Summary of Sara C. Mednick's The Power of the Downstate


Book Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The autonomic nervous system is the ultimate expression of the push-pull relationship between your Upstate and Downstate. It works in your favor when well-tuned, but can conspire against you when your response to stress creeps unchecked into your life. #2 I was a late bloomer when it came to learning about the brain. I had spent my childhood dreaming of a career on the stage and screen, but after several hundred cattle call auditions, I realized that I needed to find another way to make it in this life. #3 The human brain is not just a circuit board of wires and resistors, but a biological organ composed of billions of neurons. Neurons are limited in resources, and they require programmed breaks that grant time to recharge and prepare for the next power punch. #4 Neurons have two states: resting and firing. As the neuron moves between these two states, electrically charged ions flow between the inside and outside of the cell walls. At rest, there are far more negatively charged ions inside the cell than outside, with a resting membrane potential of -70mV.




The Power of the Downstate


Book Description

Leverage your built-in rhythms of Upstates and Downstates to enhance energy, sharpen thinking, balance moods, fuel fitness, and more. If you’re like most people, the relentless daily grind of go-go-go, do-do-do, can run down your energy and deplete your resources. While most of us find our lives full of “Upstate” moments that rev up our stress engines, it doesn’t have to be this way. World-renowned sleep researcher Sara C. Mednick, PhD, shows us how we can access the most replenishing and repairing aspects of sleep through activities and moments that happen during our day by diving into our “Downstate.” Dr. Mednick shows that bringing ourselves back to the Downstate is critical for our health, well-being, and cognitive longevity. Drawing on her original findings—and those of others across many fields of medicine—Dr. Mednick creates a comprehensive picture of the Upstate/Downstate rhythms that orchestrate all of our bodies’ vital systems, along with a novel theory that aging is caused by spending less and less time in Downstate activities. The Power of the Downstate offers practical, evidence-based insight into how we can all enable those systems to work together in better harmony. You’ll learn: How our bodies and minds are guided by a natural Upstate/Downstate rhythm—and how our modern lifestyles disrupt these rhythms to our detriment; How our vital organs and systems benefit from spending more time in the Downstate – which decreases the risk for Alzheimer’s disease, chronic illness, and early death; How we can activate the Downstate through rethinking how to breathe, eat, sleep and exercise; and The practical four-week Downstate RecoveryPlus Plan. Get ready to be more alert, productive, and cognitively sharp during the day, feel greater intimacy and affection, and enjoy consolidated, restorative sleep at night . . . not to mention expand your years of mental and physical vitality.




Take a Nap!


Book Description

Discusses why napping is important to physical and mental health, explains sleep patterns and how napping can enhance them, and includes a "Nap Wheel" on the front cover to help readers plan the optimum nap.




The Power of the Downstate


Book Description

Leverage your built-in rhythms of Upstates and Downstates to enhance energy, sharpen thinking, balance moods, fuel fitness, and more. If you’re like most people, the relentless daily grind of go-go-go, do-do-do, can run down your energy and deplete your resources. While most of us find our lives full of “Upstate” moments that rev up our stress engines, it doesn’t have to be this way. World-renowned sleep researcher Sara C. Mednick, PhD, shows us how we can access the most replenishing and repairing aspects of sleep through activities and moments that happen during our day by diving into our “Downstate.” Dr. Mednick shows that bringing ourselves back to the Downstate is critical for our health, well-being, and cognitive longevity. Drawing on her original findings—and those of others across many fields of medicine—Dr. Mednick creates a comprehensive picture of the Upstate/Downstate rhythms that orchestrate all of our bodies’ vital systems, along with a novel theory that aging is caused by spending less and less time in Downstate activities. The Power of the Downstate offers practical, evidence-based insight into how we can all enable those systems to work together in better harmony. You’ll learn: How our bodies and minds are guided by a natural Upstate/Downstate rhythm—and how our modern lifestyles disrupt these rhythms to our detriment; How our vital organs and systems benefit from spending more time in the Downstate – which decreases the risk for Alzheimer’s disease, chronic illness, and early death; How we can activate the Downstate through rethinking how to breathe, eat, sleep and exercise; and The practical four-week Downstate RecoveryPlus Plan. Get ready to be more alert, productive, and cognitively sharp during the day, feel greater intimacy and affection, and enjoy consolidated, restorative sleep at night . . . not to mention expand your years of mental and physical vitality.




Brave, Not Perfect


Book Description

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • Inspired by her popular TED Talk, the founder and CEO of Girls Who Code urges women to embrace imperfection and live a bolder, more authentic life. “A timely message for women of all ages: Perfection isn’t just impossible but, worse, insidious.”—Angela Duckworth, bestselling author of Grit Imagine if you lived without the fear of not being good enough. If you didn’t care how your life looked on Instagram. If you could let go of the guilt and stop beating yourself up for making human mistakes. Imagine if, in every decision you faced, you took the bolder path? As women, too many of us feel crushed under the weight of our own expectations. We run ourselves ragged trying to please everyone, pass up opportunities that scare us, and avoid rejection at all costs. There’s a reason we act this way, Saujani says. As girls, we were taught to play it safe. Well-meaning parents and teachers praised us for being quiet and polite, urged us to be careful so we didn’t get hurt, and steered us to activities at which we could shine. As a result, we grew up to be women who are afraid to fail. It’s time to stop letting our fears drown out our dreams and narrow our world, along with our chance at happiness. By choosing bravery over perfection, we can find the power to claim our voice, to leave behind what makes us unhappy, and to go for the things we genuinely, passionately want. Perfection may set us on a path that feels safe, but bravery leads us to the one we’re authentically meant to follow. In Brave, Not Perfect,Saujani shares powerful insights and practices to help us let go of our need for perfection and make bravery a lifelong habit. By being brave, not perfect, we can all become the authors of our best and most joyful life.




Do Nothing


Book Description

“A welcome antidote to our toxic hustle culture of burnout.”—Arianna Huffington “This book is so important and could truly save lives.”—Elizabeth Gilbert “A clarion call to work smarter [and] accomplish more by doing less.”—Adam Grant We work feverishly to make ourselves happy. So why are we so miserable? Despite our constant search for new ways to optimize our bodies and minds for peak performance, human beings are working more instead of less, living harder not smarter, and becoming more lonely and anxious. We strive for the absolute best in every aspect of our lives, ignoring what we do well naturally and reaching for a bar that keeps rising higher and higher. Why do we measure our time in terms of efficiency instead of meaning? Why can’t we just take a break? In Do Nothing, award-winning journalist Celeste Headlee illuminates a new path ahead, seeking to institute a global shift in our thinking so we can stop sabotaging our well-being, put work aside, and start living instead of doing. As it turns out, we’re searching for external solutions to an internal problem. We won’t find what we’re searching for in punishing diets, productivity apps, or the latest self-improvement schemes. Yet all is not lost—we just need to learn how to take time for ourselves, without agenda or profit, and redefine what is truly worthwhile. Pulling together threads from history, neuroscience, social science, and even paleontology, Headlee examines long-held assumptions about time use, idleness, hard work, and even our ultimate goals. Her research reveals that the habits we cling to are doing us harm; they developed recently in human history, which means they are habits that can, and must, be broken. It’s time to reverse the trend that’s making us all sadder, sicker, and less productive, and return to a way of life that allows us to thrive.




#Upcycle Your Job


Book Description

Women make up the majority of university graduates. They enter the workplace in equal numbers with men. But many workplaces still operate with cultures developed over a century ago to reflect a predominantly male workforce and vastly differing social expectations. So all too often as women become parents they are forced to fix things in the only way they can - by downgrading their job expectations or dropping out of the corporate world. Anna Meller believes it’s high time we #Upcycled our jobs and careers to fit today's lifestyles and meet women's changed expectations. Her PROPEL model offers ambitious working mothers new possibilities for progressing their corporate careers. In this book, Anna leads you through an evidence-based six step process that supports you in finding the balance you need. Practical exercises enable you to craft a working arrangement that meets your employer’s expectations as well as your own aspirations, and to develop the key skills you need to maintain it.




Rhythms of the Brain


Book Description

Studies of mechanisms in the brain that allow complicated things to happen in a coordinated fashion have produced some of the most spectacular discoveries in neuroscience. This book provides eloquent support for the idea that spontaneous neuron activity, far from being mere noise, is actually the source of our cognitive abilities. It takes a fresh look at the coevolution of structure and function in the mammalian brain, illustrating how self-emerged oscillatory timing is the brain's fundamental organizer of neuronal information. The small-world-like connectivity of the cerebral cortex allows for global computation on multiple spatial and temporal scales. The perpetual interactions among the multiple network oscillators keep cortical systems in a highly sensitive "metastable" state and provide energy-efficient synchronizing mechanisms via weak links. In a sequence of "cycles," György Buzsáki guides the reader from the physics of oscillations through neuronal assembly organization to complex cognitive processing and memory storage. His clear, fluid writing-accessible to any reader with some scientific knowledge-is supplemented by extensive footnotes and references that make it just as gratifying and instructive a read for the specialist. The coherent view of a single author who has been at the forefront of research in this exciting field, this volume is essential reading for anyone interested in our rapidly evolving understanding of the brain.




24/7


Book Description

Capitalism's colonization of every hour in the day




The Energy Plan


Book Description

'James's pioneering use of food as fuel has transformed players' performances - and now he can do the same for you.' - Arsène Wenger OBE The secret of the sports elite - and how you can eat to win in your life World-leading sports nutritionist James Collins shapes the eating habits of Olympic athletes and Premier League footballers, so they are on peak form when it counts. After a decade of working with the likes of Arsenal FC, England Football and Team GB, now he's distilling his elite sports success into simple food principles that any of us can follow to feel at our best in our daily lives. Peak performance is all about energy and how to eat and exercise right for your body and your routine. By following The Energy Plan, you will learn how to fuel your body for your life, power through the 4pm slump and resist the junk foods that drag you down. Instead you will naturally choose foods that leave you bursting with energy for work and play - and allow you to fully recharge afterwards. You'll feel more productive, sleep well, lose unwanted weight and avoid illness. Forget fasting and low carb diets. The Energy Plan is a whole new mindset that will forever change your relationship with food, exercise and your body, giving you a winning edge in everything that you do. 'After following James's plan, I had so much more energy and felt at my peak physically.' Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Liverpool FC & England 'This isn't a diet book, it's a guide to new ways of thinking and the science is easy to digest.' - Daily Express 'Who wouldn't want to jump out of bed early in the morning with vigour or get to the end of the day without feeling like the walking dead? This is where James can help.' - METRO 'James Collins is a world leader in the field of performance nutrition. There is no one better to de-bunk nutrition myths and clearly explain how to reach your goals in a sustainable, enjoyable and energised way.' Professor Greg Whyte OBE 'I have huge respect for James's evidence-based approach - he knows exactly what it takes to get the best out of anyone.' Dr Kevin Currell, Director of Science, English Institute of Sport