Sleep… nature’s healer. So why is it the last thing you’ll find at a hospital?
I’m a cognitive neuroscientist in the department of Cognitive Sciences at UC Irvine. I would like to tell you a personal story that illustrates both the central theme of my research, which is to understand the importance of sleep, and one of the critical health problems that we face in our culture today, namely that medical science is in “sleep denial”. When my son was one year old he had emergency brain surgery to fix an arachnoid cyst at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA). I am very gra...
Sleep… nature’s healer. So why is it the last thing you’ll find at a hospital?
I’m a cognitive neuroscientist in the department of Cognitive Sciences at UC Irvine. I would like to tell you a personal story that illustrates both the central theme of my research, which is to understand the importance of sleep, and one of the critical health problems that we face in our culture today, namely that medical science is in “sleep denial”. When my son was one year old he had emergency brain surgery to fix an arachnoid cyst at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA). I am very gra...
Finding control without being controlling
This time last week, I was in the mountains of northern Maine, taking a long hike in a remote state park where my phone didn’t even attempt to get a signal. It was gorgeous: blue skies, mountain peaks, lake views. And it was exactly what I’d wanted: to disconnect from work, to get off the internet, to close all the tabs in my brain for a few days. Only, I wasn’t having a good time. I was freaking out. See, I hadn’t read much about the trail we were taking. I knew it would be almost 11 miles l...
Finding control without being controlling
This time last week, I was in the mountains of northern Maine, taking a long hike in a remote state park where my phone didn’t even attempt to get a signal. It was gorgeous: blue skies, mountain peaks, lake views. And it was exactly what I’d wanted: to disconnect from work, to get off the internet, to close all the tabs in my brain for a few days. Only, I wasn’t having a good time. I was freaking out. See, I hadn’t read much about the trail we were taking. I knew it would be almost 11 miles l...
What 100 Years of Living Can Teach Us About the Future
My Dad is 102 years old; my grandson is two. Exactly a hundred years separate my father from his great-grandson. You would wonder what kind of advice my Dad could give his great-grandson to guide his life. So many events pass through an hourglass that large, that finding a pattern in the grains is like seeing a painting made with sand. Our parents’ lives have been especially complicated… swept up in a blizzard of change that has been fiercer than any other period in human history. The storm h...
What 100 Years of Living Can Teach Us About the Future
My Dad is 102 years old; my grandson is two. Exactly a hundred years separate my father from his great-grandson. You would wonder what kind of advice my Dad could give his great-grandson to guide his life. So many events pass through an hourglass that large, that finding a pattern in the grains is like seeing a painting made with sand. Our parents’ lives have been especially complicated… swept up in a blizzard of change that has been fiercer than any other period in human history. The storm h...
Bravery is Not a Buzzcut
What She Said“You’re so brave, to always be doing crazy stuff with your hair. I’d be too afraid to.” I know her pretty well, the woman who levied this ambiguously backhanded compliment at me, and despite the way it came out, I do fully believe she meant it positively. We’re sitting outside, a gorgeous early spring day, watching our students eat lunch, and picking at our own sub-par cafeteria meals. We’ve worked together for about five years at that point, and she’s a pretty genuine, easy-to-r...
Bravery is Not a Buzzcut
What She Said“You’re so brave, to always be doing crazy stuff with your hair. I’d be too afraid to.” I know her pretty well, the woman who levied this ambiguously backhanded compliment at me, and despite the way it came out, I do fully believe she meant it positively. We’re sitting outside, a gorgeous early spring day, watching our students eat lunch, and picking at our own sub-par cafeteria meals. We’ve worked together for about five years at that point, and she’s a pretty genuine, easy-to-r...
Is it safe to drink in moderation?
I recently had dinner with colleagues and two of us ordered wine with our meal. The waiter asked our third dinner companion, a well-known and respected researcher who works on the cellular effects of alcohol, if he would like anything to drink and he replied, “No thanks. I don’t enjoy drinking alcohol knowing that every sip is basically putting poison into your body.” Ouch. He’s not wrong. Alcohol is broken down by enzymes in our body into a chemical called acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde is a car...
Is it safe to drink in moderation?
I recently had dinner with colleagues and two of us ordered wine with our meal. The waiter asked our third dinner companion, a well-known and respected researcher who works on the cellular effects of alcohol, if he would like anything to drink and he replied, “No thanks. I don’t enjoy drinking alcohol knowing that every sip is basically putting poison into your body.” Ouch. He’s not wrong. Alcohol is broken down by enzymes in our body into a chemical called acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde is a car...
