Learning! Roundup: Dry Months, Nap Benefits, Master of None/Everything, Happy Finns, and More!

Image Source: Nathz Guardia

Dry For a Month

It looks like giving up booze and going "dry" for a month can actually have a positive impact on your health!

Take a Nap

More research on napping! This time they are showing that taking daily naps of 30-60 minutes can improve your attention, nonverbal reasoning, and spatial ability. This study also shows that frequent nappers have better sleep at night.

Jack of All Trades

It has long been thought that being a "jack of all trades" meant you were a master of none, but it turns out that many studies support the idea that having broad, diverse competencies is correlated with increased creative impact. I like this because I like doing a lot of different things!

Happy Finns

Finland was recently named the happiest country in the world, and yet Finns routinely downplay and criticize positive emotions. There's a theory out there that this blasé attitude towards happiness actually helps increase it.

Fasting

There is a lot of research out there that calorie restriction can be good for your overall health and lifespan, if that's your thing. Because of this, some people get really into periodic fasting, where your eating is restricted to a small number of hours or days at a time, but there hasn't been a ton of support for fasting in and of itself being beneficial, aside from the normal benefits of eating fewer calories. Well, now there is a start! A new study says that eating all your meals before 3pm can reduce your appetite, blood pressure, and diabetes risk.

Twitter Lies

A new study that was attempting to discover how good Twitter users are at spotting and calling out fake news actually discovered the opposite: fake news spreads easily when all you have to do to share information is click a retweet button and add the word "verification?"

What's With All the BS?

My boyfriend has a trait that can sometimes get in the way of kitchen table debates: he doesn't like to spout off opinions or information about something he doesn't know anything about. Most people, on the other hand, are very willing to share their views on a matter, whether or not they have any factual information about it. Why? A new study shows that there are two factors at play: whether or not we feel compelled to give an answer, and whether or not we think we will be fact-checked. The more pressure we feel to respond to something, or suspect nobody will know either way if we are right, the more BS comes flowing out of our mouths.


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