Increasing sleep time improves daytime alertness

A new study suggests that extending night sleep in mildly sleeping, healthy adults increases daytime alertness and reduces pain sensivity.

“Our results suggest the importance of adequate sleep in various chronic pain conditions or in preparation for elective surgical procedures,” said Timothy Roehrs, the study's principal investigator and lead author.

“We were surprised by the magnitude of the reduction in pain sensitivity, when compared to the reduction produced by taking codeine.”

The study, appearing in the December issue of the journal SLEEP, involved 18 healthy, pain-free, sleepy volunteers. They were randomly assigned to four nights of either maintaining their habitual sleep time or extending their sleep time by spending 10 hours in bed per night. Objective daytime sleepiness was measured using the multiple sleep latency test (MSLT), and pain sensitivity was assessed using a radiant heat stimulus.

Harmonizing development and communication efforts

Rural radio as the name implies is essentially community based. It has to reflect the genuine propensities, ideas and lifestyles of ordinary people their access to the range of facilities available to urban dwellers are minimal. It should provide an opportunity for these marginalized sections to express their opinions and have their grievances redressed. Rural radio is an avenue for uplift and an opportunity to gainfully participate in strengthening their links in all spheres from economic development to cultural enhancement. It is a vehicle to achieve social progress and contribute for shared gains.

It is accepted that integrated rural development would provide a meaningful system for harmonizing development and communication efforts aimed at giving villagers a better deal. The patterns of media behaviour among Sri Lankans and the kind of information available to them. Media includes radio, television newspapers, internet, magazines and cinema etc. In the broader context the increasing sophistication in technology has given mass media unforeseen capabilities of reaching out to a broad spectrum with greater effectiveness.

Development projects

Mass media technology is such that every urban and rural home has inevitable access to at least one of the major media organizations. It is necessary to explore the potential of directing mass media for sustained education of the community. It must be determined to what extent radio plays a development supportive role. The ultimate objective is the development and consistent news flows to the people. The positives are that radio can provide information at greater speed to a wide audience than other media.

Jilts any notion of freshness - The Proposal:

Choreographer turned director Anne Fletcher’s The Proposal is an attractive package at first glance but follows the path of a typical situation in which two lovers are faced in a game of deception.

Manhattan book publisher Margaret Tate is a tyrant who bullies co-workers, especially her secretary, Andrew, who has to witness Margaret’s heartless actions and jump to her commands. She goes as far as blackmailing him into acting like her fiancé to prevent herself being deported to her native Canada. Gilbertson, who is in charge of the case warns the couple that if he smells fraud Andrew will be fined and sent to five years in prison while Margaret will be immediately banished from the scene. The couple agrees to the terms. The forced romance also coincides with a major family reunion in Andrew’s home.

Family reunion

The strength of The Proposal lies in the fact how these two unlikely candidates would endure each other during the weekend with warm, friendly country folk from Andrew’s home town, Alaska. Though Andrew was horrified and unwilling at the beginning he uses the scam as an opportunity to turn the tables on Margaret by asking her to make him the editor and accept his book for publication. She reluctantly agrees but not ending their feud there they exhibit their dislike for each other by putting their companion in a series of hilariously uncomfortable positions.

How to remember a person's face

They say that the eyes are the windows to the soul. However, to get a real idea of what a person is up to, according to researchers Miguel Eckstein and Matt Peterson, the best place to check is right below the eyes. Their findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“It's pretty fast, it's effortless - we're not really aware of what we're doing,” said Miguel Eckstein, professor of psychology in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. Using an eye tracker and more than 100 photos of faces and participants, Eckstein and graduate research assistant Peterson followed the gaze of the experiment's participants to determine where they look in the first crucial moment of identifying a person's identity, gender, and emotional state.

“For the majority of people, the first place we look at is somewhere in the middle, just below the eyes,” Eckstein said. One possible reason could be that we are trained from youth to look there, because it's polite in some cultures. Or, because it allows us to figure out where the person's attention is focused.

බලා නොබලා නොයන් ළඳුනේ, අසරණ වූදා සෙනේහයේ

අතීතයේ එක ලස්‌සන දවසක

සොඳුරු සැමරුම් මතක මැදින් 

සේපාලිකා මල් ගිලිහුණු පාරේ

මා තනිවෙන්නම් කඳුළු මැදින් 

ජීවිතයේ එක ලස්‌සන දවසක

හඬා වැටීලා යොවුන් සිතින්

තවත් මෙමා හට ඔබ රිදවනවා

සේපාලිකා මල් සුවඳ මැදින් 

සොඳුරු මගේ ආදර පැතුමන් 

කඩා වැටීලා ඔබේ හදින්

බලා නොබලා නොයන් ළඳුනේ

අසරණ වූදා සෙනේහයේ 

ගායනය - මර්සලින් පතිරණ

සංගීතය - සමන් පනාපිටිය

ගී පද - උපුල් අමරසිංහ

බිඳුනු පෙම සිහිකරමින්.... හඬන හදවත් අනන්තයි... අප්‍රමාණයි. ආදරෙන් එක්‌වන අයට වඩා ආදරය නිසා වෙන්වෙන අය වැඩියි... අතීතය ගැන සිහින මවමින්.... සමහරු කඳුළු සලනවා. උනන කඳුළු කැට දෙකොපුල් දිගේ රූරා වැටෙද්දී මේ තරම් කඳුළු හැංගිලා තිබුණේ කොහෙන්ද කියලත් හිතෙනවා. ඇතැමුන් වියෝ දුක සඟවා ගෙන හඬා වැටෙන්නේ හදවතින්. හදවතේ උපදින වේදනාව පිට කරන්නේ සුසුම් වලින්.