Dr. Kate Hefferon, PhD

Did you know? We take 10,000 blinks, 20,000 breaths, and 100,000 heart beats a day.

Did you know? Researchers propose that even positive or negative millisecond thoughts can change the brain structure for either the better or the worse.

Did you know? 99.9 percent of DNA in all humans is identical. . . and 98 percent of our DNA is shared with apes.

Positive psychology is defined as the ‘scientific study of virtue, meaning, resilience and wellbeing, as well as evidence based applications to improve the life of individuals and society in the totality of life.’

There are severe repercussions to not getting enough sleep, including tiredness, vulnerability to depression, hallucinations and reduced productivity.

What is your sleep routine? Are you someone who likes to watch TV, talk on the phone, check emails before bed? One major interference with sleep is light, thus experts recommend turning off phones, tablets, laptops and anything with a screen 30-60 minutes before sleep as the light can trigger optic nerves, shutting off melatonin and stopping you getting into that needed REM sleep.

One of the greatest findings of the past 20 years is that, through effort and experience, the brain can change.

Cortisol is more than just a stress hormone; its primary role is to tell other body systems when it’s night and day, so that they can function appropriately and in a synchronized fashion. Cortisol works in partnership with its night-time counterpart melatonin, a hormone secreted from the pineal gland in response to darkness. Cortisol and melatonin are counter-regulatory, thus if cortisol is high at night, it will inhibit melatonin secretion during sleep.