15 March
2020
15 March
2020
Book Review: “Why We Sleep”
I am going to try to tamp down on the hyperbole but I am not sure how. This book is three thumbs up. Yes, I am aware I have two thumbs,
If I were to name three books that have had the deepest influence on me, they would be (*) The Top Five Regrets of a Dying Man (*) The Power of Now and this book (*) Why We Sleep.
I received this from my younger daughter as a Christmas gift. I finally picked it up for reading sometime in January. This was such a great book that I had to read cover to cover – TWICE !! Unfortunately, in the last two months, I have talked about this book in way too many group gatherings – undoubtedly putting them to sleep. Which, ironically, is what this book is all about.
Fantastic book to understand sleep. And dispel some myths about sleep….
Did you know that…
(*) Sleep is not about lack of wakefulness. There is a boat load of stuff your brain is doing when you are sleeping.
(*) Our brain shuts off the portion of itself that controls motor movements when we dream. Do you know why? Else we will act out our dream!! (try to get off from bed and run away when we dream we are being chased)
(*) Adolescents sleeping late and waking up late? That is not a choice. They need that. It is an evolution thing.
(*) Most sleeping pills do not control your sleep. They just act as sedatives (blunt out your brain)
(*) We have no concept of time when we dream. In fact the concept of time when we dream dilates 3X to 4X!
(*) NREM sleep helps you move your memories from the day from short term (hippocampus) to your long term (frontal cortex) but it is your REM sleep that helps you stick those memories to past memories (making you learn)
(*) Dolphins and whales sleep with one side brain shut off at a time!
(*) Evolution wise, we are biphasic sleepers (once after lunch and then the long sleep at night)
(*) Older adults need less sleep? Yeah, that is a myth
(*) We wash our face before we go to sleep because feelings clean causes better sleep? Another myth! But there is a biological reason why we should wash down our feet, hand and face/whole head to induce sleep.
(*) 65 degrees room temperature is ideal for deep sleep (that is too cold for me!!!)
(*) You are on high fat/low carb diet? You are messing up your REM sleep (leading to learning) but getting deep NREM sleep (short term memory cleaning is good)
15 March
2020
The s*** just got real for me!!
14 March
2020
Ominous clouds
14 March
2020
Which airport was I in?
14 March
2020
Our favorite place by the lake is open for the season again!
14 March
2020
While not a millennial….
This perfectly captures my mood after unsuccessfully trying to explain to my own daughter, a colleague at office and two fellow CEOs that it is okay to travel in planes. Stop listening to news outlets. Read up everything CDC is publishing instead. Or better still, talk to your doctor. They spent a lot of money to understand these kind of things and explain it to you.
That said, Scott, your observation was on the money. The gentleman next to me (I am writing this from a plane) cleaned his entire seat with wipes (good for him) and then proceeded to take the almond packet that Delta gave (God knows where all it has been), proceeded to open it with his hands, put them in his hand and put them in his mouth. That is the one thing CDC is saying – please do not do… do not get your hand near your mouth if you can avoid it.
Grrrrr.!!!
13 March
2020
COVID 19 in full swing
13 March
2020
Social distancing?
8 March
2020
It was a full moon that night too!!
Tonight is full moon. In India we celebrate Holi – the festival of colors. The moon looks beautiful if you step out and see it. I mentioned to Sharmila – “The full moon looks perfect tonight”. She laughed out aloud. It took me a second or two to understand why would anybody laugh at a beautiful full moon. I have to take you to a post from over six years back to get the context…. Reproduced from January 7, 2014.
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Last night Sharmila and I were in bed watching a sitcom on TV before going off to sleep when I noticed something small and shiny thru the master bedroom windows in the trees. I was trying to figure out whether it was a reflection of a light inside our house that I was seeing on the window or was it moonlight shining on some ice formation on the twigs. I straightened up and asked Sharmila – “Is that the moon”? And then for good measure threw in “Or is that your face”?
You know you have been married for twenty one years by how romantic values cede precedence to practical values. Sharmila looked at my face and the direction in which I was looking and then looking outside, said “What do you mean? How can my face be over there?”
I almost fell off my bed, guffawing! 🙂
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