technology Archives - Amazing Health Advances

New Light-Based Technique Could Transform Heart Tissue Repair

The AHA! Team — Wed, 05 Mar 2025 06:41:38 +0000

Mass General Brigham via News-Medical – Researchers from Mass General Brigham and collaborating institutions have developed a non-invasive approach to manipulate cardiac tissue activity by using light to stimulate an innovative ink incorporated into bioprinted tissue. Researchers from Mass General Brigham and collaborating institutions have developed a non-invasive approach to manipulate cardiac tissue activity by using light to stimulate an innovative ink incorporated into bioprinted tissue. Their goal is to develop a technique that can be used to repair the heart. Their findings in preclinical models, published in Science Advances, show the transformative potential of non-invasive therapeutic methods to control electrically active tissues. “We showed for the first time that with this optoelectronically active ink, we can print scaffolds that allow remote control of engineered heart tissues. This approach paves the way for non-invasive light stimulation, tissue regeneration, and host integration capabilities in cardiac therapy and beyond.” – Y. Shrike Zhang, PhD, co-corresponding author of the Division of Engineering in Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital Three-dimensional bioprinted tissues composed of cells and other body-compatible materials are a powerful emerging tool to repair damaged heart tissue. But most bioprinted tissues cannot generate the necessary electrical activity for cellular function. They must instead rely on invasive wire and electrode placement to control heart activity, which can damage body tissues. Zhang and his colleagues addressed this limitation by infusing the bioprinted tissue with the “optoelectronically active” ink that can be remotely stimulated by light to generate electrical activity in these tissues. The authors also showed that these new, dynamic engineered tissues can synchronize with and accelerate the heart rate when stimulated by light in preclinical models. “Now that we have established the proof-of-concept for this technology, we are shifting our efforts towards understanding how it might promote long-term tissue regeneration and integrating it seamlessly within the heart’s biology,” said Zhang. Source: Mass General Brigham Journal reference: Ershad, F., et al. (2025) Bioprinted optoelectronically active cardiac tissues. Science Advances. doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adt7210. To read the original article click here.

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BrainGate: First Human Use of High-Bandwidth Wireless Brain-Computer Interface

AHA Publisher — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 07:00:48 +0000

Brown University via Newswise – PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University and Providence Veterans Affairs Medical Center] — Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are an emerging assistive technology, enabling people with paralysis to type on computer screens or manipulate robotic prostheses just by thinking about moving their own bodies. For years, investigational BCIs used in clinical trials have required cables to connect the sensing array in the brain to computers that decode the signals and use them to drive external devices. Now, for the first time, BrainGate clinical trial participants with tetraplegia have demonstrated use of an intracortical wireless BCI with an external wireless transmitter. The system is capable of transmitting brain signals at single-neuron resolution and in full broadband fidelity without physically tethering the user to a decoding system. The traditional cables are replaced by a small transmitter about 2 inches in its largest dimension and weighing a little over 1.5 ounces. The unit sits on top of a user’s head and connects to an electrode array within the brain’s motor cortex using the same port used by wired systems. For a study published in IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, two clinical trial participants with paralysis used the BrainGate system with a wireless transmitter to point, click and type on a standard tablet computer. The study showed that the wireless system transmitted signals with virtually the same fidelity as wired systems, and participants achieved similar point-and-click accuracy and typing speeds. “We’ve demonstrated that this wireless system is functionally equivalent to the wired systems that have been the gold standard in BCI performance for years,” said John Simeral, an assistant professor of engineering (research) at Brown University, a member of the BrainGate research consortium and the study’s lead author. “The signals are recorded and transmitted with appropriately similar fidelity, which means we can use the same decoding algorithms we used with wired equipment. The only difference is that people no longer need to be physically tethered to our equipment, which opens up new possibilities in terms of how the system can be used.” The researchers say the study represents an early but important step toward a major objective in BCI research: a fully implantable intracortical system that aids in restoring independence for people who have lost the ability to move. While wireless devices with lower bandwidth have been reported previously, this is the first device to transmit the full spectrum of signals recorded by an intracortical sensor. That high-broadband wireless signal enables clinical research and basic human neuroscience that is much more difficult to perform with wired BCIs. The new study demonstrated some of those new possibilities. The trial participants — a 35-year-old man and a 63-year-old man, both paralyzed by spinal cord injuries — were able to use the system in their homes, as opposed to the lab setting where most BCI research takes place. Unencumbered by cables, the participants were able to use the BCI continuously for up to 24 hours, giving the researchers long-duration data including while participants slept. “We want to understand how neural signals evolve over time,” said Leigh Hochberg, an engineering professor at Brown, a researcher at Brown’s Carney Institute for Brain Science and leader of the BrainGate clinical trial. “With this system, we’re able to look at brain activity, at home, over long periods in a way that was nearly impossible before. This will help us to design decoding algorithms that provide for the seamless, intuitive, reliable restoration of communication and mobility for people with paralysis.” The device used in the study was first developed at Brown in the lab of Arto Nurmikko, a professor in Brown’s School of Engineering. Dubbed the Brown Wireless Device (BWD), it was designed to transmit high-fidelity signals while drawing minimal power. In the current study, two devices used together recorded neural signals at 48 megabits per second from 200 electrodes with a battery life of over 36 hours. While the BWD has been used successfully for several years in basic neuroscience research, additional testing and regulatory permission were required prior to using the system in the BrainGate trial. Nurmikko says the step to human use marks a key moment in the development of BCI technology. “I am privileged to be part of a team pushing the frontiers of brain-machine interfaces for human use,” Nurmikko said. “Importantly, the wireless technology described in our paper has helped us to gain crucial insight for the road ahead in pursuit of next generation of neurotechnologies, such as fully implanted high-density wireless electronic interfaces for the brain.” The new study marks another significant advance by researchers with the BrainGate consortium, an interdisciplinary group of researchers from Brown, Stanford and Case Western Reserve universities, as well as the Providence Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital. In 2012, the team published landmark research in which clinical trial participants were able, for the first time, to operate multidimensional robotic prosthetics using a BCI. That work has been followed by a steady stream of refinements to the system, as well as new clinical breakthroughs that have enabled people to type on computers, use tablet apps and even move their own paralyzed limbs. “The evolution of intracortical BCIs from requiring a wire cable to instead using a miniature wireless transmitter is a major step toward functional use of fully implanted, high-performance neural interfaces,” said study co-author Sharlene Flesher, who was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford and is now a hardware engineer at Apple. “As the field heads toward reducing transmitted bandwidth while preserving the accuracy of assistive device control, this study may be one of few that captures the full breadth of cortical signals for extended periods of time, including during practical BCI use.” The new wireless technology is already paying dividends in unexpected ways, the researchers say. Because participants are able to use the wireless device in their homes without a technician on hand to maintain the wired connection, the BrainGate team has been able to continue their work during the COVID-19 pandemic. “In March 2020, it became clear that we would not be able to visit our research participants’ homes,” said Hochberg, who is also a critical care neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and director of the V.A. Rehabilitation Research and Development Center for Neurorestoration and Neurotechnology. “But by training caregivers how to establish the wireless connection, a trial participant was able to use the BCI without members of our team physically being there. So not only were we able to continue our research, this technology allowed us to continue with the full bandwidth and fidelity that we had before.” Simeral noted that, “Multiple companies have wonderfully entered the BCI field, and some have already demonstrated human use of low-bandwidth wireless systems, including some that are fully implanted. In this report, we’re excited to have used a high-bandwidth wireless system that advances the scientific and clinical capabilities for future systems.” To read the original article click here.

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Electrical Stimulation Could Restore Vision in Blind People

AHA Publisher — Fri, 10 Jul 2020 07:00:40 +0000

University of Zurich via News-Medical Net – In a project under Horizon 2020, researchers from seven European organizations will examine how the vision of visually impaired people can be restored using electrical stimulation of the brain. The project is being coordinated by the University of Zurich and supported by the European Union with funding of 4 million euros. If a project receives funding from the European Union, it must involve excellent science in innovative and promising interdisciplinary research fields that provide new and relevant ideas for industry and society. The international Neural Active Visual Prosthetics for Restoring Function project meets all these criteria and has been awarded an EU research grant totaling 4 million euros over four years. The project will kick off on 1 September 2020 and is being coordinated by Prof. Shih-Chii Liu at the Institute of Neuroinformatics of the University of Zurich. Working in interdisciplinary teams from seven European universities and institutions with complementary expertise in computational, systems and clinical neuroscience, materials engineering, microsystems design, and deep learning, the project will develop technology to restore the vision of blind people through electrical stimulation of the brain. Close Interdisciplinary Cooperation The aim of the project is to develop a neuroprosthesis with thousands of electrodes driven by adaptive machine learning algorithms for a new brain-computer interfacing technology. “We want to create a novel neuroprosthesis system that is lightweight, robust and portable, and which will remain effective for decades,” explains Shih-Chii Liu. Current systems only stimulate a small set of neurons in the brain, and interfaces have longevity of only a few months. Liu is convinced that the project will succeed in its goals: “All the partners have long-time experience in their respective fields, so the required background knowledge is already in place. The breakthroughs will come with the planned larger-scale efforts and partner interactions in this project.” The challenge will be coordinating the expected breakthroughs across multiple disciplines. Establishing Innovation These breakthroughs include innovative approaches for stimulation with high-electrode-count interfacing with the visual cortex. For this, thin flexible probes are needed that cause minimal tissue damage as well as new electrode coatings and novel microchip methods. The researchers will also channel the stimulation currents to many thousands of electrodes and monitor neuronal activity in higher cortical areas. Breakthroughs are also expected when it comes to artificial neural networks trained by deep learning, which will only extract the most relevant visual information from a camera input to enable blind individuals to recognize objects and facial expressions and navigate through unfamiliar environments. These networks will transform the camera footage into stimulation patterns that drive the neurons in a way that the blind person can interpret. This is the only way that the signals can be processed and passed on. At the same time, eye tracking will be used to improve perception in a closed-loop approach. The Algorithm Translates Stimulation Patterns In addition to coordinating the project, the University of Zurich is also contributing to its technological expertise. The neuroinformatics team of Shih-Chii Liu and Tobi Delbruck will be working with consortium partners to develop power-efficient neuromorphic deep learning hardware and algorithms. The network implemented on the neuromorphic hardware will translate camera input into stimulation patterns to drive the stimulation electrodes. This research project is important because it lays ground-breaking work for constructing a new brain neuroprosthesis and brings added benefits to other neuroprosthesis research.” Shih-Chii Liu, Professor, Institute of Neuroinformatics, University of Zurich The involved researchers hope that the project will raise Europe’s still relatively low profile in this research field. To read the original article click here.

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URI Engineering Professor Helping ALS Patients Use Their Brains to Communicate

AHA Publisher — Wed, 01 Jul 2020 07:00:20 +0000

University of Rhode Island via Newswise – Doug Sawyer was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, 11 years ago. His only muscles that still function are those that control eye movement. Despite his disability, Sawyer still works as an engineer from his home, designing electronics for Hayward Industries. Using only his eyes, the 57-year-old writes reports and other papers, draws pictures and schematics, talks on the phone, sends text messages and emails, and attends meetings online multiple times a week. However, Sawyer’s gaze weakens as he gets tired, causing the technology he currently uses to become ineffective. That’s why the Seekonk, Massachusetts resident was eager to work with University of Rhode Island Assistant Professor Yalda Shahriari to develop a new way for ALS patients to communicate. Shahriari and her team of student researchers in URI’s College of Engineering are developing a way for those with severe motor deficits such as ALS to communicate using brain signals, eliminating the need for patients to maintain fine eye-gaze control. Her project, funded by a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, has two main goals. The first is to develop multimodal personalized algorithms to improve the robustness of the brain-computer interface (BCI) systems for patients with severe motor deficits. The second is to develop an autonomous hybrid system for non-communicative patients who are without residual motor control, such as those who lose their fine eye-gaze control in the late stages of ALS. Through longitudinal recordings taken of several patients with ALS during this and previous projects, Shahriari and her group have noticed significant day-to-day variations in brain-computer interface performance. “These variations are speculated to be associated with several factors, including cognitive fluctuations and environmental factors,” said Shahriari. “Developing personalized algorithms will enable us to predict these fluctuations and optimize performance based on each patient’s specifications and needs.” To ensure more accurate readings of brain activity, two non-invasive techniques are implemented simultaneously: electroencephalogram (EEG) and functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) signals. EEG detects electrical activity in the brain using small, metal discs called electrodes. Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy is an optical imaging technique in which an emitter transmits near infrared light and a detector detects the light reflected from the surface of the brain. This technique measures oxygen changes in the concentration of hemoglobin in the brain. The higher the concentration, the more activity is taking place. “We will use a hybrid of EEG and fNIRS signals to compensate for each neuroimaging modality shortage and use the complementary features obtained from each modality to improve our system,” said Shahriari. For patients in the later stages of ALS who experience cognitive dysfunction, such as memory loss and the inability to maintain eye gaze on objects, Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy has shown to be a more accurate method of measurement. Shahriari and her students have developed a visuo-mental dual task paradigm which relies on conventional oddball-based protocols, but require the subjects to do some mental arithmetic tasks. This BCI approach is accomplished by displaying a grid of letters and numbers and intermittently flashing an image (matrix of digits) over each row and column. “By giving the patient higher demanding tasks to focus on, we can trigger several cognitive functions and extract the associated signatures or neural biomarkers,” said doctoral student Bahram Borgheai. “The computer can then decode the pattern of neural activities that appear after the patient performs the tasks. The patterns can be used for diagnostic and communication purposes.” Shahriari has collaborated with the National Center for Adaptive Neurotechnologies on projects since 2012. With the support of the national center, the Rhode Island Chapter of the ALS Association and Rhode Island Hospital, the professor would like to add more patients to the study. “Our analysis of the data becomes much more powerful if we can significantly increase the number of patients in the study,” said Shahriari. Patients will be asked to wear a cap with sensors attached that can record brain activity in the comfort of their homes or at a care center. Recordings of those with healthy brains will take place in Shahriari’s Neural Processing and Control Laboratory in URI’s Fascitelli Center for Advanced Engineering. All data processing and analysis will be conducted in the lab. Once enough patients have volunteered to participate in the research project, Shahriari plans to partner with more local hospitals and medical schools to take advantage of their clinical expertise. Sawyer has relished the opportunity to participate in the study. “Taking part in the brain activity study has been very rewarding,” said Sawyer. “I enjoy learning new things and staying abreast of the latest technology. Dr. Shahriari and her team have been willing to share their progress. They make me feel as if I’m part of their team and not just a test number.” Sawyer hopes that his participation will help Shahriari develop a way for ALS patients to work and communicate after their motor functions have ceased. “I don’t consider myself a victim of ALS and I don’t consider myself handicapped,” Sawyer said. “I just need help sometimes. There are people out there far worse off than me. Hopefully the time I give to Dr. Shahriari will someday improve their lives.” To read the original article click here.

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Using Technology During Mealtimes May Decrease Food Intake, Study Finds

AHA Publisher — Sun, 15 Mar 2020 07:00:59 +0000

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, News Bureau via EurekAlert – Being distracted by technology during mealtimes may decrease the amount of food a person eats, nutrition scientists suggest in a new study. CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — When 119 young adults consumed a meal while playing a simple computer game for 15 minutes, they ate significantly less than when they ate the same meal without distractions, said lead author Carli A. Liguori. Liguori conducted the research while earning a master’s degree in food science and human nutrition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The findings were published recently in the Journal of Nutrition. Participants’ food consumption was evaluated on two separate occasions – one day when they played the game while eating and on another day when they ate without distractions. The game, called Rapid Visual Information Processing, tests users’ visual sustained attention and working memory and has been used extensively by researchers in evaluating people for problems such as Alzheimer’s disease and attention-deficit disorder. The game randomly flashes series of digits on the computer screen at the rate of one per second. Participants in the study were instructed to hit the space bar on the keyboard whenever they saw three consecutive odd numbers appear. “It’s fairly simple but distracting enough that you have to really be watching it to make sure that you don’t miss a number and are mentally keeping track,” Liguori said. “That was a big question for us going into this – how do you ensure that the participant is distracted? And the RVIP was a good solution for that.” The participants, who had fasted for 10 hours before each visit, were told to consume as much as they wanted of 10 miniature quiches while they were either playing the game or eating quietly without distractions for 15 minutes. The food was weighed and counted before and after it was given to each person. After a 30-minute rest period, participants completed an exit survey that asked them to recall how many quiches they had been given and the number they had consumed. They also rated how much they enjoyed the meal as well as their feelings of hunger and fullness. Liguori hypothesized that, in keeping with prior research, when people ate while using the computer game they would not only consume more food but would have poorer memory of what they ate and enjoy it less. Instead, she found that participants ate less when they were distracted by the computer game. Moreover, participants’ meal memory – their ability to recall how much they had been served and eaten – was less accurate when they were distracted than when they ate quietly without the game. However, participants’ consumption on their second visit was affected by which activity they had performed during their initial visit. The people who engaged in distracted eating on their first visit ate significantly less than their counterparts who did not experience the distracted eating condition until their second visit. Moreover, when participants who engaged in the distracted eating on their first visit were served the quiches on their next visit, “they behaved as if they were encountering the food for the first time, as evidenced by a lower rate of consumption similar to that of those who began” with the non-distracted meal, according to the study. “It really seemed to matter whether they were in that distracted eating group first,” said Liguori, who is a visiting faculty member in health and physical activity at the University of Pittsburgh. “Something about being distracted on their initial visit really seemed to change the amount they consumed during the nondistracted meal. There may be a potent carryover effect between the mechanism of distraction and the novelty of the food served.” The results suggest that there may be a difference between distracted eating and mindless eating. Although the terms are often used interchangeably, Liguori hypothesized that they may be distinctly different behaviors with nuances that need to be explored. Mindless eating may occur when we eat without intending to do so, Liguori hypothesized. For example, we grab a handful of candy from the jar at the office as we walk by or start snacking on chips because they happen to be in sitting front of us. Conversely, distracted eating may occur when we engage in a secondary activity such as watching TV or answering emails while we are deliberately eating – for example, when we’re eating dinner, she said. Although prior research indicated that people eat more when distracted, Liguori hypothesized that the differing results in her study may have been associated with examining within-person differences – comparing individuals’ consumption under the , rather than comparing individuals’ behavior to that of peers. Or, she said, her findings could have been influenced by factors such as the type of distraction that was used, the type of food served or by using college students as the study population, limiting the diversity in participants’ age, race, food preferences and motivation to regulate their consumption. To read the original article click here.

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New Tool to Assess Digital Addiction in Children

AHA Publisher — Thu, 12 Dec 2019 08:00:45 +0000

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News via EurekAlert – A new study developed and validated a tool for assessing children’s overall addiction to digital devices. New Rochelle, NY, December 9, 2019–A new study developed and validated a tool for assessing children’s overall addiction to digital devices. The study, which found that more than 12% of children ages 9-12 years were at risk of addiction to digital devices for uses including video gaming, social media, and texting, is published in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article entitled “The Digital Addiction Scale for Children: Development and Validation” was coauthored by Nazir Hawi and Maya Samaha, Notre Dame University -Louaize (Mosbeh, Lebanon), and Mark Griffiths, Nottingham Trent University (UK). The researchers based the Digital Addiction Scale for Children (DASC) on the nine diagnostic criteria for addiction. They also mapped it onto six core addiction criteria: preoccupation, tolerance, withdrawal, mood modification, conflict, and relapse. They included three additional criteria: problems (with life necessities that could become uncontrollable due to digital addiction, such as sleep, discord with parents, or academic achievement); deception (how children lie to their parents about the amount of time and what they do on their digital devices); and displacement (parental feelings of disconnectedness from their children that result in compromising the family unit). “Using validated scales, many pediatricians proactively screen their patients for problematic and risky internet use and internet gaming disorder to identify and address issues that may negatively affect child and adolescent health and wellbeing. The DASC may prove a useful assessment tool for clinicians to also consider,” says Editor-in-Chief Brenda K. Wiederhold, PhD, MBA, BCB, BCN, Interactive Media Institute, San Diego, California and Virtual Reality Medical Institute, Brussels, Belgium. To read the original article click here.

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Using Technology & Temperature to Solve Sleeping Problems

AHA Publisher — Fri, 29 Nov 2019 08:00:52 +0000

Dr. Caroline Leaf – Usually, your body temperature drops when you fall asleep and stays low during the night, and starts rising before you wake up to prepare you for the day ahead. Not getting a good night’s rest can dramatically impact our mental and physical health, which is why in this week’s podcast I sat down with Matteo from 8Sleep to discuss how advances in technology and data-gathering can help us sleep and feel better, and how sleeping well is not only possible but also achievable. 8Sleep is a company that offers high-quality products and tools to help you achieve “sleep fitness” and get the best night’s rest possible, based on technological advances and the latest research on sleep (they are currently running several clinical trials with local hospitals and universities such as Stanford on their sleep technology). We hear so much about how technology like cellphones and computers can mess up our sleeping patterns, but technology can also be beneficial, as Matteo notes. It can be used to enhance the overall quality of our sleep by using technology to track our sleeping patterns (by examining our heart rate and percentage of REM, for instance) to see where andhow we can improve our rest by offering us personalized solutions to our specific sleep needs. 8Sleep‘s unique pod technology, for example, continually regulates body temperature throughout the night to maximize the quality of our sleep. Why is this important? Studies have shown that thermal regulation can help us get up to 20% more deep sleep at night, which should come as no surprise to us. I am sure we have all woken up in the middle of the night in a sweat because we feel too hot, or are jolted awake shivering because we are so cold when the blanket has fallen off! 8Sleep‘s technology also has an in-built alarm to wake you up in the moment of light sleep, while regulating the temperature to get you out of bed faster and with more energy (we have all had those moments when we wake up feeling groggy because the alarm went off just when we were in that deep REM state of sleep—it’s not very fun!). Lowering the temperature of the bed increases your heart rate, helping wake you up naturally by gently getting you out of REM sleep. Indeed, temperature is so important when it comes to sleeping, and unique to every individual. My one daughter loves sleeping in a warmer environment, while my other daughter and my son can’t fall sleep at all unless it’s cold. Additionally, our body temperatures keep changing during the night, which can be tricky when we really need a good night’s rest and keep waking up when we feel too hot or too cold. Usually, your body temperature drops when you fall asleep and stays low during the night, and starts rising before you wake up to prepare you for the day ahead. 8Sleep‘s specific pod technology follows this circadian rhythm, helping you achieve these different temperatures faster and in a way that is unique to your specific body type, which is different to regular foam mattresses, which just absorbs body heat and just gets warmer and warmer as you sleep. Why is thermal regulation and deep sleep so important? As I discussed in a previous blog, poor sleeping patterns can dramatically affect the way the brain functions on a day-to-day basis. We cannot fully eliminate toxins and build strong memories if we don’t sleep well, which affects not only the physical health of the brain and body but our mental health as well. Good quality sleep is essential for physical and mental regeneration! So, what are some things you can start doing today to improve your mental and physical health through sleep fitness? 1. Track your sleeping patterns: use technology like 8Sleep‘s app to track your sleeping patterns and flag negative sleep habits you yourself cannot observe. Like everything in life, we can’t sleep better until we know what is going wrong while we rest, but we cannot observe this first hand since we are, well, asleep, which is why technology can be so useful. As we sleep, this kind of technology can track our temperature, heart rate, breathing and so on over time and provide us with reliable data on the quality of our sleep and where we can improve. 2. Sleep between 7 and 9 hours a night: this will help you feel refreshed and awake throughout the day, and help you avoid that afternoon slump as you try complete your tasks. 3. Get into a sleep rhythm: try wake up at the same time every day, which trains your brain and body to rest in a healthy and constructive way. Avoid the temptation to oversleep over the weekend, as this can throw your body’s rhythm out of whack and make you feel tired and groggy throughout the day. 4. Take thinker moments throughout the day: many of us tend to panic at night as we are trying to go to sleep because our brains are exhausted from chaotic thinking patterns during the day. This is why is it is so important to take “thinker moments”, when we switch off to the external and switch on to the internal and just let our minds wander and daydream. These moments give your brain a rest and allow it to reboot and heal, which increases your clarity of thought and organizes the networks of your brain before you go to sleep, rather than just letting toxic mindsets build up in the brain. This, in turn, boosts the regeneration process as you rest, helping you wake up feeling reinvigorated and ready to take on the day. For more information on thinker moments and how to make them a part of your daily routine, see my book, Think, Learn, Succeed. 5. Detox the mind: as I mentioned in a recent blog, it is also important to detox our minds if we want to sleep well, as cluttered and disorganized thinking habits can dramatically affect the quality of our rest. My new app Switch is a great tool for helping you go through this process. It is based on my 5-step program, which is designed to help you identify and eliminate the root of your toxic thought patterns, and help you build a healthy new thinking habits through the mental process of reconceptualization. 6. Stop worrying: don’t panic about your sleep patterns or lack of sleep, and stop reading about all the bad things that can happen to you if you don’t sleep! The more you try to use this to force yourself to sleep, the less you will sleep! We never do anything well if we are working under a cloud of fear or foreboding. Indeed, this is called the “white bear effect” – if you tell yourself not to think about a “white bear” you will inevitably think about! Just try not thinking about how sleep can cause heart disease now that I have mentioned it! I am not saying that sleep isn’t incredibly important, nor am I saying that what I have just described is not important. However, you need stop worrying about not sleeping, and stop reading what the lack of sleep is going to do to you, because this can mess with your head, and is pretty much a guarantee you are not going to sleep well. Rather, focus on how powerful your mind is—it is the 99% of who you are. Your mind controls your brain and body, not the other way around. 7. Use natural supplements and foods/drinks to help you sleep: natural supplements such as melatonin or GABA may help you fall asleep at night, and are safer and create less dependency than sleeping pills (although you should consult with a medical professional if you feel that these may impact your health in any way). Certain teas like chamomile or other herbal teas can also be beneficial, as well as avoiding foods or drinks that may keep you awake at night. And it is also important to remember that a full stomach can affect sleeping patterns, so try eat earlier dinners if possible, or try intermittent fasting at night if you are able to do so. As with everything, you should take a holistic approach to sleep, and focus on how your lifestyle as a whole may be impacting your quality of sleep, which includes your diet. At the end of the day (literally and figuratively when it comes to sleep!), it is important to remember that there is no quick fix for detoxing your mind and brain and getting healthy sleep. Good sleep is a lifestyle, not a life hack. It is basic mental self-care, as necessary as bathing and cleaning your teeth. It keeps your brain healthy and heals the brain damage from toxic thinking! To read the original article click here. For more articles from Dr. Leaf click here.

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