Brain @ MindSay

I often feel as though I am only one resident in this condo that I tend to think of as MY skull.

Because there is a character in the back somewhere, and saints preserve us, I think he's in the shower right now. Singing.

He does this a lot. The singing, I mean, not the showering (the notion of a shower in my hypothalamus is at once both amusing and distressing). He'll also march around his apartment, grandly singing, or leap madly for his desk (at least, that's what it sounds like), and scribbly madly (these compositions usually end up like some cross of Danny Elfman and John Philip Sousa on LSD).  The problem is that he never leaves the house, so all of his inspiration, everything in his toolbox, seems to be based on whatever comes in through the eyes and ears. Were he not so annoying, I would feel sorry for the little guy, because I tend to watch a lot of musicals, kids movies, and listen to a mix most eclectic. It shows in his compositions - the little guy evidently fancies himself a master composer.

He's not.

I used to claim credit for the little bits that came out of that back corner of the brain, but I've come to the conclusion that we are not the same character. For example, I would have better sense than to warble in the shower;

To camp I go! To camp I go!
Oh me, oh my, hee hee, ho ho!

Yes, admittedly, today I go to staff training, and this is very exciting. However.

*sigh*

There was also a fair amount of Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein in my childhood.

Okay, so - think about this: You're all grown up and an elder relative tells you that as a tiny baby, you always did something. Now, learned behavior is one thing - but what about primal instict, and natural selection of the subconscious? Ah, sounds deep and theoretical, no? It's not, don't worry. Check this out, it just might be fun.

 

Alright - let's talk SEX. Oooh, big bad word. It's the 3 letter equivalent in this world to all other fathomable 4 letter words. Now, from a guy's perspective:

You have 4 women's photos in front of you, and you have to pick just one with which to have a real dating relationship with based on attractiveness, sense of personality, and possible marital worth. These five gals are:

 

1. A gorgeous girl, but seems to be pissed. She's in a stiff black suit, squared heels, hair in a tight bun. Her glasses are perched high atop her nose, and she has the air of a wealthy elitist. She holds her pose with hands clasped in front of her near the level of her hips, and she's upright, head straight ahead. She does not look away, nor downward.

 

2. Another gal, average figure, naturally pretty face. She's in nothing but a pair of men's boxers, a big t-shirt, and a pair of fold-down socks. She's flopped on the floor, reading a book. Her smile and expression are playful, honest, and youthful. Her hair's pulled into a ponytail, with a few whisps left about her face. Pillows thrown about her, she's half-laying propped on one arm while otherwise laying belly-down.

 

3. Our next femme is in a tight red dress reminiscent of lingerie. Tall stilletto heels, garterbelts and fishnet hosiery. She's wearing dark but moderate makeup, hair is long and down. She has an aggressive facial tone, with eyes that say bedroom and fight in one go. Her pose is forced and unnatural, her figure enhanced, but near Barbie-eque perfection. She's very tanned, manicured and waxed - constantly on check for any flaws.

 

4. This girl is a bit over her thinnest weight, but not heavy. She's athletic of build, shorter hair in a fun, almost flirty/bohemian style. She has as much as possible in a haphazard attempt at an updo in a hairclip, bright, loving eyes. She wears a pair of athletic pants and a sports bra with a nicer shirt over it. She seems to want to talk, and she's leaned against a parkbench talking to a child. No makeup, and has a homemade muffin by her purse for lunch.

 

5. She's average height and weight and she's wearing a light cotton summer dress to her knees.Her makeup is light and complimentary.. Her hair is down, soft and wavy. She smiles sweetly and her eyes sparkle with innocence.

 

Okay - got the images in your head? Great! Now, let's see what happens.

Guy likes # 1 because : She's very snobbish, seems to be mentally an elitist, and probably very dominating and brusque in attitude. Too tightly wound, it's a conquest to over-rule her and see her "relax" a little. Besides, she's got a career of her own, so no money fears with her. She seems to hold her own, and very educated.

 

Guy likes #2 because: She's relaxed, youthful, honest, open, and mischevious. Very girl next door, almost innocent, a childlike purity and naivety seem to be her gift as well. She's not high maintenence, and would probably be adventurous and experimental, and more likely to be humorous and casual.

 

Guy likes #3 because: She's a trophy. She's perfection, a living doll to show off and stare at. She goes out of her way to look just right, and is very meticulous about her image. Probably a great jawdropper at parties, and someone who with in public, would turn all heads with respect and envy.

 

Guy likes #4 because: She's got a blend of mothering instincts, outdoorsy, tomboy, homemaker, honesty, commitment, and an air of dedication to her. She's not a femme fatale, but she's got beautiful, sparkling, smiling eyes, a sense of humor and imagination. Not a great trophy to show, but perfect to introduce to anyone and have them fall for her heart and smile.

 

Guy likes #5 because: She's a safe bet. She's respectful, kind, and is the ultimate good girl. She may not be sexy, exciting, adventurous, sponateous or boldly free, but she's a traditional gal, the work of many years bringing up the perfect Christian wife, and marraige ready.

 

 

SO what does this show?

 

It's a primal instict that shows where we're led to subconciously.

 

Maybe Guy has dated young "princess" types and yet, is always eyeing the librarian.

Maybe he's been having sex with the Barbie-esque gal, but only feels truly alive when he sees our 4th girl jog by, stopping to pick up a softball and toss it back out before falling squarely on her butt with a soft laugh.

 

We are attracted to what we mentally want. I think this is why, just artistically, from what I noticed:

 

Dark, serious shades, hard lines, bold = nature's mountains, hard-wood trees, rocks, and shadows - unwavering and solid. (#1)

 

Pastel shades, sparkling, fluttery, and soft = delicate flowers, soft scents, breezes, butterflies and sand - softly yeilding, pure, fragile, memorable. (#2)

 

Colorful shades, seductive and eyecatching = animal kingdom's warning of *poisonous*, therefor, a forbidden.

(#3)

 

Haphazard combinations of all of the above = nature in general, and much like birds, the colors are present but less vibrant in females, and a mottled effect occurs - mysterious mixes of breeds and origins of home, sunrise/sunset, seasons, sky, earthy, unknown. (#4)

 

White,yellow, pale = in the mating world of bugs, animals and even fish you'll find that quite a few of the females waiting to be mated with are more blandly colored, and have more white and pale shades to their feathers and wings. They aren't usually the more extravagant of species, but are consistent and hardy. (5)

 

SO what you get is the basic idea that we, just like animals, are attracted to certain things NOT because we choose to be, and not because it's a learned trait, but rather out of nature's way of ensuring diversity and lineage continuing in mankind. As long as the corporate chairwoman lusts secretly after her dad's gardener, we all know that truly, we're still all just animals at the end of the day.

 

So there's your useless sex-ed theorem for the day, lol! Tomorrow, emotions - and why some of us (or them)have more of one than another. For example we all know these two: one man is a total cynical ass, vs. the man who believes/feels everything and is so sensitive he's accused of being a girl.

 

And there's more - but you'll see, you'll start thinking," Omg, that's so-and-so! That's exactly what he's like!" And maybe - we'll quit deciding who best suits our wants and dreams by their looks one day, vs. how we feel when we see them frumpy and chucking a wayward ball back to left field, eh?

 

One can always hope...

Lilli

18 February 2009
Emma Young

TAKE anyone with a psychiatric disorder and the chances are they don't sleep well. The result of their illness, you might think. Now this long-standing assumption is being turned on its head, with the radical suggestion that poor sleep might actually cause some psychiatric illnesses or lead people to behave in ways that doctors mistake for mental problems. The good news is that sleep treatments could help or even cure some of these patients. Shockingly, it also means that many people, including children, could be taking psychoactive drugs that cannot help them and might even be harmful.

No one knows how many people might fall into this category. "That is very frightening," says psychologist Matt Walker from the University of California, Berkeley. "Wouldn't you think that it would be important for us as a society to understand whether 3 per cent, 5 per cent or 50 per cent of people diagnosed with psychiatric problems are simply suffering from sleep abnormalities?"

First, we'd need to know how and to what extent sleep disorders could be responsible for psychiatric problems. In the few years since sleep researchers identified the problem, they have made big strides in doing just that.

Doctors studying psychiatric disorders noticed long ago that erratic sleep was somehow connected. Adults with depression, for instance, are five times as likely as the average person to have difficulty breathing when asleep, while between a quarter and a half of children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) suffer from sleep complaints, compared with just 7 per cent of other children.

Until recently, however, the assumption that poor sleep was a symptom rather than a cause of mental illness was so strong that nobody questioned it. "It was just so easy to say about a patient, well, he's depressed or schizophrenic, of course he's not sleeping well - and never to ask whether there could be a causal relationship the other way," says Robert Stickgold, a sleep researcher at Harvard University. Even when studies did seem to point in the other direction, the findings were largely overlooked, he says.
The assumption that poor sleep was a symptom rather than a cause of mental illness was so strong that nobody questioned it

In 1987, for example, Patricia Chang and colleagues at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore reported a study of 1053 male medical students who had been followed for an average of 34 years after graduation. During that time, 101 of them developed clinical depression and 13 of these committed suicide. It turned out that students who had reported suffering from insomnia were twice as likely to develop depression as those with no trouble sleeping. The team concluded cautiously that insomnia was "indicative of a greater risk" of problems later. Stickgold goes further. He believes the study shows that insomnia can predispose people to depression.

He's not the only one to be persuaded both by findings such as Chang's and by the growing realisation that some sleep problems generate symptoms that mimic those of certain psychiatric disorders.

In 2006, Paul Peppard at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his team studied the relationship between depression and sleep-disordered breathing. In sleep apnoea, the most common form of SDB, a blockage or narrowing of the windpipe causes a steep drop in oxygen levels, temporarily waking the sleeper. The team randomly selected about 800 men and 600 women from a working population and evaluated them in the lab for SDB and depression. There are four categories of SDB and for each increase in a person's SDB category - from "minimal" to "mild", for example - their odds of getting depressed almost doubled, the team found (Archives of Internal Medicine, vol 16, p 1709). Depression cannot have been the main cause of the poor sleep, since we know SDBs stem from physical factors such as excess fat thickening the windpipe or a large tongue or tonsils relative to the size of the windpipe opening. Instead, this work suggests that sleep disorders lead to the depression.

Indeed, Daniel Buysse, medical director of the Sleep and Chronobiology Program at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has found that treating depressed patients' sleep problems with a drug such as benzodiazepine can produce a dramatic turnaround in their mood disorder. Buysse does not provide an estimate for the proportion of depressed patients who fall into this category - but he has gone on the record saying that for some patients insomnia seems to cause depression.

Poor sleep may also explain some of the characteristic behaviours associated with other mental illnesses. For example, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that impaired sleep can induce the manic episodes suffered by people with bipolar disorder, according to a review published last May (American Journal of Psychiatry, vol 165, p 830). Stickgold even thinks that it can cause a common problem associated with schizophrenia, namely, the failure to master rote tasks such as how to use a piece of machinery. While healthy people improve overnight on tasks that require such motor skills, Stickgold's team has found that people with chronic schizophrenia do not. "We have identified a failure specifically of the sleep-dependent component of procedural learning," the researchers write (Biological Psychiatry, DOI: 10.1016/j.bps.2004.09.012). So, in theory, improved sleep should help with this symptom.
Sleep-deficit disorder

It also seems that behavioural problems resulting from lack of sleep may be misdiagnosed as attention-deficit disorder (ADD) and ADHD. In 2005, Clifford Risk, director of the Marlborough Center for Sleep Disorders in Massachusetts, presented a study to the annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians. Of 34 adults with sleep apnoea that he investigated, 16 had scores that suggested a moderate or severe impairment of attention. Subsequent treatment for the apnoea led to substantial improvements in attention scores for 60 per cent of these individuals - suggesting that for this sub group, at least, the sleep apnoea caused the difficulties with attention.

Likewise, in an analysis of 83 children with ADHD, David Gozal from the University of Louisville, Kentucky, and colleagues found that a quarter of those diagnosed with mild ADHD suffered from sleep apnoea, compared with just 5 per cent of those with strong ADHD and 5 per cent of healthy controls. "SDB can lead to mild ADHD-like behaviours that can be readily misperceived and potentially delay the diagnosis and appropriate treatment," the team concluded (Pediatrics, 2007, vol 111, p 554). What's more, a study of children undergoing surgery to remove their tonsils and adenoids (a common treatment for snoring and sleep apnoea) found that before the operation, one-quarter had a diagnosis of ADHD compared to 7.4 per cent of healthy controls. But a year after the operations, half of these children no longer met the criteria for ADHD (Archives of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery, vol 133, p 974). Mark Kohler from the Women's and Children's Hospital in Adelaide, Australia, who has studied links between ADHD and sleep, suspects that some children are being treated with drugs such as Ritalin while their true problem, a sleep disorder, goes unrecognised.

So how does poor sleep lead to behavioural and psychological problems? Some of the links are apparent. For example, every parent knows that tired children usually become hyperactive rather than sleepy. Sleep disruption also bumps up stress hormone levels, which could contribute to daytime anxiety, a component of many psychiatric disorders. More intriguingly, it now seems sleep disruption can fundamentally interfere with the brain's ability to process emotion and to react to an emotional stimulus in an appropriate way (see "Feeling emotional? Take a nap").

While it is common knowledge anecdotally that a poor night's sleep is likely to make you more irritable the next day, Walker and his colleagues uncovered key evidence for why this should be so. The team showed a set of increasingly disturbing images to people who had slept normally and people deprived of sleep for 35 hours. In the sleep-deprived group, the gruesome images produced 60 per cent more activity in the amygdala - a primitive, emotionally reactive part of the brain - than in well-rested people. Further scans revealed that in those deprived of sleep the amygdala was failing to communicate with the prefrontal lobe, which normally controls and sends inhibitory signals down to the emotional brain. "The reason we don't blow our top when someone says something we don't like is because we have a highly developed prefrontal cortex, which acts as an emotional brake," says Walker. A loss of communication between the amygdala and the prefrontal lobe is one way that sleep loss could create psychiatric symptoms, he thinks. "In a number of psychiatric disorders, such as depression, it has been demonstrated that the frontal lobe's activity becomes disrupted. There's also preliminary evidence [of this] for ADHD and post-traumatic stress disorder," Walker says.

In another strand of research, evidence is growing that sleep - and dreaming, REM sleep, in particular - helps the brain to process memories. Disrupt this mechanism, and you could end up with psychological problems such as PTSD.

In August 2008, Stickgold and colleagues reported that when people are presented with pictures of an emotional or neutral object or scene, their memory for these scenes decreases during the day. After a night's sleep, they forget pretty much everything except the things that roused their emotions, for which their memories stay the same, or even improve (Psychological Science, vol 19, p 781). Cast your mind back, says Walker, and you will appreciate that almost all of your memories are emotional ones. He thinks this is because emotions act as a red flag for important things that we should be remembering. But, crucially, if you recall them now you don't re-experience the visceral reaction that you had at the time. Somehow, the brain has retained the memory while stripping away the visceral emotion. Both Stickgold and Walker believe this stripping process occurs during REM sleep.

They note that during REM, production of serotonin and noradrenalin shuts down in the brain. Noradrenalin is the neurochemical associated with stress, fear and the flight response; it translates to adrenalin in the body. Serotonin modulates anger and aggression. "You get this beautiful biological theatre during REM sleep, where the brain can go back over experiences it has learned in days past, but can do so in a situation where there are none of these hyping-up neurochemicals," Walker says. So although dreams can be highly emotional, he thinks that they gradually erode the emotional edges of memories.

In PTSD this process seems to fail, so that traumatic memories are recalled in all their emotional detail. It is not clear yet why this happens, but there is evidence that people with PTSD have higher waking levels of noradrenalin and serotonin. This might mean that neurotransmitters cannot be damped down sufficiently during REM sleep for the emotional intensity of the memories to be stripped away, says Walker.

Clearly there is still a lot of work to be done in untangling the ways in which sleep disruption might create psychiatric symptoms. Among the anomalies that need explaining is the fact that antidepressant medications reduce REM sleep and yet can be very effective. Then there is the puzzling finding that many people with depression say they feel happier after a night deprived of sleep (Biological Psychiatry, vol 149, p 471).

Nevertheless, when it comes to exactly how and to what extent sleep disorders could be responsible for psychiatric problems, Walker says: "We're getting there. Five years ago, that question wasn't on the radar for anyone - scientists or lay people. The fact that we're aware of it now and asking those questions means it's inevitable we'll find out."

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126962.100-are-bad-sleeping-habits-driving-us-mad.html?full=true

I can't get this song out of my brain today

Julia Fordham's  TowerBlock

 

You make me feel vulnerable and totally exposed
You make me feel like a teenager dressed in a woman's clothes
And I ask you, and I ask you, where do we go from here?

All my life, I've been the one who's big and strong for everyone
Then you come along, a towerblock for me to lean on.
And I ask you, where do we go from here?

You've got me so I'm curling like a kitten in your hand
You've got me so I'm clawing like a tiger caged and bound
And I ask you, and I ask you, where do we go from here?

All my life, I've been the one who's big and strong for everyone
Then you come along, a towerblock for me to lean on.
And I ask you, where do we go from here?

All my life, I've been the one who's big and strong for everyone
And now I know you've let me down, will it always be
That I'm the only towerblock for me?