Friday, September 14, 2007

Re-jiggin' your brain

Two unrelated, brain-related articles popped in my feed over the past couple days:

Andre points us to an article highlighting some research that says that Liberal and Conservative brains are wired differently. (Ok, hold that thought)

Meanwhile, I was pointed to this article about a gentleman by the name of Tony Gelf who recently broke the record for sleep deprivation by staying awake for 11 consecutive days and nights. He's a researcher on the subject and did it to promote his book about his theory that involves a meat-free diet and more interestingly, a technique of alternating between left- and right-brain-focused activities. He claims that when one side of the brain is engaged, the other can recharge itself, much as it does when sleeping.

Some thoughts that occurred to me after reading both:

  • Does this mean that Liberals and Conservatives would fare differently in sleep-deprived scenarios? I can't imagine that being president allows for a consistent eight hours per night. We should take this into account when voting!
  • While I've actually being trying to get MORE sleep (I consistently used to get less than 5 hrs, but have been trying to force myself to get more lately), could the whole alternate-between-left-and-right-brain-activities thing still be beneficial if true? Good way to recharge batteries maybe?

2 comments:

Janel said...

I was under the impression that switching between halfs of the brain is how various sea mammals manage to keep breathing, but still sleep. And they're kinda close relatives, so it may be somewhat restorative in humans? But I bet it is *really* hard to find pure one-hemisphere tasks.

Anonymous said...

Some would say the study had an agenda...perhaps...now to have absolute toxic fun with it, one would also have tested several death row inmates.