Fans of the graveyard shift will tell you that the perks far outweigh the downside of the off hours and physical adjustments they need to make in order to function within daytime culture.

However, there is a serious downside to working on the graveyard shift that may offset the perks of the evening to morning hours. While it may seem, particularly in terms of current economic conditions, like taking on a night shift schedule is the most financially sound endeavor, it is important to understand the longer term consequences to mind and body that the decision may cost.

First, it is clear that there are some big financial and career benefits to working the night shift. For example, Federal Wage System Employees earn either a 7.5 percent or 10 percent differential depending on the nighttime hours worked.

Payscale.com reports that media personnel working night shifts often earn up to 15 percent more than their daytime counterparts, and ironically, nannies who work night shifts when children are sleeping can earn up to 20 percent morethan their daytime counterparts.

Those who work night shifts site other reasons why they love the hours. The time spent in meetings is significantly less for night shift workers. Because executives tend to keep daytime schedules, critical information is passed through more written correspondence, with instructions rather than discussions, allowing the nighttime shift workers to actually work rather than waste time talking about work.

Additionally, the nighttime shift workers typically have less competition relating to career advancement. So, an operations manager working night shifts at a large distribution center can focus on the successful implementation of new strategies that allow his crew to succeed, rather than playing politics with the other operations managers on the floor.

In a sense, they work within their own career bubble, and can advance through the nighttime ladder without a multitude of employees as comparison points.

Sounds pretty ideal, doesn’t it? Well, the costs can be high.

The Neurological Cost of Sleeping Late

Studies are now showing that the denial of basic circadian rhythms can be detrimental to your health: not only are there issues that relate to specific accidents and incidents, but there are also significant increases in risk factors that have long term detrimental effects.

Accident and incident reports increase by as much as 25 percent for nighttime shift workers. Cognitive fatigue accounts for the majority of these reported incidents. However, there are ways to offset some of the effects of the night shift.

For example, maintaining an afternoon sleep cycle with a wake time just prior to working the shift can be helpful. With an afternoon sleep cycle, you can more effectively “start” your day before heading to work. If a night worker returns home from work in the a.m. and goes to sleep for six to eight hours, they are in effect ending their day with work, rather than beginning it with work.

This particular sleep cycle may be difficult to maintain for those who have families, because it seems natural to sleep while children are at school, and be awake when they get home.

Accident and incident reports increase by as much as 25 percent for nighttime shift workers. Cognitive fatigue accounts for the majority of these reported incidents.

Aside from accidents, there are other issues relating to night shifts that are critical. A Danish study published in the Occupational and Environmental Medicine journal examined the risk of breast cancer in 141 Danish army servicewomen who developed breast cancer by 2005-2006. These women filled out an extensive 28-page questionnaire relating to working habits and lifestyle.

After statistical analysis, it was concluded that women working the night shift had a 40 percent higher risk of breast cancer. The more weekly shifts worked, the higher the risk. To top that off, night shift working women whose natural preference was to wake up early rather than stay up late had four times the higher risk than women who worked during the day.

In other words, better to be a female night owl working night shifts than a female early bird when it comes to breast cancer. Better yet, whatever kind of bird you are, you can eliminate one risk factor by working the day shift.

Obesity and diabetes are also adverse effects of night shifts. A Harvard sleep study gradually pushed the sleep cycles of participants to a reversal of their days and nights. After five weeks, the metabolic resting rate of the participants averaged a drop of 8 percent. Translated, this means that the participants could expect a weight gain of 10 pounds over the course of a year.

Weight gain like this can begin a slippery slope leading to diabetes and heart disease.

Not to mention the disruption to the daily activities that increases the stress load for night shift workers. Functioning with a “daytime” family when on a different time schedule has significant impacts. The sheer number of days off that school systems employ for holiday vacations, federal holidays, teacher in-services, and conference days throws a wrench into the works for any family.

Sure, because mom is a nurse working the night shift, she may not have to hire an expensive service to watch the kids, but with the kids home, her sleep cycle is bound to be disrupted, impacting her efficacy at work.

Additionally, family members with sleep cycles that shift from weekday to weekend do not successfully stabilize their systems. Therefore, moodiness and stress are bound to run at a higher level within the household. Another issue with fluctuating sleep cycles from weekday to weekend is an inconsistent immune defense. Stable predictable sleep that coincides with natural biological functioning is critical to retaining high immunity functioning.

 A Harvard sleep study gradually pushed the sleep cycles of participants to a reversal of their days and nights. After five weeks, the metabolic resting rate of the participants averaged a drop of 8 percent. Translated, this means that the participants could expect a weight gain of 10 pounds over the course of a year.

If You Absolutely Have To…

So what can we do in order to balance out the perks of night shifts with the higher risk factors relating to health?

One thing is to discuss supplements with nutritionists and doctors relating to melatonin boosting diets. Melatonin is one of the hormonal antioxidants that is essential to health and affected by irregular sleep cycles. Additionally, increasing healthful diets and exercise to combat decreasing metabolic speeds is essential to maintaining weight and warding off diabetes.

While it is impossible to ignore the needs of a family in order to keep a rigid sleep schedule, minimizing dramatic fluctuations back and forth between weekdays and weekends can be helpful.

Naturally, a quiet environment conducive to sleep for an entire Saturday may not be realistic, but when considered within the context of health and longevity, heading to the library with the kids may be just what your exhausted night shifter needs.

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According to a June 2012 study conducted at the University of Utah, 20 percent of surveyed 14 to 18-year-old teens had sent a sexually explicit image of themselves to another teen. More than 40 percent of the age group had received a sext.

Of those, more than 25 percent forwarded it to a friend.

There are two major differences between this sexting and underage pornography. First, there is often a voluntary, albeit naive component to teenage sexting often based upon the innocence of newly formed intimacy and the trust of puppy love gone awry. Second, the perpetrators and disseminators of the sexual content aren’t getting paid.

There is a long and extensive history of erotica and the fascination, taboo or not, relating to the basic drive for sexual gratification. From a neurological standpoint, the sexual drive is tied in at both the most basic limbic levels and the most highly functioning cognitive levels. Motivation, creativity, manipulation, idealism, and identity are all tied into sexual development.

So what happens when public exposure becomes a component during formative sexual development? Historically, nothing good.

The Psychological Effects of Sexting

Take the tragedy of Jessica Logan, a pretty, bright, well-liked 18-year-old from Ohio. Jessica sent nude photos of herself to her boyfriend electronically. She considered herself to be in an intimate trusting relationship. When Jessica and her boyfriend broke off the relationship, he forwarded the picture to other female members of his school. The photo became Jessica’s ‘Scarlet Letter.’

Unlike Hester Prynne’s mark of humiliation, which was worn on the front of her dress, Jessica’s was being carried in the phones of the members in her school. She was ostracized, harassed, and bullied. Finally, Jessica committed suicide.

Jessica is an example that ended in an extreme tragedy. But the behavioral changes that she went through before her death were in and of themselves devastating, and not uncommon. Adolescence is a time of social and sexual development and identification.

Psychosocial theorists would agree that successfully navigating the time between puberty and young adulthood is critical for individual identity and the ability to engage in honest and trusting intimate relationships. We do not live in a society where public exposure begets supportive environments.

What begins as a solitary act starts a desensitization process that otherwise serves to inhibit the actual engagement of those activities.

Obviously, not every exposure leads to an immediate devastating reaction. Consider those teens who enjoy the exposure and revel in the risk taking behavior. Sexting can become just another way to express their individual rebellious nature. The problem is, when the immature adolescent prefrontal cortex catches up to the behavior, the consequences can be significant

For example, a study from the University of Texas published in the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine found that there was a significant correlation between sexting and engaging in other sexual behaviors. In a sense, sexting can become the introduction to the slippery slope of adolescent sex.

In other words, sexting can initially seem like a “safe” introduction to sexual behaviors. It can be done in the confines of your own bedroom without the pressures to engage in physical contact that can lead to pregnancy or STDs. However, what begins as a solitary act starts a desensitization process that otherwise serves to inhibit the actual engagement of those activities.

Being Comfortable With Your Body

Most teenagers are awkward in their development. Becoming comfortable with themselves is a process that takes time. A cognitive and emotional discomfort relating to changing appearance and movement into a sexual environment can serve as a buffer for the physical impulses and hormonal drives that teens experience.

It’s hard to jump comfortably into sexual relationships when you are embarrassed about how much you perspire or how a partner will respond to stray hairs.

When sexting occurs before physical contact, facing the awkwardness of those insecurities is taken out of the equation. The reactions of the partner are not immediately known, and the potential rejection becomes much less intimate.

Research has shown that the executive functioning of the prefrontal cortex does not fully develop until young adulthood.

The sext becomes a static indicator of behavioral compliance. Even when initiated within an emotional context, as a symbol of true love, the final product can be considered by the recipient as nothing more than pixels meant to elicit a physical response. Worse than that, the sext can become a trophy of manipulative power over another.

Part of the devastation caused by sexting is that this image, initiated in the privacy and confines behind closed doors can become so public so quickly. With the click of a button, this image can become visible to relatives, peers, and employers.

Research has shown that the executive functioning of the prefrontal cortex does not fully develop until young adulthood. What this means is that adolescents are still basically impulsive beings. The consequences are not weighed out before hitting “send.”

Therefore, young sexters do not realize that it is not only the significant other who may have access to their naughty pictures or text messages, but also the college scholarship evaluators, the parents of the children they volunteer or baby-sit for, and potentially most devastating of all, Grandma. That “send” button means viral. It’s not the same thing as a Polaroid sitting in the bottom of a shoe box in the back of someone’s closet.

It’s like posing for Hugh Hefner’s Playboy when you are a young ingénue trying to make it in Hollywood, only to have the pictures published after being chosen to represent the country as a wholesome “Miss America.”

We all know the story of someone who had a terrible embarrassment in elementary school when their crush on a classmate was exposed by a note intercepted and read aloud by the teacher.

This type of crushing humiliation is the fodder of story, tv show, and movie lines. Exacerbate that humiliation with the exposure of explicit images or texts that can follow you through life, and you have the script for the repetition of Jessica Logan, a modern day Shakespearean tragedy.

We need to help our youth understand the consequences of impulse in today’s technological world. We are no longer simply passing a note that can be intercepted by the teacher and broadcast to the class.

Today, it is broadcast to the world.

The post So What if I Sext, Right? appeared first on Cerebral Hacks.

It’s an insomnia catch 22.

When it is impossible to sleep, the go-to method for many is to turn on the t.v. as a source of mind numbing drivel to put you back in the arms of slumber. Ironically, it just may be that exact behavior that is creating a state of depression and further exacerbates impoverished sleep cycles.

Sleep should be a naturally occurring state. But more and more Americans are reporting sleep disturbances as a source of problems in their lives. The natural sleep cycle proceeds through five stages, differentiated by brain wave activity patterns. When we are awake, our beta wave brainwave patterns are densely compacted, with a minimal range in amplitude. In other words, our pattern is short and fast, indicating alertness.

The first stage as we segue into a more relaxed, drowsy state are alpha waves. Alpha waves are still low amplitude, but the frequency begins to be drawn out.

They are short, but slightly slower than beta waves. Our guard is down, and our body feels comfortably heavy, rather than ready to sprint out the door. Alpha waves cycle at an average of about 10 hertz. Studies have found that when watching tv, most people move from an activity dominated by beta waves into a state dominated by alpha waves.

The Effects of TV On Your Brain

When in an alpha state, the brain is no longer alert in the sense that it is taking in external stimuli and processing it through full cortex integration. While watching tv, a person can move into a state of alpha wave processing in which almost all input is processed at a very shallow, almost sensory level.

The brain processes the incoming information within the auditory and visual cortexes, without any need for higher processing within interactive centers located in the frontal cortex. In fact, according to psychophisiologist Thomas Mulholland, it takes as little as 3 seconds of tv watching to move into an alpha state. Yes, we are that conditioned to it. TV is faster at mind numbing than the effects of marijuana, another alpha state producer.

The second stage of sleep is called N1 sleep. It is characterized by the activation of theta waves, which have an increasing amplitude and decreasing frequency. Theta wave activity is associated with light sleep, REM (rapid eye movement), and even hallucinations. Rather than being responsive to the environment, theta wave activity is more generative in relation to stimuli. In a sense, when a person moves from alpha into theta wave functioning, they are moving from external sources to internal sources of cognitive activity.

TV is faster at mind numbing than the effects of marijuana.

There is still activity that is going on, particularly in the sensory lobes, but it is brain-generated and reactive based on neuronal impulse.

Rather than the environment being the context for interpretation of the impulses, the brain imposes or develops a context based on associated information from memory centers. Terrance Bastian describes these theta cycles as exercises for the brain. In a sense, it is a way for the brain to conduct neuronal calisthenics on pathways that may otherwise not be actively in use during waking hours.

After the theta waves, our sleep cycle moves into the erratic development of sleep spindles, which even out into our longest frequency and highest amplitude delta waves. Delta sleep is associated with the release of growth hormones and restorative processes.

It is only after delta levels are achieved that REM sleep begins to cycle. REM is characterized by a quickening of heart rate, muscle twitching, and eye movement. Typically a person will move through an entire sleep cycle in approximately 90 minutes, with most healthy sleepers averaging 4 to 6 cycles a night.

Watching TV Affects Your Sleep

So how does tv interfere with our sleep? Seemingly, if tv induces that first stage of sleep within 3 seconds, wouldn’t it make sense to flip on the set as soon as we are ready to hit the hay? Research from The Ohio State University Medical Center says no. In fact, the light from the tv, clock, or nightlight might just be what is causing a state of weak sleep depression.

The researchers at The Ohio State University Medical Center found that hamsters exposed to a mild light source at night showed signs of depression as compared to hamsters that were sleeping in dark conditions. They lost their appetite for sugar water, showed distress signs when swimming, and had hippocampal response changes that mimic the hippocampuses of depressed people.

One of the things linked to those dim lights on in our room, including our electronics and tvs, is a decrease in our nocturnal release of melatonin.

It doesn’t take fancy hamster studies to realize that sleep problems create mood disturbances. Most of us have experienced times when we have undergone sleep deprivation due to interferences from activities and circumstances such as exams or employment issues.

Our attention wanders, tolerance decreases, and even coordination suffers. As an additional rub, the more depressed we become, the more likely we are to suffer sleep disturbances. It’s a vicious cycle.

Worse than that, however, is that fact that long-term deprivation that can have the most deleterious effects. One of the things linked to those dim lights on in our room, including our electronics and tvs, is a decrease in our nocturnal release of melatonin. Why is melatonin important? It’s a natural combatant to tumor growth. So in a sense, not only is that tv promoting a state of depression, it could also be promoting an increased risk in tumor growth. That’s depressing.

So perhaps, we should contemplate Hamlet’s famous soliloquy in light of hamster research:

…and by a sleep, to say we end
The Heart-ache, and the thousand Natural shocks
That Flesh is heir to? ‘Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die to sleep,
To sleep, perchance to Dream; Aye, there’s the rub,
For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause.

We can consider Hamlet’s misfortune within the cyclical paradigm of depression and sleep. Is it depression that brings upon suicidal contemplation of the interplay between sleep and death, or is it Hamlet’s nighttime excursions and lack of sleep that drives him into depression and suicidal ideation. It’s difficult to say, and of course, is fictional.

But perhaps, ultimately, this protagonist of Shakespearean literature could have been helped if he had just been given an alpha wave inducing tv with a sleep timer.

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The adolescent is continually getting a bad rap.

They are discussed in terms of emotional volatility, instability, poor judgement, and sometimes even immature immorality. There are a multitude of rationales as to why adolescents are unpredictable, irrational, and rebellious.

But the truth is, most teens are simply trying to fulfil their goals socially and academically while discovering who and what they want to be and how to get there.

What is it that is so confounding about adolescence that makes them see to be rebellious, even when the behaviors they exhibit may be labelled later as bad choices, but would not be seen as volitional disrespect?

There are a multitude of issues about this time in development that create biological, social, and intellectual conundrums for even the most average and middle of the road teen.

For starters, examine the strictly biological component of adolescence from an evolutionary perspective. Individual physical development during adolescence is incredibly variable and a major determinant of virtually all things social. Consider, for example, the varying paths of two girls who start puberty at different times.

For the female that starts puberty at the age of 10, the responses of those in her environment to her biologically sexual development precedes her understanding of interactional sexuality.

The intentions and behaviors of those in her environment will change and can be confusing for a girl who has the social development of a fourth grader. Cognitively, a 10 year old does not have the ability to understand the sexual undertones of a society that judges anyone exhibiting physical maturity.

She is thrown into the adult arena of innuendo and natural selection before she has the ability to comprehend the nuances. She interprets the interactions from the context of a child seeking attention and approval, which may set her up first as a victim, and later as perceived rebellious female seeking power through sexuality.

Next, consider the plight of the female who reaches physical maturity at a later point during adolescence. These females may be invisible to their sexually maturing and socially preoccupied peers.

In order to compete within social arenas for the attention of dominant males, these females may need to compensate for their lack of indicators of biological physical maturity by engaging in behavioral attempts at maturity.

Why Teenagers Appear Rebellious

Unfortunately, the behavioral markers of adulthood that are most publicized and promoted through the media are not accountability and responsible thought and action, but rather are those behaviors that are “age constrained” or risk associated such as driving, sex, smoking and drinking. But some females who hit puberty at a later age are able to take full advantage of the experiences of their earlier maturing counterparts.

They may be able to move from physical immaturity to a place of sexual power without succombing to an interim stage of victimization.

The expectation is that along with the physical maturity, there should be a commensurate maturity in thought. But these do not necessarily coincide.

So what about males who are trying to compete during the harried social adolescence? Those who mature faster than their peers are typically seen in a positive social light. The expectation is that along with the physical maturity, there should be a commensurate maturity in thought.

But these do not necessarily coincide.

The focus of the hormonally driven pubescent brain becomes geared towards seeking those females who will be receptive.

Peacocking becomes a means through which to attract the attention of potential partners. One way for young males to show that they are a worthy mate is to exhibit their independence through what are considered rebellious acts. They play into the age old philosophy that females are attracted to the “bad boy.” And guess what…young and immature females often are.

What other factors play into this belief that teens are more rebellious? It may help to define who they are more rebellious than. Are teenagers more rebellious than children? In a different way, yes. Rebellion in a child is typified by an emotional upheaval because the child does not have the resources to act.

Most teens would not stomp their foot, pout, or throw themselves on the floor in a tantrum as a marker of disagreement.

Teens simply willfully engage in the forbidden behavior. The disregard for parental orders is based in the fact that unlike children, teens do have access to resources which make the rebellious act a choice. It makes logical sense that teens are more rebellious than they were during their childhood.

With age comes the awareness of the limited time they have within the safety and the confines of the parameters defined by their parents.

Because teens are in the unique position in most households of guided freedom, they test the boundaries to determine their own comfort levels within societal norms. Whether this is played out through coming home late for curfew by fifteen minutes or three days is a function of the individual in his or her own environment.

This exploration of self determination is a critical period during which teens to get to understand personal inner workings and how best they can function effectively in within their own systems.

What may be seen as rebellion could be reclassified as the attempt to define what is self.

For example, does the anxiety about being late for curfew make the extra time in the company of peers unbearable, or are those extra minutes enjoyed without a twinge of concern for the worried parent waiting up at home?

What may be seen as rebellion could be reclassified as the attempt to define what is self, based upon a multitude of influencing factors including family, peer and individual expectations.

Why “Rebellion” Is Necessary

The truth is, while most teens engage in moments of rebellion, those with a firm platform held up by strong family, school, and community systems do not stray far from the expectations of healthy choices laid down for them.

The time period between childhood and independence is conducive to testing limits and finding personal zones of comfort. So of course, there will be times where differences in opinions, behavioral expectations and actions will not coincide, thereby being labeled as moments of rebellion.

But perhaps as parents we need to consider carefully the barometers against which we weigh the affronts to our carefully constructed rules.

Is it better for our teens to determine themselves that they are uncomfortable when they stray so far over the line, or is it better for us to hover so closely that our teens cannot see, let alone approach the line? It is a question of trust and maturity.

Can a teen really know him or herself to be mature, willfully making good decisions, when never given the opportunity to choose the wrong path? It is only through opportunity to have the experience that our teens can internalize responsibility and trust themselves to make the better decisions.

Like it or not, our teen’s self-definition lies through the door on the other side of adolescent rebellion.

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An hour less sleep can manifest in a two year attention and cognitive performance loss for a sixth-grader.

That’s what a study by Tel Aviv University’s Dr. Avi Sadeh shows. In a sample of sixth graders, Sadeh adjusted sleep schedules so there was, on average, an hour’s discrepancy between subjects in two groups of sixth graders. He had half of the subjects go to bed an hour earlier than their usual bedtimes, and half stay up an hour past their bedtimes.

Over time, subjects who were sleeping an hour more than their counterparts performed in line with expectations for sixth graders. Subjects who were sleeping an hour less than their counterparts performed cognitive tests at a level that was below fourth grade averages.

An hour less sleep can manifest in a two year attention and cognitive performance loss for a sixth-grader.

Sadeh’s study is not alone in showing the importance of sleep for children and adolescents. Studies show that as much as 15 minutes of sleep can have significant differences in test results.

Ironic, considering most of us have spent countless hours cramming for the final the next day rather than sleeping.

Who among us hasn’t laid in bed awake with facts and figures ordering themselves into logical sequences in preparation for the essay test the next day? Who hasn’t suffered from the anxious non-productive self-talk that keeps us awake into the night; “Just go to sleep, it’s going to be fine, stop thinking about it and just relax…?”

Unfortunately, as we mutter those self-soothing words in an effort to “turn off” and fall asleep, the research points in a different direction. It won’t be fine. The more sleep deprived we are, the lower the performance is going to be. And ironically, we are creating environments that are conducive to a loss of sleep just when our children’s biological functioning needs it most.

Should Schools Start In The Morning?

High schools in the U.S. typically are the earliest schools within a district to commence during the day. Middle schools start a bit later, and elementary schools are the latest to begin during the day.

In a way, this makes perfect sense.

For working parents, having elementary school children getting home later during the day is a way to curtail some of the costs associated with child care. The idea is that high schoolers can be home unsupervised without endangering themselves. (For some, this is debatable.)

The irony behind high schools starting earliest in the district is that there are biological changes that occur during adolescence that work in direct opposition to the daily start time.

Specifically, Sadeh found that melatonin, a hormone that signals the brain that it is time to sleep, is released later during the daily cycles of teenagers who are post pubescent. Therefore, although the adolescent still needs up to almost 10 hours of sleep a night, their brain is not signaled to rest until later in the day.

The school schedules forcing them to get up early means that teenagers are perpetually sleep deprived.

Ditch The Other Activities?

Activity loads also contribute to a depletion of sleep in both children and adolescents. We live in a society with tremendous performance expectations for our youth.

Not that heavy activity loads are necessarily a bad thing. Idle hands are the devil’s playground, so the saying goes. However, even amongst our younger populations, the activities are scheduled with very little consideration for appropriate bedtimes.

Baseball coaches simply do not insist that the league schedule the games for 9-year-olds so that they can be home in bed by 8:30 p.m. In fact, when games start later in the evening, more parents are able to show to the game, meaning higher dollars for the concession stands.

I have yet to hear a high school football coach review the academic schedules of his team members. Never have I heard, “I know you all have that big biology exam Friday, so let’s cut Thursday’s practice short.”

Sleep deprivation is worn as a badge of honor amongst high school populations.

In fact, sleep deprivation is worn as a badge of honor amongst high school populations. It is almost seen as a rite of passage. If you are getting enough sleep, you must be either lazy or not involved in enough activities to pad that college resume.

Think about it…the same holds true for those interns and residents we turn our lives over to at the hospital.

Naturally, there are all sorts of other issues that we contend with when we look at sleep issues. These issues are not exclusive to adults. Children suffer from anxieties that prevent them from sleeping. Many children deal with insomnia.

When asked, most doctors will call it a stage or a phase that will pass. As great as it is that these doctors aren’t concerned over the lack of sleep, you need to be concerned about your child’s inability to perform up to capacity. After all, as Sedah’s study shows, an hour of sleep can lead to a two year performance difference.

So What Do We Do?

How do we help our children stay on track? Well, first thing is to explain and encourage the regular sleep schedules of our children and adolescents. Lost sleep is lost sleep. There is no “catching up” on weekends.

The nightly restorative function of sleep in ongoing, and cannot be amended in a single acute sleeping session.

If possible, schedule the class periods to be free early in the morning for adolescents that are unable to fall asleep until close to midnight. Make arrangements with the school to let your adolescent come in later rather than have to sit in study halls. There is little benefit to trying to study in a sleep deprived state.

Try to find activities that cater to an earlier bedtime for children. If the school theater program holds practices until all hours of the night, perhaps join a local troop that practices on weekends during the day.

Turn off the electronics more than an hour before bedtime.

Provide an environment that is conducive to sleep. Keep it dark. Turn off the electronics more than an hour before bedtime. It’s hard to shut of those brain waves without time to decompress beforehand. Keep noise levels to a minimum or use white noise to block out distractions.

If your child is having sleep issues, don’t ignore them. Discuss it with doctors, nutritionists, and even local health food or homeopathic practitioners.

When my 9-year-old was having difficulty, we found a solution in turkey and a sleep sound machine. The tryptophan from just a few mouthfuls before bedtime was what he needed to stimulate the release of the neurotransmitter serotonin, which can help induce a relaxed state and be converted into melatonin. The sleep machine blocks out the extraneous noises that would startle him awake.

Bedtime is no longer anxiety provoking.

He knows that during those bumpy times in his life when he can’t sleep, there is a solution that is only a refrigerator away.

The post Can An Hour Less Sleep Responsible For Your Child’s Average Grades? appeared first on Cerebral Hacks.

A dear friend recently went to see Barbra Streisand in concert. The occasion was a momentous one for her.

Streisand’s music has been the score to her life drama for thirty years. A Streisand concert was on her bucket list and she was well aware that with the infrequency of Streisand performances, it could easily be a list item that went unfulfilled.

The concert was not a disappointment. From the moment that Streisand took the stage, my friend fell into a state of awe that was deeply moving, resonating within her psyche in a way she had not felt before.

When my friend described the moment to others, she was met with varying responses. Some brushed off the experience as a “good concert,” others thought it was strange that she was so deeply moved, while one even told my friend that this was an indication that her life had little meaning. After all, if her daily existence was filled with more meaningful moments, a concert would not bring her to a state of tearful joyous exhilaration.

They couldn’t be more wrong.

The Psychology of Awe

In fact, research supports the theory that moments of awe are an important component to maintain psychological well-being. We live in a world that encourages a fast paced existence. We reward “the movers and the shakers,” not the folks who stop to smell the roses.

Clichés aside, the expectation for today’s adult is that we will remain “ever-accessible” to handle the problems at work, at school and at home. There is virtually no time to stop and look around, to seek those moments of awe which recharge our psychological self and give us perspective on where we stand in relation to the world.

There are moments in each person’s life which leave an indelible imprint that changes the perspective of existence forever.

We can be thankful that there are important moments that we set aside in our lives to appreciate the awe-inspiring aspects of life. Many of us construct vacations and bucket lists specifically to address our intrinsic need to ground ourselves in the inspiration life on this planet can bring.

Last year, my family visited the Grand Canyon, an undoubtedly awe-inspiring natural wonder. It wasn’t my first trip to the Grand Canyon, and yet, the awesomeness of the view was even more powerful than it was during my visit as a child.

Maybe my psyche just needed it more.

Not all awe-inspiring moments come from nature. There are moments in each person’s life which leave an indelible imprint that changes the perspective of existence forever.

Take, for example, the moment we look into our newborn’s face for the first time. It’s not a surprise. It’s typically been a highly anticipated and hopefully prepared for occasion. But until an individual has lived through the moment, it is impossible to explain the shift that occurs in purpose, understanding and connectedness with the world.

It is a moment of awe that is at once bigger than, yet coming from within us.

How Moments of Awe Affects Your Brain

Research has given substance to the idea that awe-inspiring moments provide us with positive experiences that are healthy and important to our well-being.

The moment of awe is released by both neurotransmitters and endorphins which serve as a sort of pause or reset in our life. Much like the idea that “laughter is the best medicine,” moments of awe wash our brains with positivity, boosting our health and giving us hope.

So what can we do to increase these moments within our life?

Obviously, there are those moments that we can plan. We can attend an IMAX cinema that envelops us in the world of the humpback whale or takes us to the Egyptian pyramids. We can visit the Everglades, Grand Canyon or the Great Wall of China. Locations like these are awe inspiring in that they give us the perspective of how infinitesimal we are in comparison to so much within the world around us.

The moment of awe is released by both neurotransmitters and endorphins which serve as a sort of pause or reset in our life.

In other words, we can look to the “big” to create those awe inspiring moments.

But for accessibility purposes, it is often “the small” that we overlook and in passing, we miss the awe moments. Many of these moments are available compliments of Mother Nature. It is virtually impossible to not find awe in a group of newborn bunnies in a tuft of underbrush, stopping to really appreciate the growth of a garden, or hummingbirds.

It is not only the natural environment that provides these moments. While a visit to the Louvre may not tickle everyone’s fancy, it is a source of awe for many. From skyscrapers to finger-paintings, there are sources all-around us if we take the time to seek them out.

What do all of these things have in common?

What is the common denominator for sources of awe? Like my friend at the Barbara Streisand concert, they are points during which we find a connectedness that is at once profoundly personal while being potentially universal. They are moments in time in which the world falls away and everything that we experience is in that moment.

Our senses become completely focused on the experience, and our physical, emotional, and spiritual selves merge to take in the awe. Wonderfully, our brains do release those neurotransmitters and endorphins that heighten the experience and provide us with an emotional memory, even if the exact colors of the sunset over the Riviera do not remain indelibly imprinted in our minds.

It may be possible that some people go through life without ever experiencing an awe moment.

They may be simply too distracted in the physical or emotional strains and stresses to have the capacity to stop and allow themselves the release. They may not have the ability to visit those specific locales that time and time again inspire. Or perhaps they simply do not have that reactive neurotransmitter release that heightens the moment into the state of awe.

Regardless of the reason, to dismiss another’s state of awe as indicative of an impoverished life is truly ironic; for to live without awe is like living without spirit.

Image by Sleepyjeanie

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Life is full of paradox. One of the greatest is the unequal distribution of intelligence, not across the population, but within an individual.

How often have you heard about the unbelievably academic bookworm with no common sense, or the drop-out with street smarts, or the alcoholic who gets every trivia question correct? How often do you hear a pro athlete exclaim, “Well, it was either football or first chair in the orchestra?”

As a species, few of us are universally intelligent. Few of us are Machiavellian.

When intelligence was first conceptualized, there were two main components that were taken into consideration, verbal and spatial abilities. “Intelligence” was characterized by an ability to reason verbally and express oneself in a way that others could understand, and an ability to create and generate concepts or mechanisms that could manipulate or describe physical properties, theories, and relationships.

If an individual could do both, he or she was intelligent. But as we tend to do, we couldn’t leave it at that. Theorists of the mind have a propensity to expand further, dig deeper, and define more specifically.

What Exactly Is Intelligence?

Intelligence is now a descriptor based on varying sets of parameters. What used to be considered talents and skills can now be attributed to differing realms of intelligence.

Kinesthetic intelligence describes one’s competency in behavioral movement responsiveness. Emotional intelligence describes the level of awareness one has for emotional states in relation to contextual variables.

Just as the Eskimos have a significant number of words to describe varying types of snow, theorists of the mind have different conceptualizations, theories, and metrics for intelligence.

Let’s say for argument’s sake that intelligence defines our inborn, God given capacity for aptitude within a particular brain driven realm. Now let’s factor in education. Let’s define education loosely as the ability to take advantage of accessible resources in order to improve.

Life is too fluid, the world is too small, and technology is changing too quickly for those who are smartest today to still be smartest tomorrow.

Education does not have to take place in a classroom. Given that we have so many different intelligences that we can speak of, how can we put parameters on what education is?

The point of education is that it takes a person from point ‘a’ to point ‘b’ in an advancing direction. There are those among us who become smarter by virtue of the fact that they take full advantage of educational situations, thereby increasing their ‘smarts.’ Those who do not take full advantage of educational situations because they deem themselves to already be smart end up incompetent.

So what’s the point? The point is, as humans, we have a need to quantify and compare, setting normed parameters and measuring intelligence based on comparison.

People with drive educate themselves and often become specialized in order to achieve competency in spite of a score on an I.Q. test. The more they learn, the clearer it becomes that there is more to be learned; we are most obviously ignorant beings.

The smartest among us all share a common realization: we know how stupid we are.

Self-Deprecation and Genius

Ironically, it is the complete ignorance of those of us not living under a black cloud of intelligent self-deprecation that blissfully pass through life thinking we’ve got a handle on things and are really smart.

Don’t knock the self-deprecation. It serves a protective function for the intelligent. It is only through a clear understanding of our lack of understanding that we can plod on, searching for the elusive cure for cancer, energy breakthrough, or universal theory of explanation.

Ego can compromise and derail motivation. Setting personal expectation too high can lead to a devastating discouragement. However, the recognition of limitations, both of our own capacity for understanding and of the known constructs that define us, creates an environment conducive to greatness.

Discoveries are based on taking what is known and going further.

Those who we consider to be most intelligent are those who understand the limits or parameters, and then change and redefine them. The most intelligent people recognize that there is a fleeting moment when variables might merge in just the right way to maximize potential and give us that glimpse of the next reality changing event.

The most intelligent also recognize that they may spend a lifetime in pursuit of the visionary moment that may never come.

Ignorant Confidence

Then there are those who score high on an IQ test taken at 8 years old and regard that as the measuring stick of “intelligence” for the next eighty years. Those people who hang on to a number as indicative of genius are the truly ignorant.

Life is too fluid, the world is too small, and technology is changing too quickly for those who are smartest today to still be smartest tomorrow.

However, as humans, we continue to live within the biases and hold on to the truths of our past to keep blissfully unaware of how stupid we are.

These biases we live under are protective to our psyche. Consider for example, the fate of child stars, professional athletes, and chess geniuses who outgrow, outlive, or blow out the value of their particular talent, worth, or measurable intelligence.

Many flounder in an attempt to reconstruct their lives in a meaningful way. When stripped of the identity that serves as verification of our intelligence, we fall apart. We create symbols to serve as proof of our aptitude so that we can continue to turn to them as verification of personal value: the Super Bowl ring, Emmy nomination, or championship trophy.

The beauty of biases is that we can continue to believe in our intelligence even in the face of our obvious decline. That is not to say that there aren’t many who stay sharp well into their old age.

These pillars may be looked to for the wisdom that comes from living long enough to see the relationships between experience and time. The perspective is unique to those who see generations that make the same mistakes as those that came before.

This wisdom comes from watching universal truths guide our behaviors through time.

However there is a difference between wisdom and intelligence. Intelligence declines as we age. We lose the ability to interact with the world at the speed of information processing.

We move from the intellectual superhighway into the slow lane. The smartest among us realize that we no longer have the integral resources to learn and understand as the new intelligentsia does. Instead, we must step aside to make way for the visionaries

We can continue to learn, but our slowed responsiveness makes it impossible to use resources the same way as we did when our brains were young.

And as we sit in our rockers having made way for drones who think they are smart and ground breakers who know they are not, we can take comfort in the idea that our moments of intelligence have been supplanted by a relaxed wisdom that cannot be learned, but instead must be earned with time.

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Blaming the victim, if asked, is something that no reasonably politically correct individual would ever admit to.

But, both in experimental studies and in real life scenarios, it is a behavior, albeit a human transgression, that we repeat over and over. Whether it is the homeless man on the street, the employee who gets laid off, or the victim of abuse, if we are not the victim, what may start as pity, or even empathy, may soon dissolve into a rationalization that ends up as blaming the victim.

How can it be that those who get victimized first in a situational context end up becoming victimized thereafter by those within the environment?

There are several psychological concepts at work. While they may seemingly be detestable, (after all, no one would want to vocally blame the horrible consequences of human trafficking on women and children sold into the inhumane treatment), these thought-twisting paradigms serve a psychologically protective function that keeps us in the safe zone of ‘it could never happen to me.’

Belief In a Just World

The underlying cognitive principles of victim-blaming have been studied by cognitive and social psychologists in an attempt to uncover the mystery behind the thought transformation. Two of the constructs that describe the phenomenon are that of cognitive dissonance and ‘belief in a just world.’

Cognitive dissonance theorists study the nature of human thought when confronted with incongruous information.

At its most basic, cognitive dissonance theory states that when we are met with competing ideas, beliefs, desires, and needs, a motivational drive state propels us to seek resolution by either changing our cognitions, our behavior, or both. A reduction in tension is sought, and when we are not able to reduce that tension, we may go so far as to seek the reduction through escapism such as addictive behaviors.

“Belief in a just world” is the conceptualization of Melvin Lerner to explain his electroshock experiments conducted in the 1960s. In the experiments, subjects observing shocks given to an experimental research confederate were initially horrified for the recipient, but after being unable to intervene on the confederate’s behalf, soon began to criticize the confederate for being stupid and deserving of the mistreatment.

Lerner explained that when the conflicting stressors of mistreatment or injustice and the need to believe that the world is fair collide, the psyche, whether behaviorally or cognitively, will undergo a radical change in order to preserve the belief.

Consider, for example, “Lord of the Flies,” the socially charged fictional novel by Nobel-prize winning author William Golding, as a fantastic illustration of ‘belief in a just world.’ The societal order of boys abandoned on an island falls into disarray as leaders emerge with varying opinions of appropriate behavior.

When one boy is brutally attacked and slaughtered during a ritual dance, Piggy, the pragmatic advocate for rule and order states that it is the boy’s own fault for emerging from the woods during the dance. Piggy justified the unjustifiable behavior of the group he would need to continue to live with, rather than face the nonsensical brutality of the horrifying act.

Consider Stockholm syndrome, an example of cognitive dissonance. The term was coined by Nils Bejirot based on the behaviors of hostages held for five days during a 1973 bank robbery in Stockholm Sweden. During the five days, hostages became sympathetic toward their attackers.

While living in such close quarters, they were helpless to change the situation in a safe way. In order to remain psychologically of sound mind, the hostages became unified with the attackers’ group. Rather than being unified with the police force outside the bank working on their behalf, they were swayed by the captors with whom they had to interact and coexist for the five day stretch.

The Mechanisms of Victim Blaming

So, when we consider these powerful psychological forces that unbeknownst to us, work in a survivalist manner to preserve our sanity and justify our behaviors, why would we have a need to blame the victim? Blaming the victim acts as a survival mechanism in more than one way.

In order to counteract these powerful emotional states, we use blaming the victim as a way to sooth our self-loathing and carry on.

First, we remove ourselves from the responsibility of having to intervene in the name of self-preservation, even though not intervening creates an anxious state. When we fail to act on the behalf of others due to fear or understanding of imminent danger, or when our intervention results in an undesirable outcome, guilt, and self-chastising result.

In order to counteract these powerful emotional states, we use blaming the victim as a way to sooth our self-loathing and carry on.

Second, we are a species of order and predictability. By blaming the victim, we are able to preserve the false sense of safety that we use as a cushion for the unpredictable nature of life. By saying, “If that woman was not on the road at two o’clock Saturday morning, she would not have been struck by the drunken driver and killed. After all, it’s only drunks who are on the road at that time on Saturdays.”

By blaming the victim, we divert the attention from the anxiety provoking issue of being on the road with people who are not in control of their vehicles to the idea that we are in control of making the decision to get in the car at 2 a.m.

We can immediately lessen the anxiety by choosing not to engage in the victim’s behavior, since we obviously can’t control whether other people are driving under the influence.

As we consider the reasons we blame the victim, perhaps we should also clearly define what a victim is. When a person suffers a tragic incident that is unforeseeable, particularly at the hands of another, it constitutes victimization.

When a person has no control, knowledge to suggest avoidance, or resources, it constitutes victimization. But when a person knowingly engages in behaviors that end in terrible consequences, victimization is not indicated. When a person makes a choice and disregards information and resources that would indicate a different path can be taken, it does not constitute victimization.

When a spouse is abused the first time, he or she is a victim. Any person sold into slavery or human trafficking is a victim. Those suffering from poverty in underdeveloped nations, lack of clean water, diseases with inadequate health care, or the ravages of war, are victims.

And do we blame them? Think about it. We do not.

But when a person makes a choice to remain within an environment where abuse has occurred, in a society that provides resources to help victims, we blame them. We may choose to say they are in the throes of a disease process, or battered woman’s syndrome, but it can be argued that they should no longer be classified as purely a victim.

When a young woman chooses to get so drunk she passes out at a fraternity house on a college campus and gets raped, yes, she is a victim. But the event, while inexcusable, is foreseeable and preventable. If a person develops lung cancer after forty years of smoking, are they a victim?

So before becoming disillusioned with humanity over the idea that our need to believe in the unwavering justice of the world trumps our sympathetic and empathetic humanistic qualities, maybe we should reconsider when we blame the victim.

If we take a closer look at Melvin Lerner’s electroshock therapy, maybe the “victim” really should be blamed for being stupid. After all, how long would you sit there getting shocked for answering questions wrong during an experiment before you decided the whole thing is absurd and you should get up and leave?

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Do first impressions really count? Absolutely. And they count a lot.

The information that we glean from an instant of contact is immense. That instant conveys meaning that can be critical to our survival. It’s Darwinian, and it’s not exclusive to our species.

Why else would mimicry occur throughout the animal kingdom?

It is the first impression that tells the predator, “If you eat me, you will suffer.” It’s the reason tusks, teeth, and horns are featured. It’s the reason that in mammals, signs of fertility are prominently displayed for the opposite sex to analyze. First impressions count.

When a salesperson is making contact with a potential customer via a phone call, they are taught that it is important to smile. Even better, if you can generate a genuine smile, it will be received more warmly than a forced smile.

Research conducted by Dr. Amy Drahota shows that people can differentiate between four different types of smiles from the phrase “I do in the summer” without visual cues. The tone of the voice and quality of the intonation is enough to know what type of smile the person has and therefore, glean the emotional state they are in.

The first impression that is presented on paper must jive with the first impression when the candidate walks through the door.

Again, survival cues at their finest.

Consider resumes as an example of first impressions. An entire industry is based upon the quick glance that gets that informational packet moved into the “look more closely” pile rather than the trash. Resumes are the first impression, put on paper, that determines whether a person will have the opportunity to get a foot in the door in the pursuit of a job or a university appointment.

Dog-eared, coffee-stained, flimsy paper won’t suffice. There are critical components to this first impression including weight and color shades of the paper, font sizes, and layout of the information. And there’s a catch.

The first impression that is presented on paper must jive with the first impression when the candidate walks through the door.

There is a cohesiveness between the expectation and reality that employers are looking for. The first impression given with a successful resume can become an interviewer’s prediction about the person. And we, as humans, love a verified prediction.

Even in the face of bad news, a verified prediction makes us feel intuitive and smart.

So, if someone graduates at the top of their law school class and passes their law review with flying colors, he or she will shine in terms of qualifications on paper.

The image of conservative intellectual will be the impression that is expected by an interviewing firm. Should the candidate show up to the interview in cutoff shorts and with purple hair, the impression will be confounding and anxiety provoking.

Regardless of the brilliance of the candidate, the recruiters are more likely to hire someone less qualified who confirms their expectations and makes them say, “I knew instantly that he or she would be a great fit” (because I am so smart and intuitive.)

Yes, Beautiful Women Get More Help

A London based study compared the plight of two women struggling with luggage in a subway terminal. Both women had multiple pieces of baggage that they were trying to take up a large flight of stairs.

One of the women was a tall dark haired average woman wearing glasses and somewhat baggy clothes. Her confederate counterpart was a petite blond in a short skirt and bright blue, fitted sweater.

The average time it took for passersby to assist the women with their luggage was strikingly different.

For the first woman, more than a minute elapsed on average for anyone to offer assistance, even when they were headed in the same direction. For the petite blond, an average of 20 seconds elapsed before a “gentleman” would grab up her bags to act as the knight in armour.

In fact, many of these men went so far as to pull out their wallets and empty their pockets of change when the more striking beauty asked these strangers for money.

It is not fair to assume that the difference in the times is based on men’s reluctance to help a less than stunning woman. While it may not be the first conclusion drawn, the reason the blond in the bright blue sweater was helped faster could merely be the result of a show of plumage.

The color worn by the petite blond may have been just enough of a sensory contrast to the surroundings to register in the brains of otherwise busy people. Plain Jane’s drab garb, unfortunately, may simply have not left any impression at all on the people around her.

So if we theorize that first impressions are a sensory experience, what can be said of auditory impressions?

Vocal First Impression

As previously mentioned, vocal tones of those smiling on the phone can be readily distinguished. Do other acoustical first impressions count? Much to the surprise of world-renowned violinist Joshua Bell, without the right set of expectations for an audience, not much.

Mr. Bell agreed to participate in a small social psychology experiment in the Washington D.C. L’Enfant Plaza metro station while in town to play at the Library of Congress. Armed with his world-renowned Stradivarius at both performances, the expectation was that a small crowd would quickly recognize the world’s top violinist, even when he was playing in the subway.

Unfortunately, even with the Strad as a cue to the musical accomplishments of the musician, passersby did just that.

They passed by.

A few threw change into the Strad.’s case or gave a brief compliment to Mr. Bell in transit. One man took a few minutes to stand against a wall to enjoy the talent, and one child had to be drug from the subway by a mother who needed to get to a job. But other than a few singular instances, the shaggy-haired, baseball cap wearing talent went virtually unnoticed.

He was just another street performer in that brief impression. Even with the added benefit that sound travels, so the impression was longer than a singular glance, Mr. Bell suffered the same fate as other street performers. He made enough money, less than $33, to afford a day’s worth of food from street vendors.

Those with significant artistic talent are often lucky because many societies forgive the quirky styles that come with overwhelming talent.

But, as Mr. Bell discovered, validation for his talent when in front of an audience that has sold out is after the fact. He knows before he takes the stage that each ticket holder has paid a high price for a brief exposure to his art.

Stick him on the subway with his violin, and like anyone else, he is just part of the rat race, fighting for attention and scrambling to make the impression that will earn him a dollar.

Perhaps the next time he gets involved in an experiment, he’ll break the tux out of the back of a closet. It might just be the value of a tux for the first impression that will allow the greatest violinist on earth to eat at a sit down restaurant after the performance.

Images by Mike Monaghan and Bhumika B

The post How Much Do First Impressions Really Count? appeared first on Cerebral Hacks.

The old adage, “everything in moderation” is particularly applicable to the interaction between sugar and brain functioning.

The brain is one of the neediest metabolic organs in the body. Even when we are asleep, the brain continues to control the process is in our body that we need for sustained living. Obviously, our bodies are designed to maintain energy sustenance for our brains. But optimal performance is dependent on consistency.

Too much sugar, too little sugar, and sugar of the wrong kind can have a deleterious an impact on performance in a negative way.

How You Metabolize Sugar

The first thing that needs to be understood relating to the use of sugar for brain functioning is how exactly the body metabolizes carbohydrates, which include sugars, starches, and sugar compounds. Sugar is a generic term that describes sweet organic compounds.

There are a host of sugars that are consumed in natural and processed foods. Complex sugars can be broken down into primary sugars including glucose, fructose, maltose, and lactose. Glucose is the specific simple sugar needed to fuel our brains.

The metabolic processes in our cells can directly break down simple sugars for use. Complex sugars are metabolized through multiple processes that typically involve various organs including the stomach, pancreas, and liver. The stomach secretes enzymes that break the chains of complex carbohydrates into their component parts.

Once broken down, the primary sugars are absorbed through the small intestine into the bloodstream where they can be used for cellular energy.

Fruits, vegetables, grains, and other natural foods are all sources of sugars. The problem is, people continually load up on unnecessary refined sugars. We sprinkle sugar on our cereal, put sugar in our coffee, grab a cookie, drink a soda, or pop in a piece of candy in order to give us that little extra boost to get through the day.

The refined sugars in these snacks and drinks give us an immediate energy source because they are loaded with glucose that can be directly absorbed into the bloodstream for metabolic use. Who hasn’t witnessed a young child going bonkers after drinking a sugary drink, or getting their hands on too much candy?

Inevitably, the child goes berserk for short time and then suffers an energy crash.

In a normally functioning system from appropriate food sources, sugar conversion happens at a steady pace. Glucose gradually enters into the bloodstream and the supply and demand of the energy system stays in balance. When an excess of sugars enters into the bloodstream, the brain registers the excess and signals to the pancreas to release insulin into the system.

The insulin converts the excess into lipids and glycogen. Lipids become fat stored in cells for later metabolism , and glycogen gets stored in the liver to be converted back into glucose when sugar levels drop.

When You Consume Too Much Sugar

When too much simple sugar is thrown into the system too quickly, the body overreacts and goes into conversion overdrive. The hypothalamus in the brain signals to the pancreas to start pulling the sugars out of the bloodstream for fat and glycogen stores.

This results in a quick depletion of sugars from the bloodstream. In the case when the sugar source comes from highly processed sources, like candies, cakes, or sodas, there are no complex carbohydrate elements serving as a backup source of gradual sugar infusion. The insulin pulls the energy out of the bloodstream, and the person suffers that energy crash.

Studies show that people who binge on simple sugar and suffer the subsequent crashes are prone to moodiness, irritability, confusion, difficulty problem solving, and short-term memory lapses.

So what effect do these types of processes have on brain functioning?

There are differences between the short term and long-term effects of sugar on the brain. Initially, sugar can produce a high in terms of energy and excitement which quickly will swing to a low. Studies show that people who binge on simple sugar and suffer the subsequent crashes are prone to moodiness, irritability, confusion, difficulty problem solving, and short-term memory lapses.

In addition, a pattern of inattention on continual performance tasks is associated with sugar over-ingestion .

That’s not to say that all sugar ingestion is bad. We know that the brain needs to process glucose in order to function. The key is to have a long sustained glucose supply available from complex carbohydrate breakdown that is able to gradually be metabolized for use in the bloodstream.

Sugar and Decision Making, Alzheimer’s and Brain Inflammation

In a study related to decision-making processes on parole boards, patterns were discovered showing that throughout the day the decision making process itself becomes more and more difficult for the individuals on the board. At the beginning of the day, board members were able to weigh the pros and cons of independent situations for potential parolees in order to make a decision.

As the day wore on, however, these decisions became more difficult to deliberate. There was resurgence of decision-making abilities following lunch when glucose levels were restored, which, when depleted as the day neared its end, resulted in more postponements of paroles.

Blood-sugar roller coasters may contribute to brain inflammation and subsequent lessening of brain matter later in life

The long-term effects of inconsistent sugar intake are being examined by researchers involved in the neurological study of Alzheimer’s. Researchers are finding that cognitive functioning and short term memory retrieval in our aging populous may be partially determined by a history of inconsistent blood-sugar levels.

While a small spike in blood sugar levels may contribute to somewhat more sustained attention and decision-making in the short term, blood-sugar roller coasters may contribute to brain inflammation and subsequent lessening of brain matter later in life.

Alzheimer’s researchers are also linking the plaque formation that is a primary marker of Alzheimer’s to a breakdown in the regulatory insulin system. Some researchers have gone so far as to say that Alzheimer’s is potentially “Type 3 diabetes.”

So where does this leave us as we strive to strike a balance between glucose levels that fuel our brain and glucose levels that ultimately lead to its destruction? As consumers, awareness of the detrimental effects of processed sugary foods can go a long way.

Diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease are both on the rise. Those older adults who are succumbing to either or both of these disease processes are the same adults who grew up in a society pushing candy bars and soda rather than healthy snacks to get through the afternoon slump.

While these foods are readily available in every gas station, school cafeteria, and break room, we should carefully deliberate before purchasing what may ultimately destroy our ability to think.

Hopefully, we will have enough glucose in our system to fuel the decision making processes that will keep us steady on our path, rather than buying the ticket for the sugar roller coaster that may end in Alzheimer’s disease.

Image by Pink Sherbet Photography

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