Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Blink, Sleep, Vibrams, and More

It's been awhile since my last post, although I can't say I've been doing a ton of stuff other than relaxing. I suppose that's the point of spring break. Anyway, as usual I don't want to write in coherent paragraphs, so I'll be using the bullet-point format to discuss my latest musings.

- I just finished Malcolm Gladwell's book "Blink" and recommend it to anyone that is in search of a new book. He's great at telling stories and always shocks me with some fact or study. Gladwell discusses the importance of our initial reactions to something (that's a terrible summarization). It's a quick, engaging read and there are some practical applications, but the aspect of the book I liked the most is how Gladwell can synthesize and present all this fascinating information. There's some eye-opening stuff in this book.

- Since the start of break I've been attempting to fall asleep and wake up earlier. Easier said than done. I was inspired by a post a guy wrote chronicling the experiment he made. He and his family turned off all their electronics at 7:30pm for a month in order to improve their sleep. Immediately they noticed a difference and began falling asleep much earlier and waking up well rested.

Why would cutting out all light/appliances change their sleep habits? Melatonin is the sleep hormone and is elevated in the absence of light. However, blue light in particular prevents the body's production of melatonin. No surprise, the blue sky provides blue light, which makes sense because we are energetic during the day. However, most lights and appliances also emit blue light, which fools the body into thinking it's still day time.

My own experience has not been as successful because, well, I won't be convincing my family to stop watching TV at 7:30 anytime soon. Not to my surprise, the idea of lighting the house with candles (they don't emit blue light) was shot down as well. At the same time, I have been making some effort to limit blue light exposure in the evening, so I've made a small victory.

- My pair of Vibram Five Fingers (VFF's) arrived in the mail today. I've broken them in a bit and it's an entirely different shoe experience. I did a little jogging in them and they caused me to become more aware of my form unlike normal padded shoes. I might wear them in the gym a few times and raise a few eyebrows.

- I began the first phase of my beef jerky/pemmican making process a few hours ago. I have no expectations for this and I only hope to not burn the house down. Although I haven't failed yet, I think this will be a learning experience or something euphemistic like that.

I plan on writing a few Features articles over break for practice. Maybe you can't learn how to be funny, but I'm going to try.

No comments:

Post a Comment