931,170 views Published on Youtube 28 Oct 2024
Yuval Noah Harari, renowned historian and author of “Nexus,” explores the indelible impact of AI on human society. We discuss his iconoclastic views on information networks, the inextricable link between technology and political systems, and actionable ways to navigate our rapidly changing world.
The state of the human consciousness is a very relevant and popular theme in our shared experience of our world in modern times. Sparky presents here a regularly updated selection of conversations from YouTube and other platforms in video, audio or text formats. Delve in or find in search your topic of interest.
244,176 views Jun 5, 2023
In this episode, my guest is Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, EdD, professor of education, psychology and neuroscience at the University of Southern California and director of the Center for Affective Neuroscience, Development, Learning and Education, who has done groundbreaking research on emotions, self-awareness and social interactions and how these impact the way we learn and change across our lifespan. She explains how an understanding of emotions can be leveraged to improve learning in children and in adults, and how the education system should be altered to include new forms of exploration and to facilitate better learning and to include more diverse learning (and teaching) styles. This episode ought to be of interest to anyone interested in how we learn, human development in children and adults, as well as those generally interested in education, psychology or neuroscience.
#HubermanLab #Science #Learning
Psyche is a digital magazine from Aeon that illuminates the human condition through psychology, philosophy and the arts.
Browse, scroll and navigate through the two sites within Sparky,
or visit and/or subscribe safely to Aeon at psyche or aeon directly.
As with Aeon, Psyche disseminates knowledge from a wide range of expert perspectives. Psychology and philosophy are key, but Psyche also draws on history, anthropology and other disciplines. Psyche recognises that the human condition has always been illuminated by the imagination as much as by reason and practical knowledge, and will showcase poetic and artistic voices and perspectives.
Psyche is organised into three sections. Therapeia provides expert insights and practical help in dealing with emotional and psychological challenges. Eudaimonia focuses on the perennial puzzle of how to live well in our complex world. Poiesis explores the imaginative, artistic and transcendent facets of life.
Psyche has three content channels: Ideas (short articles of 1,000-1,800 words) from experts and writers; Guides, which provide in-depth, expert-written, practical know-how; and Films, which showcase immersive short films. New content is published every weekday.
Explore our most popular Guides, Ideas and Films on our Popular page.
We work hard to bring you the most trustworthy, expert, and up-to-date information on psychology and mental health in our Guides. You can learn more about how we ensure our Guides are reliable here.
The need to elucidate the human condition is a universal one; the avenues to do so are endless. With a dedication to pluralism and openness, Psyche will seek out and share the most revealing perspectives wherever they might be found.
Psyche is published by not-for-profit, registered charity Aeon Media Group Ltd which is endorsed as a Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) organisation in Australia and registered as a 501(c)(3) charity in the US through its affiliate Aeon America.
Check out Jamie Wheal’s latest book “Recapture the Rapture: Rethinking God, Sex and Death in a World That’s Lost Its Mind” ►► https://www.recapturetherapture.com/
For our own mental health, we must occasionally disconnect from the world and reconnect to ourselves and to each other. This leads us to some of the most powerful and often taboo things that humans have ever experienced. They include: breathing, sexuality, embodiment, substances, and music — what Jamie Wheal calls the Alchemist Cookbook.
Read the video transcript: https://bigthink.com/series/the-big-t…
Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ►► https://www.youtube.com/c/bigthink
Learn to reach beyond fear and tap into your creative potential, as Elizabeth Gilbert, the bestselling author of Eat Pray Love and The Signature of All Things. In this ‘tell’ she shares the exact strategy she uses to overcome fear, as well as the profound secrets behind her creative success.
With huge thanks to Calm.com and Elizabeth Gilbert – https://blog.calm.com/blog/elizabeth-gilbert-author-of-eat-pray-love-teaches-a-calm-masterclass-on-creativity
There is always hope, and there are always examples of good behaviour and kindness within our communities, and every day we face socially challenging situations and disruptive circumstances.
We are more than capable of coming together when up against forces of ‘wrongfulness’ – but our common knowledge and natural balance within society is flawed and disrupted by ‘modern times’.
Human beings are fickle by nature and very susceptible to bad influence, deceit and manipulation, too easily ‘conned’ and misled.
If there is such a thing as the collective consciousness, it’s purpose right now is to help us rise above fear, denial and the need to blame somebody or something. So rather than cocoon or bury our heads in the sand, we need to observe and witness our behaviour as individuals within our communities, and help each other be more aware, to engage, consider and witness what is happening in society. Some experiences will hurt and cause anguish, pain and anxiety, but without that stress, we would not develop or progress through life. Look around, there are more hopeful and positive activities and experiences happening all around. Most of the time a change of perspective can change everything.
Visit Sparky’s sister site Being – an observer, guide and witness to the state and moral responsibility of humanity in modern times. An ethical and very visual overview of the human condition with a humanist perspective.
The image: Come Hell or High Water by COCO AMARDEIL more about this image below
Medically Reviewed by – Dr. Ealena Callender
Written by Eric Suni
Home /Sleep Topics/ What Happens When You Sleep?When you sleep, your body undergoes a series of changes that enable the rest that is vital to your overall health. Sleep allows the brain and body to slow down and engage in processes of recovery, promoting better physical and mental performance the next day and over the long-term.
What happens when you don’t sleep is that these fundamental processes are short-circuited, affecting thinking, concentration, energy levels, and mood. As a result, getting the sleep you need — seven to nine hours for adults and even more for children and teens — is crucial.
What happens during sleep, including how distinct stages of sleep unfold, demonstrates the complexity of sleep and its importance for our well-being.
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During a normal sleep period, you progress through four to five sleep cycles. Each sleep cycle is made up of four individual sleep stages.
The four stages of sleep are further broken down into two categories: rapid eye movement (REM) and non-REM sleep. These categories are important because what happens during REM sleep is dramatically different from what happens during non-REM stages.
The first three stages of sleep are comprised of non-REM activity. Stage 1 is short, representing the act of dozing off and transitioning into sleep. In Stage 2 the body and mind slow down as you settle into sleep. It’s easiest to be awoken during these first two stages.
In Stage 3, also known as deep sleep, the body is in recovery mode, slowing down even further. At the same time, overall brain activity slows and shows a tell-tale pattern of pulses of activity1 that are believed to help prevent unwanted awakenings.
The fourth stage is REM sleep. During REM periods, brain activity shoots back up to levels similar to when you’re awake – which explains why REM is associated with the most intense dreams. While breathing and heart rate increase during REM sleep, most muscles are paralyzed, which keeps us from acting out those vivid dreams.
Each sleep cycle takes between 70 and 120 minutes2. In the first sleep cycles of the night, more time is spent in non-REM sleep. The majority of REM sleep happens during the second half of the night. The progression of sleep stages and cycles in one sleep period is known as sleep architecture.
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Virtually every part of the body3 experiences notable changes during sleep. Upon falling asleep, thousands of neurons in the brain switch from waking to sleeping state4, sending signals throughout the body.
While the biological role of sleep still isn’t fully understood, research demonstrates that it reinforces the cardiovascular and immune systems and helps regulate metabolism. What happens during sleep can be seen in notable changes in core bodily processes.
Breathing slows during non-REM sleep with respiration reaching its lowest rates during deep sleep stage three. Breathing ramps up and may become irregular during REM sleep.
As with breathing, heart rate begins to slow during Stage 1 and reaches its slowest pace during Stage 3. On the other hand, during REM sleep, the pulse quickens to nearly the same rate as when awake.
Muscles gradually relax during each stage of non-REM sleep, and the body’s total energy expenditure drops5. During the REM stage, most muscles are paralyzed in a condition known as atonia. This keeps the legs and arms from flailing in response to dream content. Respiratory and eye muscles stay active, though, and the darting of the eyes behind closed eyelids is the inspiration for the name rapid eye movement sleep.
When measured during sleep, brain waves show clear patterns associated with each sleep stage. In the early parts of non-REM sleep, brain waves slow down considerably; however, in Stage 2 and Stage 3, there are numerous quick bursts of brain activity.
In REM sleep, brain activity accelerates, showing markedly different types of brain waves. Heightened brain activity is why REM sleep is known as the stage most associated with vivid dreaming.
REM sleep is thought to enable critical cognitive abilities6, including memory consolidation, but non-REM sleep, even with reduced brain activity, is also believed to play a role in facilitating proper brain function while awake.
Dreaming is most prevalent and intense during REM sleep, but it can occur during any sleep stage7. That said, dreams that happen during non-REM and REM sleep tend to show different patterns8 with REM dreams often being more fanciful, immersive, or bizarre.
Sleep and the body’s internal clock, or circadian rhythm, play an important role
in regulating the production of numerous hormones9 including:
Melatonin, which helps promote sleep
Growth hormone, which supports bone and muscle development as well as metabolism
Cortisol, which is part of the body’s stress response system
Leptin and ghrelin, which help control appetite
Hormone levels fluctuate during different sleep stages, and quality of sleep may also affect daytime hormone production.
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The image on top
2nd Place Series
LensCulture Portrait Awards 2017
The youth of today live in a time where uncertainty about the future—fueled by a distrust of politics, institutions and the media—has reached epic proportions.
The mass of contradictions created by past generations has left them with a lot of grey areas. As a result, they are overcome with apprehension and anxiety about their place in a confused and changing world—a world without any reliable points of reference and a thousand different forms of violence.
It is this moment in life, a time of soul-searching and self-discovery, that I wanted to capture through this series of portraits. This generation—the generation that will make up the world of tomorrow without having much of an idea of where they are going or what they want—is just trying to keep their heads above the sea of stimuli that surrounds them.
—Coco Amardeil
Social Perspective – there are only two ways of responding to any challenging social circumstance or situation, positively or negatively, these are basic responses in individuals within the wider community, especially when feeling vulnerable or under threat.
Human nature being what it is, usually tends towards the negative, as in our current state of uncertainty and confusion – the ‘fight or flight’ response, trying to find someone or something to blame, fear and anger at the unknown – this is the worst and most disruptive condition, all are triggered by challenging events within our communities causing confusion and conflict.
We must be more aware of these states of mind and manage the issues at hand. Finding logical, philosophical or psychological perspective from similar and/or historical reference can help – in other words ‘look before we leap’ or acting with empathy rather than fear. Consider this before losing hope, or descending into denial or anger. It’s all a matter of perspective.
There is always hope, there are always examples of good behaviour and kindnesses within our communities, countering socially challenging situations and disruptive circumstances.
We are more than capable of coming together when up against threatening forces of ‘wrongfulness’, there is a natural balance within human consciousness which when disturbed tries to correct itself. However, humans are fickle by nature and very susceptible to bad influence, deceit and manipulation, easily ‘conned’ and mislead into ways of thinking, action and inaction.
If there is such a thing as the collective consciousness, it’s purpose right now is to rise above the fear and denial and blame associated with Covid 19 and the resulting pandemic. Rather than cocoon or bury our heads in the sand, we need to observe and witness our behaviour as individuals within communities and help ourselves by helping others see, think and understand what’s really going on.
Everyone has a part to play, but we need to be more aware, to engage, consider and witness, some experiences will hurt and cause anguish, pain and anxiety, but look around, there are more hopeful and positive activity and experiences happening all around, in many cases it is only a matter of perspective.
Visit Sparky’s sister site Being – for creators and collectors of objects of desire and craft
Thanks to Jonna Jinton for the imagery …
The Positive Spin is about wellbeing in the face of mental disruption and is an ongoing Sparky conversation about self-care, and how we can help ourselves and others find solace, personal worth and self-satisfaction.
Experiencing anxiety in challenging times can build up within us. We may be unaware of what is affecting our moods, our thoughts, our work and play, and our interaction with others, it can be debilitating and affect our general wellbeing, even affecting our sleep and upsetting our cognitive abilities and perceptions.
Once aware of the source of anxiety, even managing the experience can be disorientating and debilitating if not attended to appropriately. However, the energy behind these hidden forces of fearful paranoia, blame of others and self-doubt can be ‘flipped’ to become positive and productive energy, culminating in personal satisfaction and a perceived ‘enlightenment’, a personal and positive ‘superpower’ that helps us tackle, manage and respond to challenges, a perception that can be shared with others facing similar experiences – those who may be suffering the consequences of demanding and challenging lifestyles, or consequences of forgotten historic trauma or cloaked social or personal abuse of which they were unaware.
To be continued…
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Is metaphysics such a bad thing when people respond with – ‘oh, that’s a bit too metaphysical for my liking’
metaphysics | mɛtəˈfɪzɪks | plural noun [usually treated as singular] the branch of philosophy that deals with the first principles of things, including abstract concepts such as being, knowing, identity, time, and space: they would regard the question of the initial conditions for the universe as belonging to the realm of metaphysics or religion. • abstract theory with no basis in reality: his concept of society as an organic entity is, for market liberals, simply metaphysics. Metaphysics has two main strands: that which holds that what exists lies beyond experience (as argued by Plato), and that which holds that objects of experience constitute the only reality (as argued by Kant, the logical positivists, and Hume). Metaphysics has also concerned itself with a discussion of whether what exists is made of one substance or many, and whether what exists is inevitable or driven by chance.
When we sleep, our bodies use up more energy, or fat, in order to mend, develop and restore ourselves for the coming new day. When we awake we are in a low state of ketosis, a metabolic state in which some of the body’s energy supply comes from ketone bodies in the blood, in contrast to a state of glycolysis in which blood glucose (including sugars) provide energy. Blood sugars are at optimum levels and insulin levels are way down – this is the perfect metabolic state for our bodies and we can stay in this state until we consume our first meal about 4 hours AFTER a normal daily waking.
Provided you eat no more than 50 calories you will remain in this fasted state well into the day. Staying in this state of ketosis, along with associated low blood sugar levels has many health benefits and will reduce insulin resistance. You could have a small omelette and a coffee or tea with semi-skimmed milk and remain in ketosis until your first meal about noon.
Morning exercise in a fasted state will reap huge benefits. Walking, steps climbing, stretching, outdoor weight training, Ti-Chi, jogging or biking, almost any continued activity will train your body to use it’s stored fats and sugars efficiently. Lifting weights in a fasted state will increase human growth hormone post-workout much greater than lifting weights with food in your belly; high levels will remain high for many hours but will drop as soon as you eat.
Ketosis state fasting benefits will be improved further by having your last meal 4 hours or more before sleep, meaning that you should eat your daily nutritional and energy needs within a 7 hour period in the middle of the day – say between noon and 7pm.
Published on YouTube by Kram Gallery on Jan 19, 2015
Sparky has another note on morning rituals and why its good to ‘design’ and commit to your own.
When you wake you have a high level of BDNF (and endorphines) created during sleep as a means of resetting our brains and clearing our minds, ready for new experiences and knowledge – so, it is important NOT to eat early in the day to make full use of that clarity and feel good factor, naturally we are engineered NOT to be hungry in the morning.
However, if we have formed a habit of eating a big breakfast each morning then thats what our minds will expect to happen – it’s a habit not a necessity.
We can turn ourselves into healthier, happier people just by a little push first thing when we wake.
Activity planning first EVERY day, and avoid solid food and sugars until midday – a habitual coffee (reducing sugar and milk over time) or naturally flavoured water is ok.
