Revising for exams...

As the weather improves, for many young people exams loom. In the UK, GCSEs, AS levels and A levels are a big reality check for most 16 to 18 year olds over the summer, and many face the prospect with apprehension, knowing that the one word they are going to hear a lot of over the coming weeks is REVISION. But what's the best way to revise?

First of all, understanding that revision really means to revise what is (or should be) already known is helpful, and to understand what this might mean for different subjects. Fact-led subjects like the sciences, history and geography, demand just that - facts remembered that can be drawn on to answer the questions that come up in exams. Other subjects require ongoing knowledge, like maths or languages, which is where practicing these skills is helpful. Identifying what each subject is going to need in terms of revision can be a useful first step.

Then there is the mapping out of a revision timetable that most students find invaluable. Some are able to do this on their own, but for most - and teenagers in particular - this sort of organisation is a learnt skill and requires help, as many can feel overwhelmed.

* Map out what needs to be done, creating a revision timetable with realistic daily goals leading up to the exams, allowing enough time to avoid feeling stressed too close to the actual exams.

* Make sure the notes, past papers, books and other sources from which to revise, are available to revise from. Check with teachers and make sure everything needed is in hand.

* Utilise natural learning styles. Auditory learners find that reading or saying things out loud, recording these and playing them back to listen to, may help things stick. Visual learners find taking notes or making diagrams a useful way to remember as they revise.

* Allow enough uninterrupted time during a revision period to reach a point of concentration where information is actually retained and transferred from working memory into long term memory, from where it can be retrieved when taking the actual exam. Without this process occurring, the possibility of actually remembering what has been revised is limited. This means revision periods of 20-30 minutes minimum, building on this to stay concentrated for up to 90 minute before taking a break (although for most teenagers, this will take practice!).

* Take time to wind down before sleep, however. The brain works best when well-slept, and chronic tiredness just exacerbates feelings of being overwhelmed.

* Cut out distractions - all of them! - during each allocated revision period. This means turning off mobile phones, instant messaging, email, Facebook and other social networking sites, and making revision a primary and exclusive focus. After every interruption, it takes at least 5 minutes to concentrate fully again. Much better to focus exclusively for an hour, then take a 15 minute break, than work for 3 hours with constant interruptions that prevent the brain from retaining information.

* Schools and colleges often run revision sessions which can be a good way of concentrating on subjects that need extra focus.

* Regular exercise in between daily revision sessions - just taking a walk, going for a run, swimming, playing football - are all excellent ways to relieve physical and mental tension, and also increases the brain's ability to work well.

* Eat well - the brain thrives on complex carbohydrates to keep it going, and lots of fluids to stay well hydrated, but avoid highly caffeinated drinks (like Red Bull) that can hype the body up and increase feelings of stress.

* Keep a sense of perspective. Exams are a means to an end, not an end in itself and those who don't achieve great exam results can still go on to live happy and accomplished lives.

For parents, this can be a difficult time as they watch their moody teenager avoid ways of getting down to the revision that they feel is necessary. Wallpaper parenting, as I call it - being around but not too interventionist - can help. Create a calm atmosphere that is conducive to study, keep meals regular, help devise a revision timetable, encourage some time out and bedtime at a reasonable hour, but avoid increasing stress by being heavy handed. 

It can be a tricky time, especially as the teenage years often coincide with a general lack of confidence about life, which can be exacerbated by exam stress, but learning how to revise and work independently in preparation is a useful lesson for later studies at college or university. 

Schools and colleges are very keen to help their students to do their best, so if in doubt about what you can do to support your child, check in with them about what might be helpful.

Further information on how to concentrate from The Art of Concentration, published by Rodale priced £9.99

Multitasking - just because you can, does it mean you should?

So, you think you’re really good at multitasking, and that you can concentrate just as well doing more than one thing at a time?  Think again.  You may be giving the impression you are doing a lot, but the reality is often something different. Now that we have access to functional MRI scans, we can actually see, monitor and record what our brains are doing while we’re doing it. And what we now know is that multitasking could mean that you are doing nothing well enough to gain any benefit from doing it.

In an experiment carried out at the University of California, Los Angeles a group of 20-something students were asked to sort through index cards in two trials.  The first time, the students worked in silence and during the second exact same task they were asked to listen out for specific tones in a series of randomly presented sounds.  The way their brains coped with this was to transfer from the hippocampus, the part of the brain that stores and recalls information, to the striatum, which handles repetitive activities.  They had no trouble doing the same task while distracted, but they found it much more difficult afterwards to remember what, exactly, they had been sorting.  So their ability to do the task in a way that meant they later remembered what it was they were doing was compromised. What this tells us is that if you are trying to learn a new skill, you won’t do it as well, or as easily, if you are distracted while you are doing it.

The neuroplasticity of our brains means that they are built to manage a variety of tasks at once, but only up to a point.  It seems that this physiological balancing act we ask of our brains comes at a cost. By constantly switching back and forth, and by stimulating parts of the brain that are concerned with visual processing and physical co-ordination, as in the experiment described above, we appear to distract from the higher areas of the brain related to memory and learning. We can end up concentrating of the process of concentrating rather than on what we were supposed to be concentrating on!  Much of the time, it probably won’t matter much, but it’s easy to see how inefficient a way of learning it is.  Concentrate well, do it once: distract yourself and you may have to do something several times before it’s learnt. And when it comes to storing information that you want to recall later, perhaps when revising for an exam, you just won’t learn it so well if you don’t concentrate while you’re learning.  Focusing or concentrating well means that you store information in the part of the brain necessary for later recall.

True, there are some forms of multi-tasking that do work, but this usually involves only doing a maximum of two things at once, one of which is done automatically, i.e. washing-up and listening to the radio.   Washing-up doesn’t really take much thought, so 95% of your concentration can be given over to the other task in hand.  This wouldn’t apply to doing three tasks, though: washing-up, listening to the radio and reading a book.  It’s just not possible to absorb either the book or the radio adequately, so – along with the practical difficulties of doing all three at once – you probably wouldn’t bother.  

However, there are some activities that appear automatic, but actually require good concentration to be safe, as the ban on driving while simultaneously using your mobile phone now recognizes. It may appear to be an automatic skill but driving is a complex activity, requiring excellent concentration and good reaction times, both of which will be impaired if focusing on something else.  Talking on a mobile phone, while driving, is now illegal in the UK and many other countries and with good reason since fatal accidents have been the result. Many experts also believe that talking on a hands-free phone is also too distracting to be entirely safe.  “Multitasking is always going to slow you down, increasing the chances of mistakes,” says David Meyer, a cognitive scientist and Director of the Brain, Cognition and Action Laboratory at the University of Michigan, in the US.  “Disruptions and interruptions are a bad deal from the standpoint of our ability to process information.”

It is impossible to precisely measure lost productivity, caused by multi-tasking, but in 2007, Jonathan Spira, chief analyst at Basex, a business-research firm, estimated the cost of interruptions to the US economy at nearly $650 billion a year.  This figure was based on surveys and interviews with professionals and office workers, which concluded that 28% of their time was spent on what they considered to be interruptions (and recovery time) before they returned to their main tasks. Spira conceded that $650 billion is a rough estimate, and work interruptions will never, and shouldn’t be eliminated, because this is often how work is done and ideas are shared.  But even if half of all those constant interruptions at work are worthwhile, it still represents a lot of money lost,

There may also be another cost to distraction resulting from multitasking.  The process of constantly switching, multi-tasking, call it what you will, carries with it a degree of stress.  Not necessarily one that you would even notice, but one that requires the key stress hormones, (cortisol and adrenaline), to be secreted at higher levels to help you stay on top of what you are trying to do. These are the same hormones that are secreted when we need short, rapid bursts of energy necessary for ‘fight or flight’, but they are not designed for long-term use. 

In the short term, feeling constantly “hyped” by high levels of stress hormones can result in a persistent ‘brain fog’ many of us experience, and in the long-term, bombarding the brain with stress hormones that are neuro-toxic when secreted in large quantities, may cause premature ageing and other brain damage. Interestingly, cortisol is what is known as a universal donor which means it can attach to any receptor site and block the feel-good hormones, dopamine and serotonin, which help us feel calm and happy. So, not only are we stressed when we multitask, we are also missing out on the more positive effects of the body’s own, natural antidotes.  

Hyper-vigilant, over-alert and anxious, it’s hardly surprising we feel too stressed to concentrate. 

The secret to improving your concentration

If you want to improve your ability to focus you should eat well, take breaks and connect to your inner Buddhist

A recent survey by the University of California estimates that we are bombarded with 34gb of information a day, twice as much as 30 years ago. Office workers, meanwhile, are interrupted on average every three minutes. Small surprise, therefore, that our concentration spans are shrivelling. "The internet has made us very fragmented in our way of working," says Harriet Griffey, journalist and author of The Art of Concentration. "The digital generation considers constant interruptions normal and these days we expect to multitask, which spreads concentration very thin and can be counterproductive."

Research by psychologist Dr Glenn Wilson found that workers who were constantly distracted by phone calls and emails experienced a 10% drop in their IQ. Meanwhile, Richard Nisbett, a psychologist at the University of Michigan, found that a Chinese-American with an IQ of 100 achieves the same academically as a white American with an IQ of 120. "This is a direct result of their more focused attitude when it comes to their schoolwork," he says.

It's a relatively simple process to discipline the brain, but the effects of that effort on our achievements, relationships and self-fulfilment are incalculable. "If you could just stay focused on the right things, your life would stop feeling like a reaction to stuff that happens to you and become something that you create," reckons Winifred Gallagher, author of Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life.

Fuel your mind. If you skip breakfast, adrenaline will kick in and make you feel stressed, warns Griffey. What's good for the body is good for the brain so combine proteins with carbohydrates to stabilise blood sugars and drink plenty of water as dehydration impoverishes concentration.

Get the rhythm. If you can fit your work schedule around your circadian rhythms you'll harness your brain at its best. Most of us reach peak alertness at 10am, coordination is best at 2pm, reaction times are fastest around 3pm and muscle strength climaxes at 5pm. Deepest sleep occurs around 2am so make sure you're tucked up well before then for maximum focus the next day.

Organise your mind. A deadline looms but memories of your unemptied washing machine/untelephoned mother/unpaid car tax are undermining you. Before you start work make a list of everything you have to do and prioritise them so that you can empty your mind without fear that you'll forget something. Save tasks that need less concentration for your mental low points such as straight after lunch.

One thing at a time. Multitasking leads to a state of continuous partial attention which, in the end, achieves much less and makes more mistakes than a fully focused mind. If possible take a brief mental break between one task and another.

Eliminate distractions. If you check emails while writing a report, your brain will not process the information from the short to the long-term memory, says Griffey. Close down your emails and your Twitter page and put your phone on silent before focusing on a project. If office bustle distracts you, take a walk to think the task through.

Take a break. A natural environment relieves a cluttered mind whereas an urban one stresses it. A survey conducted by the University of Michigan asked one group of students to walk around an arboretum and another around a city. The latter group scored significantly lower in concentration tests. If you have a local park, take a stroll in it. Exercise also increases brain power and reduces anxiety.

Five more … If you are tempted to give up on a task just do five more pages/minutes/sums, suggests Sam Horn, communications consultant and author of ConZentrate: Get Focused and Pay Attention. "Just as athletes build physical stamina by pushing past the point of exhaustion, you can build mental stamina by pushing past the point of frustration," she says.

Learn to meditate. Meditation techniques can help shield you from the excesses of modern life. Ten minutes a day can reduce stress, channel concentration and brighten your outlook. Try T'chai or yoga if you can't naturally connect with your inner Buddhist.

This originally appeared in the Guardian newspaper The secret to improving concentration

Winnie the Pooh goes digital

News that Egmont children's books publisher has launched a digital form of the famous Winnie the Pooh, in the form of an iPad and iPhone app, has ruffled a few feathers.

Not so much because it introduces the much-loved character and stories to a new, digital-savvy generation, but because of the words of the app designer Kristian Knak who said, "The attention span and patience of today's children is obviously different than in 1926. If children are not engaged in the storytelling almost instantly, they'll just move on to the next app. On one hand, we really want to preserve the integrity of the original work by Milne and Shepard, but on the other hand, when you want to reach out to children you need to adapt the storytelling, you need to enhance it."

Really?

OK, so maybe the way in which we access and utilise information has changed, and we seem to be more able to shift between things with speed and greater ease - in itself a form of concentration - but has the ability to pay attention for long enough to enjoy the original Pooh bear stories really become so diminished that we can no longer sit peaceably, immersed in a book?

I think not. I see children concentrate all the time, from a baby playing with its toes to the toddler with a balloon, or a four year old absorbed in building Duplo. And I also see children who are exposed to so many distractions at one time, their ability to concentrate becomes eroded, and multitasking becomes the norm. But I don't think this means they have lost the ability to concentrate, just the opportunity to do so. Remove distractions and, perhaps with some gentle prompting, sit back and watch the engagement and motivation that follows.

To be fair, Egmont also publish the full book version of Winnie the Pooh, so they are - cannily enough - extending their market which may, in turn, lead young readers back to the original books. Books that can be read aloud, read alone, returned to time and time again, shared and treasured - and in that, I don't think children have changed since 1926.

But rest assured, children are smarter than you think - give them a book and the time and opportunity to read it and they probably will! 

Sugar...

There’s really no such thing as a detrimental food, but there is definitely such a thing as detrimental quantities of different food substances.   

Take sugar.  

 In its natural form it can be used to improve the flavour of lots of different things from fruit to cereals, but the use of convenience and highly processed foods means that our consumption of refined sugar has, over the years, rocketed to around 150lb per person per year - in 1830 consumption was only about 11lb a year.

The downside of this is not just higher obesity rates, increased diabetes and possible cancer diagnoses, etc. but the fact that such high rates of sugar consumption knock out other good nutrients – like vitamin B, for example, which is very important for the effective functioning of the nervous system – and our brains!   

So it’s really worth thinking about reducing sugar intake, not just from specific sugar use – substitute sugar on your breakfast muesli with a handful of blueberries to sweeten and ensure one of your five a day, for example – but also from cutting out refined and processed foods. 

"We all weigh 25lbs more than we did 25 years ago," says endocrinologist and paediatrician Robert Lustig, author of Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity, and Disease. Sugar, he says, was always meant to be a treat, a reward. "The last time I checked, birthday cake was for birthdays, and birthdays come once a year."

Fat Chance by Robert Lustig

And you should hear what he has to say about that world famous soft drink in the red can…
Sugar: The Bitter Truth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

Mindfulness

Mindfulness, as a tool for living rather than a spiritual practice, is a process of bringing purposeful attention to bear and can be applied to any activity. It is about being 'in the moment' whether you are washing the dishes or performing brain surgery, walking the dog or reading a book.

Why is it beneficial to us? It is the exact opposite of multi-tasking and allows us to focus properly on one thing at a time, to the exclusion of other distractions or interruptions. As it is a more productive way of working - it makes the carrying out or completion of a task more efficient - it is also a less stressful way of working, too because you are using your energy, mental or physical, in a way that is most constructive to the task at hand

Small children tend to achieve mindfulness naturally: programmed to absorb every last drop of experience, their focus and concentration can be total, from watching a ladybird slowly walk along a twig to playing with a much-loved toy or dropping a pebble into a puddle to see the water ripple. They are absolutely, as we say, 'in the moment'.

As we grow and learn to manage multiple stimuli, we juggle and multi-task and, eventually, pay the price through the stressing our abilities in order to do so. We can all multitask when necessary, for sure, but often do each task less well, or with less appreciation, as a consequence. Interruptions and distractions are accommodated, but at a price.

Mindfulness can also foster creativity. When we are mindful of what we are doing, involved with the process on every level, it can help us to stand back from preconceived ideas, from which we are liberated and enabled to create new connections, thoughts and ideas.
For many, we have got so out of the way of it that achieving a state of mindfulness needs help. Instead of moving naturally into this state, as we once did as a small child, we often need to relearn how; we need to practice it and once we have become reacquainted with what being mindful feels like again, to access it at will. Breathing exercises are often a help in this because, by focusing on a gentle, physical activity of breathing, we quieten and focus our minds

I thought about mindfulness recently when I was avidly watching the TV series The Killing, known as Forbrydelsen in its original Danish. Utterly gripped, I couldn't take my eyes from the screen - and with good reason. Transmitted in its original language, I had to read the sub-titles to follow the complicated plot. I had to actively watch the TV in a way that I seldom do. Often I only half-watch the television. It's on as I read the newspaper, talk to someone, do something else... I don't watch it very actively, or mindfully.

I realised then that I had got out of the habit, generally, of mindfulness and it was worth thinking about reinstating the practice so that it could benefit my other activities... and not just my TV watching!

Neurogenesis...

One of the great discoveries of the late 20^th century was that the brain was also capable of generating new brain cells: neurogenesis.   

Previously, it was thought that we were born with every last brain cell we would ever have, and that no more could be created. This turns out not to be the case.  Neurogenesis is the creation of new brains cells from pre-cursor cells that occur in the hippocampus, which is so important for memory.    

Although there had been some evidence of this from work done on bird brains and other animals, it was eventually identified in human brains from the tenacious work of a Swedish stem cell neuroscientist Peter Eriksson, from the Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg.  The biochemical marker that had been used in animal experiments couldn’t, ethically, be used for human experimentation for this purpose at this time.  However, elsewhere, approved medical studies were being carried out in terminal cancer patients – where new cells are created by the cancer – this same biochemical marker was being used to try and evaluate the effectiveness of treatment, because it would flag up neurogenesis.  Eriksson’s scientific assumption was that if the brain was capable of neurogenesis, these new cells would show evidence of the same biochemical marker that was being used to identify new cancer cells.  So he asked if he could have the brains of these patients, after their death, to examine and see if there was – as he thought there may be – any evidence of neurogenesis.

This work was also being explored by the eminent neuroscientist Professor Fred Gage, at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, California. After extensive study, and ruling out the possibility that new cells in the brain could be secondary cancer cells, the scientists finally got their ‘Eureka!’ moment in 1998.  The brain was capable of neurogenesis. 

‘All the brains had evidence of new cells exactly in the area where we had found neurogenesis in other species,’ said Gage.  ‘And we could prove through chemical analysis that they were mature neurons.  The neurons were born in the patients when they were in their fifties and seventies, and these neurons stayed alive until the people died.  That was the first evidence for neurogenesis in the adult human brain.  So now we know that in some areas of the brain, new neurons are being made all the time.  It was a surprise because we thought the brain was stagnant.  But in this region of the hippocampus, there are these little baby cells that are dividing, and over time, they mature and migrate into the circuitry and become a full-blown adult neuron with new connections.  And this is occurring throughout life.  The finding brought us an important step closer to the possibility that we have more control over our own brain capacity than we ever thought possible.’

What was also becoming clear from continuing research with mice was that voluntary exercise was as crucial to neurogenesis as environmental enrichment.  So not only did the old adage, ‘use it or lose it’, apply to neurogenesis, physical activity is crucial too.  

‘We think that voluntary exercise increases the number of neural cells that divide and give rise to new neurons in the hippocampus,’ says Gage.  ‘But we think it is environmental enrichment that supports the survival of these cells.  Usually, 50% of the new cells reaching the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus die.  But if the animal lives in an enriched environment, many fewer of the cells die.  Environmental enrichment doesn’t seem to affect cell proliferation and the generation of new neurons, but it can affect the rate and the number of cells that survive and integrate into the circuitry.’

Teenagers... a work in progress

Recent press coverage has once again focused attention on teenagers, and the news that their brains might not mature as quickly as once thought will come as no surprise to those parents who have already lived through this turbulent transition.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/teenage-plus-the-new-adolescence-7676016.html

And transition it is. One that we have all been through, although most adults have amazingly short memories of their own experience when considering their adolescent children!

Where once your child was happy, equable, outgoing and biddable, overnight he or she seems to have morphed into a monosyllabic, lethargic, resentful individual whose only interest is Facebook, incomprehensible music lyrics and conspiracy theories. And just when they need to focus on schoolwork they seem incapable of concentrating on anything at all, indulging instead in what looks to us like thoughtless, demotivated and risk-taking activity.

Why?

Primarily it's to do with a lot of necessary reorganisation of the brain's structure that needs to occur. Now, instead of a continuing proliferation of brain cells, there is an increase of mylenation, the fatty tissue surrounding brain cells that allows for better connectivity and transmission, especially in the frontal cortex which is responsible for executive planning - our capacity to direct our attention, plan future tasks, process more than one thing at a time and control impulsive behaviour. But this is happening at the same time as a vigorous pruning of less useful grey matter, ensuring that the frontal cortex is strengthened. There is a temporary state of flux, and it takes time to settle down.

What's the effect of all this internal activity? One of the temporary side-effects of this remodeling of the frontal cortex is a reduced ability to recognise other people's emotions. What parents experience is an increase in the sort of self-conscious, self-absorbed and apparently selfish behaviour that drives them nuts! Wet towels left on the bathroom floor? Hopeless time-keeping? Constant snacking? The sort of forgetfulness usually associated with Alzheimer's? Inability to get up in the morning? They almost can't help it....

Throw in a sudden and unsettling surge in sexual hormones, is it any wonder that your teenager is all over the place for a while?

What can you do to help them through this transition? A few pointers...

• Remember, it's temporary and it's not personal, whatever it feels like to you - it will pass and you will eventually recognise them again.
• Never discuss anything important if they are hungry or thirsty or overtired - remember how they couldn't cope when they were 3 years old? It's similar scenario now.
• Keep rules essential and minimal. Just because they don't answer, doesn't necessarily mean they haven't heard you.
• Keep in mind that their instinct for survival is usually greater than their inclination toward self-destruction.
• Try not to dismiss their mad ideas as stupid - they are often just trying them on for size. Offer feedback, not dismissal.
• They often have to learn the hard way - just as we did - about the consequences of their behaviour. It's not always easy to watch and you may have to pick up the pieces: that's a parent's job.
• Whatever energy you've put into the parenting pot over the years will pay off - trust it.
• Your almost grown-up child needs to know that in a pretty scary world, come what may you are basically on their side and their number one port of call in an emergency

Good luck!  And remember, the proud parent moments generally outweigh it all. In the end.

Tenacity...

Tenacity... Grit. Determination. Persistence.

Four words that mean pretty much the same, but tenacity wins hand down when it comes to the sort of consistent application that takes and shapes an idea and makes it a reality.

Buzz words come and go. Happiness was around for a while. And then Resilience. During difficult, recessionary times resilience certainly has its place but it's tenacity that could make all the difference to whether or not you succeed with your idea. Not letting go, but holding on to it, exploring it, shaping it, developing it and believing in it is the only way to transform the abstract into reality. Otherwise it remains just an idea.

Reading about David Karp, the man who created the blogging website Tumblr (36 million users, 40 billion views a day) I am struck not so much by his idea for the website he produced, but by his tenacity in exploring its possibilities, developing it and staying with it while others might have thought... what's the point of another blogging website?

Whether you take an existing idea and make it better or dream up something completely new, whether it's Tumblr or Spanx, the difference between the ideas we know about and the ones we don't is that someone, often an individual, just kept plugging away with it until it became a reality. The original idea may come in and out of focus, but it remains at the core to be explored, shaped, developed and kept alive, coming to fruition often just slightly ahead of the market curve. Then you hold your breath. But along with that first 1% of inspiration came 99% of perspiration: it seems the old cliches hold true. Tenacity works.

It doesn't really matter what you want to do - create a new product, run the marathon, compose the next Bohemian Rhapsody, improve an exam grade, write a book - out there are a whole host of things that seem somehow so obvious now, it's hard to imagine a time when they didn't previously exist, but all it takes is the first step, and the next, and the next... And the next.

That's tenacity.

Sleep...

Sleep... that knits up the ravell'd sleeve of care, the death of each day's life, sore labour's bath, balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, chief nourisher in life's feast.

So said Shakespeare and a new study just published by Vielife, the health and productivity company that carried it out, suggests that a third of UK workers suffer from poor sleep and are putting their jobs before their health, counter-productive though this might be.

This is echoed by the US's National Sleep Foundation's 2012 American poll, cited recently on the Huffington Post, and as long ago as 2008 the online health site NetDoctor identified lack of sleep, and its causes, as a perennial problem.

Sleep is essential to restore the body and mind. Deep slow-wave sleep, when our brain moves into delta waves, is imperative: this is the restorative sleep that we all need and without it, we suffer both physically and mentally. In order to compensate for chronic lack of sleep, we produce more stress hormones (adrenalin and cortisol) which revs us up and consequently makes it more difficult to sleep. Stress hormones are designed for short, sharp (fight or flight) responses, not for sustaining you against chronic levels of sleep deprivation caused by your lifestyle.

Stress caused by chronic sleep deprivation is also inflammatory (hence the secretion of anti-inflammatory hormone cortisol) - which causes damage to the cells of the body, and permanent long term damage over time. Consistently high levels of circulating cortisol are also a neurotoxin, which may go some way to explain the increase in degenerative brain damage that results in diseases like Alzheimer's. There's also a correlation between chronic sleep deprivation and heart attacks and strokes, not to mention weight gain and diabetes.

It's not easy, though, to reverse those habits that cause chronic sleep problems. Once your stress thermostat is set at high, and you have adjusted to it, it takes time to turn it down to the point where your adrenalin-fueled, pounding heart rate no longer keeps you awake at night. So used are we to the anxious, 3 am thoughts that keep us awake, we are somehow loathe to let them go and our incredible ability to adapt can even make bad habits possible. It's insidious, this slow glide towards a chronic sleep problem and, at first, the lifestyle changes you make may not immediately yield the results you seek. Give yourself time - but persevere, you will benefit greatly from better sleep, both in the short and long term.

To improve your sleep, and consequently your health and productivity, check out the following top tips:

• physical exercise - factor in a daily dose, even if it's only a 20 minute walk - but avoid excessive exercise late in the day

• reduce your daily intake of caffeinated drinks - coffee, colas and ban Red Bull - it takes time for an exhausted liver to rid your circulation of caffeine, so cut down gradually but get to a point where you have seriously reduced your intake and nothing caffeinated after 3pm

• eat regularly and eat slow-release carbs - hungry bodies go into stress mode more easily which equals more stress hormones, which will aggravate sleep problems

• take time off from work before you go to bed and keep your bedroom work, TV and mobile phone (turn if off, so that 3 am text from a well-meaning 'friend' doesn't wake you!) free

• keep regular hours - going to bed and getting up the same time every day helps set your internal clock - at least 5 nights out of 7 - you may have to adjust this over time to adapt, but it's worth it - and so are you

• aim for 7-8 hours which, for most of us, will mean we need to go to bed earlier...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-volpi-md-pc-facs/sleep-tips_b_1389778.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/apr/01/chronic-sleep-deprivation-uk-staff?INTCMP=SRCH

What the Dickens?

"Today's children have very short attention-spans because they are being reared on dreadful TV programmes. They are not being educated for long attention-spans." So says Charles Dickens' biographer, Claire Tomalin in yesterday's Independent newspaper.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/every-pupil-should-read-dickens-says-minister-but-hes-too-hard-says-the-authors-biographer-6579525.html

I disagree. The ability to concentrate is innate, but like a muscle has to be flexed to extend its use, and reading Dickens is in fact a good way of helping our kids to do this.

Why?

Because Dickens writes in brilliant, episodic bursts designed to grab the attention with his larger-than-life characterisations, lots of dialogue, vivid descriptions and emotionally engaging plots. He wrote for the ordinary person, not the intellectual or the academic, and his storytelling reflects this making it more accessible than might be imagined at first glance. And, in spite of the possibly daunting extent of his books, the length of each chapter is actually quite short.

Great Expectations, for example, may be 440 pages long, but it's divided into 59 chapters, averaging 7.5 pages for each chapter. Any young person who can sit through a 30-minute episode of the BBC soap EastEnders will have no trouble romping through a few chapters, as a 15 year old I once coached found. He had to read Great Expectations for his English GCSE and was daunted by the task. How are you going to go about this, I asked? A chapter a day, was his initial, doeful suggestion. Pointing out that, given the number of chapters, this would take a while I suggested he read for as long as an episode of EastEnders a day, 30 minutes. Which he did, and discovered that he could easily do it and completed the whole book in his half term (7 day) break. He was delighted with himself, not least because he had enjoyed reading, and reading a classic like Dickens, and consequently found his GCSE work much easier having read the whole book. An additional pay-off.

So let's not patronise our young people and say they don't have what it takes to make reading Dickens possible. Instead, let's actively encourage them to read Dickens' novels for enjoyment and see them extend their ability to concentrate and improve their attention span.

And even if you've not read Dickens by the age of 11, there's still time. Dickens is one of those authors that can be read time and time again. His books are timeless in spite of their historical settings, because like any great fiction it is the lie we give to truth.

The Whitehall ll study - what to do?

The recently published Whitehall ll study, which focused on 7,000 British civil servants over a 10 year period, showed that amongst this group mental dexterity and brain power deteriorated earlier than was once thought.

There is no doubt that here in the Western world we are, on average, living longer, which creates an associated risk of age-related decline in our mental powers – but the news is not all bad. It was once thought older people lose thousands of brain cells every day, but this has now been contradicted by more recent studies. While neurons in some areas of the brain, like the basal forebrain, do decrease in number as we age, most neurons in the cortex are retained – while the hippocampus is capable of generating new cells until the day we die, if stimulated. Cell process can change, but this fine-tuning may result in gains in wisdom and patience.

While there is a sense of ‘use it, or lose it’ there are some effects of ageing on the brain that we can’t escape, because our bodies are deteriorating too. Our sensory organs – eyes and hearing, in particular – tend to deteriorate, too and with it the inclination to expose ourselves to new stimuli. The decline of other body systems will also have a similar effect. Our digestive system, for example, becomes less efficient at absorbing the nutrients we need from the food we eat, while the endocrine system becomes less efficient at responding to hormonal messages. Brain cells are also extremely sensitive to oxygen levels and, with a degree of arteriosclerosis typical of the ageing process, a reduced blood supply to the brain reduces the oxygen supply. A low-level but continuous oxygen deficiency will lead to a decline in neurons.

Without continuous external stimulation, new brain cell production slows down and with it brain plasticity because, as research has shown, it is the plasticity of the new brain cells that helps old brain cells function better. Neuroplasticity refers to the continued changes that can occur in the brain as the result of exposure to new experiences and learning opportunities, referred to by neurologists as ‘experience-dependent plasticity’. This was seen to occur after injury to the brain, where plasticity allowed new functional and structural changes to take place to compensate for the damaged area. This is what makes rehabilitation so important, and creates the possibility for regaining some, if not all, previously damaged function.

It was previously thought that the adult brain was hard-wired and no longer capable of new development. It had been thought that after critical periods of development, there would be no more change and that the sensory pathways were fixed, even while areas like the hippocampus – concerned with processing memory – continued to produce new neurons. Exposed to enough opportunities, it seems, we go on learning, process what we learn, and apply that learnt experience – all of which encourages the formation of new neurons in the hippocampus.

As we age, we tend to be exposed less to new experiences, become less active, and become less sociable so our opportunities, unless actively sought, for brain stimulation quite naturally decline. We are just less likely to try new things, so overall our opportunities for external stimuli decrease. But when older people are given tests that depend on vocabulary, general information and well-practised activities, they show negligible age-related deterioration. So while both low response times and short-term memory impairment contribute to lower scores on standard tests of intelligence for the elderly, removing this difference equals this out.

The Whitehall study shows that reasoning, memory and verbal fluency were the three main areas of cognitive ability affected. But when I read the following from India Knight’s piece in the Sunday Times on January 8^th 2012, describing what she was trying to do all at the same time, one could perhaps see why: “How can we be expected to remember anything at all, when we are multi-tasking to such an insane degree?” she wrote. “As well as wondering what to write about, I was also thinking about my elder son’s university offers; my younger son being late for school; how to re-hang the door of a kitchen cabinet that has come off its hinges; where to collect my daughter from… what to make for supper… I was also on Twitter, having six conversations at once and reading hundreds more, and the doorbell rang twice…” and so she goes on.

Six things that might help:

· stop multi-tasking, focus on one thing at a time

· eat nutritiously 3 times a day, sit down and relax while eating

· exercise – even a daily, 20 minute walk in natural daylight will help

· anxiety & depression create additional stress hormones that are neurotoxic: so address the worries in your life & learn to let go

· maintain good relationships with people you actually see & talk to

· sleep – good restful sleep is restorative, make it a priority every night

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/jan/06/memory-loss-begins-at-45-says-study

You're really stressing me out!

Researchers from the University of Hawaii, led by Professor Elaine Hatfield, discovered that second-hand stress can be passed from person to person in the workplace - and it seems to be contagious.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2011/11/10/passive-stress-at-work-just-as-contagious-as-a-cold_n_1085758.html#s451010&title=Build_In_Planning

Washing your hands isn't going to deal with this sort of contagion, but recognising those personality types you work with that cause you stress may help.

"We call it 'people poisoning' and we describe the culprits as stress carriers," says Dr Chandra Patel, stress expert and author of The Complete Guide to Stress Management (Vermilion). "They induce stress in others without suffering it themselves."

Behavioural scientist Dr Robert Bramson has identified seven key personality types who cause difficulties and stress for those around them. Work out which category your tormentor fits into, the theory goes, and you can find coping strategies to reduce the stress they cause you.

1. Know-it-all experts ~ these can be divided into two types: those who might know what they are talking about and those who 'become' experts on the basis of very little information but present it with such authority that it's difficult not to feel overwhelmed by them.

2. Super-agreeables ~ they come across as good humoured and willing, but never deliver. They are exasperating because they agree everything in an effort to be liked, but constantly let you down.

3. Indecisive stallers ~ one of the most stress-inducing types, especially if you are dependent on their decision making to get your job done.

4. Pessimists ~ no matter what you say or how you present it, they always respond negatively and often respond with such conviction that it's difficult not to get hooked into their negative agenda.

5. Silent unresponsives ~ this type purposefully use silence to negatively control situations, undermining others, and it can be a form of passive aggression or a spiteful refusal to co-operate.

6. Hostile aggressives ~ basically these are the office bullies, who aim to get their own way by being hostile, using ridicule or sarcasm. Criticism tends to be personal and stress is induced by confusing, frustrating or even frightening you.

7. Complainers ~ constant whining while refusing to take steps to change those things they complain about is super stressful because they suck you in while ignoring helpful suggestions and wasting your time.

Whether it's your boss or a co-worker or someone who reports to you, identifying what it is about them that triggers a stressful response can help you see how to deal or avoid it.

It's also helpful to review your own behaviour, too and see what your default position is and how this might cause stress to those around you. None of us is infallible, all of us are human, but given how much time we spend at work - in the UK an average of 48 hours a week, way over the European standard - we owe it to each other to facilitate each other's and our own best use of time. Actively trying to reduce second-hand stress in the workplace helps us all concentrate and work better, more effectively and in less time.

Addicted to love... of Blackberrys, iPhones & other handheld devices!

Remember when someone called the Blackberry a Crackberry, apparently referencing its addictive properties? Emails, texts, Twitter & BBM are all great means of staying in touch - but do you ever feel that this virtual communication is dominating your life, getting in the way of what really matters - your real relationships with partners, family and friends?

Way back in 2005, a 19 year old from Paisley was treated for his addiction to electronic communication, which had cost him £4,500 in a year of sending around 100 texts a day, his job when he was sending up to 500 emails a day, and his relationship when his girlfriend could no longer cope with the barrage of messages.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2005/oct/15/news.mobilephones

And also in 2005, a study from Hewlett Packard expressed alarm that 62% of British adults appeared addicted to their email - even checking messages during meetings, after working hours and on holiday - behaviour we now mostly consider as normal!

Tom Stafford, lecturer in psychology and cognitive science at the University of Sheffield and co-author of Mind Hacks, identified what it is that makes this so addictive. "Both slot machines and email follow something called a 'variable interval reinforcement schedule' which has been established as the way to train in the strongest habits," he says. "This means that rather than reward an action every time it is performed, we reward it sometimes, but not in a predictable way. So with email, usually when I check it there is nothing interesting, but every so often there's something wonderful - an invite out or maybe some juicy gossip - and I get a reward."

Now you understand the psychology and how you've been snookered into this addictive behaviour, it might make it easier to resist. Not least because if you are trying to get something done - a book read, a movie watched, an essay written, homework done - these constant interruptions seriously restrict your ability to concentrate and, in the long term, add to your personal stress.

I have worked with teenagers who tell me that they just can't turn off their phones, day or night, for fear of missing out. And when I see someone texting during a movie I just think - why can't you allow yourself some time out, some uninterrupted "me" time, for just 90 minutes? Or couples in restaurants not talking to each other but checking their messages or Twitter alerts, unable to drag themselves away from the demands of this insatiable device, and I wonder how it was that the idle thoughts of someone you don't actually know became more important than those of the person you're with?

In 2008 it was reported that Madonna and her then husband Guy Ritchie slept with their Blackberrys under their pillows. She apparently said, "It's not unromantic - it's practical." Six months later the marriage was over.

There's no doubt that it's brilliant to be able to have such immediate communication when we need it, but sometimes it's important to literally switch off from the virtual world and re-engage with the real world, before we lose sight of what really matters.