Narcolepsy

Narcolepsy as we all know is a chronic sleep disorder and is also known as excessive daytime sleepiness in which a person will fall asleep at random times during the day. Narcolepsy is also often confused with insomnia. We learned about narcolepsy because it is a sleeping disorder which we learned about in our sleep chapter.

Nicole Nee

After our discussion in class today about IQ, I was curious to see what the smartest people in the world do. I had know about Mensa but thought it would be interesting to learn more about the society and its qualifications. Above is a video describing Mensa-the largest and oldest high-IQ society in the world. It is a non-profit organization open to people who score at the 98th percentile or higher on a standardized, supervised intelligence test.Mensa's constitution lists three purposes: to identify and to foster human intelligence for the benefit of humanity; to encourage research into the nature, characteristics, and uses of intelligence; and to provide a stimulating intellectual and social environment for its members. Today there are some 100,000 Mensans in 100 countries throughout the world.

Amy Woolsey

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ol2i_Hax0HY

Above, I posted a link to the trailer for Minority Report, a movie directed by Steven Spielberg that takes place in the future, where the D.C. police have developed technology allowing murderers to be arrested before the actual crime takes place. I couldn't find the exact clip I wanted to show, so I posted the trailer and I would highly recommend watching the movie.

It raises some interesting questions about psychology, philosophy and other themes that we've touched on in class such as destiny, privacy and punishment. Also, the movie depicts a vision of the future that seems frighteningly realistic. For example, one of the technologies utilized in the fictional future allows advertisements to be customized for each individual person with retinal scans set up virtually everywhere in the city; this reminded me of the video that Mr. Douds showed us earlier in the year about the technology that could be used to 'read minds'. Another thing I found was this article from Yahoo! about airport security developments:

MIND READERS

The aim of one company that blends high technology and behavioral psychology is hinted at in its name, WeCU — as in "We See You."

The system that Israeli-based WeCU Technologies has devised and is testing in Israel projects images onto airport screens, such as symbols associated with a certain terrorist group or some other image only a would-be terrorist would recognize, company CEO Ehud Givon said.

The logic is that people can't help reacting, even if only subtly, to familiar images that suddenly appear in unfamiliar places. If you strolled through an airport and saw a picture of your mother, Givon explained, you couldn't help but respond.

The reaction could be a darting of the eyes, an increased heartbeat, a nervous twitch or faster breathing, he said.

The WeCU system would use humans to do some of the observing but would rely mostly on hidden cameras or sensors that can detect a slight rise in body temperature and heart rate. Far more sensitive devices under development that can take such measurements from a distance would be incorporated later.

If the sensors picked up a suspicious reaction, the traveler could be pulled out of line for further screening.

"One by one, you can screen out from the flow of people those with specific malicious intent," Givon said.

Some critics have expressed horror at the approach, calling it Orwellian and akin to "brain fingerprinting."

For civil libertarians, attempting to read a person's thoughts comes uncomfortably close to the future world depicted in the movie "Minority Report," where a policeman played by Tom Cruise targets people for "pre-crimes," or merely thinking about breaking the law.

Enjoy!

Jesse Green

Hypnotherapy for smoking

The problem of smoking continues to be a major social, health, and financial issue coming in to the new year. Many public places are beginning to prohibit smoking in order to protect the safety of those who do not smoke. My Success Club is a hypnotherapy clinic located in Australia that serves to help people quit smoking. This is known as one of the most advanced smoking cessation programs in the world and is said to take only 60 minutes to complete. In addition, there are no painful withdrawal symptoms like those in other programs. In 2010, the club seeks to improve the lives of 1,000 people. This is an example of how hypnosis can be useful in society. Below is a video showing an actual smoking hypnotherapy lesson:

Hypnotherapy session

Olivia Rosales- Improving Sleep

Do You Need More Sleep?

1. It takes you at least an hour to fall asleep every night of the week.

2. You can’t get out of bed when the alarm sounds.

3. You worry about getting enough sleep most nights of the week.

4. When you wake up in the night, you can’t get back to sleep.

5. You use sleeping pills or alcohol to help you sleep.

6. You feel exhausted from lack of sleep.

7. You sleep in or take daytime naps to make up for lack of sleep.

8. You get drowsy during the day, or need caffeine to stay alert.

Tips To Improve Sleeping:

1. Know and get the sleep you need. Some students need only five hours, others need eight hours. Sleep without an alarm to determine your body’s natural sleep rhythm.

2. Keep a regular sleep schedule. Wake up at the same time every morning. On Saturday and Sunday mornings, get up at that time as well, even if you go back to bed after ten minutes or so. Experiment with naps. Most students sleep better if they avoid naps, but some sleep better after a nap.

3. Fine-tune your sleeping environment. Noise, light, excessive heat or cold, drafts, air that’s too humid or too dry, all can prevent sleep. To prevent clock-watching, keep your clock out of sight.

4. Exercise regularly, three times or more per week. Studies confirm that people in good physical condition get to sleep quicker and sleep better. Try to get in at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity, five to seven hours before bedtime. Even light exercise such as walking can be beneficial.

5. Avoid caffeine and alcohol. For many students, caffeine interferes with their sleep. If it does, cut back or avoid it altogether in the hours before you go to bed. Alcohol, especially in moderate to large quantities, interferes with the sleep of most students.

6. Wake up early to complete homework when necessary, rather than studying into the late hours. Many students are more productive during morning hours than late at night.

7. Savor your last hour before bed. Some students take longer to wind down than others. Read a book for pleasure. Avoid television and videos. Drink decaffeinated tea or warm milk.

Radio Lab: Sleep

From their mission statement: "Radiolab believes your ears are a portal to another world. Where sound illuminates ideas, and the boundaries blur between science, philosophy, and human experience. Big questions are investigated, tinkered with, and encouraged to grow. Bring your curiosity, and we'll feed it with possibility."

A little pretentious but a very apt description, and I guess it's not pretentious if you do it. Radio Lab is a science radio show that explores a theme each episode (death, for example, or laughter). You'd be hard-pressed to find a boring episode. This is their show on sleep in three parts.

One Eye Open: Night Terrors and Animal Sleep Patterns


Sleep Deprivation


Dreams


Is it a good test review? Eh. If you don't know the material, this won't help you pass. If you do, think of this as elaborative rehearsal. And it's really, really, really interesting.

I always have trouble with their audio players so here's the website if they won't work. http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2007/05/25
Sarah Palmer

Caffeine and Hallucinations?

We learned in class that caffeine is a stimulant, but a new study shows it may have some hallucinogenic effects, summarized in this article.

Researchers at Durham University conducted a survey among "high caffeine users" and found correlation to stress and proneness to hallucination.
Before the implications are discussed, we first must note the definition of these "high caffeine users." The study defines it as "more than 7 cups of instant coffee a day," which, because I think instant coffee is gross, I had to do some research for. According to the USDA, instant coffee averages around 100mg of caffeine. To put it into my perspective, that's 3-4 cups of regular, brewed coffee. And even less cups of espresso. (Check out conversions for your caffeinated-beverage-of-choice here. Bear in mind serving size; they are all for 8oz.)

What I thought the article tried to get at but failed to make clear was this: Caffeine, stress, and sleep deprivation all contribute to cortisol levels, a hormone produced in the adrenal gland, and widely dubbed "the stress hormone." So the so-called chicken-egg situation should be more like a cycle--people aren't taking in caffeine because they hear voices. Rather, these people are under a lot of stress to perform well, thus have to stay up late to study thus can't sleep, thus drink coffee. All of these factors combined spell cortisol release. And it is cortisol that causes the hallucinations.

I searched for the actual study to see if this was discussed (the link in the article didn't work) and found access to the abstract. Even when stress was controlled for, caffeine still succeeded to produce proneness to hallucination, but not 'persecutory ideation'--when an individual believes that harm is occurring or going to occur, when in fact no harm is present.

In the end, while caffeine intake, stress, and sleep deprivation are all positively correlated and lead to cortisol increases, which in turn can lead to hallucinations, elevated caffeine-intake alone is enough.

- Emily Rogers

Medical Marijuana - Ben Stevenson

Over Thanksgiving break, my great uncle was telling us about his job. He is Sherriff in Montana, which os one of the few states that had legalized the use of marijuana for medical puposes. He was talking about the good old days wen he used to have fun by putting poeple in jail for possesion. He also comoplained a lot about how poeple are being really stupid and abusing the new law. Here is a clip about medical marijuana.

Lucid Dreams

This discovery channel video explains how dreams, and brain activity during sleep contribute to memory and creativity. It also focuses on techniques and applications for lucid dreaming. The makers of this seem to give credence to the activation-synthesis theory for dreams because they attribute dreams to the synthesis of random signals.

criminal profiling, mariah redman

This is a short clip of the tv show crminal minds, its about people that profile criminals such a serial killers for a living and this technique makes it so they can predict who the person/ killer is, where they are, who/ when they will attack next, and why they are killing. In this clip though the profilers are the ones being profiled. I believe this is the closest it gets to psychics. They use many techniques such as observation, and many times use images and cognitive maps to replay the crime scene in there heads.