Wisdom Wednesday: Disconnecting

Last week my wife took me to Cartagena to celebrate my 65th birthday. It was my first visit to South America and hopefully not my last. We rented a large house in the old city with three other couples. The house was magnificent – fully staffed, 5 bedrooms, 6 baths and 3 pools. It overlooked the bastille wall and ocean.

We did typical tourist things – toured the city, went scuba diving and charted a boat for a day to visit a private club on a nearby island. A couple of days were reserved for just hanging around the house to unwind. Each evening we all met on the roof to watch the sunset over the ocean.

It was, to date, my best vacation and certainly my best birthday.

My gauge was my ability to disconnect from the pressures of everyday life. A good friend of mine, who works harder than anyone I know, has started taking off a month each summer. He claims it takes him about ten days to really disconnect.

I’ve never taken off more than a week, so I have no real frame of reference for his claim. However, this vacation I seemed to disconnect immediately. Maybe it was the exotic nature of the vacation or being in a Spanish speaking country where English is rarely spoken. I’ve never studied Spanish but I really tried to use the language to communicate as much as possible.

Although several televisions were available, I never turned one on. In fact, the thought never occurred to me. For a whole week, I was unaware of the latest world events. I only knew about the mud slides in Columbia (they were 300 miles away) when friends from the U.S. called with concern.

For Overheated Viewers of Presidential Race

The bitter U.S. presidential race has led to heated arguments among many Americans. But there are ways to lower the tension and prevent spirited discussions about Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton from getting too hostile, psychologists say.

“De-escalate when arguments get too personal,” said Emanuel Maidenberg, a clinical professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“The purpose of many discussions around politics is to express and exchange points of view – not to win. Be the first to de-escalate,” he said in a university news release.

The American Psychological Association reported last week that more than half of U.S. adults felt very or somewhat stressed by the vitriolic campaigns. Those results stemmed from an August poll – conducted well before disturbing recent reports of hacked Clinton State Department emails and sexual misconduct accusations against Trump.

Even if you fervently support one candidate, it’s important to question others about their views, Maidenberg said.

“It can be difficult to show understanding when you strongly disagree with a friend’s view, especially if it upsets your sense of right and wrong. But asking questions about why they feel that way – rather than attacking – is worth the effort,” Maidenberg said.

You need to remember that political views are only a small part of what makes a person who they are. Also, limit your exposure to political coverage in the media. “There’s a difference between being informed and being overwhelmed,” Maidenberg said.

Also, take time to consider the implications before you share your political views on Facebook or Twitter, he suggested.

The Evolution of Sleep: 700 Million Years of Melatonin

Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Germany study the activity of genes involved in making melatonin and other sleep-related molecules.

They have compared the activity of these genes in vertebrates like us with their activity in a distantly related invertebrate – a marine worm called Platynereis dumerilii.

As 2-day old larvae, these worms float near the ocean surface at night, feeding on algae and other bits of food. Then they spend the day at lower depths, where they can hide from predators and the sun’s ultraviolet rays.

Scientists discovered that cells on the top of the larvae make light catching protein – the same ones we make in our eyes to switch melatonin production on and off. These same cells also switch on genes required to produce melatonin.

They wondered if the worms were using this network of melatonin genes the way we do. To find out, Dr. Maria Antonietta Tosches and her colleagues tracked the activity of the genes over 24-hour periods.

They found that the worms didn’t produce melatonin all the time. Instead, they made it only at night, just like we do. In addition, the scientists found that this nightly surge of melatonin allowed the worms to move up and down in the ocean each day.

The worms travel by beating tiny hairs back and forth. During the day, they rise toward the surface of the ocean. By the time they get there, t he sun has gotten so faint that the worms start making melatonin.

The hormone latches onto the neurons that control the beating hairs and cause them to produce a steady rhythm of electrical bursts. The bursts override the beating, causing the hairs to freeze and the worm to sink. When dawn comes, the worms lose their melatonin and start to swim upward again.