Steady with your glasses now!

A psychologist has warned that the way we hold our glass reveals more about you that you may realise.

'Glass hold' reveals personality

So someone actually researched this particular topic. Seriously.

Night sleep

Attention all insomniacs… actually that may be most of the people I work and study with. Why do we go through life feeling this tired? I recently read an interesting article by Neil Stanley; a sleep researcher at the University of East Anglia, which is as follows;

Time to 'reclaim the night' for sleep
We all know the health risks of smoking, drinking and eating too much. But sleep expert Neil Stanley says we don't pay attention to the risks of having too little sleep. In this week's Scrubbing Up health column, he warns it is time to "reclaim the night".
Good sleep is vital for good physical mental and emotional health - but unfortunately we seem to live in a society that has forgotten this fact. In terms of healthy living, sleep is as important as good diet and exercise. Poor or inadequate sleep can have serious consequences on overall health and wellbeing and has been shown to lead to lower immunity, poor performance and mood changes. In the longer term, inadequate sleep is associated with a greater risk of a number of diseases, such as heart disease, depression and diabetes. There are also important consequences of poor or inadequate sleep which negatively affect the way we feel and perform during the day.

Round the clock
We are living in an increasingly "tired" society. Think about how you feel at the moment with one as very tired and 10 as feeling wide awake. I reckon very few of you are a seven, let alone a 10. Why do we go through life feeling this tired? One reason is the increasing extension of the daytime activities into the night. When I was growing up in the 1970s, Tomorrow's World each week promised us a future where, due to advances in technology, there would be so much leisure time that we would have to come up with new ways of amusing ourselves. Unfortunately what was created by all this new technology was the 24/7 society. Technology never sleeps, and thus people can work around the clock - whether they are in the office or at home. The long hours, information overload and stresses associated with 21st Century living negatively affect our sleep which, in turn, is detrimental to our health, work performance and even our relationships.

Convenience brings risks
As a society we need to give much more serious consideration to our work/life balance particularly with regards to sleep. For example it has been estimated that in future a third of the workforce will be working shifts, mainly in the service sector. However there is a large body of evidence which shows that working shifts is bad for health and increases accidents at work. So, whilst it is of course important for some workers to work around the clock, does the convenience of paying a bill at 2am really outweigh the health risks of having so many people doing shifts? It has been reported that tired drivers now cause more deaths on European roads than drunk drivers, and yet whilst it has become socially unacceptable to be drunk behind the wheel or in the workplace it is almost a matter of pride that we believe we can function properly when tired. Yet you would not want a drunken surgeon operating on you or a drunken train driver taking you to work, so why would you accept a tired one? The problem of poor sleep is perhaps even more important in children as it has been linked with increased risk of - amongst other things - obesity, diabetes, poor academic performance and behavioural problems. You only have to watch an episode of Supernanny to see how profound the positive effect of a good night's sleep can be on the behaviour of children. Over the past decade there has been an increasing body of evidence that shows that sleep plays an important role in regulating weight and controlling appetite, and so I find it surprising that when earlier this year the government started its Change 4 Life healthy living campaign there is no mention of the importance of good sleep.
Isn't it about time we reclaimed the night for sleep?

From what I’ve read you should be aiming for 6+ hours sleep and I know plenty of people who get less than that. Here’s what to do to get a good night’s sleep (apparently)…
1. Try Light Exercise
Exercise can be stress reliever and light exercise like yoga or walking at night can help to release tension without overstimulating the body.
2. Listen to Music
Music can soothe your mind and body and it is now being used as a therapeutic tool
3. Clean Up
Clearing up at the end of a day can leave you feeling less stressed and the anticipation of waking up to a cleaner house can make your rest more peaceful.
4. Quiet games instead of TV
Playing low-key computer games can be a refreshing alternative as they create a distraction from the stress of the day but aren’t so exciting that they make sleep elusive. These games can also sharpen your mental abilities and help you learn new skills.
5. Bubble Bath
Soaking in a tub of bubbles can rinse away tension and leave your body pampered and your mind free.
6. Massage
Massage is a great stress reliever that also feels good. Having a massage before bed can loosen stress in your body and relaxes you so that sleep comes more easily.
7. Journaling
Writing in a journal before bed can clear your mind, help you process emotions, solve problems, mentally prepare for the next day, make plans, and get your thoughts out of your head and on the page, where they can be picked up the next morning.
8. Meditation
Used by many people to relieve stress in the body and mind.
9. Sex
It relaxes your body, releases ‘happy’ chemicals, and even promotes wellness.
10. Avoid These:
Some activities can be too stimulating at night and can make it harder to fall asleep, or make your sleep less restful. For a restorative night’s sleep, you should avoid caffeine after 2 p.m, stressful conversation, or anything else that’s overstimulating.

Following doctor’s orders…

No not that kind…
“You there – milk, two sugars!... Well don’t just stand there, I’ve got work to do!”
“You there jump!” – don’t say “Er, why?”... you say “Ok, how high?”
“You! This man has this list of symptoms, how should we treat him? “Err well I would…” “Too slow, he died!”

I mean come on… give us a chance! Life as a med student or F1 is hard people! From what I’ve seen and heard, it is like working for Hitler! Lol. Ok so I’m exaggerating but seriously. Juniors have orders constantly barked at them and made to do menial tasks. Maybe that just how we’re suppose to learn, who knows. lol.

Also senior Dr’s cannot be arsed trying to remember your names so you’ll usually hear “YOU” yelled at you with the senior’s finger pointed towards the next victim. Most of them don’t like the idea that you’re following them around, they don’t care how well you did at university and they do not wish to know what sparked your desire to become a doctor. Ok so I’m painting a bleak picture but you do get to learn an awful lot. Learning theory is one thing, but putting it into practice and seeing it used is something totally different. You get to see some amazing things on rounds and it can be very rewarding. Plus you may even get to publish a paper if the case is exceptionally interesting but that is just an aside, the primary emphasis is towards the care of your patient.

Yet at the same time it makes me wonder; when do you switch off from your professional life and go back to living your personal life? What I meant to say is as medic, when do you stop diagnosing every person you see? When do learn to just step back and let others deal with it? When do you stop feeling guilty for things that are totally out of your control? However that all depends on if actually HAVE a personal life to begin with. I mean most of the seniors I see, seem to live at the hospital and hardly ever seem to switch off. But then the logical part of me thinks that they must switch off at some point, otherwise the stress of the work would probably lead to burnout. So I guess in the medical world, personal lives do exist, it’s just that they don’t seem to get the same level of importance as work lives?

People requests

WOW, do I get some amazing friend requests sometimes! Usually it’s just people randomly adding you on FB, windows live spaces or any of the other networking sites. The requests that make me giggle are those that are accompanied by quirky albeit slightly weird messages. I actually got one very recently, err yesterday in fact, lol. Needless to say I didn’t add him. But as I was clearing out my email folders, I came across a few more that I had saved… probably ones that I wanted to include in a post like this, lol. Here’s my list of reasons of why I probably wouldn’t add you to my friends list…

1) Being too needy – A perfect example if ever I needed one…
A uni student on Goodreads, added me as a friend and I accepted him as his profile seemed interesting. Seen as I added him that was a pretty good sign that I didn’t mind, right? However, it was exam week at uni and I genuinely forgot to reply to his message. Totally my fault, I admit it. However this was then followed by regular emails every couple of days asking why I wasn’t talk to him, asking had he done anything wrong and why I didn’t want to be his friend anymore. DUDE! I DON’T EVEN KNOW YOU! End result – profile blocked.

2) Freshies – I shouldn’t need to say anymore, but just to be clear…
“Dear Saima how are you hope u will fine & cool i want to friendship with you do you like friends so plz say something”
Yes I do like friends, except I just don’t know you! Also by adding all my friends to your circle of friends will NOT make me want to accept your friend request. Really how dumb do you think we are? lol

3) Strangely over confident –
“Hey. Don’t worry about who I am Why I sent this invitation 0r If I know or not The main thing is Add me to your network Then we’ll take it from there!”
Lol. Ok this person gets some points for being different, but then there are others. Sending me pictures of the person stood by a flashy car, working out in the gym or whatever else, will get grouped into this category. Not impressed.

4) Not understanding the word NO! –
If for whatever reason I’ve rejected your friend request once, twice, hell three times even please could you stopping adding me. It’s just embarrassing for everyone involved.

5) Getting requests from sites I’m not even a member of –
I think in addition to studying, working, socialising in the real world, I think that me keeping my Facebook, Twitter updated and keeping my blog alive is enough isn’t it? Getting requests from random people on other sites will not make me want to sign up. To name a few – Jhoos, Multiply, Netlog, IMVU, jaxter, Tagged, Perfspot and so on. LOL at Perfspot, which I accidently read as pervspot the first time around! In my defence I was in a rush and skim reading :P

Ok I may be being a bit too harsh really. I mean to balance out the weird messages; I do actually get a lot of really lovely messages regularly from people I don’t even know. Here are a couple of responses from the days when I first started blogging using windows live space…

1) Subject: Hey there
Hi Sam. So, looks like the time has arrived for me to start using this account. I can resist no more! I wandered into your profile and well, I thought you sounded interesting. My name is ****** *******. I think me and you would be friends, cos you seem pretty cute and cool, it's ever so hard to tell in this digital world, lol :) Hey maybe we could chat sometime? Ah you know what they say… looks wins over the eyes, but personality wins over the heart, haha. Sorry I do go on sometimes, lol. talk to you soon, take care ******
Friendly enough right?

2) Subject: Hi my names Saima 2, but i am 11
Helo
Omg. ur names is Saima and so is mine
ur a pisces and so am i. i was born in march, but i am 11
u liv in Bradford and my mum is from bradford
ur probably muslim 2? i am
but i'm 11, so plz don't do nutin 2me ( i no u won't)
i just wanted 2 tel u dat there is some 1 just like u!
sort ov, lol
c u! i dunno y i sed dat!
mwah
x
I was a dubious at first as the people on the internet aren’t always what they seem to be, lol. But I think the line “I just wanted 2 tel u dat there is some 1 just like u!” was soo sweet. It got to me a little and just made me think, what’s the harm in replying? If it’s just a prankster then so be it. After my initial reply, I got this…
hey saima
its ur 11-yr-old frend saima!

sorry i haven't been e-mailin u!
its just dat i've been really busy wiv skool and my parents hav gone 2 hajj!
so i had 2 help dem out n stuf

oh yh

EID MUBARAK!!!!

how was ur eid??? mine was quite boring(as always!)
i'm glad its da x-mas hols now i can relax, watch tv n eat CHOCOLATE!
i'm a fan ov chocolate u c! lol
anyway g2g. maybe c ya round?
i don't live in Bradford, i live in east london
cuz afta my mum got maried my dad wanted 2 liv ere

anyway take care! c ya
x
I’m kinda pleased it wasn’t a prankster. I mean seriously, how cute is this little girl?! It always brings a smile to my face whenever I read sweet messages like that. But from someone so young? My younger brother is 10 years old and there is no way that I would expect Billy to write such a cute email to a complete stranger. (Actually I prefer him not to as there are some dodgy people out there!)

It’s weird how many different people you come across in your life and the ways in which you connect with them. And also feel free to continue sending me cute messages, they are most welcome and I definitely do not mind! Love to all :)

Pigeon Smuggler

Pigeon Smuggling - again!

Again?! A man tried to smuggle 14 songbirds down his trousers and unsurprisingly he got caught. There are a few questions that arise – firstly, why would you smuggle them like that, down your trousers? And secondly, the name songbird suggests that they may not be the quietest birds to keep hidden.

Ah well, at least he had shiny shoes :)

Seriously, what is it with the rise in activity of smuggling birds - especially down people’s trousers! (see one of my previous post’s here) Is this a new thing or has it always been around and I’ve only just noticed it now? I still can’t help but laugh every time I think about it, lol!

Why, thank you :)

I received the following email this morning...Aww, why thank you Aberdeen University. I'm glad that you have such faith in me and I shall do my utmost to make you proud :D

Although I must admit that I don't study at your university and I have never so much as set foot on your lovely campus, lol.

I'm intrigued by their mailing criteria, I mean I know it's probably just a clerical error but what are the chances of another student receiving it who also happens to be going through the exam period? Whatever the reason, it definitely made me smile today :)

Also I wish Manchester University had done that. Do they not love us as much as Aberdeen loves their students? :'( Why, Manchester, why? :P

Swine flu

lol. Loving the cartoon, it's hilarious.

On a more serious note, it’s that time of year again when everyone starts getting panicky about something that isn’t a big deal as it is made out to be. Example - last year's bird flu panic.

Basically it’s a just a lot of fuss over what is essentially another strain of flu. I mean regardless of what the media say, we should always be careful when it comes to such illnesses as simple steps can quite easily solve the problem. Flu strains by their very nature constantly change and so it is not possible to say whether a certain drug will or will not be effective against a particular strain as the flu virus mutates quite often and can develop immunity to the drugs we have available. Due to its’ constant evolution, we have to be careful about how we use our resources effectively without the virus developing a resistance to the drugs that we do have.

The spread of most viruses can be limited by better sanitation and simple actions such as washing your hands, covering your mouth and nose when you sneeze, using the alcohol rubs that are provided at hospitals etc. Those of us with a stronger immunity will build up antibodies that may be useful in the future whilst those of us compromised immune system such as the sick or the elderly are given vaccinations. The vaccinations are attenuated forms of a particular virus and they effectively kick start the immune system to produce the necessary antibodies without the full blown effect of the real thing. Basically it’s something that is done every year.

Discussing it at the hospital, someone mentioned how it was the “in” thing to have right now. What would be worse would be to catch swine flu next month, when it is no longer fashionable. I have to say it’s very true. I have no doubt that it will soon be all over but right now the media have the amazing ability to get everyone worked up into a panic by using sensational headlines.

Loved this image I found online. It's meant to be a joke, but you never know who might take it seriously!

I have images of people reading the headlines (i.e. "the world is ending!!!"), causing mass panic across the country, people stockpiling food in their homes and succumbing to strict self-imposed quarantine rules until the risk of infection has died down. I mean seriously, whatever happened to common sense? The media storm will pass soon enough as in previous years, but right now I love the puns that have been linked to the topic…

Epigdemic, Aporkalypse, Snout fever, Hamdemic, Snoutbreak and the list goes on.

In my opinion, it’s basically a case of dead pigs generating a lot of spam (hehehe) :P

Universal hospital procedures – Manchester

Whilst doing my clinical placements at hospitals within West Yorkshire, I’ve noticed how every single hospital has different forms, stationary, admission processes and so on. I have yet see two hospitals that match on any of these areas and if you’re a student switching from hospital to hospital can be a little confusing. Surely it would it not be easier if all hospitals within England or at the very least within each county/ region had a universal set of forms and processes. A couple of us thought it would be a good idea to put up a petition to see if anyone else thought it was a good idea, however it looks like someone else beat us to it!

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/OneNHS/

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/NHS-stopchanges/