Oversleeping

During the spring break, while some of my friends are going back to their hometown and some are traveling overseas, I am just staying at home all day and oversleep. 

I usually sleep more than 10 hours during the break, but I often feel dizzy and have a headache after long hours of sleep. 

According to WebMD.com, sleeping too much will cause some medical problems, including diabetes, heart disease, and increased risk of death. 

How much sleep is regarded as "too much", then? It depends on your age and activity level as well as your general health and lifestyle habits. For instance, during periods of stress or illness, you may feel an increased need for sleep. But although sleep needs differ over time and from person to person, experts typically recommend that adults should sleep between seven and nine hours each night. 

In WebMD.com, it also stated that for people who suffer from hyper somnia, oversleeping is actually a medical disorder. The condition causes people to suffer from extreme sleepiness throughout the day, which is not usually relieved by napping. It also causes them to sleep for unusually long periods of time at night. Many people with hypersomnia experience symptoms of anxiety, low energy, and memory problems as a result of their almost constant need for sleep. 

Then, how should we stop oversleeping? I found a video about Tips to Prevent Oversleeping:

I will try to sit up in bed and do some outdoor activities.
Hope everyone has a wonderful spring break!

Pets' Effects upon Human's Health

Look at this lovely puppy. This makes my day. I think most of people are living with pets today. In fact, according to the article "Pet ownership statistic", more than 62 percents of American households have at least one pet in 2012. 

You might or might not know, pets actually actually have both physical and psychological effects upon human. 

In fact, scientists have discovered that people who have a pet have healthier hearts, stay home sick less often, make fewer visits to the doctor, get more exercise and are less depressed. 

Pets also have psychological effects on human’s childhood. Nienke Endenburg in his article “The Role of Pets in Enhancing Human Well-being” says that pets help improve social and emotional development of children by building them self-esteem and developing their empathy. The youngsters who grow with pets learn at an early age how to care for and nurture a dependent animal. And for them, involvement, positive reinforcement and acceptance are important for building self-esteem.

Empathy is the child’s ability to understand how someone else feels. It is possible that by interacting with pets, children learn to understand the feelings and needs of animals and those of fellow human beings from an early age. And the research also found that children who owned pets felt more empathy towards other people.

Furthermore, pets also have been cited as providing important 'social' support.  Some researchers found that children regularly nominated pets when asked who they would go to with a problem. The 'social' support given by pets has some advantages compared to the social support given by humans. Pets can make people feel unconditionally accepted, whereas fellow humans will judge and may criticize.

Nowadays, most of the households are living with pets, and pets are no longer considered as house guards or burdensome animals we have to take care of, they actually affect us in beneficial way. 

How much sleep do teenagers need?

If you are a Missouri Academy student, you might heard more than enough of how important sleeping is. Dr. Samudzi have been emphasized this all the time, and recommended students to sleep enough. 

According to the article Teens and Sleep, "sleep is vital to your well-being, as important as the air you breathe, the water you drink and the food you eat. It can even help you to eat better and manage the stress of being a teen". 
It said that teenagers need at least 8 to 10 hours of sleep everyday to function best. However, most teens do not get enough sleep due to tremendous school work.

What if we don't get enough sleep? There are some negative consequences:

• Staying up late and sleeping in late might limit your ability to learn, listen, concentrate and solve problems. 
• Teenagers may suffer from treatable sleep disorders, such as narcolepsy, insomnia, restless legs syndrome or sleep apnea.
• Lack of sleep might lead to aggressive or inappropriate behavior such as yelling at others.

I usually sleep less 5-7 hours during the weekdays, and I think it is impossible for students to 8 to 10 hours everyday. 

Instead of just keep telling us to sleep more, I think the adults should help students to lighten their burdens.

Blue and Black vs. Gold and White

If you are a SNS (Social Network Service) user, surely you have heard about the debate on a dress color. For those of you who do not have a Facebook or Twitter, last week, a dress that was worn by a mother of a bride, has become the topic of the week. 

And this is the dress of controversy. As you can see, it is obviously white and gold! (I'm just kidding,, lol)  
In fact, it is difficult to really tell what color this dress is. I thought it was white and gold at first glance, but I was really confused when it turned blue and black. When I first saw the picture, and read the comment said that it was absolutely blue and black, I thought that person was crazy and thought that more than six hundreds of people who "liked" that comment were just making fun of me. 
Although many people still debate this fact, it turns out the dress is actually blue and black.
http://www.romanoriginals.co.uk/invt/70931?colour=Ivory this is the actual site that sells the dress. As you can see, there are only white, red, pick, and blue dresses. White and gold dress is not even exist!



I found this video on Youtube, and I think it explained the phenomenon thoroughly. As it explained in the video, this is a phenomenon known as color constancy. For this dress, people who picture the dress as white, have brains which may be interpreting the dress in a blue-lit room. On the other hands, the brains of people who see it as black and blue may be interpreting the dress in the setting with yellow lights. 

And there are a lot of parodies of people who see the dress as gold and white. 

 I couldn't stop laughing when I saw this on twitter. The person said "There are two with people with gold hair."

Does any of you guys still think it is a gold and white dress?