Lets face it, this generation is addicted to their cell phones and on those cell phones they are usually browsing social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat.  The amount of time I spend on social media, which is far too much I will admit, got me wondering.  Is there a correlation between social media and depression?  I predict that this correlation was highly likely.

Studies have found that Facebook causes many to feel envy when they see those they know being successful.  There was a study done at the University of Missouri where 736 college students were asked a few survey questions (Beres). The majority of the students spent about two hours on Facebook each day (Beres). A little background on the study was that, “Seventy-eight percent of the subjects identified as white Americans, and 68 percent identified as female, with a median age of 19” (Beres).  The participants were asked various questions. They were asked to “rate how much they agreed with statements linked to feelings of envy, such as, “I generally feel inferior to others,” or “It somehow doesn’t seem fair that some people seem to have all the fun.”  Then, participants rated how much they agreed with phrases that corresponded to depression, such as, “I was bothered by things that usually don’t bother me” and “I talked less than usual” (Beres).  The researchers then concluded that, “ while heavy Facebook use was not linked directly to depression, frequent users who experienced feelings of envy were more likely to identify with statements corresponding to depression. These tended to be users who compared their own lives to friends’ photos of luxurious vacations, status updates about good news and so on” (Beres). Clearly this study was a large one and it is helpful to know the demographics when looking at a study.  For instance, knowing that 68 percent of the participants were female can help us to conclude that girls are more likely to envy those they see one Facebook who look successful.  This makes sense that they would experience envy and then identify with statements that were depressing.  I felt like this study was pretty one sided since it dealt mainly with 19 year old females, so I looked into other studies.

Next there was an experiment done by Austrian researchers that proclaimed that people feel crappy every time they’re on Facebook, no matter what they see. They came to this conclusion after conducting two experiments. The experiment consisted of a decent sample size, considering there were, “300 English and German-speaking participants”. The first experiment was pretty simple.  The researchers asked the “participants to indicate how much time they’d spent on Facebook that day and then rate their mood” (Hiscott). The second experiment was a little more complex.  They “asked one group of people to spend 20 minutes on Facebook — posting status updates, chatting with friends and scanning their News Feeds — while another group spent 20 minutes browsing the Internet without visiting any social media sites. A third control group was given no instructions at all” (Hiscott). Then the researchers asked all three groups the same question, “How meaningful was the time they spent online?”(Hiscott).

The researchers concluded that people felt worse after using Facebook because they believed they weren’t using their time meaningfully.  In other words, all the participants felt like their time on Facebook wasn’t meaningful.  When people do things that aren’t meaningful, they aren’t going to be in a good mood. This study shows once again that Facebook can greatly affect our moods and eventually lead us to feel depressed.
>
> Looking at the experiments performed by the Austrian researchers, we must consider a few things.  First, I believe that their evidence to support the conclusion that Facebook can affect our moods and lead to depression is weak.  Therefore, I do not believe that the studies prove the correlation. However, if they explained the study and maybe asked the participants to rate how they felt after they used Facebook and write down a few of there feelings, this could show a stronger correlation.

All and all, I think it’s clear that there are some great studies when it comes to Facebook and Depression.  However, I do believe that in years to come there will be greater evidence to support the correlation between Facebook and depression.

Works Cited

 Beres, Damon. “Heavy Facebook Use Makes Some People Jealous And Depressed: Study.”

The Huffington Post. The Huffington Post.com, n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2015.

Hiscott, Rebecca. “Why You Feel Terrible After Spending Too Much Time On Facebook.”

 The Huffington Post. The Huffington Post.com, n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2015.

There is nothing that I hate more than snoring.  My father just happens to be the loudest snorer I know and it drives me nuts.  When we went on a family cruise I put tissues in my ears to try to block out the sound.  I’m lucky enough to have a roommate that doesn’t snore.  I even asked her before I met her if she snores due to the fact that it really drives me insane.  Why do we snore in the first place?  Is snoring loudly a bad thing?  Lastly, does snoring have an affect on people’s marriages?

Snoring is more than just breathing heavily.  First off, Dr. Neil B Kavey, Director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Columbia University, explains what is really happening when we snore.  He first claims that snoring is the “vibration of relaxed, floppy tissues that line the upper airway”( Why).  Dr. Kavey then goes into depth about how the sound is really produced by stating, “When you sleep, muscle tone throughout your body decreases.  All the muscles in your body relax.  Your upper airway is lined with muscles that keep the airway open.  When those muscles relax during sleep, the diameter of the airway decreases and in some people, this partially blocks the airflow, leading to turbulence.  Instead of air flowing smoothly down the airway into the lungs, it flows with gusts and bursts.  As the air travels through the airway, it picks up speed and gets whipped around in all different directions.  As the air bounces around, it hits the relaxed, floppy tissues lining the throat and causes them to vibrate, kind of like a flag in the wind.  This is the snoring sound” (Why).  In simpler terms, when we go to sleep and our muscles relax the airway becomes smaller and basically blocks the airflow.  Once the air travels, it hits the lining of the throat causing the snoring to occur. Some may ask, why don’t we snore when we are awake?  The answer to that question as Doctor Kavey describes it is that, “People don’t make a snoring sound when they are awake because the muscles in the throat hold the airway open wide enough for a smooth flow of air into the lungs” (Why).  This I find very interesting. I have never thought about why we don’t snore during the day, but I am thankful that we don’t.  Now that we have an in depth explanation as to why we snore, we will transition and see if snoring loudly is a bad thing.

My father as I mentioned before snores so loudly that I can hear him every night from my bedroom at the end of the hallway.  In order to escape the sound that he makes, I sleep with a noise machine.  Yes, I know that it may sound dramatic, but there is nothing more I hate in the world beside snoring. There was an interesting study done by a well known institution (University of Pittsburgh.. PSU is better by the way) where they surveyed 800 participants.  The researchers asked the participants who ranged from the ages of 45 to 74 about the quality of their sleep.  They found that, “Three years later, the people who reported snoring loudly were more than twice as likely as quiet sleepers to have metabolic syndrome — a cluster of risk factors for heart disease, diabetes, and stroke that includes high blood pressure, high blood sugar, low “good” cholesterol, high triglycerides, and excess belly fat” ( Gardner).  Although I do find this study very interesting, I do take into consideration that eight hundred people is a very large sample size and that all these people could be from different socioeconomic backgrounds and therefore third variables could affect the reason they got this disease.  For example, say a person that was surveyed was from a poor area and only could afford junk food and fast food.  This would cause increased cholesterol and body fat. However, personally I do believe that the study is pretty accurate because if you think about it logically, snoring can keep you up at night and a lack of sleep leads to many health problems.  Sleep is important and when your partner sleeping next to you snores, getting enough sleep for yourself becomes a problem.

All and all, it’s very clear that we all snore and we don’t just do it because we are very tired.  Though everyone doesn’t snore, studies are finding that those who snore loudly are experiencing health problems down the line.  Personally, I’m just glad that my roommate and I both don’t snore and that I don’t have to listen to my Dad snore at home anymore!

Works Cited

 Gardner, Amanda, and Copyright Health Magazine 2011. “Snoring, Sleep Problems May

Signal Heart Risk.” CNN. Cable News Network, 01 Dec. 2010. Web. 22 Oct. 2015.

F.A.C.S., David Volpi M.D. P.C. “How Snoring Can Wreak Havoc On A Marriage.” The

Huffington Post. The Huffington Post.com, n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2015.

 “Why Do We Snore?” Msnbc.com. N.p., 27 Jan. 1999. Web. 21 Oct. 2015

We’re all guilty it of it; I know that I am.  Every night before I go to sleep I find myself staring at the screen of my cell phone or watching an episode of Gossip Girl.  What many fail to realize is that the screen they are staring at actually disrupts their sleep and has a major effect on their body.  I haven’t gotten enough sleep since August when I started at University Park and I think that I am the only one to blame.   After all, if I just put down my cell phone an hour before I went to bed, I would probably get more sleep. In class, we discussed how lights affect our mood and can also lead to depression. This discussion sparked my interest and I wanted to know how reading on a digital screen that produced some type of light affects both our bodies and sleep?

Whether we know it or not, reading on a screen affects hormones in our brains.  As matter of fact, Dr. Dan Siegel, who is a clinical Professor at UCLA School of Medicine, claims that “exposing our eyes to this stream of photons from the objects is basically telling your  brain to stay awake” ( Gmoser).  He later goes on to say, “that light tells your brain to not create melonie”, this is the hormone that controls your internal clock basically ( Gmoser).  Dr. Siegel’s advice is that we all “give you an hour before you go to bed”, which is easier said than done for many.  

There have been many studies done to prove that reading something that produces digital light before bed affects sleep as well.  A hospital in Boston known as the Brigham and Women’s Hospital studied the “effects of reading an LE- eBook compared to a printed book” (Beres).  They found that “Participants reading an LE-eBook took longer to fall asleep and had reduced evening sleepiness, reduced melatonin secretion, later timing of their circadian clock and reduced next-morning alertness than when reading a printed book” (Beres).  In addition, Anne- Marie Chang, who has a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the Hospital stated that “the body’s natural circadian rhythms were interrupted by the short-wavelength enriched light, otherwise known as blue light, from these electronic devices”( Beres).  Dr. Siegel would agree with the statement made by Dr. Chang that the lights from these devices affect melatonin, which eventually affects our internal clock which causes us to stay up longer and get less sleep.

What we must take into account with the experiment that took place in Boston is the following. First, there could be a third variable that causes the participants who were reading the digital E-books to have a longer time to fall asleep.  This third variable could be that maybe the participant had a glass of coffee about an hour before they went to bed.  Or maybe the participant took a nap mid-day and wasn’t really that tired after they put down their E-book and tried to fall asleep.  Vice versa, those who read the paperback books could have been up the night before till 3 AM doing work and were so tired that they fell right asleep after reading the paperback book.  As you can see, there are many third variables that need to be considered in this study.

What many would never guess is that suppression or elimination of melatonin may also cause things such as obesity, diabetes and other disorders ( Really?).  Dr. Siegel from UCLA brought that up in his video, “sleep allows active neurons to rest,  but more than that the supportive cells called Glial cells are now cleaning up the toxins that the neurons produce. If you don’t get from 7 to 9 hours of sleep, then the toxins remain there.  Without sleep our attention falters, our memory is impaired, your insulin that helps regulate your metabolism is turned upside down so you’re more likely to gain weight from what you eat, and eat more” (Gmoser). Clearly the less sleep we get the more our bodies are affected and if you think about it, reading on these screens before bed is causing us to get less sleep. 

All and all, I think it is very clear that everyone needs to put down their electronics before they go to bed.  Not only does reading on a screen disrupt sleep and cause us to take longer to fall asleep, it also may affect our wellbeing such as weight and cause us to have another disease.  So put the phones, iPad, and Ebooks down.  After all, you can check Facebook tomorrow; it will still be around.

                                                                Works Cited

Beres, Damon. “Reading On A Screen Before Bed Might Be Killing You.”The Huffington

              Post.com, n.d Web 21 Oct. 2015

Gmoser, Justin. “This Is What Happens to Your Brain and Body When You Check Your

Post. The Huffington Post.com, n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.

Phone before Bed.” Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 17 Feb. 2015. Web. 21

        Oct. 2015.

Really? Using a Computer Before Bed Can Disrupt Sleep.” Well Really Using a Computer
Before Bed Can Disrupt Sleep Comments. N.p., 10 Sept. 2012. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.

Ever since I was a child my parents would never allow soda in my house.  So at any event where there was soda, my brother and I would admittedly run to it.  When we were teenagers around age fifteen,  my mom showed us a video about Mountain Dew and ever since that day my brother and I have ordered water with lemon at every restaurant we’ve been to.  The video showed how people who live in the Appalachian Mountains in the United States drink a lot of Mountain Dew.  Due to this drink, many of them don’t have any teeth and their dental hygiene is horrendous.  This got me wondering if sugary drinks such as soda have an effect on our teeth?  After all, the soda does more harm than good to our teeth than one would think.

There was a study done at one the most prestigious schools in China known as Zhejiang University.  There Ran Cheng, Hui Yang, Mei-ying Shao, Tao Hu and Xue Dong Zhou all studied one participant.  The man happened to be 25 years old.  He was a frequent drinker of Coca-Cola for more than seven years. The man claimed that “In the first 3 years, he drank 0.5~0.75 L cola a day and teeth-brushed once a day.  During the period of 4~5 months into the 4th year, he drank 1.5 L cola a day and some fruit juices (especially grape and citric juices), and he brushed his teeth or gargled with water once a day, mostly in the morning. In the latest 3 years, he continued drinking 1.5 L cola a day and teeth-brushed once or twice daily” ( Cheng).  More background on the man was that he was a bank teller who was often very busy and this caused him three years ago to start drinking this Cola more frequently (Cheng).  When they examined his teeth they found that the man’s teeth were full of cavities, lesions and  serious decay (Cheng).  

What we have to take into consideration when looking at this study is that it only focuses on one man, wish isn’t a big enough sample size to make a conclusion that sugary drinks cause tooth decay.  In addition, there could be third variables that affect the decay such as the type of food this man eats. After all the food, he may consume may be full of sugar which can cause cavities as well.  In the study, it stated that he only brushed his teeth once a day.  The number of times one brushed their teeth could be another third variable as well as the type of toothbrush and toothpaste he uses.

After looking at the study done by the University of Zhejiang, I wasn’t convinced that sugary drinks cause tooth decay, so I looked further into it. Researchers at the University of Iowa’s College of Dentistry found that sports drinks such as Gatorade and energy drinks like Red Bull affect teeth more than soda (CNN).  The researchers, “soaked extracted human teeth in various liquids for 25 hours, and then measured the structural changes, or lesions” (CNN).  This study was controlled and there truly is no third variables that could affect these findings considering that the fake teeth were soaked in liquids consistently for 25 hours without being manipulated.  What we always must take into account is that  there is an abundance of citric acid, this is “an organic compound” and “too much citric acid can be hard on the teeth” (Soda). After all are sugary drinks really that good anyway?

All and all, it is evident that there is a correlation between sugary drinks and tooth decay.  What many fail to realize is that it isn’t just soda that can decay your teeth, it is also drinks such as Gatorade and Red Bull that play a part in the decay as well.  So the next time you’re about to order soda or drink a Gatorade maybe you should consider drinking water.  After all, it may help preserve your teeth.

                                                                 Works Cited

Cheng, Ran, Hui Yang, Mei-ying Shao, Tao Hu, and Xue-dong Zhou. “Dental Erosion and

Severe Tooth Decay Related to Soft Drinks: A Case Report and Literature Review.”

Journal of Zhejiang University. Science. B. Zhejiang University Press, n.d. Web.

      21 Oct. 2015.

CNN. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.

“Soda and Crack Cocaine Cause Similar Damage To Teeth.” Soda and Crack Cocaine Cause

       Similar Damage To Teeth. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.

Football, of course, is America’s greatest past time.  Yet recently all over the news we see that football comes with a price.  As we all know it’s a tremendously dangerous sport.  A few weeks ago, a young man lost his life at the age of 17 in a town just a half hour from mine.  Senior  quarterback Evan Murray from Warren Hills High School died after a hit he took while playing under the lights at a home football game. The news affected many in my area and really made me wonder how many people die each year from this sport? In addition, does the younger you start this game have an impact on your health in the long run? This blog post is for Evan and those who were affected by his loss as well as my mother who never let my brother play football.  I never truly understood why until now.

Just last month three high school football players died from injuries that occurred while playing this sport (The Death). The “big hits” they took were strong enough to end their lives.  As a matter of fact,  “according to the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research, which is housed at the University of North Carolina, 13 high school American football players died from injuries between 2012 and 2014” (The Death).  Though many would argue that the percentage of those who lose their lives to this sport every year is very low, we must just look at the fact that young people are losing their lives because of this sport.  What we also must remember is that kids start playing football at a young age and are unaware of the total it will take on their bodies later in life.

As mentioned before, many football players start playing at a young age. Research has found that the younger one starts playing football, the more likely that there will be a change of structure when they are older. To prove this hypothesis, the National Institute of Health funded an experiment that did just that. The  study was done by Boston University. They took forty NFL players and separated them into two groups. One group had started playing football when they were 12 or older while the other had started when they were younger than twelve. The common thing between the two groups was that they all had concussions and memory loss (Does).   Next the participants were put into an MRI machine where the researchers “looked at the movement of water molecules along the brain’s white matter tracts”. They also participated in, “neurological testing to assess learning, reading and verbal capacities, as well as memory and planning skills” (Playing). The researchers found that “ all the players performed below average on several of the assessments. But by many measures, the overall mental functioning of those who started playing before age 12 registered roughly 20 percent below that of those who started at age 12 and older” (Players). We also must remember that the brain development. What many seem to forget is that from the age of 10 to 12 the brain is in its crucial stage of development and taking a big hit, which many do during this game can greatly impact brain development (does).

After looking at all this research, it becomes clear that the null hypothesis that the starting age in which one participates in football does not affect brain structure has been rejected. Many would see Boston University as a credible source due to the fact that  is a world-class institution.  We must consider that a few factors when it comes to this study. First, the sample size is pretty small considering only 40 NFL players participated. In addition, this study only looked at Men whose average age was 52,  who participated in the NFL for more than two years (Players). In order support this hypothesis even more it would be best to look at not just NFL players but college football players as well. If we really wanted to back up the thesis we would look into other sports, not just football and see if the age in which one participates in a contacts sports affects the brain. It would also be useful to look at both men in women.  If we considered all these factors we would be able to prove they there is a correlation between starting age and brain being damaged when it comes to contact sports. After searching on the web, I couldn’t find any studies that tested the hypothesis that the earlier one starts playing contact sports the more like they are to have a significant amount of brain damage, other than the Boston University study. However, I did find a study that researchers studied 85 brains that were donated (Brain). All the brains were from people who had participated in contact sports.They found that “nearly 80 percent of people who experienced repetitive hits to the head showed evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), and Alzheimer’s-like condition that results in the slow destruction of brain cells” (Brain). Though this study does not focus on age it proves the hypothesis that there is a correlation between brain damage and contact sports.

Though football is America’s favorite past time it happens to be a very dangerous sport. Personally, I believe in order to stop the brain damage that football are experiencing later down the road in their lives we must do the following. Our country should make a law that prevents tackle football until the age of 13 or 14 due to the fact that brains are in their main stages of development around the age of 11.  After all flag football is just as fun as tackle just a little less dangerous.

                                                                              Works Cited

“Brain Damage and Memory Loss Tied to Contact Sports.” Men’s Fitness. N.p., n.d. Web. 21

Oct. 2015.

“Playing Football as a Kid Increases Brain Damage Risk.” CBSNews. CBS Interactive, n.d.

          Web. 21 Oct. 2015.

“The Death of Evan Murray.” Grantland. N.p., 30 Sept. 2015. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.

“Neuroscience.” Research Football Child’s Play Adult Peril Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct.      

2015

After living in dorms for almost two months, it becomes very apparent that we are living in a petri dish.  All of my friends have had some type of sickness. It’s safe to say that I’ve been washing my desk and everything in my room down with disinfectant wipes almost everyday.  I guess It’s better to be safe than sorry.  Germs are everywhere.  Not only are they in our bathrooms, but they are on our desks.  Many forget to remember that they are all over our cell phones that we consistently touch.  So this got me thinking, how many germs are on our devices such as phones, computers, IPads and laptops?  Can these germs make us sick?  Lastly, are there more germs in the bathroom or on our cell phones?

Everywhere you look on campus people are carrying cell phones.  I will be the first to admit that I touch mine more than a thousand times a day.  Many fail to realize the number of germs that our on our cell phones. The Wall Street Journal did a study where they took three Blackberries and five iPhones and swabbed the phones.  They found that the cell phones had  33,200 CFUs also known as Viable Fungi or Bacteria or Fungi, (Socha).  The problem with the Wall Street Journal’s study is that it only studies eight cell phones, which in my opinion isn’t a large enough sample size.  I wasn’t convinced about the amount of germs on our cell phones. So in order to prove that there are a significant amount of germs on cell phones, I looked for larger studies that found similar results to prove that the first experiment wasn’t just chance.

Through research I found two other larger studies.  First, researcher James Francis took swabs from over thirty phones, tablets, keyboards, and one iPad.  He found that the iPad had over 600 Staphylococcus aureus (Smartphones).  This germ that was found all over the this iPad has the ability to produce toxins that could lead to food poisoning.  Who would’ve thought that after touching your iPad a few times, a germ from it could possibly give you food poisoning (Centers)?  Both studies seemed to prove the same thing that there are a significant amount of germs on the devices that we touch hundreds of times per day.  We must remember that not only germs make us sick.  Another study took cell phones from 100 college students.  The authors of the study from the University of Cape Coast in Ghana found that there was, “veritable reservoirs of pathogens”(Calling).  Pathogens are bacteria that can cause illness (Calling).  In addition, “A study published in the Journal of Applied Microbiology the same year warned that some 20 to 30% of viruses can be readily transferred from a fingertip to a glass surface, like that on a touch screen”.  Through Meta-analysis, it becomes clear that all the studies found that there are a significant amount of germs on our devices and that they aren’t just there due to chance.

Now that we know there are a ton of germs on our cell phones, we now must look at the germs that we find in bathrooms.  Cleveland’s Department of Public Health found that a  restroom door handle only has 4 CFU ( Socha).  Now once you enter the restroom and go the bathroom, the toilet seat that you’re sitting on has about 3,200 CFUs on it (Socha).  Remember from the study above that cell phones had  33,200 CFUS (Socha).  Think about that for a second, your cell phone, according to this study has almost 10 times the amount of germs than the toilet seat that you sit on.  The study done by the Cleveland Department of Public Health was a small one, so in order to prove that their finds were correct, I looked into other studies to see if the correlations between germs in bathrooms were the same. I found that  an Assistant Professor from the University of Southern California collected swabs from a toilet.  He found that the toilet only contained three kinds of bacteria and fungi  (Bratskeir). This same Assistant Professor took swabs from cell phones and found that there were up to 10 to 12 different types of bacteria on them (Bratskeir).

In my opinion, these studies make perfect sense.  If you think about all the places you put your cell phone throughout the day, this shouldn’t be surprising.  Also, think about how many times you touch your cell phone to your face and all the times you eat something and touch your phone right after. The research above is able to reject the null hypothesis that bathrooms have more germs than our cell phones.
So the next time you are afraid to sit down on the toilet seat of a public restroom, remember that the device that is probably sitting on top of the toilet dispenser or in your pocket has lots more germs than the toilet seat you’re sitting on. After all, we must remember that the germs on our cell phones can even cause us to become sick.  So wash your hands and stop touching your cell phone so much.

Works Cited

Business Times RSS. N.p., 06 Oct. 2013. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.

Bratskeir, Kate. “Your Phone Is Germier Than You Could Ever Imagine.”The Huffington Post.

The Huffington Post.com, n.d. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.

“Calling All Germs.” WSJ. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,

           n.d. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.

“Germ Finder Activity.” Cleveland Flu & You -. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2015

“Smartphones and Computer Keyboards Have More Germs than Toilet Seats.” International

Socha, Molly. “Your Cell Phone Is Grosser Than You Think.” The Huffington Post. .com, n.d.

    Web. 13 Oct. 2015.
“WSJ Flash Interactive.” WSJ. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2015.

   When our heads hit the pillow at night, our imagination turns on.  Some people dream every night.  Some dreams can be scary, some may have you waking up in tears, others may be funny.  Some dreams may seem so real that it feels like it’s happening in real life.  Some dreams are so vivid that we remember everything about them, while others we don’t remember at all.  Have you ever had a dream that you were being chased and you woke up sweating?  Almost every month, I wake up screaming bloody murder from a dream that I had, believe it or not.  So the question becomes how come some people remember their dreams, while others don’t?  What are the most common dreams?

People dream about a wide array of things.  For example, I often dream about being in my favorite vacation spot or eating my favorite food.  A dream expert by the name of Lauri Quinn Loewenberg did a study with 5,000 people.  He wanted to know which dreams were the most common.  First the participants took a survey.  The study found that the most common dream was the one in which a person’s spouse was cheating on them (Are).  In addition, many dreamed about their teeth falling out, being embarrassed or being chased (Are).  All of these dreams are negative, which is interesting.

On the other hand, many claim that they never dream at night however, this has been proven to be false considering that we all dream every night( Dreams).  It’s very interesting how some of us remember our dreams, while others don’t.  There was a study done with 41 participants, half stated that they were dream-rememberers.  The ones that were considered the dream-rememberers “On average, the self-identified rememberers said they recalled their dreams about five times per week, while the non-rememberers reported knowing what they had dreamed just twice per month” (Nuwer).  People who were the dream- rememberers, “have more activity in the temporo-parietal junction, which the researchers believe may allow the dreamer to focus more attention on external stimuli, promoting intra sleep wakefulness, which means dreams are better embedded into the sleeper’s memory” ( Nuwer). Dr. J. Allan Hobson from Harvard, a psychiatrist and longtime sleep researcher, said it best, “It’s like jogging; the body doesn’t remember every step, but it knows it has exercised” (What).  The point that Dr. Hobsons makes is very valid, we do many activities in life, yet we don’t remember every aspect of them.

In the end we must remember what Dr. Hobson said, “ dreams are tuning the mind for conscious awareness” (What).

                                                                   Works Cited 

“Are Your Dreams Telling You Something? The Truth Revealed! – The Digest.” The Digest Are

“Dreams: The Mysteries of Sleep.” Do We Dream Every Night? N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2015.

Nuwer, Rachel. “Why Some People Always Remember Their Dreams, But Others Never Can.”

      Smithsonian. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2015.

“What Can Our Dreams Tell Us?” The Learning Network What Can Our Dreams Tell Us

Your Dreams Telling You Something The Truth Revealed Comments. N.p., 06

     Sept.2013. Web. 18 Sept. 2015.

    Comments. N.p., 11 Nov. 2009. Web. 18 Sept. 2015.

http://www.livescience.com/17520-chewing-gum-testThere are so many gum flavors out there.  From Stride, to Extra, to Orbit, to Juicy Fruit, to Hubba Bubba and of course, my favorite, Five gum.  Many may argue that gum chewing can be distracting and annoying.  Some teachers in high school and elementary school make their students spit out the gum they are chewing in class.  That teacher probably wasn’t aware that not only does gum stimulate the brain, but also researchers have found that gum actually improves test scores.  So the next time you go to class, make sure you’re chewing gum, but with your mouth closed.

       As mentioned before, many people fail to realize that gum stimulates the brain.  Believe it or not, “to the brain, the chewing action means a meal is about to be consumed.  So the brain is then tricked into sending signals to release insulin” (Chewing) Then, “the released insulin soaks up any stray glucose or sugar in the blood and makes it ready to be used as energy for any organs or muscles nearby” (Chewing).  In addition, researcher have found that gum chewing, “gets blood flowing to the head, and improves memory” (Welsh).  It’s truly amazing how chewing gum can not only trick the brain, but trigger something in it.  Many people probably don’t realize that the little piece of sugar in their mouth is making a big difference in their academic success.

 There have been many studies done that prove that gum chewing can lead to better test scores.  For example, there was one study done with 75 participants.  All the participants were divided into three groups: one group chewed gym, one pretended to chew gum and the third group didn’t chew anything or attempt to chew (Chewing).  All three of the groups were given tests such as, “memory tests of words, pictures or everyday information like a telephone number” (Chewing). The group that chewed the gym had the highest test scores.  Another interesting find was that the heart rate of the group that chewed the gym was the highest among all three groups.  This may not seem interesting to some, but “increased heart rate is significant because that means more oxygen is being pumped to the brain, in the chewing groups. This oxygen boosts brain power; that much is clear” (Brain Health).  

Another experiment was done at  St Lawrence University with 224 undergraduate participants.  The students there were separated into three groups, “One chewed gum before and during the test, another chewed gum for five minutes before being tested and a third didn’t chew anything” (Welsh). They found that,“a burst of gum-chewing before testing improved a student’s performance on several of the tests, but only for a short period.  The effect was strongest right after gum chewing and dropped to normal levels within 20 minutes.  The gum chewing helped during recall and memory tasks especially” (Welsh).  Also, “the chewing-gum group recalled 25-to-50-percent more items than the controls”( Welsh).  This study goes to show that, not only does gum stimulate the brain, it also helps to improve and recall more information.

     Gum stimulates the brain and it also improves test scores, so if I were you, I’d start chewing a lot more gum.

                                                                   Works Cited:

“Chewing Gum Stimulates the Brain.” Chewing Gum Stimulates the Brain. N.p., n.d. Web. 17               Sep. 2015.

Welsh, By Jennifer. “Gum-Chewing Improves Test Performance, Study Suggests.”

LiveScience. TechMediaNetwork, 16 Dec. 2011. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.

Picture Url : http://www.livescience.com/17520-chewing-gum-test 

performance.htmlhttp://www.livescience.com/17520-chewing-gum-test-performance.html

http://www.brainhealthandpuzzles.com/chewing_gum_stimulates_the_brai

I’ve been to many quaint coffee shops in my life.  In addition, like many eighteen year old girls, I’ve had plenty of visits to the local Starbucks just fifteen minutes away from my house.  Yet, after only a few weeks at University Park, I feel as if i’m surrounded by it.  Every morning I see hundreds of students running to their 8 am class with coffee mugs.  My roommate brews a fresh batch of coffee from the Keurig before all her early morning classes.  Believe it or not, I’ve only had a sip of coffee once in my entire life.  Not only was it my first sip, but most definitely it was my last.

        For the last couples of weeks, I’ve felt  as if I was an outsider looking in due to the fact, that I’ve only once consumed coffee.  Yet a vast majority of my superiors and fellow students consume it many times daily.  So, this blog, is for all the coffee drinkers out there.  This is for the 83 percent of Americans according to USA Today, who drink coffee daily (Republic).  

     As many learn in high school health class, coffee is a stimulant.  According to Dictionary.com, a stimulant is, “something that temporarily quickens some vital process or the functional activity of some organ or part”.  Not only is coffee a stimulant but, it happens to be made up of caffeine.  Steven Meredith from the John Hopkins School of Medicine is a researcher in behavioral pharmacology and he claims that, “Caffeine is a drug”(Coffee For).  Many become addicted to this “drug”, caffeine, without even realizing it.  As Dr. Griffiths from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine said, “Caffeine is the world’s most widely used mind-altering drug,”(Blakeslee).  Dr Griffiths and his colleague, Dr. Eric Strain did an experiment in which they put an advertisement in a local newspaper, looking for those who were reliant on coffee.  The 11 participants ranged from those who, “consumed less caffeine than is found in a single cup of coffee, while one person drank the equivalent of 25 cups of coffee a day” (Blakeslee).  The participants were told that the study was about the “effects on mood and behavior of several compounds normally found in food and beverages” (Blakeslee).  The participants were told to avoid certain foods as well as beverages.  The researchers gave the participants pills.  One was called a dummy pill that was filled with starch.  The other pill however was filled with caffeine.  Those who had the starch pill experienced the following, “One person who had a manufacturing job made costly errors.  Another could not bring herself to go to work.  Another spent the afternoon in a dark office with her head on her desk.  One woman called off her child’s birthday party. Most went to bed early” (Blakeslee).  This study just goes to show that caffeine is one addictive stimulant.  Also, what most people fail to realize is that caffeine,”increases anxiety and disrupts sleep patterns, leading to a vicious cycle of restless sleep”.  In addition, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration caffeine, “makes you more jittery and shaky, as well as increases your heart beat” (Trevor).

On the other hand, researchers have found that there are some benefits of drinking coffee.  The National Institutes of Health (Coffee Drinkers) did a study from 1995 to 2008.  The NIH, “collected questionnaires filled out by 229,119 men and 173,141 women who were members of the American Association of Retired Persons (Coffee For) between 1995 and 1996.  The respondents were followed until 2008, by which point 52,000 had died” (Coffee Drinkers). The researchers found that, “ the more coffee a person consumed, the less likely he or she was to die from a number of health problems, including diabetes, heart disease, respiratory disease, stroke, infections and even injuries and accidents” (Coffee Drinkers). In addition, the study discovered that, “the risk of dying during the 14-year study period was about 10 percent lower for men and about 15 percent lower for women who drank anywhere from two cups to six or more cups of coffee a day” (Coffee Drinkers).  Another researcher from Sweden, Jingmei Li, states that, “women who drink five or more cups of coffee a day are 57 percent less likely to develop estrogen receptor-negative breast cancer than women who drink less than a cup of coffee a day” (Coffee Habit).  This is due to the fact that according to Mr. Li, “Coffee contains compounds that may differentially affect breast cancer of different estrogen receptor (ER) subtypes” (Coffee Habit).

So maybe one day I’ll decided to drink coffee and join the millions of Americans that already do.

Works Cited:

Blakeslee, Sandra. “Yes, People Are Right. Caffeine Is Addictive.” The New York Times. The

New York Times, 04 Oct. 1994. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.

“Coffee Drinkers May Live Longer.” Well Coffee Drinkers May Live Longer Comments. N.p., 16

May 2012. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.

“Coffee for Health – Positive and Negative Effects of Caffeine – AARP.”AARP. N.p., n.d. Web. 17

Sept. 2015.

“Coffee Habit May Protect against Breast Cancer.” Msnbc.com. N.p., 11 May 2011. Web. 17

Sept. 2015.

    I’ll be the first to admit that I am no artist, however, many times in my life I have doodled all over my lecture notes.  Yet the truth is, I was doing this because I was bored and I was tired of staring at the clock.  The thing that I didn’t realize was that while I was doodling on my paper, I was actually helping myself pay attention more.  I remember my eighth-grade teacher telling me in Technology class that doodling actually helps people concentrate more.  Little did I know that he was right.  A study was done in England by a psychologist named Jackie Andrade.  Forty people were split into two groups. The groups had just finished an experiment that they were working on.  They were about to go home, but then  Ms. Andrade asked them to stay for just a few more minutes.  The participants were asked to listen to a roughly two-minute tape( The Power).  Half the listeners were given a piece of paper in which they were asked to shade in the circles and squares on the sheet as they listened (Cloud ). The other half of the participants were asked to write down the names of those talked about in the tape. Once the tape was finished, the papers were taken away and the results were staggering.  According to the study, “those who doodled during the tape recalled 7.5 pieces of information (out of 16 total) on average, 29% more than the average of 5.8 recalled by the control group” (Cloud). As the study shows, those who doodle are able to remember quite a bit more than those who do not.

     Think you’re the only one who doodles, think again. Influential and powerful people in our society such as President Obama and Hillary Clinton have admitted and been caught doodling.  President Obama even said, “ So, sometimes when I’m in a big, important international meeting and you see me writing stuff down, it might be that I’m just drawing some, drawing some folks” (Cahalan).  In 2012, while Hillary Clinton was attending a national security meeting, a photographer was able to snap a shot of Ms. Clinton doodling.The photo appeared in the newspaper and the headline read, “Caught In The Act”.  Believe it not, many influential people such as Mark Twain, Thomas Edison and many of our past presidents have doodled according to the novel, Presidential Doodles.  We have to realize, like the author of The Doodle Revolution, Sunni Brown said, “ Our highly visual brains see words as images.  Doodling, which unites different neural pathways in the brain, opens us up to greater insights, better information retention and higher levels of concentration, getting us closer to those coveted “a-ha” moments” (Cahalan).

    The reality is that doodling keeps our minds focused.  So the next time you’re doodling in class, don’t stop yourself.  After all, those who doodle are able to retain more information.  Let’s face it, if President Obama can doodle at one of his important meetings, then why can’t you doodle in class?

                                              Works Cited:

Cahalan, Susannah. “Why Doodling Is a Habit You Don’t Need to Break.” N.p., n.d. Web. 17

      Sep. 2015. (NY)

Cloud, John. “Study: Doodling Helps You Pay Attention.” Time. Time Inc., 26 Feb. 2009. Web.

17 Sept. 2015.

“The Power of the Doodle: Improve Your Focus and Memory.” WSJ. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Sept.

2015.

http://nypost.com/2014/02/22/why-doodling-is-a-habit-you-dont-need-to-break/http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1882127,00.htmlhttp://www.wsj.com/articles/the-power-of-the-doodle-improve-your-focus-and-memory-1406675744

We live in an age of technology.  Everywhere we turn, people are using cell phones, iPads, and laptops.  My eighty-five-year-old grandmother uses an iPad to Skype with all her grandchildren and, of course, play the slots daily. Technology is everywhere and we can’t escape it.  More often than not, when you look into a college classroom, you will see more computers being typed on than notes being taken on a piece of paper.  Some may find this scary, but the reality is that our fingers can type much faster than our hands can scribble.  Some may argue this is a good thing, others may argue it’s a bad thing.  The question now becomes, is it better to type notes or physically hand write them?  For all you computer typing note takers, this one is for you!

Only half of my college professors allow computers, but I truly never understood why.  I mean let’s face it, I know for sure that I can type a lot quicker than I can write.  Often, when trying to keep up with a professor’s lecture, my hand starts to cramp.  However, as Andrew and a few other of my professors mentioned, there are scientific studies out there that prove that  hand written notes lead to more academic success.  Now, we must take into account that laptop note taking does  have benefits.  For example,  students can engage in online polls their professors provide to the class as well as, quickly google a concept that is being lectured about that they might not understand.  The reality is that after the student takes that poll, they may end up opening a new tab and surfing through their Facebook news feed.  Laptops are distracting,  For instance, the other day in one of my classes a student had the desire to watch the show “Friends” on Netflix.  Some have the urgency to online shop. I’ve seen it all these past three weeks that I’ve been at University Park, but the reality is this happens at every college.  A study was done with law school students.  It found that  “nearly 90% of laptop users engaged in online activities unrelated to coursework for at least five minutes, and roughly 60% were distracted for half the class”(A Learning). In addition, Professor Diane Siebert, from the University of Colorado found that, “students who used laptops in class averaged 11% worse on tests than those who took notes the “old-fashioned way” (Laptops).  She also found that “students using laptops averaged a grade of 71%, “almost the same as the average for the students who didn’t come at all” (Laptops). We all know that laptops are distracting, so why are they still allowed in classrooms?

Let’s face it, some professors tend to talk pretty quickly and sometimes it’s hard to scribble down everything they are saying.  However, that’s just it. When we write out our notes as opposed to typing them, we can’t write down every single possible thing that the professor is saying.  So our brain works as a filter and makes us write down the most important stuff.  Two highly educated researchers, Pam Mueller from Princeton University and Daniel Oppenheimer from The University of California at Los Angeles found just that. The pair did three experiments and for each study they made half the students take notes on a laptop while the other half took notes the old fashioned way with pen and paper. They found that, “those who wrote out their notes by hand had a stronger conceptual understanding and were more successful in applying and integrating the material than those who took notes with their laptops”( A Learning).  Also, writing by hand is a more strenuous process and that the brain must, “listen, digest, and summarize so that they can succinctly capture the essence of the information”( A Learning).  Ultimately, the brain must do some, “mental lifting” which efforts foster comprehension and retention” (A Learning).  The studies conducted at both UCLA, and Princeton found that whether the lecture was on bats, birds or economics, “students who used laptops had more verbatim transcription of the lecture material than those who wrote notes by hand” (A Learning). Therefore, “the high verbatim note content was associated with lower retention of the lecture material”(A Learning). If you think about it, this logically makes sense.  Put yourself in the shoes a college student sitting in a lecture. If they are typing notes on their laptops, they are going to just type what the professor is saying as quickly as they can.  However, while they are typing, they truly aren’t analyzing the information that their professor is saying, nor is the information in their own words.

The laptops should stay at home. After all, online shopping and Netflix can wait.  Not only are laptops distracting, but research has proven that old fashion pen and paper helps student retain more information and learn more. So, keep your laptop at home, I promise it will be there when you get back. After all, not bringing it to class may even boost your grade!

Works Cited

“A Learning Secret: Don’t Take Notes with a Laptop.” Scientific American Global RSS.

N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.

“Laptops May Be the Ultimate Classroom Distraction.” USA TODAY College. N.p., 08 Sept.

2012. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.

Picture URL: http://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/assets/4558545/1472187414_be2451c0cd_o.jpg

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-learning-secret-don-t-take-notes-with-a-laptop/

http://college.usatoday.com/2012/09/08/laptops-may-be-the-ultimate-classroom-distraction/

Hi Guys, my name is Shannon Beam and I’m from Ringoes, New Jersey It takes about four hours to get to University Park from my home town.  My family just happens to have ten season football tickets, so I’ve been coming up to University Park every football weekend in the Fall since I could walk.  It’s safe to say that I was destined to go to Penn State, considering that the vast majority of my relatives have graduated from here.  Now, that I’m here, I couldn’t be more excited for the next four years!

As of now, my major is Political Science, with a minor in Criminal Justice. Growing up, I spent ample time around my grandfather talking about the law.  From there, my love of the law grew.  Going into my senior year of high school, I took an AP Government class that visited the Supreme Court of New Jersey during a working session. There, I slowly realized that standing up in front of people and talking, also known as public speaking, wasn’t my thing. I was in a predicament because I wanted to do something with law and the criminal justice system, yet I didn’t want to stand up in front of a court room of people. In that same AP class a few months later, my teacher brought up parts of government that deal with national security. It all started to click and as of now I plan on going into Homeland Security and eventually the FBI.  So this is why I won’t be studying science in college.

Here is a view from the season tickets my family has! Go State!!