Sleeping and Stuff

1. The article about how the position one sleeps in tells a lot about his/her personality was cool. The connection to body language was an interesting thought that I hadn't realized. I am apparently a "yearner." It's fun learning about yourself. I found it interesting that naps help memory because I tend to feel groggy and oogy after taking naps. It was also interesting to read about the different fish and how they "slept;" makes my bed look that much more comfortable. 2. I LOVE analyzing dreams, so the dream interpretation bit was fascinating. It's amazing what you try to tell yourself. Some say that dreams are insignificant, so either way I would like to learn of some proof. Also, I'd like to learn more about this chemical that replaces sleep. I'm sure if used for a long time it would have adverse affects; no chemical can completely replace sleep (I think). I'd also like to learn where I could get some...
3. A) In "Is Sleep Essential," one of the points of view shown is that sleep is essential, that all animals sleep, and that interfering in the amount/quality of sleep has negative effects on the animals. This could very well be a falsehood. First of all, it's admitted that it's very hard to tell if animals such as fish are "sleeping" or not; a group of researchers concluded that fish rested in a manner "'equivalent to sleep.'" So they first of all need to define their terms. The other piece that comes into question is the 'negative effects. Animals have a hard time telling humans what they feel, them being animals and all. It's difficult to fully understand the affects lack of sleep has on an animal when we really have little idea about what's going on in their head.

B) In "Time to Wake Up to the Facts About Sleeping," Horne asserts that we as a nation receive enough sleep/ have a low sleep debt and that a lack of sleep doesn't cause major health problems like obesity. I was confused by that thought because in another paragraph he said that "healthy adults sleep 7 to 7 1/2 hours a night." Healthy adults. One would then assume that unhealthy adults sleep less or more than the average. Obese adults are unhealthy. Doesn't that kind of contradict itself? The article also insists that we sleep more on weekends simply to indulge ourselves, not because we are repaying our sleep debt. To me this doesn't make sense. On weekdays most of us are awoken by an alarm clock; alarm clocks, I would argue, are not natural. The amount of time one sleeps uninterrupted, I would say, is natural.

Sleep Journal

2/12- Bed at 1 AM, Wake at 6 AM = 5 hours.
2/13- Bed at 3:30 AM, Wake at 1 PM = 9 1/2 hours.
2/14- Bed at 3 AM, Wake at 12 PM = 9 hours.
2/15- Bed at 2:30 AM, Wake at 11 AM = 8 1/2 hours. Nap from 12 PM -2 PM. Difficulty falling asleep due to stomach pains.
2/16- Bed at 1:30 AM, Wake at 12 PM = 10 1/2 hours. Sleeping problems- woke up frequently, never actually felt asleep/restful.
2/17- Bed at 2:30 AM, Wake at 11 AM = 8 1/2 hours. Difficulty falling asleep due to stomach pains.
2/18- Bed at 3 AM, Wake at 11:30 AM = 8 1/2 hours. Dream: My stepfather, mother, brother, and I drove to a Chinese restaurant in my stepfather's truck. To get there we had to drive over a small mound of snow and immediately after drive down a slope. At the bottom of the slope we got out of the car and sat down at our table (it was outside) and were joined by my grandmother. My brother and I left the table and went to a wooded area next to a lake; from this position we could see the table. Then we left I suppose, though that is unclear to me. Next I remember again driving to the restaurant using the same route, except this time we were joined by my two cousins. I alone went to the wooded area.
2/19- Bed at 2:30 AM, Wake at 10 AM = 7 1/2 hours. Nap from 5 PM- 6:30 PM.
2/20- Bed at 3 AM, Wake at 8 AM = 5 hours. Nap from 4 PM- 5 PM. Difficulty falling sleep due to stomach pains.
2/21- Bed at 3:30 AM, Wake at 10: 30 AM = 7 hours. Nap from 6:45 PM - 7:20 PM. Difficulty falling asleep due to stomach pains.
2/22- Bed at 12 AM, Wake at 6 AM = 6 hours. Difficulty falling asleep (not used to going to bed so early).

Stuff

1. I see 5 separate grids moving at different rates even though it was one grid because it is moving too fast for my brain to understand it as it is.

2. The Ganzfeld procedure is when you cover your eyes with ping pong balls so you can only see distorted light and have white noise play in your ears. It causes hallucinations. No cause it'd share the crap out of me.

5. Hypnosis allowed subjects to experience synaesthesia (Anna's weird disease)

6. I thought the "Stepping Feet" illusion and the one with the yellow dots and blue crosses were very cool and very effective; they worked just as the instructions said they would.

9. He says that the demonic lyrics aren't actually there, but that people are willing to believe it because they expect it. I did fine on his test; the point was to show how bias affects what individuals believe.

Friendship Differences

Here's the response of a 10-year-old:

1. I don't really know how to answer the first question. I'm really sorry about that. I did answer the rest of the questions, though. I tried to answer the questions as best as I could.

2. Well, I usually don't talk to that person for a day or two. Yes, after a while I'll apologize to them or they will to me,depends on the situation.

3. Paige,Jillian,Olivia,sometimes Amber,and Jesse, my neighbor. Sometimes I go to Jesse's house after school during the spring and early summer. Paige sometimes comes over on the weekends.But not that much anymore. People that I invite to my party are people I usually hang out with,or close friends at school.

4. I would say Amber. Everyone in class thinks she's cool. Amber is very nice. Amber's popular because she has a lot of friends. She's not the mean popular. She's also very smart and cute.

And here is the response of a 19-year-old:

1. The leap from acquaintance to friend occurs, in my mind, when one acquires the desire to actively seek out the other, instead of merely enjoying chance encounters. With very few exceptions, trust too is usually essential for true friendship, often manifest in confidence or easy-going.

2. Fights rarely split true friendships permanently. Usually fights between friends erupt either because of jealousy, ideological differences, or prolonged proximity (which can make even the closest of friends snippy). The latter "fights" can usually be resolved with a simple simmer-down period, after which everything returns to normal (these tend to be more common). True friends usually have conquered ideological differences and accept their differing views, but spurts of disagreement are not uncommon. These too are usually swept under the table, unless the disagreement has prolonged practical implications. Jealousy scuffles are dangerous, but if friends are mutually respectful they are not fatal. These sorts of fights might arise over romantic disputes, skills-based achievement, or anything of that nature. Though these take the most work - usually a necessary cathartic confession wrecks havoc for a bit - understanding often heals even these sorts of problems over time.

3. Group 1: Kevin, Boysam
Group 2: Kael, Mike, Rin, Josh
Peripherals: Richard, Sclaire
A) The periphs, usually (just for availability reasons).
B) All of the above
C) Group 1 or 2, depending on the party.

4. In group 1, probably Kevin, but mostly because he just organizes everything, so he's sorta at the center. So I'd say it's because of his assertiveness, In group 2, probably myself, because of confidence and humor. For the others it's not really applicable. The notion of popularity among close friends really sort of seems to fade out after high school. In large acquaintance groups it's still there, of course, and in work situations it often arises. But healthy friendships are founded on equality, to a certain extent - qualified, asymmetrical but balanced equality.

Monkeys and Harlow

First off, Harlow was pretty interesting. He was emotionally unstable, experiencing bouts of depression and a lack of identity, possibly due to his distant relationship with his mother. And it turns out his most famous experiment happened because he fell out of love with his wife Clara. Interesting. But his experiments, more specifically the cloth mommy thing, were landmarks in the psychology field. He set up a wire monkey that provided nourishment and a cloth monkey that was just cute and soft. The monkey was okay when the wire monkey was taken away, but when the cloth monkey was taken away, the baby had a spaz attack. It was even shown that the baby monkey felt just as strongly about the cloth monkey as its real mother. The only problem was that the monkeys who were mothered by the cloth monkeys were extremely antisocial. Oops. And it didn't help that his next wife Peggy was violently ill with cancer. This guy can't win. The he created the "rape rack"-- ew-- and got some monkeys pregnant. Not himself. And then his wife died, and he won an award, but he was obviously very upset. That's basically it.

Parent Blog

When Shannon was preschool aged, she had big bright eyes, long hair with curls at the bottom, and was "full of beans" as my mother would say! She was absolutely adorable (no bias of course...) and even strangers were drawn to her. When we were at the mall one day browsing the Hallmark store, an older gentleman came up to her and began talking with her. She charmed him with the sparkle in her eye and cheery personality until he insisted on buying her a beanie baby. After much hesitation, we thanked him graciously and went on our way.

She was know as "Papa's Dolly" to her grandfather and the apple of his eye. Shannon loved anything shiny and would peruse the house finding things she could carry around and then hide...some never to be seen again!

I had a memory just today looking out the window at the snow. I could picture her at the top of the snowdrift in the middle of Buttermilk circle, an accumulation of days, weeks and sometimes months of endless snow. Her tiny little head popping up and down as she climbed to and fro atop the giant frozen mountain and slid down! It was bittersweet, the awareness that she is growing up and time marches on, and thankful to have such a wonderful person in my life and that I have such cherished memories and more to come!

At age 3, Shannon didn't have time for naps, there were far too many things to explore to waste precious time on that. When her busy days came to an end, her mind would wander, and I would snuggle up with her and rub her back until she fell asleep. MMMMmmm. Nice thoughts.