Sleep Struggle

     One in every five young people has a sleep problem, so you're not alone. Getting enough sleep has become as important as eating vegetables and exercising regularly. It's very important for your body.

     Most young people only get seven hours of sleep each night, when they actually need nine hours. And making up for lost sleep during the week by sleeping on weekends doesn't really work. In fact, sleeping late on weekends may actually do you more harm than good, if you have sleep problems.

     What happens if you don't get enough sleep? If your sleep problem continues for a few nights, you could suffer serious problems. Lack of sleep can affect learning and memory. Worse, if your sleep difficulties last a long time, that could lead to anxiety (焦虑). Therefore, you've got to have some healthy sleep habits. Below are some suggestions:

     •Go to bed at the same time—including weekends, if possible.

     •Wake up around the same time every morning. When you sleep late just one morning during the week, it may disturb your body clock. This will make it hard for you to sleep that night.

     •Do something relaxing before going to bed.

     •Exercise during the day. Don't exercise right before going to bed.

     •Avoid drinking. Alcohol (酒精) makes you excited. This prevents you from falling asleep or wakes you up during the night.

     •Don't smoke. Smoking is always bad for the body. Smoking before bedtime keeps you awake.

     If trying these tips over a couple of weeks does not help you, speak to your doctor. Do not take any medicine without first asking your doctor. Many of them have strong side effects.

    Trapped under six stories of ruins after the Haiti earthquake leveled his hotel, Dan Woolley believed he was going to die. But rather than give in to despair, the film-maker spent 65 hours beneath the earth looking up ways t treat his injuries on his iPhone. He also wrote a moving diary for his family, thinking they would only read his last message of love and comfort after his death. Instead, he was pulled from the disaster after a week-and will soon be reunited with his family.

    Mr. Woolley had travelled from America to Haiti with his colleague David Hames. Both had been working for charity. He was in the entrance-hall when the earthquake struck and just had time to dive into a comer before the building fell. Buried under tons of ruins, the film-maker downloaded a first aid application to his iPhone. He used the light from the iPhone to show him his injuries and diagnosed it properly as a broken leg. Then, he used the instructions from the app to treat the serious bleeding. The app advised him not to go to sleep if he felt he was going into shock. The resourceful Mr. Woolley set his phone alarm to go off every 20 minutes to keep him awake. New technology has played a huge part.

Mr. Woolley used a small black notebook to write messages to his family. He had thought his relatives would read them after he was dead. “I was in a big accident. Don't be upset at God,” he wrote, “I'm still praying that God will get me out, but He may not. But He will always take care of you.”

    Mr. Woolley was eventually located by a French rescue team and removed to the U.S. where he was reunited with his wife. Speaking after being flown to Miami for surgery, he said, “Boy, I cried. I wanted to use that time to do everything I could for my family. If it could be just to leave some notes that would help them in life, I would do that.”

He is now looking forward to seeing his family.

    Americans drove more miles in 2015 than any year since the U.S. government started keeping records 45 years ago. The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDT) recently reported that Americans drove a record of 3.148 trillion miles last year. In case you are wondering, that is enough to take 337 round trips from Earth to Pluto.

    There are a number of reasons why Americans are driving more miles. The social experts agree that the first is the price of gas, which has dropped to the level of the year 2004 in the past year. The American Automobile Association (AAA) said that the average price of gas was just $1.71 a gallon. That could be the lowest price since 2004.

    P.J. Sriraj, a director of the Urban Transportation Center at the University of Chicago, notes that the lower cost to fill up a car is just one reason. Another reason is that more Americans are back to work after the 2008 economic recession, and they drive to their jobs.

    Besides, more Americans have to travel a long distance every day between home and the office. There are a lot of Americans who must travel more than 45 miles per day for their jobs. And as for many, there is not enough public transportation.

    Because of the heavy traffic, roads are becoming more and more crowded. While modern cars are more fuel-efficient, the improvement is not enough to offset more cars on the road. “There is no doubt that driving more will make the air dirtier,” said P.J. Sriraj. And many Americans showed a great concern in a recent survey.

    On a clear night, you can see a sky paced with stars. But you can't see planets orbiting any of these stars, even with the strongest Earth—based telescopes. Astronomers reported that they discovered seven Earth—sized planets orbiting a nearby star called TRAPPIST – 1 in February. They had to rely on indirect evidence to tell them that the planets are there. By doing some math, they figured out the number of planets and the distance of their orbits.

    TRAPPIST – 1 is a red dwarf （红矮星）, much smaller than our sun, but larger than Jupiter (木星). If the sun were the size of a basketball, TRAPPIST – 1would be the size of a gold ball. This star is one of our closest neighbors, just like the moon to the earth in space.

    When astronomers using Earth-based telescopes to study TRAPPIST – 1,they noticed that every once in a while, it became slightly dim（昏暗）. They decided that a planet must be passing in front of the star, blocking part of the light. This dimming would come and go as the planet orbited the star, passing alternately (交替地) behind and in front of the star regularly.

    By making careful observations, astronomers expected to get a rough idea of the planet's size from the pattern of dimming light. But the light level changed often and not at evenly spaced (均匀间隔的) times. The astronomers had to conclude they were looking at more than one planet! To get additional data, NASA's spritzer Space Telescope measured TRAPPIST –1's brightness nearly continuously for 20 days, catching 34 crossings of planets in front of the star. Sorting through the mess of data, the astronomers found that the innermost planet completes its orbit in 1.5 Earth days, while the outermost planet takes 20 days. Once you know how long it takes each planet to complete an orbit, you can work out how far it is from the star compared with the other planets.

    The TRAPPIST – 1 planets are not alone. So far, astronomers have found more than 3,400 planets that orbit other stars.

    For years, decades in fact, I've puzzled over the response most people have when I tell them I mostly travel alone.

    "You're so brave!"

    Why is it that a woman travelling alone, as I have often done for months at a time, is perceived to be "brave", whereas men who travel alone are entirely unremarkable?

You are only brave when you are afraid of something but still do it anyway. I have never been afraid of travelling alone.

    The first time I travelled alone was when I was 19. I was due to travel in Europe with a friend at the end of the summer. She announced by letter two days before our departure that she would be leaving me halfway at Vienna. It was too late by then to rope in another friend, so it was either to go home after Vienna, or keep going by myself. I kept going. I got on trains by myself, checked into hostels by myself and found my way around by myself. It was weird at first, but later I stopped worrying about it.

    When I got back to Ireland after that trip, I felt proud of myself. I had done something I had assumed would be hard, and it had turned out to be not hard at all.

    That was three decades ago, and since then I have travelled all over the world, usually on my own. I still do what I did then, which is to keep a diary. The greatest gift of solo travel has been those I've met along the way. I may have set off alone each time but I've encountered many people who became important to me. I met my husband in Kathmandu, Nepal. I met lifelong friends in Australia, Poland, Hungary, Turkey, India, Indonesia and many other places.

    It was May 23, 2016. Arnot, the 32-year-old mountain guide, reached the top of Everest without the use of oxygen (O2) equipment. It was achieved after seven years, three previous attempts, and fourteen straight hours of climbing.

After 15 minutes at the top, Arnot began her descent (下坡). Eight hours later, she reached the camp at 7, 600 meters and became the first American woman-and only the seventh woman ever—to successfully reach Mount Everest without oxygen equipment.

    "There are so many reasons for her impressive achievement, especially the physical and emotional efforts that she has put forth over the years to make this happen," says the professional climber and photographer Richards, "The mental courage that it requires is something very few people have."

    Arnot didn't start climbing until she was 19 years old. Money was tight in her family, and climbing mountains never occurred in her mind. After graduating from college, Arnot was invited by her friend to climb a mountain. "It totally changed my life," says Arnot. I always know that if you want something, you can achieve it, but knowing what you want is a whole different thing," she says. "I am athletic but not competitive. After my first climbing, I knew immediately that mountains are what I want—as that is where I felt home for the first time in my life."

    After that first climb, she devoted herself to learning how to climb and move through mountain. It was during her second trip to Everest in 2009 that she first set her sights on a no-oxygen attempt. However, while hiking into Everest Base Camp that year, she hurt her leg and wasn't able to climb without oxygen. In 2013 she nearly made it to the top, but was forced to take oxygen at 8,504 meters while helping another climber.

    When Arnot finally stood at the top Everest, she called her best friend, "I reached the top and I'm not using any oxygen." Then, tears began to stream down from her eyes. So much of Arnot's life has been about pushing the limits of her abilities, and in this case, she's also pushed up against the outer limits of the human spirit.