- ‘Desperate’ Tupac murder suspect Keefe D ‘can’t cope with reality facing him’ and will ‘say anything to esc… The US Sun
- Ex-gang leader makes his bid in Las Vegas court for house arrest before trial in Tupac Shakur case The Associated Press
- Ex-gang leader charged with killing Tupac Shakur asks judge for house arrest before trial New York Post
- DA says Tupac murder suspect was plotting to harm witnesses and should remain in jail ABC News
- Jail call recording shows risk to witnesses in Tupac Shakur killing case, Las Vegas prosecutors say News3LV
Tag Archives: cope
Israeli strikes returned with rocket fire in Khan Younis as Palestinians struggle to cope – Al Jazeera English
- Israeli strikes returned with rocket fire in Khan Younis as Palestinians struggle to cope Al Jazeera English
- Hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel | Flash Update #38 [EN/AR/HE] – occupied Palestinian territory ReliefWeb
- Israeli airstrikes levels buildings in Gaza’s Jabalia The Times and The Sunday Times
- Israel-Hamas Conflict Highlights: At least 3 Palestinians killed, 20 injured in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza Strip town Deccan Herald
- Gaza rescuers search for survivors after Israeli airstrike under rubble in Jabaliya refugee camp euronews
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Kelly Clarkson Confessed She Didn’t Cope “Well” With Her Divorce “Behind Closed Doors” And Said “Hindsight” Made Her Realize There Were “Unhealthy Habits” In Her Marriage – BuzzFeed News
- Kelly Clarkson Confessed She Didn’t Cope “Well” With Her Divorce “Behind Closed Doors” And Said “Hindsight” Made Her Realize There Were “Unhealthy Habits” In Her Marriage BuzzFeed News
- Kelly Clarkson Says She Went to ‘Marriage Counseling’ Pre-Divorce and Knew It ‘Wasn’t Going to’ Work (Exclusive) Yahoo Entertainment
- Kelly Clarkson Says When She Knew In Her ‘Heart’ Her Marriage Wasn’t Working HuffPost
- Kelly Clarkson says new album is like ‘How Stella Got Her Groove Back’ USA TODAY
- Kelly Clarkson Says She Did Not Handle Her Divorce From Brandon Blackstock ‘Well’ When She Was ‘Behind Closed Doors’ Yahoo Entertainment
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Startup lender Silicon Valley Bank to sell stock to cope with cash burn – Reuters
- Startup lender Silicon Valley Bank to sell stock to cope with cash burn Reuters
- Silicon Valley Bank launches $2.25bn share sale to shore up capital base Financial Times
- SVB Financial stock plummets toward biggest one-day selloff in 23 years after stock offering, large losses on securities sales MarketWatch
- SVB falls 5% after the bell on $1.25B stock offering, $500M depositary share offering Seeking Alpha
- Silicon Valley Bank launches $1.75B share sale to deal with ‘client cash burn’ – Silicon Valley Business Journal The Business Journals
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Autistic individuals may look to video games as a way to cope with negative affect and autistic burnout
A recent study uncovered why so many individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum conditions are fond of video games as a pastime. The new findings suggests that individuals with autism spectrum conditions may play video games for escapism, specifically self-suppression escapism when experiencing negative moods and self-expansion escapism when experiencing positive moods.
The study, which appears in the journal Computers in Human Behavior, adds to existing knowledge about the purpose of video games for those with autism.
The authors of the new study defined escapism as “an act that shifts the focus of attention from an unpleasant reality to a pleasurable unreality.” The research examined two types of escapism, self-suppression and self-expansion.
The self-suppression style of escapism refers to “engagement in activity, including gaming, to suppress negative emotions, considered as an avoidance of discomfort strategy related to negative affect (Stenseng et al., 2012, 2021).” Self-expansion escapism “facilitates autonomy, competence, and relatedness,… and harmonious, autonomous engagement.”
Research has found that those with autism spectrum conditions seem drawn to video games as an opportunity for escape and for a chance to be in control. In addition, playing video games can function as interpersonal interaction practice when those with autism spectrum conditions play collaboratively. Anna Pyszkowska and colleagues intended to investigate the positive and negative motivators for video gaming in individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum conditions.
Participants were recruited from neurodiversity societies in Poland. Participants were required to have a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder, be over 18 and play video games at least one hour per week. One hundred and eighty-nine individuals fit the criteria and agreed to participate.
Participants took measures of escapism, gaming motivation, autistic burnout, affective outcomes (a measure of typical mood), and hedonic tone (capacity to experience joy). Statistical analysis of this data revealed that those with high levels of negative affect or autistic burnout were more likely to play video games for self-suppression reasons. In addition, repetitive behaviors, the decline of cognitive and motor functions, failure to engage in self-care, and behaviors intended to avoid emotions were all related to self-suppression motivations for gaming.
Those scoring high on the measure of hedonic tone (or how able they were to experience joy) were more likely to report that self-expansion was the reason for their video game endeavors. Self-expansion as a motivation for video gaming was also related to a desire for mastery.
Acknowledged limitations include the absence of a control group. Consequently, we cannot conclude that these results are unique to the gaming or autism spectrum conditions. Additionally, the study had significantly more females (105) compared to males (50) or nonbinary (34), consequently, we cannot know if gender has an impact on results.
Despite these concerns, the research team feels their work was a meaningful addition to what is known about gaming motivations and autism spectrum conditions. Understanding what may motivate a person with an autism diagnosis to spend time video gaming may help practitioners determine if gaming is used to cope with challenges that could be addressed and treated in a therapeutic setting.
The study, “Determinants of escapism in adult video gamers with autism spectrum conditions: The role of affect, autistic burnout, and gaming motivation”, was authored by Anna Pyszkowska, Tomasz Gąsior, Franciszek Stefanek, and Barbara Więzik.
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Most humans haven’t evolved to cope with the cold, yet we dominate northern climates—here’s why
Humans are a tropical species. We have lived in warm climates for most of our evolutionary history, which might explain why so many of us spend winter huddled under a blanket, clutching a hot water bottle and dreaming of summer.
Indeed all living apes are found in the tropics. The oldest known fossils from the human lineage (hominins) come from central and eastern Africa. The hominins who dispersed northwards into higher latitudes had to deal with, for the first time, freezing temperatures, shorter days that limited foraging time, snow that made hunting more difficult and icy wind chill that exacerbated heat loss from their bodies.
Given our limited adaptation to the cold, why is it that our species has come to dominate not only our warm ancestral lands but every part of the globe? The answer lies in our ability to developed intricate cultural solutions to the challenges of life.
The earliest signs of hominins living in northern Europe are from Happisburgh in Norfolk, eastern England, where 900,000-year-old footprints and stone tools have been found. At that time, Happisburgh was dominated by coniferous forest with cold winters, similar to southern Scandinavia today. There is little evidence the Happisburgh hominins stayed at the site for long, which suggests they didn’t have time to adapt physically.
It’s still a bit of a mystery how these hominins survived the tough conditions that were so different from their ancestral African homelands. There are no caves in the region, nor evidence of shelters. Artifacts from Happisburgh are simple, suggesting no complex technology.
Evidence for deliberate campfires at this time is contentious. Tools for tailoring fitted, weather-proof clothes don’t appear in western Europe until almost 850,000 years later. Many animals migrate to avoid seasonal cold, but the Happisburgh hominins would have had to travel about 800km south to make a meaningful difference.
It’s hard to imagine hominins surviving those ancient Norfolk winters without fire or warm clothing. Yet the fact the hominins were so far north means they must have found a way to survive the cold, so who knows what archaeologists will find in the future.
The Boxgrove hunters
Sites from more recent settlements, such as Boxgrove in West Sussex, southern England, offer more clues about how ancient hominins survived northern climates. The Boxgrove site dates to nearly 500,000 years ago, when the climate deteriorated towards one of the coldest periods in human history.
There is good evidence these hominins hunted animals, from cut marks on bones, to a horse shoulder blade probably pierced by a wooden spear. These finds fit with studies of people who live as foragers today which show people in colder regions depend on animal prey more than their warm climate counterparts. Meat is rich in the calories and fats needed to weather the cold.
A fossilized hominin shin bone from Boxgrove is robust compared to living humans, suggesting it belonged to a tall, stocky hominin. Larger bodies with relatively short limbs reduce heat loss by minimizing surface area.
The best silhouette for avoiding heat loss is a sphere, so animals and humans in cold climates get as close to that shape as possible. There is also clearer evidence for campfires by this period.
Cold climate specialists
The Neanderthals, who lived in Eurasia about 400,000-40,000 years ago, inhabited glacial climates . Compared to their predecessors in Africa, and to us, they had short, strong limbs, and wide, muscular bodies suited to producing and retaining heat.
Yet the Neanderthal protruding face and beaky nose are the opposite of what we might expect to be adaptive in an ice age. Like Japanese macaques living in cold areas and lab rats raised in cold conditions, living humans from cold climates tend to have relatively high, narrow noses and broad, flat cheekbones.
Computer modeling of ancient skeletons suggests Neanderthal noses were more efficient than those of earlier, warm-adapted species at conserving heat and moisture. It seems the internal structure is as important as overall nose size.
Even with their cold-adapted physique, Neanderthals were still hostage to their tropical ancestry. For example, they lacked the thick fur of other mammals in glacial Europe, such as wooly rhinos and musk oxen. Instead, Neanderthals developed complex culture to cope.
There is archaeological evidence they made clothes and shelters from animal skins. Evidence of cooking and use of fire to make birch pitch glue for the manufacture of tools show sophisticated Neanderthal control of fire.
More controversially, some archaeologists say early Neanderthal bones from the 400,000-year-old site of Sima de los Huesos in northern Spain show seasonal damage from slowing down their metabolisms to hibernate. The authors argue these bones show cycles of interrupted growth and healing.
Only a few species of primate hibernate such as some lemurs in Madagascar and the African lesser bushbaby, as well as the pygmy slow loris in norther Vietnam.
This might give you the idea that humans can hibernate too. But most species that hibernate have small bodies, with some exceptions like bears. Humans may be too big to hibernate.
Jack of all trades
The earliest fossils in the Homo sapiens lineage date from 300,000 years ago, from Morocco. But we didn’t spread out of Africa until about 60,000 years ago, colonizing all parts of the globe. This makes us relative newcomers in most habitats we now inhabit. Over the intervening thousands of years, people living in freezing cold places have adapted biologically to their environment but on a small scale.
One well-known example of this adaptation is that in areas with low sunlight, Homo sapiens developed light skin tones, which are better at synthesizing vitamin D. The genomes of living Inuit people from Greenland demonstrate physiological adaptation to a fat-rich marine diet, beneficial in the cold.
More direct evidence comes from DNA from a single 4,000-year-old permafrost-preserved hair from Greenland. The hair hints at genetic changes that led to stocky body shape that maximized heat production and retention, like the hominin we only have one shin bone from the Boxgrove site.
Our tropical legacy means we would still be unable to live in cold places without developing ways of coping with the temperatures. Take, for example, the traditional Inuit parka, which provides better insulation than the modern Canadian army winter uniform.
This human ability to adapt behaviorally was crucial to our evolutionary success. Even compared to other primates, humans show less physical climatic adaptation. Behavioral adaptation is quicker and more flexible than biological adaptation. Humans are the ultimate adapters, thriving in nearly every possible ecological niche.
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How to cope with Dupuytren’s, a crippling hand condition
It’s “the most common crippling hand condition that people have never heard of,” says Charles Eaton, executive director of the Dupuytren Research Group, which estimates that at least 10 million Americans have Dupuytren’s.
When problems begin, many with the condition mistakenly assume they have arthritis or tendinitis, or they don’t notice a problem until their fingers start to bend.
“It tends to progress very slowly,” Eaton says, adding that only about a fifth of those with early signs of the disease will develop severely bent fingers. In about 10 percent, the lumps will disappear, while the remainder will experience no changes, or bent fingers not serious enough to require intervention, he says.
Eaton’s group is enrolling people with and without Dupuytren’s for a study that will collect and analyze blood samples to discover a biomarker — one or more molecules unique to Dupuytren’s — that could help scientists design drugs to treat it. This would be a first in Dupuytren research, Eaton says.
The disease is incurable, but there are noninvasive therapies as well as surgical treatments, the latter usually reserved for those with advanced disease. But even with treatment, symptoms often recur and can impair the quality of life.
“I can drive, but I have a problem holding things,” says Schultz, who has had five surgeries — four in his left hand, one in his right — and may need two more because both his hands are worsening again. “I have to be careful picking up a bottle or a thermos because I can’t open my fingers wide enough. I used to play a lot of golf, but now I have trouble holding a golf club.”
Gary Pess, a hand surgeon and medical director of Central Jersey Hand Surgery in New Jersey, agrees that the condition can be life-altering. “It’s hard to do the simple things you love to do,” he says. “It’s difficult to hold a child or put your hand in your pocket. You can’t open your hand to grab something that is large. If you are an artist, a pianist, a surgeon, it will interfere with your career.”
Risk factors include a family history of the disease, increasing age (the chances of developing Dupuytren’s rise steadily after age 50), Scandinavian or Northern European ancestry, tobacco and alcohol use, use of seizure medication and diabetes. It occurs more commonly in men than women.
Doctors usually recommend surgery if patients cannot pass the “tabletop” test, that is, when they can’t lay their hands flat on a table palms down. But don’t wait for this to happen before seeing a doctor, experts warn. “There is a much better success rate when you treat early,” Pess says.
Keith Denkler, a Larkspur, Calif., plastic surgeon who estimates he has treated about 10,000 Dupuytren’s fingers over the years, agrees. “We can’t cure it, but we can improve hand function and stave off its worst effects,” he says. “My philosophy is: Instead of waiting for it to get bad, do something simple.”
One do-it-yourself approach for mild disease is padding, or building up handles with pipe insulation or cushioning tape, and using deeply padded gloves for tasks that require heavy grasping, such as weightlifting and hedge-trimming.
If that doesn’t help, other early treatments include:
Needling. The approach involves inserting a needle through the skin to break up the cords of tissue causing the contracture. It can be repeated if bending returns. There are no incisions, and the procedure requires little physical therapy afterward. The practitioner, however, needs to be careful not to damage a nerve or tendon.
Injections. Doctors inject an enzyme into the taut cords to try to soften and weaken them so they can be broken and allow fingers to straighten. One product, collagenase clostridium histolyticum (marketed as Xiaflex), has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for this use. Some doctors recommend cortisone injections for early disease.
Extracorporeal shock wave therapy. Some studies suggest it can be effective in reducing pain and slowing the progression of Dupuytren’s disease. “It works by angiogenesis or creating new blood vessel formation,” says John L. Ferrell III, director of sports medicine for D.C.- based Regenerative Orthopedics and Sports Medicine. “If we are able to treat Dupuytren’s disease at its earliest stage, we can increase blood flow into this area, where there is a poor blood supply. This seems to decrease pain and help slow progression of the disease.”
One hitch: Although the therapy is FDA-approved for treating other musculoskeletal conditions, it is still an “off-label” remedy for Dupuytren’s and not widely in use for treating the condition.
Surgery is the only treatment for advanced disease. This involves an incision to remove the affected tissue to straighten the fingers. Denkler says the disease recurs within five years in up to 25 percent of patients who have invasive surgery.
“When you do surgery, you are cutting out the tissue, but it can re-form,” he says. “Dupuytren’s is a scarring condition, and surgery is a scarring procedure, so there can be failure.”
Open surgery generally works better for more severe bends and lasts longer, but it also has a higher permanent complication rate, Eaton says, and patients can experience pain, swelling, nerve injuries that cause numbness, problems with circulation to the finger and hand stiffness.
And “if the problem comes back, the risk of complications from repeat surgery are even greater,” he adds. “The minimally invasive procedures have a much lower complication rate and a much faster recovery.”
My Wife Of 52 Years Just Died. My Grief Is So Overwhelming, I Can Barely Cope.
It’s never a good thing when the emergency room staff know you by name. Diane had been experiencing gastrointestinal issues for some time, and had visited the ER 27 times in the past year for nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Over a nine-month period, her gastroenterologist performed two colonoscopies and an endoscopy. He finally came up with a diagnosis of arteriovenous malformations. “Don’t worry,” he said, “there’s no sign of cancer. Most people with this condition can lead a normal life.” In Diane’s case, he was wrong ― dead wrong.
March 1, 2022, was the day our lives changed forever. We thought it was just another visit to the ER. I was expecting the usual testing protocol: an injection of promethazine or Zofran for the nausea, followed by discharge. This time was different. An imaging test had revealed two spots on Diane’s liver ― probably cancerous, they said. I was stunned. Surely further testing would provide another explanation. It had been less than a month since the gastroenterologist did the endoscopy and found no malignancies.
Radiology confirmed the cancer diagnosis. Even worse, it was inoperable colon cancer that had spread to the liver, and the GI doctor somehow never saw it. My spouse, my wife of 52 years, my high school sweetheart was going to die, and there was nothing I or anyone else could do about it.
Supporting a loved one who is living with terminal cancer is the second hardest thing I’ve done in my 73 years on earth. The hardest thing for me was when Diane stopped living with it and started dying from it. The visual evidence of her decline and the relentless approach of her death was terrifying.
She tried her best. We were referred to a local cancer center, and the clinical team there assured Diane that the liver tumors were relatively small. She was an excellent candidate for chemotherapy. Another two years of life was a reasonable expectation. Three or four wasn’t out of the question. I felt a stirring of hope. Chemotherapy would give Diane the precious gift of time. Meanwhile, there was the possibility of new drugs, new discoveries, maybe even a cure. A light, however dim, was flickering at the end of the tunnel.
We confirmed an appointment for the chemo port procedure a few days later. When Diane canceled at the last minute, I was surprised and alarmed. The clock was ticking, the tumors were growing; we needed to do this now. At the same time, I didn’t want to push her. It wasn’t my body, my illness, or my decision to make. I breathed a sigh of relief when she rescheduled the appointment and kept it.
During this period I had begun researching and making inquiries to a few prominent cancer facilities, most notably the Mayo Clinic. I even asked our cancer office to send Diane’s records to one of the other hospitals I’d contacted. Nothing came of it; I didn’t hear back from any of them. Ultimately it was a moot point, because Diane said she wasn’t interested in traveling to receive treatment.
That ray of hope I’d felt didn’t last long. The chemo port was uncomfortable, and Diane was self-conscious about it. She finally stopped wearing a bra. That helped with the port problem, but did nothing to reduce her nausea from the treatment session. The discomfort was exacerbated when they sent her home with a portable unit that slowly dispensed the drugs through her port.
Diane’s next appointment was postponed because her iron levels were too low for the treatment. They gave her an injection to boost the iron and rescheduled the session. That’s when Diane told me she was done with chemo for good.
“It took some time for me to realize that a few quality months of life was a gift she wanted to give both of us.”
At the time, I viewed her decision as a death wish ― a rejection of the life we had together. Would she really rather accelerate the timeline of her death than have more time with me and our daughter? I accepted and supported Diane’s decision, but I couldn’t understand it. It took some time for me to realize that a few quality months of life was a gift she wanted to give both of us. Two or three years of uninterrupted misery from the drugs and the side effects, with virtually no chance for a different outcome, was not something Diane wanted for either of us.
The cancer center tried to convince her to continue with the treatments, but I think they realized the weakness of their argument, given the situation. They gave us a referral to hospice and wished us well. Hospice accepts patients who are considered to have less than six months to live. The clock was ticking. We would have one final summer together.
I look back at the magic of those ordinary days that make up a lifetime. I helped Diane bathe, dress and use the toilet. We went out every morning for breakfast at a restaurant where people loved her. Shopping, errands, trips to the park filled our days. I tried to stay strong for her, but I could feel the time slipping away.
July gave way to August and Diane began to decline. One of the hardest things for a caregiver is watching your loved one slowly disappear, physically and mentally. The world narrows, the light at the end of the tunnel dims, until the only thing left is the tunnel itself.
Diane could no longer leave the house. I couldn’t manage it. Even if I were younger and stronger, I’m not sure I could have kept her safe.
I got the hospital bed around the middle of August after she fell out of our bed the second time. We set it up in the living room, where she could watch television and feel a part of the day’s activity. Hospice was wonderful, providing advice, support, nursing services and bed baths. I couldn’t have managed without their help.
Late August was difficult. I tried to feed her. On a good day Diane would eat half a honey bun and drink some ginger ale. I waited to see if she would hang on until our anniversary on August 24. She made it. I wished her a happy anniversary. Maybe she understood me; maybe she didn’t. Diane’s ability to speak was now mostly gone.
I selected a funeral home and began sleeping in a room closer to the front of the house so I could check on her during the night. Diane stopped eating at the end of August. Her time was short. My daughter and son-in-law were driving down from Virginia.
I am writing this on Monday, September 12. Diane died last Wednesday afternoon, September 7, at 2:00 p.m. My daughter and I spent the morning at her bedside holding her hand and showing our love. The hospice nurse was there to help us when she passed.
“I believe a life is measured by the footprints one leaves behind. Diane’s are imprinted all over my heart and the hearts of many others.”
They say you never forget your first love. In my case, Diane was the only girl I ever loved. I took her ice skating on our first date in 1966. It didn’t take long to know she was the one for me. Finding my soul mate at such a young age was indescribable. She felt the same way. Life was perfect.
And now she’s gone. I take some comfort in knowing her life was full. Diane was a wonderful wife and mother; she was a skilled and compassionate nurse. I believe a life is measured by the footprints one leaves behind. Hers are imprinted all over my heart and the hearts of many others.
What have I learned from this experience? I can tell you coping with Diane’s death is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I wear the sadness like a heavy blanket. My mind is fuzzy; I drift through the days searching for something, for someone who isn’t there. It’s surreal. Maybe time will help. Maybe it won’t.
I feel an occasional sense of peace knowing I did what I could to make her comfortable. Her urn sits on a remembrance table, with a picture of the two of us and some personal items that were important to her. I visit with Diane every day. She’ll be with me as long as I live.
The house is quiet now. I’m trying to move forward, but it’s hard. I thought we would grow old together. We did, but not nearly old enough. Diane’s death has taught me that no matter how much we love someone, we all have our own lives to live. The best way for me to honor the life Diane and I had together is to live the rest of my life the best way I know how.
It’s late. I should try to sleep, but I think I’ll turn on the television. I need something to cover the sound of crying.
Ronald Paxton was born in Richmond, Virginia, and currently lives in Conway, South Carolina. He sold his first short story in 2008 and has since published eight novels, more than 50 short stories, a children’s book, and poetry. Mr. Paxton’s short fiction has received nominations for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net awards. His novel “Tears at Sunrise” is a State Library of Virginia fiction selection.
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Sleep Triggered by Stress Can Help Mice Cope With Later Anxiety
Summary: Study reveals the how stress can induce sleep in mice, and how this stress-induced sleep can help reduce anxiety the following day.
Source: Imperial College London
Stress boosts a kind of sleep in mice that subsequently relieves anxiety, according to new research that also pinpoints the mechanism responsible.
Since sleep is similar across mammals, it is likely the same mechanism is triggered in human brains. Uncovering the mechanism could lead to artificial ways to boost its effects, helping to treat persistent stress disorders such as PTSD.
We often think of stress keeping us awake at night, but certain kinds of stress actually appear to induce sleep. Now, a study led by researchers at Imperial College London and institutions in China has uncovered how this happens in the brains of mice.
As well as discovering how sleep is induced, they reported that the sleep experienced by the mice appears to lower their anxiety levels the next day. The findings are reported today in the journal Science.
There are two main types of sleep that we, and all mammals experience: REM (rapid eye movement, where we tend to dream), and non-REM (NREM; deeper, dreamless sleep). People who suffer from PTSD experience less REM sleep, contributing to the theory that REM sleep helps us process difficult emotions and stress.
Lead researcher Professor Bill Wisden, from the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial, said: “Our results add weight to the idea that REM sleep helps us cope with stress. However, we previously only knew about ways REM sleep is reduced, such as some drugs that suppress it.
“Now, our study has revealed a mechanism by which REM sleep is induced, paving the way for drugs or other interventions that target the right neurons and boost the stress-busting power of sleep.”
The researchers caused a type of psycho-social stress in mice called ‘social defeat’, which is used as an analogue for human bullying. Mice were exposed to particularly aggressive mice (without physical harm), after which researchers noted that ‘flight or fight’ hormones rose in their blood, indicating stress.
When the mice then slept, researchers tracked the activity of their neurons (brain cells). This revealed a specific set of neurons that detected and responded to the stress hormone levels and induced sleep high in both NREM and REM.
The activity of these neurons, and levels of NREM and REM sleep, stayed high for around five hours of sleep, during which they also sent signals to other neurons that regulate stress hormones, blocking them from releasing more.
The newly discovered neurons thus not only detected stress and induced sleep as a result, they also triggered the lowering of stress hormones.
Once the mice awoke, the researchers tested their anxiety response, to see how the sleep had affected their stress behaviours. They did this by measuring how long the mice spent in the light, rather than seeking out darkness, as they tend to do more when they are anxious.
Their responses were compared to stressed mice that were either sleep deprived (stimulated with objects) or had their newly identified neurons impaired, meaning they didn’t get the restorative sleep normal mice did.
The mice that didn’t get their stress-induced sleep spent much more time in the dark, indicating they were more anxious, and their stress hormone levels remained high.
Having found this new mechanism, the team now hope to find ways to selectively target the responsible neurons to boost their positive effects via sleep.
See also
The team were funded by the Wellcome Trust and the UK Dementia Research Institute. Dementia diagnosis can cause significant psychological stress, and the team hope that if their research can lead to a way to boost the effects of sleep, this will also help people cope with a new diagnosis. People living with dementia also suffer from more emotional disturbances, and boosting REM sleep may also help reduce this distress.
About this sleep and psychology research news
Author: Hayley Dunning
Source: Imperial College London
Contact: Hayley Dunning – Imperial College London
Image: The image is credited to Imperial College London
Original Research: Closed access.
“A specific circuit in the midbrain detects stress and induces restorative sleep” by Bill Wisden et al. Science
Abstract
A specific circuit in the midbrain detects stress and induces restorative sleep
In mice, social defeat stress (SDS), an ethological model for psychosocial stress, induces sleep. Such sleep could enable resilience, but how stress promotes sleep is unclear.
Activity-dependent tagging revealed a subset of ventral tegmental area γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA)–somatostatin (VTAVgat-Sst) cells that sense stress and drive non–rapid eye movement (NREM) and REM sleep through the lateral hypothalamus and also inhibit corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) release in the paraventricular hypothalamus.
Transient stress enhances the activity of VTAVgat-Sst cells for several hours, allowing them to exert their sleep effects persistently. Lesioning of VTAVgat-Sst cells abolished SDS-induced sleep; without it, anxiety and corticosterone concentrations remained increased after stress. Thus, a specific circuit allows animals to restore mental and body functions by sleeping, potentially providing a refined route for treating anxiety disorders.
‘Prices will not come back down’: Americans dip into their savings to cope with record-high inflation
Americans accumulated extra savings during the pandemic, but that money is fast dwindling because of inflation.
Some 70% of Americans are using their savings to cover rising prices, a recent Forbes Advisor survey of 2,000 U.S. adults concluded. Among those polled, older adults were more likely to say they have left their savings intact.
In fact, the personal savings rate for April 2022 hit 4.4% — the lowest level since September 2008 — down from 6% at the beginning of the year, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, a department of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Another concern: More respondents told a New York Federal Reserve “Survey of Consumer Expectations” that their finances are worse now than they were a year ago. In fact, the average perceived chance of missing a minimum debt payment in the next three months increased by 0.4 percentage point to 11.1%, according to the results of the survey released Monday.
“Median household nominal spending growth expectations increased sharply to 9% from 8% in April,” the NY Fed said. “This is the fifth consecutive increase and a new series high. The increase was most pronounced for respondents between the age of 40 and 60 and respondents without a college education.”
That slump in savings and rise in spending comes at a time when the drum beat of recession grows louder. Case in point: Nearly 70% of 49 respondents expect the National Bureau of Economic Research to declare a recession next year, according to the FT survey published Sunday; the survey was conducted with the Initiative on Global Markets at the University of Chicago Booth’s School of Business.
Though some Americans have built up savings during the pandemic, helped by COVID-related government benefits, those savings appear to be running low as people cope with rising prices.
Laura Veldkamp, a finance and economic professor at Columbia University, suggested people try renegotiating salaries with their employers. “Prices will not come back down,” she said. “They never do.” Dipping into savings to cope with rising prices is not a sustainable long-term solution, she added.
The increase in the cost of living is making Americans nervous. Inflation rose 8.6% on the year through May, the highest since 1981. A survey of U.S. consumer confidence fell in May to a three-month low of 106.4. That’s one of many surveys pointing to a pessimistic outlook by people both for their own finances and the U.S. economy.
For the week ending May 29, grocery inflation reached a record high of 14.6% compared to a year ago, according to the latest survey from data company Numerator. The survey shows that middle-income consumers — those who earn $40,000 to $80,000 a year — are paying the greatest price increases among all income levels.
“‘Cutting down on your budget doesn’t need to be painful.’”
In April, consumer spending increased by $152.3 billion, separate Bureau of Economic Analysis data found, with people spending the most money on motor vehicles and auto parts, in addition to food and housing. Compared to the month before, the consumption of gas and other energy decreased by $26.9 billion.
On Sunday, AAA pegged the national average at $5.01 for a gallon of gasoline. That’s 20 cents higher than it was a week ago, 60 cents higher than a month ago, and almost $2 more than the $3.07 average a year ago, according to AAA data.
Thomas Scanlon, a financial adviser with Raymond James Financial in Manchester, Conn., said it’s a good time to adopt thrifty habits, such as borrowing from the public library instead of buying a book, and looking to free leisure activities such as visits to some museums and beaches.
“Cutting down on your budget doesn’t need to be painful,” Scanlon said, “it can be an opportunity to spend a good time with friends and families.”