Are you sleeping at least nine hours each night? If not, you are sleep deprived according to Anoka-Ramsey Community College (ARCC) psychology department professor, Diana Gant. Gant has been a professor of psychology at ARCC for 17 years, but she has been studying sleep even longer. Gant stated, “I started when I was a graduate student and wrote my thesis, then my dissertation, about sleep.” Gant gathers her data in a variety of ways. She uses data from lab studies, statistics and other outside sources. “One thing I’ve done is study the number of traffic accidents in the state right after the shift to daylight savings time in the spring, when most people lose an hour’s sleep,” said Gant, “There’s an 8 percent increase in accidents the day after the time change, and there’s a corresponding decrease in accidents in the fall when people gain an extra hour of sleep.” Gant compares this trend to jet lag, saying that, “The effect can last a week. It isn’t due to loss of sleep, but complications from resetting the biological clock.” Gant’s interest in the study of sleep had changed over time. “When I started I wanted to write about people who got little sleep and remained productive,” said Gant, “The problem was, when my subjects arrived in laboratories and got a chance to sleep in dark, quiet rooms, they all slept for about nine hours. That and other work convinced me that most people suffer from sleep deprivation.” It has been commonly believed that a person requires only 7 or 8 hours of sleep a night, but Gant disagrees. “Nine hours is better,” said Gant, “I know not everyone agrees with me, but that’s what I keep finding. Think of sleep like exercise. People exercise because it’s healthy. Sleep is healthy.” According to Gant, the average person only gets about seven hours of sleep a night. Lack of sleep can cause many problems throughout the day including; depression, or even falling asleep at red lights while driving. Gant states that it is easy to solve the problem of lack of sleep. She recommends staying away from eating or drinking a lot close to bedtime, especially alcohol or caffeine. Make sure the room is dark and quiet, and sleep in a comfortable bed with clean linens.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
News Summary #6
With a little help from a friend, Hecker stays free
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Funeral Posting
Michael Relitz, 30, died suddenly of a heart attack Thursday night while filling out life insurance policy information after his wife nagged him for two weeks about it. Michael was a college student at Anoka-Ramsey Community College in Coon Rapids, and a script writer for a small production company. Michael was a loving husband, devoted son and brother, and a genuinely kind-hearted person. He is survived in death by his wife Catherine, parents William and Stephanie, sister Angela, and brother William. Funeral services will be held Saturday at Doo U Really Kare Funeral Home in Saint Paul at 3:00am, followed by a reception at BYOB Bar and Grill. For further information contact: 1 800 MYPHONEISDISCONECTED.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
News summary 5
St. Paul teen shot father to protect mother, complaint says
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Story 2
County commission meeting
Feb. 11
The Washington County Commission denied county Sheriff Gus Dicesari’s request for additional money for eight new police cruisers and five additional deputies, after a 5-2 vote during a county commission meeting Thursday afternoon. The vote came after a heated argument between Dicesari and Commission President Anne Chenn over the county’s budget constraints. Dicesari said, “You’re [Chenn] putting the lives of the people of this county in jeopardy.” Dicesari also went on to say, “It is getting too costly to maintain the older vehicles and they spend too much time in the repair shop.” Chenn told Dicesari the sheriff’s department would have to make due this year because the county did not have the additional $580,000 it would cost to purchase new vehicles and hire new deputies. Chenn also noted that the county ran short of money this year because of increased costs of health care for employees, fuel, and $30 million the county had to spend to build a new prison to alleviate crowding. Commissioners Anita Shenuski and Raymond Laybourne supported Dicesari, stating that the county should spend more money on the sheriff’s department and law enforcement than programs for migrant workers who come to the county to work. In response to the sheriff’s supporter’s claim, Commissioner Jose Gardez said that many of the migrant workers become permanent members of the community, open small businesses, and eventually earn citizenship. County commissioners estimate that there are around 5,000 migrant families now in the county working in agriculture, construction and service industry jobs.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
News Summary #4
Region rushes to prepare for another shot of winter weather
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Writing contest entry...(couldn't add a file to my last post)
The Deafening Noise of Silence.
“…You cannot afford to think of being here to receive an education: you will do much better to think of being here to claim one”, stated Adrienne Rich at the convocation of Douglass College in 1977 and this declaration applies today just as well as it did then. Throughout my years in elementary school, middle school, and high school I was reserved. I was unable to speak up in class, whether I knew the answers to questions, had an opinion on a debate, or only to ask about material I did not understand. I found it difficult to get what I needed out of my classes by staying silent and I failed to “claim” my education. I was perfectly content to sit back and only “receive” an education, although the former was rightfully mine to reach for. I have come to find that in order to get what I desperately need, to succeed in my education and through life, I must be willing to step out of my comfort zone and speak up in school, or I risk wasting my time spent here. I was anticipated to graduate in 1997. However, decisions I made and paths I pursued deferred me from my intended destination. I spent eleven years kicking around in a vast array of odd jobs, none of which brought me any sort of satisfaction. Finally, I began to ponder the notion of returning to school and set out to receive my G.E.D. After taking the necessary steps I was able to take and pass the Exam. I began to discover some confidence, albeit a miniscule amount, in myself. Shortly after, I began working dissatisfying jobs once again but soon grew weary of them altogether. In 2008, I came to the conclusion that I needed to begin establishing a solid foundation for my future so I enrolled in Anoka Ramsey Community College. In an effort to acclimate myself into the process of beginning school once more, I selected only one course during the summer session. The course I chose was American Politics and Government. When I walked into my class on the first day of the term I was one of two students who arrived early. I placed my bags sheepishly next to my seat and slid down into the front row. I had decided to become pro-active and make the effort to claim as much knowledge from the course as possible. In the opening of the summer term I was extremely uneasy. Initially, I sat silently in my chair and attempted to disappear from the attention of the other students and the instructor. Soon I began to understand why I was feeling secluded from the rest of the class. Just as before, throughout all my former years in school, I refused to participate in class discussions and I failed to volunteer my perspective on various subjects without thought into how well informed I was on the matter. Eventually I came to the realization that if I didn’t do something immediately, I was on the brink of self-destruction. About a third of the way through the term I came to class determined to succeed. I refused to maintain my anonymity. I was going to speak up. This particular day, we were discussing the Iraq War and this was a subject I had strong convictions about. The instructor volunteered some thoughts and then left it up to the class to proceed with discussion. This was the moment I would choose to speak. I glanced around the room, searching for someone who would speak, thus providing a perfect segue for me to explode out of my internal suffocation. My quick scan of the surroundings provided me with no aid. The majority of the students were either staring into the screen of the computer in front of them or scribbling furiously in a notepad. It seemed there would be no relief from the grasp of apprehension upon my vocal cords. My hand shot up so abruptly it was as if I had the solution to all the world’s ailments and could not delay in illuminating the masses to my new found knowledge. When the instructor motioned for me to speak I felt my heart begin to gain momentum and pound so ferociously I felt it may burst from my pericardial cavity, through my chest, and race from the room as if I no longer needed it and the organ was destined for some other purpose. When I was able to gain my composure I began to speak and my preconceived notions of classmates throwing tomatoes at me, like I was some terrible comedian, disappeared. I was able to speak freely and fluently. My voice did not waiver and I no longer had any apprehension about the way the other students may have been thinking of me. When it was over, I did not die of a heart attack, I did not suffer brain hemorrhaging, and no one was laughing at me. The only criticism that I received was from within me. How convoluted was my hesitation? Why hadn’t I spoken sooner? Not long after my death defying moment of audacity the class period expired. I collected my bags which seemed to weigh a ton less than when I entered the room that evening and I walked back to my car. I couldn’t help but sit with a smirk on my face when I turned the ignition. I felt that I must have been the most daring man on earth in order to speak in front of all those critics. I had no need for my Volkswagen’s air conditioning system on that sweltering summer night, for I was the coolest customer around. I turned on the radio and pulled out of the parking lot free from burden. I am no longer hesitant in stating my opinions in front of the populace of my classes. I ask questions whenever I have one and feel no shame in doing so. I realize now that the people that I attend school with are in class for the same reasons as I am. We all wish to claim our education and become the adults we have always dreamed of becoming. The mistakes I made in the past have been left in the past and they will remain there. I have every opportunity now to break away from the withdrawn, meek individual I was and to be true to who I actually am. Since that day I have had no amount of dread in regards to public speaking. Each time I refused to converse in the classroom in the past, I wasn’t only wasting my instructors time, but mine as well. By my own doing I received a substandard education while I stayed silent. It wasn’t until I learned to leap beyond my qualms and express my ideas as well as my perspectives that I was able to finally make use of my time in college and “claim” my education.
