List of All Articles with Tag 'lifestyle'

Hitting the snooze button on the alarm clock once in a while might actually support the brain’s process of waking from deep sleep, according to a new study. People sometimes want to go right back to sleep even after the alarm goes off in the morning, using the snooze button in clocks and cell phones. Decades of previous research suggested that hitting snooze can have negative effects, both on sleep and the brain’s ability to wake up, but until now there hasn’t been any direct evidence of this, say scientists. The new study, published in the Journal of Sleep Research, assessed how common snoozing is and what effects this behaviour has on sleep, sleepiness, mood, and the brain’s cognitive abilities. Researchers found that those who snooze on an average sleep slightly shorter and feel more drowsy in the morning compared to those who never snooze. But they also saw that there were no negative effects of snoozing on the release of the stress hormone cortisol, mood, or sleep quality throughout the night. In the study, 1732 individuals answered questions about their morning habits, including how often they hit the snooze button with many – especially young adults – reporting that they use the alarm feature regularly. The most common reason for snoozing, according to participants, is feeling too tired to get out of bed when the alarm goes off. In another small follow-up experiment, 31 regular snoozers spent two nights in a sleep lab in order to measure their sleep in more detail. On one of the mornings, they were allowed to snooze for 30 minutes, and on the other, they had to get up right when the alarm went off. While in the first case, participants’ sleep was disturbed during the half hour of snoozing, most of them still got more than 20 minutes of sleep – meaning that their total night’s sleep was not affected much. In the snooze condition, no one had to wake up suddenly from deep sleep, and the snoozers performed a bit better on cognitive tests right upon waking. There were also no clear effects of snoozing on mood, sleepiness, or the amount of cortisol in the saliva. The results hint that half an hour of snoozing may not have negative effects on night sleep and could have some positive effects like a decreased likelihood of waking from deep sleep. However, researchers caution that the second experiment was small and only included people who are regular snoozers who find it easy to go back to sleep after each alarm. They say snoozing is most likely not for everyone. Jennifer Kanaan from the University of Connecticut in the US, who is another sleep scientist unrelated to the study, said the latest findings should be interpreted with caution as it could send the wrong message to people. “If you’re coming in and out of sleep for 30 minutes, after the alarm goes off the first time, you’re costing yourself 30 minutes of uninterrupted, quality, restorative sleep,” Dr Kanaan said in a statement. Instead of trying to figure out how to manipulate our alarm clocks, she says people should make a consistent good night’s sleep a greater priority and be less reliant on snooze buttons. “Simply put, instead of hitting the snooze button they should get more sleep,” Dr Kanaan said. Read More Study reveals why millions of women wake up at 3.29am Consistent lack of sleep may increase risk of future depressive symptoms – study Breakthrough study allows scientists to communicate with people as they sleep How to support a child with a stammer ‘I lost nearly a stone on Ozempic, but now it’s run out what am I to do?’ Miriam Margolyes now has part of a cow’s heart as she opens up about health

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Miriam Margolyes has shared a health update after heart surgery, revealing that she now has part of a cow’s heart. Back in May, the Harry Potter actor underwent a minimally invasive procedure called a Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI) to replace a narrow aortic valve after it fails to open properly. Appearing on the Table Manners podcast, Margolyes, 82, discussed the heart operation with hosts Jessie Ware and her mother, Lennie. “I’ve got a cow’s heart,” Margolyes revealed. “Well, not the whole heart. I’ve had an aortic valve replaced by a cow’s aortic valve.” Jessie asked if that was “common”, with Margolyes joking: “I think it’s rather refined, actually… I don’t know how common it is, I’d never heard of that operation. But it saves you from having open heart surgery, which would be infinitely more invasive.” Further discussing the surgery, Margolyes explained: “They made two little holes in your groin, one in each groin. and then they shoved this thing through. And I don’t know how they pull it up but they sort of pull it up with strings, into your heart. “And then when it comes to the point when it’s in your heart, they pull a little string and it goes pow! And lo and behold, your artery or your aortic valve is shoved unceremoniously to the side, and the cow’s aortic valve says, ‘Moo, I’m here.’ It’s rather amazing.” Margolyes also shared that she would “probably” use a wheelchair soon due to her bad back, but had “just sort of accepted” that it was going to be necessary. On her new fandom and being seen as a “national treasure”, thanks to her outspoken nature, she added: “It’s lovely to hear that you like me and you approve of me. But I truly am a little old lady. Trying to make a living. Trying to keep going.” Last month, the actor released her new memoir, titled Oh Miriam: Stories from an Extraordinary Life. In the book, which was full to the brim with revelations, Margolyes wrote that her current state of disability meant that she now is mostly unable to perform on the theatre. Describing herself as “semi-crippled”, she wrote that “usually that means you have to stop”. “I don’t think I can do theatre again unless I’m playing a character similarly disabled,” she said. “I know Maggie [Smith] and Eileen [Atkins] and Judi [Dench] and Vanessa [Redgrave] still tread the boards, and they’re older than me – but they’re fitter, b***** it, and good luck to them!” Read More Tilda Swinton, Steve Coogan and Miriam Margolyes among 2,000 artists calling for Gaza ceasefire 11 biggest revelations from Miriam Margolyes’ hilarious new memoir Miriam Margolyes says Steve Martin was ‘horrid’ on film set: ‘Perhaps he was method acting’ Call The Midwife ‘should come with a health warning’ My kids don’t have sushi in their packed lunches – does it make me a bad mum? Adele reveals she’s three months sober after being ‘borderline alcoholic’ in her 20s

I’m standing outside my local cafe in west London, looking bedraggled as I’ve been up since 6.45am making the dreaded school packed lunch. It’s nothing exotic – margherita pizza for Lola, who is a fussy eater, and plain pasta with cheddar cheese and corn on the cob for Liberty. There were all the snacks to pack, too – sadly, no chunks of carrot, just Pom-Bears and breadsticks. I am buying a croissant to add to one of the lunch boxes when I bump into the mum of one of my daughter’s friends. “Oh darling,” she tells me, “it’s all ‘white food’. Not good.” I shrug my shoulders knowingly, then stupidly ask her what’s in her kids’ packed lunches. “Sushi bento box,” comes her instant reply. “Crudites and organic hummus. Japanese panda crackers. Seaweed crackers. Dim sum. Oh, and sandwiches cut into little shapes – I do hearts and stars.” Right. That’s a good start to my morning; I now feel totally inadequate. When it comes to my children, I am a slave to the packed lunch. But gone are the days of stuffing a hard-boiled egg, a jam sandwich or processed cheese triangles into a box – as was the case when I was a child. Even apples have been voted a prehistoric lunchbox item by 17 per cent of parents. Instead, packed lunches are now a status symbol. The actor Hilary Duff, for instance, gives her son caviar for a snack – and it’s not that unusual. One in 10 parents (9 per cent) choose sushi and, according to a recent survey by Amazon Fresh, 26 per cent of parents take a photo of their children’s packed lunch for Instagram. A third (33 per cent) have also admitted they’ve taken a sneak peek inside another child’s lunchbox – and believe me, it’s often to silently snack-shame another parent. I can’t help but wonder if food and snacks are a kind of modern litmus test of parenting. But does it really make you a better parent if you give your child home-cooked wild keta salmon and wholemeal rice in a thermal container for lunch? The playground politics of packed lunches are complex. Parents are constantly criticised for sending inappropriate lunches to school. The TV chef Jamie Oliver once said unhealthy packed lunches are tantamount to child abuse. At the other extreme, parents are finding the time to stamp cucumbers with flowers and dice dried herbs into them for their kid’s bento boxes – then post them online. There seems to be no middle ground. Christina (not her real name) is a 40-year-old PA and tablescaping specialist whose child attends a prep school in west London’s Notting Hill. She makes all of her daughter’s packed lunches from scratch, and it’s always organic produce. “I always wanted to go that extra mile,” she tells me. “My motivation to do this was never to be ‘Queen Bee mum’ – it was to make my daughter happy and proud of me.” The “presentation” and “the taste” of the packed lunches, she says, is “super important” – to such an extent that it needs to be “Instagram-worthy” and “fun” in order to encourage her daughter to eat healthily. One of her lunch box specialities, she adds, is mini American hot dogs “decorated with a little flag and a drizzle of ketchup”. “I know it is always going to be flagged by other mothers because the school is very competitive,” she continues. “This dish goes around the mums like wildfire because mums always want to outdo other mums.” If I put out a post saying how much fibre children should be having, I get people replying saying that ‘it’s unrealistic’ and ‘we can’t do that as well as everything else’ when it comes to kids’ foods. It ends up with parents pitting themselves off against one another with food Charlotte Stirling-Reed, child and baby nutrionist While school playground rivalry among parents used to be about pigtails and bows in your children’s hair, Christina says, now it’s about lunch and snacks. “Kids have a much more sophisticated palate,” she explains. “They’re exposed to a lot more than a ham and cheese sandwich. The playing field has widened, and the bar has been set higher due to social media, and Deliveroo and Uber Eats – everything has become more instantaneous.” For other parents, it’s about making a packed lunch as wholesome as possible – something my children would scoff at. Ella Mills, the founder of the plant-based food brand Deliciously Ella, tells me she has found “batch cooking” easiest for her daughter’s packed lunches at nursery. “It’s a real rush getting everyone dressed, ready and out of the door each morning,” she says. “Plus, thinking of something to cook at 7am that’s got no nuts, no sesame in it [due to possible nut allergies], that I’ll know they’ll eat, and that doesn’t take a little while to make. So I make huge batches of veggie bolognese, bean chilli or sweet potato and chickpea stews plus big batches of grains, then simply heat a portion up and pop it in a thermos. Something that’s pre-made makes a world of difference.” Other parents call in the professionals. Chef Meryem Korkut Avci of Mary’s Mobile Chef Services does “meal preps” for elite customers in west and north London. She sends over an ingredients list and will then come to your home once a week and cook for the whole family – a two-hour session is £120 for six dishes (on the seventh day, her clients usually get a takeaway). For packed lunches, she says gluten-free muffins are popular. “Also egg or chicken fried rice, chilli con carne with tortilla, little mini puff pastry rolls with cheese – or sausage rolls.” She’ll even wash up – and says clients use her because “they don’t have time” or are “bored of their own food”. Dr Megan Rossi, a gut health scientist, bestselling author and founder of the website The Gut Health Doctor and The Gut Health Clinic in London, says an ideal packed lunch would contain something from each of the super-six plant groups: “Legumes (such as chickpeas), vegetables, whole grains (such as oats and barley), fruit, nuts and seeds and herbs and spices. Hitting all these is a tricky one but for optimal health, the goal is for them to have at least one from each of these most days. It’s a great target to have in mind!” She advises “hiding legumes and whole grains in sweet treats like black bean brownies with porridge oats,” and says that “while not a long-term strategy to keep plants a secret, it can help build some confidence and comfort with those plants (as well as training childrens’ taste buds) for you to reveal when the time is right.” For chocolate lovers – like my daughter, Lola – Dr Rossi also suggests “making your own chocolate bars with dried fruits, popcorn, seeds and nuts included for extra dietary fibres and a more satiating treat”. I personally can’t see how I would fit that into my schedule. But for many parents healthy eating is a full-time job. Children may need to be offered a specific food “around 10 times” before they accept it, according to research, while Dr Rossi adds that it means nothing to a child if you merely tell them food is healthy or unhealthy. “Try explaining to them from a young age about the importance of their gut microbes,” she says. “Tell them they need to feed the little pet bugs in their tummy with broccoli, for instance, to help keep them strong.” I often feel ashamed that Lola is a fussy eater – though I find solace in the fact that her younger sister isn’t. Dr Rossi claims that what mums-to-be eat during pregnancy may also affect the kind of food your child will have a taste for. “That could play a part with fussing eating,” she says, but adds that she’s not keen on “mum guilt”: “Pregnancy is hard enough without the added pressure of nutrition.” Charlotte Sterling-Reed, “The Baby and Child Nutritionist”, runs a fussy eater course, and assures me that “parents are not bad parents if they are struggling with a fussy eater at home”. She says she is currently witnessing a backlash from “defensive parents” who are fed up with being told to live up to the “ideal” of being a perfect parent. “If I put out a post saying how much fibre children should be having, I get people replying saying that ‘it’s unrealistic’ and ‘we can’t do that as well as everything else’ when it comes to kids’ foods,” she says. “It ends up with parents pitting themselves off against one another with food.” An extravagant lunchbox is also not realistic for the majority of parents, she adds, “whether working or not, and nor should it be – there is a way to find a balance”. She says that a middle ground is possible. “As parents, [we can] pick something that is balanced but that also works for the family situation. This constant comparison between two extremes on social media makes us feel like we are failing in multiple aspects of parenting.” I don’t think I’m ever going to be posting my kids packed lunches on Instagram. I also know that sliced pepper fingers won’t get eaten even if I arrange them in the shape of a smiley face. More than anything though, I won’t feel guilty about my kids’ food habits any more, or the lengths I sometimes go to to get them to eat healthy – I once told my daughters that if they didn’t drink their freshly squeezed orange juice, their legs would fall off. And, you know what, it worked! Read More Keir Starmer is keeping his children out of the public eye – but that won’t stop them being privileged I’m a jellyfish parent – my run-in with a tiger mum was terrifying Kate Moss credits her stress-free life to ‘moonbathing’ – can eccentric wellness regimes help me too? Vasectomy and British men in their twenties: ‘Young, none and done’ Why taking a mental health day could be bad… for your mental health What the world’s happiest children tell us about where Britain is going wrong

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