Frankly, I’m anxious. I spent a good amount of time trying to think of a way to put it that involved less brutal honesty, perhaps some more word craft–a bit of extra verbiage that might distract from such an unplesant truth. But, ‘sometimes I worry’ was definitely a bit shy of the whole truth, ‘how […]
Recall in Part I that, although Pfizer’s angina treatment did little for the chest pain, it changed multiple thousands of lives in the bedroom when the scientists reincarnated it as Viagra. And date rape drug ketamine earned itself some points from ‘the good side’ when one study author found it to be “the biggest breakthrough […]
April 4, 2013
by candidaabrahamson
“Up All Night” by Elizabeth Holbert, a nice piece in the March 11 New Yorker, reprises the research of Matthew J. Wolf-Meyer, an anthropologist with an alternate model to our 11pm to 7am “ideal sleep schedule.” In The Slumbering Masses” Wolf-Meyer looks at the recent history of sleeping patterns. Before electric lighting, folks went to bed shortly […]
Look, it’s not like I have anything against the crystal ball. In fact, I use the exquisite glasses my mother left me for the holiday of Passover, and they happen to be crystal. But I’m just a wee bit skeptical about its powers to predict how many more years I’ll be spending on this planet. […]
March 18, 2013
by candidaabrahamson
If my hypothesis (see previous post, Part 1) proves correct that fear of insomnia increases insomnia, successful treatment should involve mastery of the fear. We know from both experience and from cognitive-behavioral theory that avoiding the source of fear makes the fear stronger rather than weaker. Conversely, facing down the fear weakens it. Why else […]
March 17, 2013
by candidaabrahamson
What are two major miseries of our well-off modern society? Obesity and sleeplessness. No surprise that they seem to be connected; looks like those who fail to get enough sleep are more likely to be overweight. They’re connected in another way: for some folks, no matter what they try, nothing is effective. Behavioral treatments […]
March 17, 2013
by candidaabrahamson
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in their paper ”Policy Impact: Prescription Painkiller Overdoses,” declared prescription drug abuse “an epidemic” in the United States. By far the biggest factor in prescription drug abuse is an eruption in prescription painkiller abuse. The shocking statistic provided by the Department of Health and Human Services is that almost three of four […]
April 7, 2013
by rfinkel
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