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Anyone who has ever said that working full time and going to school is easy, must be as close to super-human as it gets. For the past two and a half years I’ve been doing it and every single day I ask myself why. Well, once I made it through the first semester I figured – “I might as well go ahead because I already paid for a semester”. Four semesters later when I took ‘internal uses of accounting’, I found out that after you pay for something it’s considered a ‘sunk cost’, so you shouldn’t base your decisions on what you’ve already paid for. But by then it was really too late; I put myself through so much misery already I just had to finish my masters for posterity sake.
Well, I’m barreling down on my last semester here and also recovering from a serious medical setback, and things are getting more stressful than ever. While I was ill for three months my doctor prescribed me Ambien CR, for my sleep issues. It seemed like a good idea at the time; just take a little blue pill and sleep through the night, in no time you’ll feel better. After taking the medication every night to sleep for the past three months I’m now trying to limit my usage and I’m releasing just how difficult that is. Every night I feel like a crack-fiend, dividing the tiny blue pill in half and swallowing it down before bedtime. More often then not, an hour later I have to go back for the other half.
I realize that stress is partly to blame for my insomnia and doing things to alleviate the stress would probably help me sleep better, however I don’t see my stress level decreasing significantly until I finish school. What should I do in the meantime?
On the National Sleep Foundation’s website I found the following tips which I’ll be trying in order to help myself get better sleep, maybe you’ll find them useful as well.
• Maintain a regular bed and wake-up time, even on weekends
• Establish a regular, relaxing bedtime routine such as soaking in a hot bath or hot tub and then reading a book or listening to soothing music
• Create a sleep-conducive environment that is dark, quiet, comfortable and cool
• Sleep on a comfortable mattress and pillow
• Use your bedroom only for sleep and sex
• Finish eating 2-3 hours before going to bed
• Exercise regularly, ensuring completion of your workout at least two hours prior to bedtime
• Avoid consuming caffeine before bedtime
• Avoid using nicotine before bedtime
• Avoid alcohol before bedtime
Additionally, the foundation’s site recommends keeping a sleep journal noting what kinds of problems you are having. This will be useful when discussing the issue with your doctor. (Source: World of Psychology)

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A study shows how Caffeine regulates alternative splicing in a subset cancer-associated genes including the transcription factor and tumor suppressor KLF6 through the splicing factor SC35.  There is a necessary “caffeine response element” in the intron of KLF6 which plays a role in the splice-site choice, although caffeine induces up-regulation of SC35 and over-expression of SC35 is sufficient to mimic the caffeine response.

© Jason Stajich for Fungal Genomes and Comparative Genomics, 2008. |
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Want more on these topics ? Browse the archive of posts filed under alternative splicing, gene regulation. (Source: Fungal Genomes and Comparative Genomics)

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We admit to loving coffee, but a few researchers say they have found something better - a shpritz that may be able to treat sleepiness. The nasal spray contains a naturally occurring brain hormone called orexin A, and a study found it reversed the effects of sleep deprivation in monkeys, allowing them to perform like well-rested monkeys on cognitive tests, according to Wired magazine.
Its first use will probably be to treat severe sleep disorder narcolepsy. This may represent “a totally new route for increasing arousal, and the new study shows it to be relatively benign,” Jerome Siegel, a professor of psychiatry at UCLA and a co-author of the study, which was published last week in The Journal of Neuroscience. “It reduces sleepiness without causing edginess.”
In the study, the monkeys were deprived of sleep for 30 to 36 hours and then given either orexin A or a saline placebo before taking standard cognitive tests. The monkeys given orexin A in a nasal spray scored about the same as alert monkeys, while the saline-control group was severely impaired. The upshot - orexin A not only restored cognitive abilities but made the monkey brains look “awake” in PET scans, the mag writes.
The research follows the discovery by Siegel that the absence of orexin A appears to cause narcolepsy, Wired notes. That finding pointed to a major role for the peptide’s absence in causing sleepiness. And so it stood to reason that if the deficit of orexin A makes people sleepy, adding it back into the brain would reduce the effects, Siegel says. “What we’ve been doing so far is increasing arousal without dealing with the underlying problem,” he tells the mag. “If the underlying deficit is a loss of orexin, and it clearly is, then the best treatment would be orexin.”
But don’t be hasty and pack away your coffee mug just yet. Orexin A may be a promising candidate to become a “sleep replacement” drug, but that would still be years away. Somebody, please, pass the sugar.
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I was in Starbucks a little while ago, and the woman behind me in line ordered a drink that was literally 20 words long. There were so many specifics that barista had to take a breath three times while calling it out after it was made. As soon as the door closed behind this particular customer, the entire cafe burst out into laughter. * * * * * *While out doing some last-minute Christmas shopping a couple of days ago, I discovered a drive-through Starbucks. I haven’t tried it out, but I’m intrigued! * * * * * *Seeing as my parents live in a little tiny town where there is a gas station and a general store and not much else, I’ve been in Starbucks-less-ness while I’ve been visiting. Consequently I’ve developed my own recipe for specialty coffee:1. Fill 1/3 of a cup with freshly brewed strong coffee (so that it can sort of double as an espresso shot).2. Fill the rest of the cup with skim milk, and add hot chocolate powder. 3. Microwave for 2 minutes. 4. Stir, add whipped cream and cinnamon, and enjoy!(It’s yummy, but definitely not very good for you! I tried making a peppermint version of this today using mint extract, but it did not work out very well at all so I don’t recommend it!) * * * * * *There you go, probably the most random useless post I’ve ever written. Coffee doesn’t work terribly well as a theme. I’ll try to come up with something better tomorrow. Image credit (Source: I’m Not Anti-Social, I’m Just Pre-Med)

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Put that Red Bull down… and the can of Rock Star as well! The “high energy” drinks are not so hot for your heart. This isn’t brain surgery, caffeine raises the ol’ blood pressure thus cardiac issues.
Shortly after consumption, your systolic rate increases by over 7.5% and diastolic raises 7% and heart rate is up 7-10 beats per minute. And why is this? Here ya go…
Most energy drinks contain high levels of caffeine and taurine, an amino acid also found in protein-containing foods such as meats and fish. Both have had effects on heart function and blood pressure in some studies. In contrast, “sports drinks” in general contain various mixtures of water, sugars and salts alone, without chemicals aimed at increasing “energy” or alertness.
The study also concluded that the effectiveness of medication could also be decreased. That’s not good! Don’t even get me started on the whole Red Bull and Vodka thing! Haha.
via Science Daily
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