8, July 2014

Spending 15 minutes alone is a tedious task

It is less tedious for people to think on their feet rather than take a moment to sit down and reflect on the task at hand. In fact, spending even 15 minutes doing nothing and just thinking, is something that people not only found boring, but were unable to do so.

A recent study involving 800 people revealed that volunteers, who were asked to spend only 15 minutes alone in a room doing nothing, without cellphones, music players, writing equipments or reading material, found the task to be quite tedious. Reportedly, a few volunteers even preferred to receive mild electrical shocks rather than sitting doing nothing!

Not only that, the subjects even turned down offers for receiving money to sit idle, daydreaming. The subjects were asked if they were offered money, whether they would spend some of it to avoid getting another shock. Those who said they would be willing to pay to avoid another shock were asked to sit alone and think for 15 minutes but were given the option of giving themselves that same shock by simply pushing a button. The results were surprising, with two-third men and a quarter of the women choosing to give themselves at least one shock.

Said a researcher, "Many people find it difficult to use their own minds to entertain themselves, at least when asked to do it on the spot." It was as if people almost wanted to shock themselves out of the boredom that sitting idle brings, "Sometimes negative stimulation is preferable to no stimulation," added the researcher who also suggested that that in today's age, with all the gadgets that people have, they seem to fill up every moment with some external activity. This suggests that people, regardless of age or gender, do not like to be idle and alone with their thoughts.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

08.07.2014

Less sleep can make your brain age faster

New study has claimed that staying up for longer hours can make the older adults' brain age faster.

Past research had examined the impact of sleep duration on cognitive functions in older adults. Though faster brain ventricle enlargement is a marker for cognitive decline and the development of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, the effects of sleep on this marker have never been measured.

Researchers from the Duke-NUS study examined the data of 66 older Chinese adults, from the Singapore-Longitudinal Aging Brain Study, where participants underwent structural MRI brain scans measuring brain volume and neuropsychological assessments testing cognitive function every two years.

Their sleep duration was recorded through a questionnaire, and it was found that those who slept fewer hours showed evidence of faster ventricle enlargement and decline in cognitive performance.

Lead author Dr June Lo concluded that the findings relate short sleep to a marker of brain aging.

Professor Michael Chee added that work done elsewhere suggests that seven hours a day for adults seems to be the sweet spot for optimal performance on computer based cognitive tests, and in coming years they hoped to determine what was good for cardio-metabolic and long term brain health.

The study is published in the journal SLEEP.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

08.07.2014

Don’t be serious, be sincere