Tag Archives: Aging

Pleasures, Science & Health

7 hours may be the ideal amount of sleep starting in middle age | Health | CNN

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By Katie Hunt, CNN, Updated 12:13 PM EDT, Mon May 2, 2022

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The optimum amount of sleep is not too little but not too much – at least in middle and old age.

New research has found that around seven hours of sleep is the ideal night’s rest, with insufficient and excessive sleep associated with a reduced ability to pay attention, remember and learn new things, solve problems and make decisions.

Seven hours of slumber was also found to be linked with better mental health, with people experiencing more symptoms of anxiety and depression and worse overall well-being if they reported sleeping for longer or shorter stints.

“While we can’t say conclusively that too little or too much sleep causes cognitive problems, our analysis looking at individuals over a longer period of time appears to support this idea,” Jianfeng Feng, a professor at China’s Fudan University and an author of the study published in the scientific journal Nature Aging, said in a statement.

“But the reasons why older people have poorer sleep appear to be complex, influenced by a combination of our genetic makeup and the structure of our brains.”

Source: 7 hours may be the ideal amount of sleep starting in middle age | CNN

Books & Reading, Love & Relationships, Memories & History, Pleasures, Science & Health

15 of the Best Books for Seniors | Book Riot

By Tracy Shapley Towley, Apr 8, 2022

From article…

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When I was a kid, I thought my grandma was old.

She wore clothes I associated with older ladies, and she made cinnamon sugar toast for us when we went over there. She used mothballs! When my grandfather died, it turned out she didn’t know how to pump gas or write a check. And she was in her early 70s! That’s not even old! Why did I think she was old?

Is it just that the times were different and nobody was out there writing think pieces about how moms and grandmothers needed to flaunt their sexuality? Is it because I’m getting closer to my grandmother in age, and when I was a wee, tween, and teen I just lumped “older” into one category?

Or is this due to advances in healthcare and quality of living? I mean, my father-in-law is 72, and he’s perfectly capable of climbing a mountain if he wanted to (he doesn’t want to). But then again, he’s about 40% robot at this point, having had so many joint replacements.

Source: 15 of the Best Books for Seniors | Book Riot

Books & Reading, Pleasures, Religion & Spirit, Science & Health

How to crack the code to happiness in the second half of life : NPR | Books

February 16, 20225:00 AM ET, By Mary Louise Kelly, Elena Burnett, and Amy Isackson

Yes, the second half of adult life can be happier than the first.
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Sometimes being a social scientist comes in handy.

Or at least it did for Arthur Brooks.

He wanted to explore why some people were happy in the second half of life and how he could make sure he — and others — could enjoy those decades.

Aging can be hardest for strivers, Brooks said, who sometimes mourn that their biggest successes are in the rearview mirror.

He advises those still in the first half of their working life to take the long view now and for everyone to build in flexibility and be ready to adjust their expectations.

Brooks’ new book is From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life. He spoke to All Things Considered about not leaving happiness to chance and about the two types of intelligence needed for happiness.

Source: How to crack the code to happiness in the second half of life : NPR

Food & Drink, Science & Health

How Ikarian Coffee Benefits Longevity, http://www.imagechef.com/Plus How To Make It | Well+Good

By Elsie Yang・January 27, 2022

Photo by Negative Space on Pexels.com

A fact that many of us have been well-aware of for, well, a while: Coffee is an elixir of life.

But according to Dan Buettner, an expert on longevity, National Geographic fellow, and author of The Blue Zones Challenge: A 4-Week Plan for a Longer, Better Life, coffee’s benefits far transcend its potent caffeine content.

Buettner has spent much of his career studying the world’s Blue Zones: The five regions that contain the highest concentration of the longest-living people on earth. These include Okinawa, Japan; Ikaria, Greece; Sardinia, Italy; Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica; and Loma Linda, California.

Each Blue Zone has its own unique cultural customs, traditions, and environmental influences, but the five regions share a few characteristics in common. One is their eating habits: Folks living in the Blue Zones tend to follow a largely plant-based diet filled with fresh produce, beans, healthy fats, and whole grains; highly processed foods don’t play a big role in their cuisine.

Source: How Ikarian Coffee Benefits Longevity, Plus How To Make It | Well+Good