15/12/2010

Sound sleep - the key to looking good

The best way to improve your looks is to get some sound sleep, rather than
spend a small fortune on lotions, potions or dresses

Those who manage eight hours a night look far more attractive than those who are
sleep deprived, say scientists from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.
A group of healthy young adults were photographed after a good night's sleep, and
again after much less, reports the British Medical Journal.
Each picture was then rated on an attractiveness scale of one to 10 by members of the
public. And the well-rested won hands down, according to the Daily Mail.
Young women who took part in the study were not allowed to use make-up and had to
wear their hair down for both photos, just in case a particular style was slightly more
flattering.
On the first night they slept in their own homes and were told to go to bed at 11 p.m.
and set their alarms for 7 a.m.
On the second night they were allowed to sleep no more than five hours and were
monitored in the lab to ensure they did not get any more. The result? They looked much
worse after less sleep.
"Sleep deprived people are perceived as less attractive and less healthy compared with
when they are well rested," said the study.
Sleep clears the brain for next day's learning
Snoozing does more than help us recover from tensions and weariness - it helps the
brain clear clutter accumulated after a long day's work and make way for new learning.

Shutting down during the night helps the body to produce new synapses which connect
brain cells.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis believe if

synapses are not renewed they become saturated with knowledge which stops people
absorbing new information.

"There are a number of reasons why the brain can''t indefinitely add synapses, including
the finite spatial constraints of the skull," says senior author Paul Shaw, Ph.D., assistant
professor of neurobiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

"We were able to track the creation of new synapses in fruit flies during learning
experiences, and to show that sleep pushed that number back down," he added.

Many aspects of fly sleep are similar to human sleep; for example, flies and humans
deprived of sleep one day will try to make up for the loss by sleeping more the next day.
Because the human brain is much more complex, Shaw uses the flies as models for
answering questions about sleep and memory.
Sleep is a recognized promoter of learning, but three years ago Shaw turned that
association around and revealed that learning increases the need for sleep in the fruit
fly. In a 2006 paper in Science, he and his colleagues found that two separate
scenarios, each of which gave the fruit fly''s brain a workout, increased the need for
sleep.

The first scenario was inspired by human research linking an enriched environment to
improved memory and other brain functions. Scientists found that flies raised in an
enhanced social environment-a test tube full of other flies-slept approximately 2-3 hours
longer than flies raised in isolation.

Researchers also gave male fruit flies their first exposure to female fruit flies, but with a
catch-the females were either already mated or were actually male flies altered to emit
female pheromones. Either fly rebuffed the test fly''s attempts to mate.

The test flies were then kept in isolation for two days and exposed to receptive female
flies.

Test flies that remembered their prior failures didn''t try to mate again; they also slept
more.

Researchers concluded that these flies had encoded memories of their prior
experience, more directly proving the connection between sleep and new memories.

Scientists repeated these tests for the new study, but this time they used flies
genetically altered to make it possible to track the development of new synapses, the
junctures at which brain cells communicate.

"The biggest surprise was that out of 200,000 fly brain cells, only 16 were required for
the formation of new memories, " says first author Jeffrey Donlea, a graduate student.

"These sixteen are lateral ventral neurons, which are part of the circadian circuitry that
let the fly brain perform certain behaviours at particular times of day," he added.

When flies slept, the number of new synapses formed during social enrichment
decreased. When researchers deprived them of their sleep, the decline did not occur.

Donlea identified three genes essential to the links between learning and increased
need for sleep: rutabaga, period and blistered. Flies lacking any of those genes did not
have increased need for sleep after social enrichment or the mating test.

Blistered is the fruit fly equivalent to a human gene known as serum response factor
(SRF). Scientists have previously linked SRF to plasticity, a term for brain change that
includes both learning and memory and the general ability of the brain to rewire itself to
adapt to injury or changing needs.
Flab-belly to fab-belly!
Here is our yoga expert Juhi, who will address all your queries about yoga and
also write on yogic exercises.

You’d be surprised to know how many of us think that we are solely responsible for
making this earth heavy and are overburdening it with our excess weight! Though it’s
healthy to be slim and fit, but it’s ugly to be anorexic too. The art lies in finding the right
balance, so make sure you read the fine line. Whatever said and done, I’m not
canvassing for you to be ok with any unnecessary excess flab. This is why I thought of
taking up the ubiquitous excess-weight problem this week, and addressing the basic
concern of all…the tummy! Here’s what I have to suggest.
1. Touch-my-knee:

Lie on your back. Lift your one knee and bend it towards your chest with the help of
your hands. Try and make your nose touch your knee. The second leg remains on the
ground. Once we become comfortable, try raising the second leg in the air till about a
45 degrees tilt. Remain in the pose for around 30 seconds. Then slowly get back and
relax. Alternate with the other leg. Repeat the round twice.
2. Forward-bend:

Sit down with your legs stretched out together and the arms extended in the air
upwards. Now try and stretch yourself by getting your back and palms down to touch
the toes. While doing this contract your stomach muscles. Try holding your toes now
with your hands. Stay for as long as possible and then come up. Relax and then repeat
once more. You would need a good level of flexibility to do this, so don’t exert yourself
on the first day. First warm up and then do it gradually. You might not attain these
poses perfectly in the first few days, but don’t bother, gradually it would come around.
3. Cobra-style:

Lie down with the forehead on the ground. Keep the legs together and the arms at the
sides with the palms by the side of the thighs. Now bring the arms closer to shoulder
and then bend the arms at the elbows to bring the palms right below the shoulder. Tilt
the head upwards to look up. Then slowly arch the spine and pressing the palms raise
the upper trunk from the ground. Stay for 20 counts. Then slowly resume to normal
position. Repeat twice