Longform Reads #4

Sorry for the really late post. I just came back from a kendo nomikai (it was to celebrate the last practice of the term). It was so fun even though I didn't drink :D

Ok, so this week, I focused on "Sleep" (thanks to the Byliner Spotlight). So, here are the articles I read:

Deep Into Sleep by Craig Lambert: Probably my favourite article of the bunch. It gave me enough arguments to convince me that more sleep is a good thing. Now, I can say with absolutely no guilt that I need to prepare for my exams by sleeping more :D

Can a Lack of Sleep Set Back Your Child's Cognitive Abilities? by Po Bronson: In a similar vein to Deep Into Sleep, well, I suppose that when you really don't want to study, you'll try other methods (like sleeping more and hoping your brain is awake during class).

In the Dreamscape of Nightmares, Clues to Why We Dream at All by Natalie Angier: A fairly interesting article, it looked at the types of nightmares, (and briefly, in one paragraph, how cultural norms can affect the most common type of nightmares).

On Insomnia by Elizabeth Gumport: Very, I don't know how to say, lyrical? It was the article that resembled the kind of (^_^)/~~~~ dreamy kind of feeling associated with deep books and books trying to sound deep. It almost makes insomnia appealing, only that as someone who used to wake up at 3 a.m. on the dot, I'd take as much sleep as possible.

The Stubborn Scientist Who Unraveled A Mystery of the Night by Chip Brown: This is about REM and how it's discovery came about. I'm not sure who the stubborn scientist is though, seeing as there were two of them. I felt like out of the bunch of articles, this was the least interesting of the lot (I'd rather read about REM than it's history).

The "miscellaneous" articles are:

The Sugar Mama of Anti-Muslim Hate by Max Blumenthal: Looking at a heiress who is bankrolling all the anti-Muslim causes. What I want to know though, is why? Are there any reasons why she supports this? Is she mistaken or did she have a bad experience of something? The article would have been so much better if it addressed this as well, instead of merely telling me her actions.

French Women Worry About Getting Fat, Too by Susan Dominus: A very interesting article, covering weight-loss in France. Apparently, there's a perception that French women are all thin (I remember a book with the title French Women Don't Get Fat so there you go) and this article shows the challenges of working around this perception (and how the French feel towards food) to introduce weight-loss methods.

Don't by Jonah Lehrer: Since this was looking at how/whether people can delay their responses (like not eating a treat in front of them), I found this really interesting. Apparently, there's a link between people who can wait and successful people. Hmm.... I think I'm not very patient. Oh dear...

What did you read this week?