Mental Health Quotes

A variation of Box Breathing to more deeply relax the body that's especially effective before sleeping is as follows: Inhale to a count of 4; hold 4; exhale 6; hold 2. Repeat. Try at least six rounds, more if necessary. [2020] - James Nestor

The 4-7-8 Breathing, made famous by Dr. Andrew Weil, places the body into a state of deep relaxation. I use it on long flights to help fall asleep. 1) Take a breath in, then exhale through your mouth with a whoosh sound. 2) Close the mouth and inhale quietly through your nose to a mental count of four. 3) Hold for a count of seven. 4) Exhale completely through your mouth, with a whoosh, to the count of eight. 5) Repeat the cycle for at least four breaths. Weil offers a step-by-step instructional on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRPh_GaiL8s. [2020] - James Nestor

Too little sleep can make your body more resistant to the effects of insulin. Getting between 7 and 8 hours of sleep most nights is associated with the lowest risk of developing type 2 diabetes. [2018] - Joy Bauer

Lack of sleep hinders your body's use of insulin. It's a good idea to aim for 7-8 hours of sleep nightly. [2018] - Joy Bauer

Caregiving is one of the most profound stresses a person can experience. Its tasks are emotionally and physically demanding. Health researchers have identified caregivers (e.g. mothers taking care of their chronically ill children) as one of the most chronically stressed groups of people. [2017] - Elizabeth Blackburn

Positive stress (challenge stress) energizes. Our body automatically reacts to a stressful event within seconds and also reacts to our thoughts about the event. When we start to notice the stress response in our muscle tension, heart rate, and breathing, we can relabel it by saying, "This is good stress, energizing me so I can perform well!" this can help shape the body's response to be more energizing, bringing more dilation to the vessels and more blood to the brain. [2017] - Elizabeth Blackburn

Time Distancing: Think about the immediate future, and you will have a bigger emotional response than if you take a longer-term view. Next time you are in the grip of a stressful event, ask yourself, In 10 years, will this event still have an impact on me? In studies, people asked to pose this question to themselves had more challenge thoughts. Recognizing the impermanence of an event helps you get over it faster. [2017] - Elizabeth Blackburn

Cynical hostility, which is characterized by suspicious and angry thoughts, is linked to shorter telomeres. So is pessimism. Other thoughts patterns, including mind wandering, rumination, and thought suppression, may also lead to telomere damage. These thought patterns, unfortunately, can be automatic and hard to change. But you can learn to laugh at your negative thoughts and keep them from hurting you so much ("Oh, I'm criticizing myself again. I do that so often it's funny.") Engaging in any kind of mind-body practice (including meditation, especially mindfulness meditation) regularly allows you to be less focused on negative thoughts about yourself. [2017] - Elizabeth Blackburn

People practicing Zen meditation, or loving-kindness meditation, have longer telomeres than nonmeditators. A range of mind-body activities--Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, yogic meditation, Qigong, and intensive lifestyle change--all promote better telomere maintenance. [2017] - Elizabeth Blackburn

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, or MBCT, helps people out of the gap between how we feel and how we want to feel. It combines traditional strategies of cognitive therapy with mindfulness practices. Cognitive therapy helps you change distorted thoughts; mindfulness helps you change how you relate to your thoughts in the first place. MBCT is potent against that great threat to your telomeres, major depression. It's been show to be as effective as an antidepressant. [2017] - Elizabeth Blackburn

Mindfulness-based stress reduction, or MBSR, is a program created by Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts Medical School for people with no or little meditation experience. MBSR is great for anyone who wants to reduce stress; it's an especially good match for people suffering from chronical physical pain. MBSR includes training in the nature of the mind, mindful breathing, a mindful body scan, and yoga. Taking a class in a group is a unique live experience, but for those who don't have access to MBSR locally, the University of Massachusetts Medical School's Center for Mindfulness offers an online course (https://www.umassmemorialhealthcare.org/umass-memorial-center-mindfulness).  [2017] - Elizabeth Blackburn

There are many types of meditation from many different traditions. Kirtan Kriya is a more traditional form of meditation from yoga principles that involves chanting and tapping of the fingers (called yoga mudras). A brief description can be found here: http://alzheimersprevention.org/research/12-minute-memory-exercise. Hatha Yoga is a moving meditation that integrates physical postures, breathing, and a present mantel state. Yoga improves quality of life and mood for people across different types of illness, reduces blood pressure, and possibly inflammation and lipids. Yoga has recently been shown to increase spine bone density if practiced long term. [2017] - Elizabeth Blackburn

During REM sleep, cortisol is suppressed, and your metabolic rate increases. When you don't sleep well, you get less REM in the second half of the night, and that results in higher levels of cortisol and insulin, which stimulate appetite and lead to greater insulin resistance. This means that a bad night of sleep can throw you into a temporary prediabetic state. Studies have shown that even one night of partial sleep, or one night without enough REM sleep, can lead to elevated cortisol the next afternoon or evening, along with changes in the hormones and peptides that regulate appetite and lead to greater feeling of hunger. [2017] - Elizabeth Blackburn

Five Bedtime Rituals: 1. Spend 5 minutes in transition (breathing, meditating or reading). 2. Listen to soothing music. 3. Set a mood for relaxation (use essential oils, light a candle, and dim the lights). 4. Brew warm herbal tea one hour or more before bed. 5. Perform bedtime stretches or do some gentle yoga (Gentle Rolling of the Head and Neck, Forward Bend, Child's Pose). [2017] - Elizabeth Blackburn

Research has revealed that poor sleep quality and/or insufficient sleep and chronic stress have a direct relationship to weight gain and acid damage. Glucocorticoids (GCs) are a class of steroid hormones released by the body during psychological or emotional stress. When GCs are being produced at a fast clip, the result is greater pepsin production, an increased chance of developing or worsening GERD and stomach ulcers, and a propensity to store more abdominal fat, which is linked to acid reflux and increased chances for developing Barrett’s esophagus. [2017] - Jonathan Aviv

Simple routine changes, such as music therapy (listening to relaxing classical music for twenty minutes before bed) or engaging in muscle relaxation (breathing exercises) that you can practice in the privacy of your home have been shown to improve the quality of sleep in individuals experiencing extreme manifestations of stress such as post-traumatic stress disorder. And then there is always the power of exercise to reduce stress, improve the quality of your sleep, and help you lose weight. [2017] - Jonathan Aviv

Melatonin simply provides the official instruction to commence the event of sleep, but does not participate in the sleep race itself. For these reasons melatonin is not a powerful sleep aid in and of itself, at least not for healthy, non-jet-lagged individuals. [2017] - Matthew Walker

It feels harder to acclimate to a new time zone when traveling eastward than when flying westward. The eastward direction requires that you fall asleep earlier than you would normally, which is a tall biological order for the mind to simply will into action. In contract, the westward direction requires you to stay up later, which is a consciously and pragmatically easier prospect. [2017] - Matthew Walker

A large European study of almost 25,000 individuals demonstrated that sleeping six hours or less was associated with a 40 percent increased risk of developing cancer, relative to those sleeping seven hours a night or more. [2017] - Matthew Walker

Compared to reading a printed book, reading on an iPad suppressed melatonin release by over 50 percent at night. Indeed, iPad reading delayed the rise of melatonin by up to three hours, relative to the natural rise in these same individuals when reading a printed book. When reading on the iPad, their melatonin peak, and thus instruction to sleep, did not occur until the early-morning hours, rather than before midnight. Unsurprisingly, individuals took longer to fall asleep after iPad reading relative to print-copy reading. [2017] - Matthew Walker