The reason people count sheep, as opposed to bluebirds or sailboats, is uncertain; some authorities think it may have to do with a tallying system devised by shepherds in ancient Britain. But there is no question that the phrase has entered the language. And its meaning is clear enough – the sheer monotony of the task is meant to lull you to sleep. But does it work? Scientists at Oxford University put it to the test. In their study, which appeared in the journal Behavior Research and Therapy, two sleep researchers recruited insomniacs and split them into groups. Then they monitored them as they tried different techniques for falling asleep on various nights. What they found was that subjects took slightly longer to fall asleep on nights they were instructed to distract themselves by counting sheep or were given no instructions at all. But when they were told to imagine a relaxing scene – a beach, for example – they fell asleep an average of 20 minutes sooner than they did on other nights. Counting sheep, the scientists suggested, may simply be too boring to do for very long, while images of a soothing shoreline or tranquil stream are engrossing enough to concentrate on. In other studies at Oxford, scientists compared “good” sleepers with insomniacs and found distinct differences in their pre-sleep thoughts. Insomniacs pictured less scenery of any kind and had more thoughts of unpleasant images, worries, noises in the environment, “intimate relationships” and things they had done during the day. The bottom line: Don't count sheep; instead, try picturing relaxing images. To cut calories, eat slowly For ages, mothers have admonished children at the dinner table to slow down and chew their food. Apparently, they're onto something. Researchers have found evidence over the years that when people wolf their food, they end up consuming more calories than they would at a slower pace. One reason is the effect of quicker ingestion on hormones. In a study last month, scientists found that when a group of subjects were given an identical serving of ice cream on different occasions, they released more hormones that made them feel full when they ate it in 30 minutes instead of 5. The scientists took blood samples and measured insulin and gut hormones before, during and after eating. They found that two hormones that signal feelings of satiety, or fullness – glucagon-like peptide-1 and peptide YY – showed a more pronounced response in the slow condition. Ultimately, that leads to eating less, as another study published in The Journal of the American Dietetic Association suggested in 2008. In that study, subjects reported greater satiety and consumed roughly 10 percent fewer calories when they ate at a slow pace compared with times when they gobbled down their food. In another study of 3,000 people in The British Medical Journal, those who reported eating quickly and eating until full had triple the risk of being overweight compared with others. In other words, experts say, it can't hurt to slow down and savor your meals. Can napping prime the brain for learning? It turns out that toddlers are not the only ones who do better after an afternoon nap. New research has found that young adults who slept for 90 minutes after lunch raised their learning power, their memory apparently primed to absorb new facts. Other studies have indicated that sleep helps consolidate memories after cramming, but the new study suggests that sleep can actually restore the ability to learn. The findings, which have not yet been published, were presented Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Diego. “You need to sleep before learning, to prepare your brain, like a dry sponge, to absorb new information,” said the lead investigator, Matthew P. Walker, an assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley. The study recruited 39 healthy young adults and divided them into two groups. All 39 were asked to learn 100 names and faces at noon, and then to learn a different set of names and faces at 6 p.m. But 20 of the volunteers who slept for 90 minutes between the two learning sessions improved their scores by 10 percent on average after sleeping; the scores of those who didn't nap actually dropped by 10 percent.
