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Sleep Patterns Are Governed By LIght
Your
biological clock is not the only
thing that reminds you to shut eye
every 24 hours; a new study has
found that it's actually light that
governs your sleeping patterns.
Your eyes use light to reset your
biological clock through a mechanism
that is separate from your ability
to see, researchers at Johns Hopkins
University found.
Researchers genetically modified
laboratory mice so that a particular
set of retinal ganglion cells -- the
ones that receive input from the
rods and cones of the eyes and send
information to your brain -- no
longer functioned. The mice were
still able to use light to see
normally, but had great difficulty
synchronizing their circadian
rhythms to light or dark cycles.
The findings suggest that people who
have trouble sleeping or seasonal
depression may be having a
malfunction that is contributing to
their inability to detect light,
which in turn may adversely affect
their biological clocks.
Sources:The
Time of India April 29, 2008 Nature
April 23, 2008
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The Way To A Person's Heart Is Their Left
Ear
If you're thinking of asking your
beloved to marry you, make sure that you
utter your declaration of love into his
or her left ear. New research suggests
that declarations of love, jokes, or
words of anger are best remembered when
they are heard through the left ear.
Instructions, directions and
non-emotional messages, on the other
hand, have more impact on the right
side. It has to do with how your brain
processes information. Although the left
and right hemispheres of the brain are
similar structures, they have
specialized functions.
The left side is more logic-based and
dominant, while the right is the more
imaginative side.
Since the right side of the brain
controls the left side of the body,
and vice-versa the left ear has been
shown in some research to be the
route to the emotional side of the
brain, and the right ear to the
non-emotional, logical side.
The right eye has also been shown to be
best for processing colors, and the
right foot is the most vulnerable to
tickling. The left cheek is the more
favorable one to kiss, and the left side
is the favored one for holding babies.
Support for the idea comes from a number
of psychological and brain scanning
studies, and from research based on
patients with brain injuries.
Sources: The Times Online April 25, 2008
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