It's summertime, and the livin' is easy! In the “spirit of
easy,” we hope that everyone will come to our next delicious Pathfinder Produce
market to check out our great selection of fruits and veggies. Our Hoop House
staff is harvesting our own Pathfinder grown veggies … it just doesn't get any
fresher. We look forward to seeing you at the Village Commons on Thursday
between 1 and 5 p.m.It’s also time for the Summer Olympics! As you cheer on your favorite athletes and watch your favorite competitions, enjoy some fresh and cool produce items in the colors of the Olympic rings … red, yellow, blue, green and black. I can think of several items for each color: red tomato slices or pepper rings, yellow pineapple or pear pieces, blueberries or plums, green apples or kiwi, and maybe some black olives, blackberries or concord grapes (true, they’re really a deep purple, but close enough).
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Simply stated, cultivating health comes down to three or four themes: Eating well and drinking sufficient water; reducing and avoiding stressors and toxins; taking part in regular exercise and social activities; and getting sufficient sleep to recharge your brain and body. Unfortunately as we age, many of us suffer from insomnia, either through not being able to go to sleep easily, or waking up and not being able to get back to sleep.
I tend to wake up frequently, and I have noticed that younger friends are concerned about their lack of quality sleep. Sleeplessness is pervasive and can affect all parts of a person’s life: This was made painfully clear the other weekend when I took a survey call at my house. The survey-taker – who sounded young – could hardly make it through the questions he needed to ask due to his yawning.
Hopefully, some recent findings published in the science journal Nature may one day translate into help for those who suffer from regular sleeplessness. According to an article on the study at iflscience.com, scientists have identified a group of neurons in the brain called the “dorsal fan-shaped body (dFb)” that serves as a “sleep switch.” Oxford University researchers Diogo Pimentel and Jeffrey M. Donlea have shown that when these neurons are activated by the presence of dopamine and potassium ions they serve as the gatekeepers to the Land of Nod.
Pimentel and Donlea were studying fruit flies, but their prior work shows that more complex animals, including humans, have these clusters of dFB neurons that act in similar ways. The Oxford researchers are continuing their investigations in how sleep happens -- but as they’ve determined that these two compounds support sleep, it can’t hurt to add extra fruits and veggies that contain naturally occurring dopamine and potassium to your diet.
There are many other articles that offer sleep advice, and some suggest developing routines that cue your brain and body that it’s time to go to sleep. Humans are truly creatures of habit so it’s helpful to “get ready to go to bed” with regular patterns and behaviors – just as we did when we were children.
An article from Cosmopolitan underscores this importance of routines, and also advises that two hours before bed that you avoid completing employment-related tasks, don’t drink alcohol, don’t discuss or read about stressful topics, and turn off all electronic screens. Apparently, TVs, tablets and cell phones all emit white- and blue bandwidths of light; these particular wavelengths of the light spectrum make your brain go into “alert mode,” so they are counterproductive at a time when you need to relax. (This makes sense … daylight has falls into the blue range in the color temperature scale at 6500-degrees Kelvin; LCD screens range between 6500 and 9500 °K, and looking northwards on a clear day has a minimum color temperature of 15,000 °K. Sleeping with the TV on is counterproductive for this reason as well).
This article from the Daily Mirror recommends some holistic and yoga-inspired approaches, the “10minuteZen” channel on YouTube offers a simple breathing exercise, and advice from the Telegraph, supports using a little reverse psychology … try to stay awake, and your inner contrarian will put you to sleep!
Until next time, yawnnnn …. zzzzzzzzzzzzzz,
Lori
