Monday, September 09, 2019

The Oppenheimer Report 9/9/19


As I may have mentioned in earlier reports, of late I have been experiencing an anxiousness I can’t explain, and it is, among other things, affecting my sleep. I chalked it up to all the depressing news I can’t seem to ignore, and I suppose to some extent, world events are responsible for that anxiousness. I’ve been trying to meditate every morning, but I’m not very disciplined when it comes to taking care of myself. Vitamins help, and I’ve found that a B100 complex is helpful to take off the rough edges. Now, I understand there are other possible explanations for my restlessness.  

I was talking to a friend the other day, and he was wearing one of those Fitbit watches. On top of the annoying alarm that tells you when you’re being too sedentary (mine would be going off all day), there is a feature which monitors your heart rate while you sleep. My friend was not getting the sleep he needed, and this Fitbit feature, which monitored his resting heart rate, confirmed that something was interrupting his deep sleep while he was unconscious. When he then investigated the factors that could affect his sleep, he learned that exposure to blue light might have been the culprit. I did not know this, but apparently, the blue light emitted from computer screens and from cell phones is particularly counter-productive to sleep. It has something to do with the hypothalamus region of the brain. Artificial light, and especially blue light, interferes with the brain’s normal tendency to produce melatonin, the hormone which regulates our sleep-wake cycles. I learned that it is advisable to turn off computer and TV screens one half hour to an hour before going to bed. When my friend did this, he told me he had a more restful sleep. I’m not sure if this works or not but I’m going to try to wean myself from this stimulus just before bedtime to see if it makes any difference. Restful sleep is so important and I’m hearing more and more people complain about the quality of their sleep.

In general, I’ve been suspicious of the effects of all the wireless electronics that surround me – and it IS all around me - wondering if any of it might be harmful to my health. Some studies suggest that it can be, but no one can tell me what is too much. Certainly, the earliest cell phones were more dangerous, known to emit harmful radiation and perhaps to increase the likelihood of brain tumors. I remember those first Motorola cell phones, the really heavy ones. Now that cell phone technology has developed, and many of us have grown so attached to our smart phones, we seem to get nervous if we are without them. Now I’ve got to consider the possibility that my computer and my cell phone are keeping me awake at night. It’s always something.

Hurricane Dorian has run her course, and will likely go down in the history books as one of the bad ones. We still don’t know how many people perished in the Bahamas, because so many are still “missing” and presumed dead. While Florida did not get hit too hard, Dorian crawled all the way up the east coast, with impact on the Carolinas. It even hammered the Canadian Maritime provinces much further north as a Cat 2 hurricane. This morning there was frost on the ground here in Katrine, and everyone was grumbling about the chilly weather, but so far we still have a roof over our heads. I’m thankful. My heart goes out to the Bahamians so devastated by Dorian’s wrath.


Written by Jamie Oppenheimer ©2019
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
jamieoppenheimersongwriter@gmail.com
Jamie Oppenheimer, Songwriter, Author, Blogger, Radio Producer, & Host has been writing THE OPPENHEIMER REPORT every MONDAY since 1992 and has published the articles on his blog since 2006. We are including Jamie's weekly reports, as a new feature of #HuntersBayRadio, The Bay 88.7FM.
#GotLocalHuntersBayRadio.com #WeAreMuskoka #WeAreAlmaguin

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