Piscando

 

~ Virgem - 1987 ~

(Marina Lima)

As coisas não precisam de você
Quem disse que eu tinha que precisar
As luzes brilham no Vidigal
E não precisam de você
Os dois irmãos também não precisam
O Hotel Marina quando acende
Não é por nós dois
Nem lembra o nosso amor
Os inocentes do Leblon
Esses nem sabem de você
E o farol da ilha só gira agora
Por outros olhos e armadilhas
Outros olhos e armadilhas eu disse
Outros olhos e armadilhas
Outros olhos e armadilhas
O Hotel Marina quando acende
Não é por nós dois
Nem lembra o nosso amor
Os inocentes do Leblon
Não sabem de você nem vão querer saber
O farol da ilha procura agora
Outros olhos e armadilhas
Outros olhos e armadilhas eu disse
Outros olhos e armadilhas
Outros olhos e armadilhas
As coisas não precisam de você

Psy + 3

Reasons Why You Need to Get a Good Night's Sleep

Monday November 30, 2009

Top Reasons to Get a Good Night's Sleep

How Sleep Improves Memory, Reduces Stress and Enhances Decision-Making

By Kendra Van Wagner, About.com Guide

See More About:

• sleep
• states of consciousness

When was the last time you found yourself drifting off in the middle of a long class lecture or meeting? According to the National Sleep Foundation's 2008 "Sleep in America" poll, 29% of participants reported becoming very sleepy or even falling asleep at work in the previous month alone.
Recent research has linked lack of sleep to a wide range of ailments, including memory problems and obesity. Learn more about some of the top reasons why you should get a good night's sleep.

Sleep May Help You Learn More Effectively

Svein Halvor Halvorsen

Researchers have long believed that sleep plays an important role in memory, but recent evidence suggests that getting a good night's sleep can improve learning. In one study, researchers found that depriving students of sleep after learning a new skill significantly decreased memory of that skill up to three days later (Winerman, 2006). Known as the memory consolidation theory of sleep, this notion proposes that sleep serves to process and retain information learned earlier while awake. While there is research both for and against the theory, many studies have shown that sleep can play an important role in certain types of memory.

site: http://psychology.about.com/od/statesofconsciousness/tp/reasons-to-sleep.htm

Better Sleep Guidelines

Top 10 Ways to Get a Better Night's Sleep Tonight

By Brandon Peters, M.D., About.com Guide

About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by our Medical Review Board

See More About:

• better sleep
• sleep hygiene
• insomnia

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There are simple guidelines that will help you have better sleep tonight. At some point in their lives, for any number of reasons, nearly all Americans will have difficulties sleeping. This can lead to significant distress, but have no fear! There are simple steps to take that will help you to sleep better tonight.

1. Get up and go to bed at the same time every day, even on weekends. We are creatures of habit, and our sleep is no exception. By consistently going to bed and getting up at the same time, we condition our body to follow a regular pattern of sleep. This allows our body’s natural clock, called a circadian rhythm, to help initiate and maintain our sleep.
2. Make sure your bedroom is quiet, dark, cool, and comfortable. Studies find that sleeping in a cool environment is most conducive to sleep. By eliminating excess noise and light, we can minimize the disruptions that might wake us up. In addition, the bedroom should be a relaxing place and not a source of stress.
3. Bedrooms are for sleeping and sex, not for watching television or doing work. Somehow we have managed to make the bedroom a multipurpose room. All electronics must be removed! Televisions, gaming systems, computers, telephones, and various other gadgets are stimulating and disruptive to sleep. Don’t allow them in your bedroom and don’t use them in the brief period before going to bed. Even the small amount of light from a computer screen in the evening hours can stimulate your brain into thinking it is time to be awake. Moreover, do not use the bedroom to do work as these activities are likewise stimulating and will disrupt your sleep.
4. Avoid caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine 4-6 hours before bedtime. Caffeine can be found in expected places like coffee, soda pop, or tea, but also in unexpected foods like chocolate. As a stimulant it will keep you awake, even if used nearly six hours before bed. Likewise, nicotine will disrupt your sleep. And contrary to common practice, an alcoholic “nightcap” can actually make your sleep worse. Though it may cause you to become drowsy, alcohol fragments the stages of your sleep and makes it more disrupted.
5. Don’t take naps. The period of time that you are awake adds to something called “sleep drive.” The longer we stay awake, the more we want to go to sleep. By taking a nap we can relieve this desire to sleep, but it will also make it less likely that we will be able to easily go to sleep later. Adults should have a consolidated period of sleep at night without additional naps. If there is excessive daytime sleepiness and desire to nap, in spite of adequate sleep time, this might suggest a sleep disorder warranting further evaluation.
6. Exercise every day, but avoid doing it 4 hours before bedtime. Staying active and physically fit is an excellent way to ensure a good night’s sleep. However, exercise too close to bedtime may actually cause difficulties in getting to sleep as your body will still be revved up.
7. Develop sleep rituals which include quiet activities, such as reading, 15 minutes before bedtime. Just like we maintain for children, adults need daily sleep rituals prior to going to bed to allow us to unwind and mentally prepare for going to sleep. These rituals should include quiet activities such as reading, listening to relaxing music, or even taking a nice bath.
8. If you are having trouble getting to sleep, don’t struggle in bed or you will train yourself to have difficulties there. Individuals who have difficulty initiating sleep often toss and turn in bed and try to force sleep to come. As this is repeated, night after night, this sets up a situation where we associate our bed with the anxiety of not being able to sleep. If you are unable to get to sleep within 15 minutes, go to another quiet place and lie down until you feel ready to fall asleep, and then return to your bedroom to sleep.
9. Avoid eating or drinking in the few hours right before going to bed, as these might lead to disruptions of your sleep. Discomfort with heartburn or acid reflux as well as needing to get up multiple times to urinate can be very disruptive to a good night’s sleep. It is best to avoid setting up these situations by not eating or drinking in the few hours just prior to bedtime.
10. Make sleep a priority: don’t sacrifice sleep to do daytime activities. The most important advice is to respect that your body needs to sleep. Too often we are likely to allow our sleep time to be infringed upon when our daytime obligations take longer than we expect. Additionally, opportunities to engage in pleasurable activities—visiting friends, watching television, playing on the internet, eating out, and any number of others—quickly cut into our sleep time if we allow them to. It is important to schedule your sleep time and keep to that schedule, no matter what might come up during the day. site: http://sleepdisorders.about.com/od/howcanisleepbetter/a/bettersleep.htm

Psy + 2

Autism treatment works in kids as young as 18 mos.

- November 30, 2009 CHICAGO - The first rigorous study of behavior treatment in autistic children as young as 18 months found two years of therapy can vastly improve symptoms, often resulting in a milder diagnosis.
The study was small - just 48 children evaluated at the University of Washington - but the results were so encouraging it has been expanded to several other sites, said Geraldine Dawson, chief science officer of the advocacy group Autism Speaks. Dawson, a former University of Washington professor, led the research team.
Early autism treatment has been getting more attention, but it remains controversial because there's scant rigorous evidence showing it really works. The study is thus "a landmark of great import," said Tony Charman, an autism education specialist at the Institute of Education in London.
There's also a growing emphasis on diagnosing autism at the earliest possible age, and the study shows that can pay off with early, effective treatment, said Laura Schreibman, an autism researcher at the University of California at San Diego.
The National Institute of Mental Health funded the study, which was published online Monday in Pediatrics.
Children aged 18 months to 30 months were randomly assigned to receive behavior treatment called the Early Start Denver model from therapists and parents, or they were referred to others for less comprehensive care.
The therapy is similar to other types of autism behavior treatment. It focused on social interaction and communication - which are both difficult for many autistic children. For example, therapists or parents would repeatedly hold a toy near a child's face to encourage the child to have eye contact - a common problem in autism. Or they'd reward children when they used words to ask for toys.
Children in the specialized group had four hours of therapist-led treatment five days a week, plus at least five hours weekly from parents.
After two years, IQ increased an average of almost 18 points in the specialized group, versus seven points in the others. Language skills also improved more in the specialized group. Almost 30 percent in the specialized group were re-diagnosed with a less severe form of autism after two years, versus 5 percent of the others. No children were considered "cured."
Ashton Faller of Everett, Wash., got specialized treatment, starting at age 2.
"He had no verbal speech whatsoever, no eye contact, he was very withdrawn," recalled his mother, Lisa Faller.
Within two years, Ashton had made "amazing" gains, she said. Now almost 6, he's in a normal kindergarten class, and though he still has mild delays in social skills, people have a hard time believing he is autistic, Faller said.
The treatment is expensive; participants didn't pay, but it can cost $50,000 a year, Dawson said. Some states require insurers to cover such costs, and Autism Speaks is working to expand those laws.

site: http://www.psycport.com/showArticle.cfm?xmlFile=ap_2009_11_30_ap.online.all_D9C9NSV80_news_ap_org.anpa.xml&provider=

Psy + 1

Climate Change Expected to Harm Mental Health

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on December 4, 2009

In anticipation of the world climate change convention, researchers have summarized recent investigations on potential mental health impacts.
Although Dr Lisa Page and Dr Louise Howard from King’s College London do not believe their findings will garner serious attention at the UN conference in Copenhagen next week, their findings are important for health professionals and individuals with an existing mental health condition.
The two mental health experts conclude that climate change has the potential to have significant negative effects on global mental health. These effects will be felt most by those with pre-existing serious mental illness, but that there is also likely to be an increase in the overall burden of mental disorder worldwide.
The scientists urge for the lack of research into the mechanisms that cause the effects of climate change on mental disorder to be addressed, so that mental health policy makers can plan for the significant impacts of climate change on mental health that are to be expected.
The findings are in the current online edition of Psychological Medicine. Dr Page, lead author of the article and Clinical Lecturer in Liaison Psychiatry at the IoP, comments:

‘Climate change is assuming center stage with the upcoming UN conference in Copenhagen. While delegates will discuss the effects of climate change and possible responses by the international governments, we fear that the effects of climate change on mental health will be largely ignored, posing a tremendous risk to the mental health of millions of people in the not-too-distant future.’

Dr Page and Dr Howard identified the following ways in which climate change is likely to impact mental health:

• Natural disasters, such as floods, cyclones and droughts, are predicted to increase as a consequence of climate change. Adverse psychiatric outcomes are well documented in the aftermaths of natural disasters and include post-traumatic stress disorder, major depression and somatoform disorders. • The needs of people will chronic mental illness have often been overlooked following disaster in favor of trauma-focused psychological interventions and yet the mentally ill occupy multiply vulnerabilities for increased mortality and morbidity at such times. • As global temperatures increase, people with mental illness are particularly vulnerable to heat-related death. Contributing risk factors such as psychotropic medication, pre-existing respiratory and cardiovascular disease and substance misuse, are all highly prevalent in people with serious mental illness. In addition, maladaptive coping mechanisms and poor quality housing are likely to further increase vulnerability, and death by suicide may also increase above a certain temperature threshold. • Adverse impacts such as psychological distress, anxiety and traumatic stress resulting from emerging infectious disease outbreaks are also likely to increase if the predicted outbreaks of serious infectious diseases become reality. • Coastal change and increased flooding is expected to lead to forced mass migration and displacement, which will undoubtedly lead to more mental illness in affected population. • Urbanization, a phenomenon which will be partially beneficial, for example by increasing opportunities for work and better access to health services, is associated with an increased incidence of schizophrenia in developed countries. In many low- and middle-income countries, mental health provision is already hugely inadequate and is unlikely to be prioritized should further economic collapse occur secondary to climate change. • The knowledge of man-made climate change could in itself have adverse effects on individual psychological well-being.

Source: King’s College London 
 of site: http://psychcentral.com/news/2009/12/04/climate-change-expected-to-harm-mental-health/9943.html