The Neuro-Insights Blog
I share insights into decision-making, research to improve your mental health and well-being, science-based tips to improve your life. I’m your neuroscientist friend who is fascinated with the science behind stress, seasons, parenting, productivity, and pretty much everything that makes life interesting. In short, this is neuroscience for everyday life.
If I haven’t written about something you care about yet, please reach out! I love answering questions.
Daylight Saving and Sleep Awareness
This coming week, following the start of Daylight Saving Time, more than any other in the year, highlights how dangerous it is to lose sleep.
Isolating While Sick
When you’re sick, you feel terrible and you really don’t want to interact with anyone. But you have obligations to work, school, family, community, and so on. You’re supposed to be places and do things, but you just don’t feel up to it. Why do you feel bad when you’re sick, why do you want to isolate, and how do you navigate those important decisions to do the right things when feeling ill?
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?
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.
Binge Watching and the Netflix Addiction
Like many people, I take time at New Years to think about my behaviors and what I might like to change about myself. I wrote a piece for HuffPost (years ago when streaming services were still new) about the neuroscience of how our brains respond to binge-watching like other addictions. This New Years, as I evaluate my addictive behaviors toward things like cheese and social media, I’ll also be thinking about the addiction to consuming shows.