Via: Psychology Degree
Showing posts with label interesting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label interesting. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Stepping into the dark
Think of darkness and we think of fear, of predators lurking in the shadows. To be in the dark is to be ignorant, vulnerable and fearful. While it’s a natural survival instinct for us to be wary of dark places, new research reveals that psychologically and physically, we need to spend some time in utter darkness. In fact, it is more the constant presence of light in our lives that may give us cause to be fearful.
Underlying fear
A recent study for Powergen revealed that 98 per cent of households with children leave some kind of artificial light on overnight. Add to that the light pollution of both larger cities and small towns, which studies reveal has grown by more than 24 per cent in recent years, and it seems few of us actually experience total darkness.
Hidden benefits
Yet scientists believe we must spend time in the darkness in order for our minds and bodies to function normally. ‘Darkness is important to us, not so much in terms of the quality of sleep we get, but because it triggers our bodies to begin producing melatonin,’ explains Professor Gaby Badre, consultant in sleep medicine and clinical neuroscience. ‘Melatonin stabilises our biological clock and regulates our circadian rhythms. Studies have revealed that people who do have light surroundings at night don’t have the same peaks and troughs of melatonin production as normal adults. Instead, your body behaves in much the same way as that of an elderly person. You don’t have periods of alertness and restfulness, just general lethargy.
‘After a few days of disruption to your circadian rhythm, your whole biological function can be affected, everything from your metabolism to your appetite. It’s like being jetlagged, but having that disruption continue for more than just a few days. If your hormones are not in phase with your sleep and wake pattern, this can cause serious health issues with your cardiovascular system, blood pressure and cognitive problems.’
There has also been a string of studies linking exposure to lights at night to breast cancer, colon cancer and leukaemia in children. ‘There’s no absolute proof this link exists yet,’ says Badre. ‘But what we do know is that melatonin does have an antioxidant effect, and it could well be the case that by stimulating its production, the darkness does help to protect us against cancer.’
Confidence boost
Overcoming our instinctive fear of darkness can help our bodies to function normally and be protected against fatal disease, but it can also help our minds, too. In northern climes, it is not the dark winter months that see a dramatic rise in depression and suicides, but the long, endless daylight of the summer months. And many psychologists believe that learning to feel at ease in the darkness can help us to feel less fearful in our lives.
‘Fear of the dark often goes hand in hand with all other kinds of phobias and anxieties because, unlike almost any other emotion, fear emerges from your thoughts about something that could happen,’ says Tom Breeze, an NLP practitioner who works with phobias at the ProMind consultancy. ‘It’s not like sadness, or anger, or happiness, which you feel as you live through an experience. Fear is the only future-based emotion that is evoked by your mind imagining negative possibilities.
‘Learning to feel comfortable in the darkness again can help us to alter our perception of the world. Your behaviour affects your thoughts, and you’ll gain a huge sense of confidence and power in overcoming a fear.’
* www.psychologies.co.uk
A recent study for Powergen revealed that 98 per cent of households with children leave some kind of artificial light on overnight. Add to that the light pollution of both larger cities and small towns, which studies reveal has grown by more than 24 per cent in recent years, and it seems few of us actually experience total darkness.
Hidden benefits
Yet scientists believe we must spend time in the darkness in order for our minds and bodies to function normally. ‘Darkness is important to us, not so much in terms of the quality of sleep we get, but because it triggers our bodies to begin producing melatonin,’ explains Professor Gaby Badre, consultant in sleep medicine and clinical neuroscience. ‘Melatonin stabilises our biological clock and regulates our circadian rhythms. Studies have revealed that people who do have light surroundings at night don’t have the same peaks and troughs of melatonin production as normal adults. Instead, your body behaves in much the same way as that of an elderly person. You don’t have periods of alertness and restfulness, just general lethargy.
‘After a few days of disruption to your circadian rhythm, your whole biological function can be affected, everything from your metabolism to your appetite. It’s like being jetlagged, but having that disruption continue for more than just a few days. If your hormones are not in phase with your sleep and wake pattern, this can cause serious health issues with your cardiovascular system, blood pressure and cognitive problems.’
There has also been a string of studies linking exposure to lights at night to breast cancer, colon cancer and leukaemia in children. ‘There’s no absolute proof this link exists yet,’ says Badre. ‘But what we do know is that melatonin does have an antioxidant effect, and it could well be the case that by stimulating its production, the darkness does help to protect us against cancer.’
Confidence boost
Overcoming our instinctive fear of darkness can help our bodies to function normally and be protected against fatal disease, but it can also help our minds, too. In northern climes, it is not the dark winter months that see a dramatic rise in depression and suicides, but the long, endless daylight of the summer months. And many psychologists believe that learning to feel at ease in the darkness can help us to feel less fearful in our lives.
‘Fear of the dark often goes hand in hand with all other kinds of phobias and anxieties because, unlike almost any other emotion, fear emerges from your thoughts about something that could happen,’ says Tom Breeze, an NLP practitioner who works with phobias at the ProMind consultancy. ‘It’s not like sadness, or anger, or happiness, which you feel as you live through an experience. Fear is the only future-based emotion that is evoked by your mind imagining negative possibilities.
‘Learning to feel comfortable in the darkness again can help us to alter our perception of the world. Your behaviour affects your thoughts, and you’ll gain a huge sense of confidence and power in overcoming a fear.’
* www.psychologies.co.uk
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Mad genius
Is there really such a thing as the mad genius? Can an illness be both a blessing and a curse? At seven years old, Nick van Bloss started shaking his head, grinding his teeth and making wild whooping noises. Nick had Tourette’s syndrome. No medical intervention helped him. But one activity stopped it all…
The moment Nick placed his hands on the piano keys his symptoms vanished. By the age of 20, he was an award winning international pianist. He felt sure that his illness had made him the success he was.
But there is a catch. The brain state necessary for his genius can also be dangerously close to mental chaos. Nick’s personal journey reveals how close he came to the edge and how determined he is to triumph...Nietzsche - beyond good and evil
Nietzsche’s argued that the Christian system of faith and worship was not only incorrect, but harmful to society because it allowed the weak to rule the strong – it suppressed the will to power which was the driving force of human character. Nietzsche wanted people to throw of the shackles of our misguided Christian morality and become supermen – free and titanic.
However, without God he felt that the future of man might spiral into a society of nihilism, devoid of any meaning; his aim was for man to realise the lack of divine purpose and create his own values. The core of Nietzsche’s work, including Thus Spake Zarathustra (1883-92), Beyond Good and Evil (1886), The Birth of Tragedy (1872) was to find a meaning and morality in the absence of God.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)