Why Sleep is the Best Problem Solver
June 9, 2009 by Quantum Publisher
Filed under Creativity
Research by leading sleep expert Dr. S. Mednickat the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine suggests that Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep enhances creative problem solving more than any other sleep or waking state.
Dr. Mednickat found that for creative problems you’ve already been working on, the passage of time is often enough to find solutions. But for new problems, only REM sleep seems to enhance your creativity. Mednick feels REM sleep does this by stimulating the creation of the associative networks that allow your brain to make new and useful associations between unrelated ideas.
The study participants were shown several groups of three words (for example: cookie, heart, sixteen) and asked to find a fourth word that could be associated to all three words (sweet, in this instance).Â
Participants were tested in the morning, and again in the afternoon after either a nap with REM sleep, one without REM sleep, or a quiet rest period. The importance of REM sleep to creative problem solving was obvious: Unlike the non-REM and quiet rest groups, the REM sleep group improved by almost 40 percent over their morning performances.
And REM sleep is apparently also connected to memory. Dr. Dennis McGinty of the Greater Los Angeles Veterans Administration Healthcare System has conducted research that has clearly established that REM sleep deprivation reduces cell proliferation in the part of the forebrain that contributes to long-term memory.
According to avid dream researcher Bradley Thompson, perhaps the most remarkable problem solving comes from what is called lucid dreaming – actually seeming to wake up during your REM sleep. During a lucid dream you can actually direct your dream experience, and recall it all when you awaken. The creative problem-solving results can be remarkable.
Does Stress Really Kill Brain Cells?
June 3, 2009 by Quantum Publisher
Filed under BEST POSTS
Wonder what’s happening in your brain when you’re stressed?
Here are some facts you need to know:
PROBLEM 1: Loss of Brain Tissue from Stress
Stress kills brain cells. UCSF researchers report that stress causes a serious loss of brain tissue from brain cell death. Washington University School of Medicine researchers report that even mild flare-ups of psychological stress damage memory and brain functions.
A major National Institute of Health’s study shows that even mild stress releases a brain enzyme linked to bipolar manic-depressive disorder. This explains why stress leads to disturbed thinking, impaired judgment, impulsivity, and distractibility.
SOLUTION TO STRESS:
Over 40 years of research and clinical studies have proven that brainwave training can immediately reduce your stress, repair the damage, and train your brain how to avoid future stress-related damage. It is the ultimate stress management tool.
PROBLEM 2: Physical Brain Shrinkage
Many researchers have found that certain thinking patterns damage thinking and memory, and even result in physical brain shrinkage.
Dr Lupien of Montreal’s McGill University studied brains scans of 92 people over 15 years. The brains of those with low self-esteem had shrunk to 20% smaller than those who felt optimistic and good about themselves. The low self-esteem individuals also performed far worse in memory and learning tests.
SOLUTION:
Research has proven your brain is capable of full recovery. It is actually plastic, and with the correct stimulation can continue to grow even into advanced age.
Researchers Siegfried and Othmer report that frequent brainwave training yields a 23% increase in IQ plus substantial increases in self-esteem, motivation and energy.
Come discover the Web’s first complete Mental Workout ezone. Click here to => Take a Look .
posted by Jill Ammon-Wexler
Amazing Success
No Joke. Animals Laugh Too.
May 10, 2009 by Quantum Publisher
Filed under Feeling Positive
Do animals laugh?
Life can be funny, right? Want to get a good laugh? There’s now evidence that life can be equally funny for non-human animals.
Studies by various animal behaviorists suggest that monkeys, dogs, cats, and even rats love a good laugh.
The neural circuits for laughter exist in very ancient regions of the brain, and ancestral forms of play and laughter existed in other animals eons before we humans came along with our ha-ha-has and verbal repartee, says Jaak Panksepp, a neuroscientist at Bowling Green State University.
When chimps play and chase each other they pant in a manner that is strikingly similar to human laughter. Dogs have a similar response, and cats have their own version.
Rats chirp while they play in a way that resembles human giggles. Panksepp found in a previous study that when rats are playfully tickled, they chirp and bond socially with their human tickler. And they seem to like it, seeking to be tickled more. And apparently joyful rats also preferred to hang out with other chirpers.
Laughter in humans starts young, another clue that it’s a deep-seated brain function. Young children laugh and shriek abundantly in the midst of their other rough-and-tumble activities, Panksepp notes.
Meanwhile, there’s the question of what’s so darn funny in the animal world. Science has traditionally deemed animals incapable of joy. Panksepp’s response: Although some still regard laughter as a uniquely human trait, apparently the joke’s on them.
What do YOU think about this? Has your dog, cat. rat or elephant ever laughted?
