Insomnia
While many people acknowledge a bit of missed sleep or tiredness, few realize how much sleep they are missing and how big a problem it may be. Insomnia may be affecting every part of your life, whether or not you know it.
Puzzles for your brain
Puzzles affect your cognitive abilities, but they also build resilience and promote relaxation.
How to make mental health days more effective
Imagine this scenario: You’re overwhelmed by stress at work and you take a day off. You come back to work refreshed, but the stressors are still waiting. Within hours of returning you feel further behind and more overwhelmed than before the time off, erasing the positive effects of stress management. How do we break this cycle and take a mental health day that actually helps?
Stress Eating Science
Stress happens. Eating may be a coping mechanism you use regularly. But it can get in the way of your overall health and wellness goals. Why do we overeat, and make unhealthy choices, when stressed? How do we overcome this biological tendance?
How to sleep better: 5 unexpected tips
Sleep is critical to managing our stress and improving our daily lives. But getting more and better sleep can seem impossible. After years of teaching and researching sleep (and fighting my own battles with insomnia!), I’m sharing five unusual tips to improve your sleep.
The Ultimate Sleep Challenge
I love trying new things, experimenting, and I find the challenges to be a fun way to get me excited about new approaches. I know that these things are essentially “tricks” to get me to change my behavior. But frankly, I’m ok with that. I want to trick myself into doing the new behaviors. So how do we use neuroscience to sleep better? I present to you… a challenge.
Sleep as stress relief
While it’s not an active stress management strategy, sleep can actually be good for stress relief. After all, a lack of sleep leads to many stressful situations in the first place. Here we explore a bit of neuroscience behind how sleep deprivation results in increased stress.
Loneliness and the Stress of Being Alone
Winter is a time of increased social isolation and loneliness. Travel barriers from weather and illness increase our isolation this season. And even those of us who typically enjoy being alone feel the absence of others more acutely after the intense social connections of the holiday season. Why is isolation a stressor for us? What is loneliness?
Yoga for Stress Reduction- A Scientific Analysis
Thinking about stress management as part of your New Year’s resolutions? Curious about whether yoga might be for you? Yoga is fantastic for your mind and body, and there’s some great research that backs it up.
The Neuroscience of Tidying Up
With the holidays winding down and a new year looming, many of us are in a transitional mode. As we begin to take down the holiday decorations and assess where to put our new gifts, we consider that we might need to tidy up in some significant ways.
The Soothing Neuroscience of Coloring Swear Words
Sitting at the kids table this holiday season? You might find yourself spending some time coloring… and you might find it surprisingly soothing! I wrote this piece about the neuroscience behind the adult coloring book fad back in 2016. And yes, I definitely referred to those that include swear words! Hey, whether you’re stressed out or overexcited, you might find yourself using a few choice words this holiday season. Grab a crayon and settle down a bit!
Holiday Party Prep: Stress Tips Flashback
Party prep means managing the stress of diving into awkward family interactions. Here’s a few holiday stress management tips to help you plan for the worst and hope for the best.
Holiday Stress Tips
For this post, I’m flashing way back to 2011 when I gave what I’m pretty sure was my very first television interview ever! Rewatching it now, I'm actually impressed with the clear insights and concrete tips I was giving way back then! Take a few minutes to review my thoughts on reducing stress & enjoying the holiday season to the fullest. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zzfMQ_fMSE
Gratitude for Holiday Stress
Today I’m sharing a video from a visit to my friends at Virginia this Morning on WTVR CBS-6 back in December 2017. This conversation took place the same month that my article on Scrooge was published on HuffPost, so you’ll notice that it’s referenced and the topics are similar, though one never knows where the questions will go!
Redeeming Scrooge with Neuroscience
This Holiday Season, Avoid the Pitfalls of Scrooge and Your ‘Type A’ Behavior