Healthy Sleep Tips

    Keep a regular bed and wake time schedule. Go to bed at the same time every night. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Try not to break this rule on weekends when it may be easy to stay up late. As with your bedtime, try to keep your regular wake time even on weekends.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} When it's time to sleep, make sure that your environment is dark. Heavy curtains or shades can help block light from windows, or you can try an eye mask to cover your eyes. A bedroom that is too hot or too cold can also influence sleep quality.

    Turn off your TV. Many people use the television to fall asleep or relax at the end of the day. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} However, television actually makes the mind excited, rather than relaxing it.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Exercise helps promote restful sleep if it is done several hours before you go to bed. Exercise can help you fall asleep faster and sleep more soundly. Try to finish exercising at least three hours before bed or work out earlier in the day.

    Ask your doctor for advice. Use a sleep diary and talk to your doctor. Note what type of sleep problem is affecting your sleep. Try these tips and record your sleep and sleep­related activities in a sleep diary. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. Exercise at the right time.

B. Change your sleeping position.

C. Keep your room dark and cool.

D. Choose a time when you normally feel tired.

E. You may even have a television in your bedroom.

F. If problems continue, discuss the sleep diary with your doctor.

G. Sleeping well is important for keeping our mind and body healthy.

Four Ways to Give Truly Meaningful Gifts

    Buying someone you love a gift that expresses your truest feelings isn't always easy. But when you get it right, the joy they show is worth it. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Listen up.

    While you may think it's a great idea to surprise someone by giving them something you think is meaningful, it's best to get them exactly what they have told you. For example, you heard friends say they wanted the newest bike but you bought them a gym membership instead. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} So get them what they've specially asked for.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    In the spirit of showing love, we might go big. However, we may not be thinking of what really makes the person happy. You might think buying your father the latest TV is perfect, but then when you get it home, it lights up the living room like a stadium and is totally wrong for the space. So think smart.

    Keep it open.

    Many of us may consider giving cash impersonal（没人情味的）. But this may save you some concern. The receiver can be allowed to choose whatever they want. In a recent survey of over 7,000 Black Friday shoppers, 39 percent said the receiver they were shopping for was “picky（挑剔）”. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Create an experience.

    Visit websites where you can get the latest tickets for a play, buy a surf lesson, or even something unexpected like a flight lesson. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} For example, if your kids are into NASCAR, just imagine the look on their faces when you score them a ride at a race car driving school. So give them a time that they will remember to heart.

    Are you sometimes a little tired and sleepy in the early afternoon? Many people feel this way after lunch. They may think that eating lunch is the cause of the sleepiness. Or, in summer, they may think it is the heat. However, the real reason lies inside their bodies. At that time – about eight hours after you wake up – your body temperature goes down. This is what makes you slow down and feel sleepy. Scientists have tested sleep habits in experiments where there was no night or day. The people in these experiments almost always followed a similar sleeping pattern. They slept for one long period and then for one short period about eight hours later.

    In many parts of the world, people take naps in the middle of the day. This is especially true in warmer climates where the heat makes work difficult in the early afternoon. Researchers are now saying that naps are good for everyone in any climate. A daily nap gives one a more rested body and mind and therefore is good for health in general. In countries where naps are traditional, people often suffer less from problem such as heart disease.

    Many working people, unfortunately, have no time to take naps. Though doctors may advise taking naps, employers do not allow it! If you do have the chance, however, here are a few tips about making the most of your nap. Remember that the best time to take a nap is about eight hours after you get up. A short sleep too late in the day may only make you feel more tired and sleepy afterward. This can also happen if you sleep for too long. If you do not have enough time, try a short nap – even ten minutes of sleep can be helpful.

    Since English biologist Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859, scientists have vastly improved their knowledge of natural history. However, a lot of information is still of the speculation, and scientists can still only make educated guesses at certain things.

    One subject that they guess about is why some 400 million years ago, animals in the sea developed limbs (肢) that allowed them to move onto and live on land.

    Recently, an idea that occurred to the US paleontologist (古生物学家) Alfred Romer a century ago became a hot topic once again.

    Romer thought that tidal (潮汐的) pools might have led to fish gaining limbs. Sea animals would have been forced into these pools by strong tides. Then, they would have been made either to adapt to their new environment close to land or die. The fittest among them grew to accomplish the transition (过渡) from sea to land.

    Romer called these earliest four-footed animals “tetrapods”. Science has always thought that this was a credible theory, but only recently has there been strong enough evidence to support it.

    Hannah Byrne is an oceanographer (海洋学家) at Uppsala University in Sweden. She announced at the 2018 Ocean Sciences Meeting in Oregon, US, that by using computer software, her team had managed to link Homer's theory to places where fossil deposits (沉积物) of the earliest tetrapods were found.

    According to the magazine Science, in 2014, Steven Balbus, a scientist at the University of Oxford in the UK, calculated that 400 million years ago, when the move from land to sea was achieved, tides were stronger than they are today. This is because the planet was 10 percent closer to the moon than it is now.

    The creatures stranded in the pools would have been under the pressure of “survival of the fittest”, explained Mattias Green, an ocean scientist at the UK's University of Bangor. As he told Science, “After a few days in these pools, you become food or you run out of food... the fish that had large limbs had an advantage because they could flip (翻转) themselves back in the water.”

    As is often the case, however, there are others who find the theory less convincing. Cambridge University's paleontologist Jennifer Clark, speaking to Nature magazine, seemed unconvinced. “It's only one of many ideas for the origin of land-based tetrapods, any or all of which may have been a part of the answer,” she said.

    Who can think of the race between the tortoise and the rabbit when it comes to the greatest races? Sure, that race only took place in ancient Aesop's mind, but while the great modern races can teach us a lot about commitment, perseverance (毅力) and the virtues of having a rather large engine, "The Tortoise and the Rabbit" may tell us everything about animals and even vehicles on this planet.

    In a study published this week, Adrian Bejan, a professor of mechanical engineering, concludes that no one should be surprised that the tortoise wins over the seemingly speedier rabbit. In fact, after analyzing the reported speeds of land-air-and-water-based animals, Bejan concludes that the world's well-known speedsters are actually among the slowest when their movements are averaged out over the course of a lifetime.

    The study builds on Bejan's previous research showing that an animals speed increases with mass regardless of species. And that principle can also be extended to non-living things, like aircraft.

    After studying data from historical airplane models, Bajan noted the speed of each model increased with its size, too. That doesn't sound right. What about the modern jet fighter? How is that relatively small craft not faster than a clumsy large transport plane?

    Again, Bejan harks back to the tortoise. That transport plane spends lots of time in the air, moving regularly across long distances. The fighter jet, on the other hand, may fly across the sky occasionally, but-like the rabbit-it's often found resting on the ground.

    The slow and steady transport plane wins the marathon of life.

    But like so many good stories, Aesop's tale offers even more than a lesson in perseverance.

    At one point, the rabbit asks the tortoise how he expects to win a race at such a slow pace.

    The tortoise—ever focused—doesn't respond But it's the rabbits own words that provide the moment to reflect on, especially in modem times.

    "There is plenty of time to relax," Until there isn't.