we originally thought.

Sources:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/03/dog-health-benefits_n_4683351.html

http://www.helpguide.org/articles/emotional-health/the-health-benefits-of-pets.htm

– http://www.webmd.com/hypertension-high-blood-pressure/features/6-ways-pets-improve-your-health?page=2