Tipsy Tuesday

Date:                                       Tuesday, January 4th, 2011

Word of the Day:                   descry(dih\SKRY); to catch sight of especially something distant or obscure; to discern

Weight:                                    206 pounds

Goal:                                        lose 100 pounds in one year duration
Pounds to lose:                       74 pounds
Waist Size:                               41 inches
Feet Size:                                  Elephant
Rowing Duration:                     65 minutes, eight (8) seconds

Did you notice?  Never mind.

Well people, for the second day in a row, my computer did it again.   I lost my post after I had almost completed it, as you can imagine, I am rather upset.  There is some command on my keyboard that when/if I hit it, it wipes out my screen, and then gives me a blank page.  Let me begin at the beginning with the sequence of events.

I accidentally hit a key that then wipes out my entire post, and a blank page is brought up on the screen, next, and automaticaaly, that blank page gets saved.   Clearly in the blogger program, (I guess) there is some kind of tool that whenever any kind of change is made, the post gets saved right away, and that is what happened to me for the second day in a row.  The next step in the sequence of events is that Efrem gets frustrated and has to start all over again!!!!  Trust me, that part is the worst!!!

It was not a long workout, but I did have a good one, I did not want to exercise too long as it is important for me to keep my feet elevated whenever possible and I can't keep my feet elevated whilst rowing on CC.

Image via Wikipedia

I would like to honour my friend Marta today who is celebrating her birthday, we should all celebrate Marta's birthday, she is one helluva woman.  Anyway, I know you and I wish Marta a day frought with love, presents, cake, glitter, sparkle, magic and maybe even a candle or two.  All the best, M.


Zac, Winter and I were scheduled to drive to Orlando, Florida yesterday as Zac's nephew, Buzz had arrived in the morning., to attend an engineering conference, obviously, Buzz is an engineer.  However, because my feet were severely swollen, I thought it unwise to make the drive there as it could only damage my feet even more and would, in most likelihood, cause them to swell up to even greater proportions!


Buzz, great guy that he is, offered to drive up here to Gainesville, so that he could still visit with us.  I thought this was a very generous offer of Buzz, I mean, his time, and money, are limited, Buzz is still a student, so I told Buzz that we would pay for the car rental, and we did.


Naturally, I fell asleep quite early into the visit and evening, and when I awoke, it was after midgnight and Buzz had left to go back to Orlando, as his conference was starting very early, today.  However, when I was conscious, I did have a nice visit with Buzz, we got caught up with events, played cribbage(well Zac and Buzz played a game; I watched,)  and chewed the cud and chop suey!

Here is something that I bet you haven't thought of, did you know that the concept of beauty sleep has long been discussed, but until now it lacked scientific support.  To determine whether sleep deprived people are actually less attractive, researchers photographed study particpants after a normal night's sleep-eight(8)-hours-and again after being kept awake for thirty-one (31) hours.  They then asked untrained observers to rate the attractiveness of the faces in the photographs.  Not surprisingly, people were perceived to be less attractive and less healthy when they were sleep deprived.  Doesn't that just seem like common sense to you?  I mean when you don't get sleep, the next day, you are most likely going to have bags underneath your eyes, unless of course, you're under ten (10) years of age.  I can't believe that it takes studies, and money, to determine these facts!

The idea of people needing "beauty sleep" has acquired some scientific backing, according to a Swedish study.  The concept of beauty sleep is well known.  But according to researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, it has lacked scientific support.


The authors wrote in their paper published in the British Medical Journal:  "Sleep deprived people are perceived as less attractive, less healthy and more tired compared with when they are well rested."  They say the results may be useful in a medical setting, helping doctors to pick up signs of ill-health in their patients.

Commenting on the study, Derk-Jan Dijk, Professor of Sleep and Physiology at the Surrey Sleep Research Centre, said the effects of sleep loss on beauty may be even more dramatic than the photographs show.  He said: "The photographs were taken during the daytime when the biological clock promotes wakefulness.   "Can you imagine how sleep loss makes you look at night or early in the morning when the circadian clock (body clock) promotes sleep?" A lie-in at the weekend does not counter ill-effects of lack of sleep during the week, the study suggests.


In tests on one hundred and fifty-nine (159) adults, US researchers found that a ten (10) hour "recovery" snooze was not sufficient to make up for a few nights of four hours of sleep.   Participants still scored poorly in measures of attention span and reaction times, the journal Sleep reported.   It means several nights of extra sleep may be needed for those who have been burning the candle at both ends.  Individuals in the laboratory study had two nights of ten (10) hours in bed.


The bottom line is that adequate recovery sleep duration is important for coping with the effects of chronic sleep restriction on the brain”  They were then restricted to sleeping between four (4) am and eight (8) am for five (5)  nights in a row.

After that they were allowed a recovery sleep of differing lengths.   Starting first thing in the morning on each day they completed a series of tests every two hours.   A small group of  seventeen (17) patients were allowed  ten (10)  hours' sleep every night so their functioning could be compared with those who were sleep-deprived.

A night of recovery sleep did help improve test scores and the more sleep people had the better they did.  But even in those who had  ten (10) hours of sleep, reaction times, lapses of attention and levels of fatigue did not return to normal.


Study leader Dr David Dinges, a sleep expert at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, said that with severe sleep restriction, a long night's rest was not enough to catch up.   "Lifestyles that involve chronic sleep restriction during the work week and during days off work may result in continuing build-up of sleep pressure and in an increased likelihood of loss of alertness and increased errors," he said.

"The bottom line is that adequate recovery sleep duration is important for coping with the effects of chronic sleep restriction on the brain."

In previous research,  Dr Dinges has found that sleeping six (6) hours a night or fewer for two (2) weeks has the same negative effects as two nights of total sleep deprivation.   Dr Chris Idzikowski, director of the Edinburgh Sleep Centre, said the study counters the currently held view that there is "tremendous recovery" in just one night's sleep.


"What the research shows is that this is not entirely accurate, it depends on precisely how much sleep loss has accumulated.   "It implies that if you haven't slept enough during the week, then to recover properly you need at least two nights' sleep to recover."

Speaking of beauty sleep, of late, I have been sleeping in much later than I would like to, it kind of reminds me of my care-free days as a teenager! (are any days carefree when you're a teenager?, I think not!)

With regard to teenagers, yesterday, Zac, Winter and I went over to my brother Biff's house so that Dr. Zac could medically examine our niece and Goddaughter, Sally.  Sally was feeling unwell and had spent the day off of school due to illness and Dr. Zac did say that she had a swollen gland, but that is the extent of my knowledge as Zac tends to keep medical information private between Sally, her parents, and his self, which is as it should be.

Anyway, it is late into the morning now and I want to go and get my breakfast.  Zac and I are going to dine at the International House of Pancakes (IHOP)  and after my breakfast, I'm going to have a piece of cake in honour of Marta's birthday.

I hope all of you have a great day!

Topics coming soon:

Art

Politics

Technology