Signs and symptoms of sleep deprivation and lack of sleep

If you’re getting less than eight hours of sleep each night, chances are you’re sleep deprived. What’s more, you probably have no idea just how much lack of sleep is affecting you.

How is it possible to be sleep deprived without knowing it?

Most of the signs of sleep deprivation are much more subtle than falling face first into your dinner plate. Furthermore, if you’ve made a habit of skimping on sleep, you may not even remember what it feels like to be wide-awake, fully alert, and firing on all cylinders. It feels normal to get sleepy when you’re in a boring meeting, struggle through the afternoon slump, or doze off after dinner. But the truth is that it’s only “normal” if you’re sleep deprived.

You may be sleep deprived if you...

·         Need an alarm clock in order to wake up on time.

·         Rely on the snooze button.

·         Have a hard time getting out of bed in the morning.

·         Feel sluggish in the afternoon.

·         Get sleepy in meetings, lectures, or warm rooms.

·         Get drowsy after heavy meals or when driving.

·         Need to nap to get through the day.

·         Fall asleep while watching TV or relaxing in the evening.

·         Feel the need to sleep in on weekends.

·         Fall asleep within five minutes of going to bed.

While it may seem like losing sleep isn’t such a big deal, sleep deprivation has a wide range of negative effects that go way beyond daytime drowsiness.

The effects of sleep deprivation and chronic lack of sleep

·         Fatigue, lethargy, and lack of motivation

·         Moodiness and irritability

·         Reduced creativity and problem-solving skills

·         Inability to cope with stress

·         Reduced immunity; frequent colds and infections

·         Concentration and memory problems

·         Weight gain

·         Impaired motor skills and increased risk of accidents

·         Difficulty making decisions

·         Increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, and other health problems

Is lack of sleep affecting your performance?

Lack of sleep affects your judgment, coordination, and reaction times. In fact, sleep deprivation can affect you just as much as being drunk.

Source: http://www.helpguide.org/life/sleeping.htm

Analyzing Coffee vs Enjoying Coffee

If you haven’t noticed, I really love coffee, and I love every aspect of it.  From the fruit of the coffee tree with its beans dried to green perfection, to the sweet smell of coffee roast smoke as the coffee beans are browned to the roast profile of preference, to the aroma from the grinder and the taste from the brew, coffee offers a deep and wide experience of the senses.  Coffee can bring pleasure and a whole host of subjective emotions.  But at the same time, coffee is agriculture and chemistry and economics and several other sciences all rolled into one. Coffee can be objectively analyzed, from the bean origin and characteristics to its roast level and  taste qualities, and the thinking man has plenty of room to work through the elements of coffee intellectually.  Coffee is both logical and emotional, sensual and analytical, objective and subjective, and there is room in the world of coffee for it to be both to a wide expanse of people.

I was recently reading a blog post about how coffee can be approached from either a right brain or a left brain approach.  The right brain approach is described as holistic, broad brush, subjective and creative, being based in intuition and emotion, while the left brain approach is more detailed and analytical, highlighting logic and language and often focusing itself in science and mathematics.  These, of course, are generalities of the two sides of the brain and how they operate, but nonetheless, coffee can be experienced by one or the other or, ideally, by both.

Think back to your favorite memory of drinking coffee.   I have one — it was sitting at my kitchen table, drinking a cup of Brazil coffee from Starbucks, and my friend Paul, who lives out in California now and I rarely get to see, was at my house.  The coffee tasted really good, and I had bought it special because I knew Paul enjoyed coffee, too, and I wanted him to get to experience this coffee with me.  On that day, Paul suggested that I try out homeroasting my own coffee, and I told him I had no time for such thing.  He persisted, and the next week, I started researching homeroasting on SweetMarias.com and eventually bought some equipment and green coffee beans to roast.  That moment at my kitchen table, drinking and talking with Paul, is seared in my emotional memory, and it has made Brazil a sentimental coffee for me.  I love to drink a Brazil because it conjures up good feelings based on that memory.

The funny thing is, though, that most coffee drinkers wouldn’t characterize Brazilian coffee as being great coffee.  From an analytical viewpoint, Brazilian coffee can be too earthy and can be scattered in its flavor profile.  Often, when I mention that I enjoy a cup of Brazil, coffee professionals will look at me with a funny look and tell me that Brazil isn’t one of their favorites.  I agree — from a left brain point of view, there are many other coffees that have a better flavor profile, more complexity, unique characteristics, a better mouth feel or finish than a Brazil.  When you step back and analyze coffee, you can often work through the objective parameters of a coffee or a group of coffees and come to an intellectual decision as to which coffee is the best.  Cupping rooms are often stark rooms with little decoration flair simply so those tasting the coffees in cupping room will remove the subjective from the moment and instead review a coffee based on its actual characteristics.  I’m sure that if I were to cup several coffees and a Brazil was in the mix, the Brazil wouldn’t win top billing.

Interestingly, in my reading, I learned that the general enjoyment of coffee by the consumer is often due in part to someone who takes the time to analyze the coffee.  In the period from 1940-1990, the United States coffee industry focused more on cost cutting and offering the cheapest cup of coffee possible, but in so doing, the enjoyment of coffee by the general public waned.  During that time, there was a steady decline of coffee consumption in the United States.  The coffee industry wasn’t analyzing to find the best coffees; it was focused on finding the cheapest coffees it could find.  When you speak to someone who has lived most of their life in that time frame, oftentimes they have no love for coffee but instead just drink whatever it at hand and expect nothing of it.

In more recent years, though, the coffee scene has grown as people dedicated to analyzing coffee, especially those who represent the Specialty Coffee Association of America, have taken to time to sort out the best coffees and elevate them in the coffee industry, even though they often cost more.  This willingness to pay more for quality coffee has pushed forward the fair trade and organic coffee movements as coffee consumers began to understand the economics required to get better coffee.  The “third wave” of coffee we are currently experiencing, where coffee drinkers are enjoying high quality coffees, often single-origin coffees with great flavor, is due to the analyzers looking out for the enjoyment of the average coffee drinkers.

Whether you analyze coffee or simply enjoy coffee, or both, take a moment to realize the value of both.  If you’re just a coffee drinker who loves to drink coffee and aren’t too picky, be thankful for those who analyze tirelessly to make sure that cup of coffee is of a higher grade than it would have been several years ago.  And if you’re an analyzer, don’t be too hard on those who just enjoy a cup every once in a while without regard to all the nuances and methods.  The coffee world is a better place thanks to the analyzers, but every analyzer got to that place because at some point, they really enjoyed a cup of good coffee.

Source: http://417coffee.com/2010/04/19/analyzing-coffee-vs-enjoying-coffee/

Red wine and resveratrol: Good for your heart?

By Mayo Clinic staff

Red wine and something in red wine called resveratrol might be heart healthy. Find out the facts, and hype, regarding red wine and its impact on your heart.

Red wine, in moderation, has long been thought of as heart healthy. The alcohol and certain substances in red wine called antioxidants may help prevent heart disease by increasing levels of "good" cholesterol and protecting against artery damage.

While the news about red wine might sound great if you enjoy a glass of red wine with your evening meal, doctors are wary of encouraging anyone to start drinking alcohol. That's because too much alcohol can have many harmful effects on your body.

Still, many doctors agree that something in red wine appears to help your heart. It's possible that antioxidants, such as flavonoids or a substance called resveratrol, have heart-healthy benefits.

How is red wine heart healthy?

Red wine seems to have even more heart-healthy benefits than other types of alcohol, but it's possible that red wine isn't any better than beer, white wine or liquor for heart health. There's still no clear evidence that red wine is better than other forms of alcohol when it comes to possible heart-healthy benefits.

Antioxidants in red wine called polyphenols may help protect the lining of blood vessels in your heart. A polyphenol called resveratrol is one substance in red wine that's gotten attention.

Resveratrol in red wine

Resveratrol might be a key ingredient in red wine that helps prevent damage to blood vessels, reduces "bad" cholesterol and prevents blood clots.

Most research on resveratrol has been done on animals, not people. Research in mice given resveratrol suggests that the antioxidant might also help protect them from obesity and diabetes, both of which are strong risk factors for heart disease. However, those findings were reported only in mice, not in people. In addition, to get the same dose of resveratrol used in the mice studies, a person would have to drink over 60 liters of red wine every day.

Some research shows that resveratrol could be linked to a reduced risk of inflammation and blood clotting, both of which can lead to heart disease. More research is needed before it's known whether resveratrol was the cause for the reduced risk

Resveratrol in grapes, supplements and other foods

The resveratrol in red wine comes from the skin of grapes used to make wine. Because red wine is fermented with grape skins longer than is white wine, red wine contains more resveratrol. Simply eating grapes, or drinking grape juice, has been suggested as one way to get resveratrol without drinking alcohol. Red and purple grape juices may have some of the same heart-healthy benefits of red wine.

Other foods that contain some resveratrol include peanuts, blueberries and cranberries. It's not yet known how beneficial eating grapes or other foods might be compared with drinking red wine when it comes to promoting heart health. The amount of resveratrol in food and red wine can vary widely.

Resveratrol supplements are also available. While researchers haven't found any harm in taking resveratrol supplements, most of the resveratrol in the supplements can't be absorbed by your body.

How does alcohol help the heart?

Various studies have shown that moderate amounts of all types of alcohol benefit your heart, not just alcohol found in red wine. It's thought that alcohol:

ü  Raises high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, the "good" cholesterol

ü  Reduces the formation of blood clots

ü  Helps prevent artery damage caused by high levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, the "bad" cholesterol

Drink in moderation — or not at all

Red wine's potential heart-healthy benefits look promising. Those who drink moderate amounts of alcohol, including red wine, seem to have a lower risk of heart disease. However, more research is needed before we know whether red wine is better for your heart than are other forms of alcohol, such as beer or spirits.

Neither the American Heart Association nor the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute recommend that you start drinking alcohol just to prevent heart disease. Alcohol can be addictive and can cause or worsen other health problems.

Drinking too much increases your risk of high blood pressure, high triglycerides, liver damage, obesity, certain types of cancer, accidents and other problems. In addition, drinking too much alcohol regularly can cause cardiomyopathy — weakened heart muscle — causing symptoms of heart failure in some people. If you have heart failure or a weak heart, you should avoid alcohol completely. If you take aspirin daily, you should avoid or limit alcohol, depending on your doctor's advice. You also shouldn't drink alcohol if you're pregnant. If you have questions about the benefits and risks of alcohol, talk to your doctor about specific recommendations for you.

If you already drink red wine, do so in moderation. Moderate drinking is defined as an average of two drinks a day for men and one drink a day for women. The limit for men is higher because men generally weigh more and have more of an enzyme that metabolizes alcohol than women do.

A drink is defined as 12 ounces (355 milliliters, or mL) of beer, 5 ounces (148 mL) of wine or 1.5 ounces (44 mL) of 80-proof distilled spirits

Source: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/red-wine/HB00089

S.T.O.P. – 4 Steps for Enjoying your Life

Enjoying your life is simply a matter of the way that you feel. There is a common belief that happiness comes about as a result of having certain things (money, material goods, relationships, etc.), but in all actuality, whether or not you are enjoying your life has always boiled down to the simple question of how you feel about your life.

No amount of of money will help you to enjoy life if you are miserable on the inside. No relationship will define or complete you when a relationship – by definition – involves two or more people. No cache of toys and treasures will make you happy if you believe that you must have toys and treasures to be happy.

Bob over at Every, Every Minute started  The Desiderata Project where bloggers choose a passage from Desiderata and expand upon the concept in a blog post. I chose the following passage as a reminder that enjoying the actual journey of life is more important than not having happiness until that journey has been completed:

“Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.”

In order to provide a simple formula that people can use on a daily basis to enjoy their lives rather than constantly focusing on the future, I have used the acronym S.T.O.P.

S – Stop

There is a simple truth of the human existence, and that is that most people simply do not take the time to STOP and think about all of the things that they have in their lives to be grateful for, and they also do not pat themselves on the back for having those things as a result of their own efforts.