bookofjoe

BehindTheMedspeak: Does eating spicy food before bed disrupt sleep?

Anahad O'Connor's June 17, 2008 "Really?" column in the New York Times concludes it very well may.

Here's the piece.

The Claim: A Spicy Meal Before Bed Can Disrupt Sleep

The Facts: An old wives’ tale has it that a little kick to the palate before bed can lead to fitful sleep, if not nightmares.

It’s the sort of wisdom that often turns out to be based on no evidence at all — or, worse, flat wrong. But in this case, it’s good advice.

Research has shown over the years that a spicy meal at night can indeed lead to poor sleep. The most direct study to show this was published in The International Journal of Psychophysiology by a team of Australian researchers. The scientists recruited a group of young, healthy men and had them consume meals that contained Tabasco sauce and mustard shortly before they turned in on some evenings and nonspiced control meals on other evenings.

On the nights that included spicy meals, there were marked changes in the subjects’ sleep patterns. They spent less time in both the light phase of sleep known as Stage 2 and the deep, slow-wave Stages 3 and 4. All of which meant that they experienced less sleep over all and took longer to drift off.

Several things may account for the effect. An obvious possibility is indigestion. But the scientists also noted that after eating the spicy meals the subjects had elevated body temperatures during their first sleep cycles, which has been linked in other studies to poorer sleep quality.

The Bottom Line: A spicy meal before bed can impair sleep.

....................

Here's the abstract of the above-cited International Journal of Psychophysiology article.

Spicy meal disturbs sleep: an effect of thermoregulation?

Tabasco sauce and mustard taken with the evening meal markedly disturbed sleep of six, young, healthy male subjects; reducing slow wave and stage 2 sleep, increasing total time awake and tending to increase sleep onset latency. Whilst post meal effects on temperature and oxygen consumption were not significantly different from control meals the spicy food condition elevated body temperature during the first sleep cycle. the possibility that the spice principle capsaicin affects sleep via changes in body temperature is discussed.

Vans CMYK Pack

Sk8 Hi,

Mt. Edition Mid and

Era.

Apply within.

[via compradiccion and highsnobiety]

The hunt for the worst sound in the world

Rate your reactions to 34 repellent or disgusting sounds and see how your choices compare to the rest of the world's.

FunFact: Nails on a chalkboard comes in sixteenth worst of all.

Sensear — Military-Grade Ear Protection

If it's good enough to wear on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier it'll probably work for you at Metallica concerts and their ilk.

From the website:

Sensear Technology

Now you can have hearing protection and clear communication at once

Sensear’s latest technology sets a new benchmark in hearing protection and assisted listening. For the very first time Sensear has made clear communication possible in high noise environments (above 85d(B)A) where hearing protection is essential. Sensear has perfected the combination of speech enhancement technology and noise suppression technology integrated with a complex series of patented algorithms, producing a cutting edge innovation called SENS®technology. Sensear has integrated its revolutionary SENS technology into a range of products that will radically change the way people communicate and protect their hearing in high noise environments.

Sensear’s SENS technology is the only technology that can effectively distinguish speech from background noise. Sensear’s revolutionary solution combines an array of tiny microphones seamlessly connected to a small processor discreetly fitted within the products. The processor acts to distinguish speech from background noise via its cutting edge SENS technology, selectively enhancing speech and simultaneously suppressing noise.

Post-filtering techniques are then used to further improve noise suppression and enhance speech. This is done in real time and at very low levels of power consumption. The background noise characteristics are retained, including binaural capability (the natural ability to decipher direction of any sound) while at the same time lowering noise to safe levels to ensure that the wearer remains aware of their surroundings.

The result is high quality natural speech played directly into the Sensear earmuffs or earplugs or optionally connected via Bluetooth to mobile phone or two-way radio.


Sensear’s SENStechnology has the following advantages over traditional technologies:

• It is the only technology effective in providing speech enhancement and hearing defence across all 3 noise classes - Impact, Continuous and Intermittent. SENS technology is the most advanced on the market.

• Remains consistently effective in high noise environments — above 85dB(A) where current technologies struggle to perform.

• It provides noise suppression while giving speech priority, ensuring that speech can still be heard while all other noise is suppressed. This unique capability includes impact noise.

• Binaural capability allows the direction of all sounds, including speech and alarms to be safely heard.

• Removes the need for annoying boom microphones.

• It is the only technology to provide intelligible speech in the harshest background environments. These include noises associated with speech frequencies such as turbine noise.

• Sensear has produced the world’s first electronic ear plug model.

....................

$445.

[via crave]

Wimbledon Fashion Throwdown: Ivanovic v Sharapova — Advantage Sharapova

Just moments ago Ana Ivanovic narrowly defeated France's Natalie Dechy in an epic three hour twenty-four minute Wimbledon center court second round battle.

I was struck by the dreadful design and fit of Ivanovic's outfit (above).

Considering she's the world's number one player and poster girl for Adidas, among many others, it's hard to understand how such a cheesy dress managed to pass muster not only with her but also Adidas.

I mean, her clothing is hand-made after being designed by the company's top stylists — how can capped sleeves that don't fit properly across the chest, resulting in horizontal creases and overlapping folds, as well as dive bar-style exposed straps, make it onto the world's biggest tennis stage?

Decisive decision in favor of Nike and Sharapova's spiffy tux-inspired attire (below),

unveiled in her first round match Monday.

Stealth Tissues — Black is the new Black

20 boxes each containing 160 tissues: $149.

Hold on a sec, let me get out my calculator... that's 21 cents a tissue.

At that price you'd better offer them to celebrities, then send the used ones in for DNA analysis and offer the results on eBay.

I'm just saying....

[via woohome and gearfuse]

Don't look: 7-Eleven or Seven-11?

No — it's not 7-11.

Surprised?

Most people are.

You'd think it was a no-brainer (ouch, a bit close to the bone that — at least hereabouts... but I digress), knowing how to write down the correct name of the ubiquitous chain.

But it's not.

I myself have to look it up before typing the name and I go by one every day at least twice.

So which is it gonna be?

All is revealed here.

Isn't it nice to know you're not the only one who gets it wrong?

Anti-Paparazzi Sunglasses — If your future's that bright you better wear these shades

[via daa dee]

June 25, 2008 at 09:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

« June 24, 2008 | Main | June 26, 2008 »