Are you sleepy during the day? Are you generally tired and irritable? Do you have problems concentrating or remembering? If you answered yes then you may be suffering from insomnia. Insomnia is defined as having difficulty falling and/or staying asleep at night. Insomnia sufferers may have difficulty falling asleep at night, waking up in the night and having trouble going back to sleep, waking up too early, and feel tired when waking up. If this describes you then read on for some more information and treatment.
There are two types of insomnia. Primary insomnia is when someone has difficulty sleeping and it is not directly caused by some other factor. Secondary insomnia is characterized as when the insomnia is caused because of something else.
Insomnia is then characterized by the length of the insomnia. Acute insomnia is insomnia that lasts for a very short while. It may be due to an illness, environmental factors, emotional or physical discomfort, medications, life stress, and interference with a normal sleep schedule. Acute insomnia can last from one night to several weeks. Chronic insomnia is characterized as happening three or more times a week for a month or more. Chronic insomnia is usually caused by depression, anxiety, stress, or pain that cannot be alleviated. Whether the insomnia is acute or chronic, it is a good idea to visit your health care provider to be evaluated.
You can expect your doctor to want a complete medical history including emotion history when he evaluates you. He may also want a sleep journal chronicling a couple weeks worth of sleep. He may even send you for a sleep study. Once the insomnia diagnosis is given, there are several ways to treat it.
Treating insomnia can be as simple as treating the underlying problem. If it is caused by depression, then antidepressants may stop the insomnia. If it is caused my chronic pain, then seeing
treatment for the pain should alleviate the insomnia. If necessary, the doctor can prescribe sleeping pills. These cannot be used long-term so it is important to discover the reason behind the insomnia and be treated for it.
Trying to get a good night sleep can be easier than it sounds. Start by going to bed at the same time every night and getting up at the same time every morning. Avoid caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, heavy meals, and exercise too close to bedtime. While avoiding it close to bedtime is a good idea, exercising daily will also help promote a good nights sleep. Try a relaxing routine prior to bed. Perhaps this could involve a bath and a book or sex. Sex could be a good way to help ease the tension of the day. Try to keep it quiet just before bedtime. This means don't use the computer or watch television right before bed. It is suggested that no television or computer for one hour prior to bedtime. Make sure that your bed is comfortable. Keep the room slightly cool since it is proven to provide a better sleeping environment. Don't keep it so cool that you become cold. Take care of other distractions such as noise or light. Hopefully, by changing your routine, the insomnia will go away.
Insomnia can be a serious problem. When we don't get enough sleep, our judgment as well as vision can be impaired. Being very tired has been compared to being drunk. Let's hope you wouldn't
drive drunk, but you may not think twice about driving when you are too tired. If the symptoms of insomnia sound all too familiar, then see your health care provider for treatment.
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Thursday, October 2, 2008
All time 5 Nastiest Televised Presidential Ads
Television advertising has been an important part of the Presidential
election process since the 1952 race where Dwight Eisenhower defeated Adlai Stevenson. Recently, the Museum of the Moving Image has made the entire body of Presidential campaign ads available on its website in a project it calls The Living Room Candidate. After spending several hours digging through those videos, I have chosen the five nastiest political television ads of all time. By nasty I mean that the ad either directly attacks an opponent, or plays on the fears of Americans regarding some group (a minority race, for example) and implies that the country will be at risk from that group if the candidate's opponent is elected. Below are the top five nastiest ads of all time. All of these ads can be viewed on the Living Room Candidate website of the Museum of the Moving Image.
"The Threat", Bob Dole (1996)
Dole's ad opens with and image of the girl from the Daisy Ad discussed below, immediately evoking all of the fear that accompanied that ad to those who viewed it. The ad then goes on to equate the modern issue of teen drug use to the fear of nuclear attack thirty years before. The ad points to the doubling of teen drug use in recent years, and implies that the Clinton Administration's policies somehow played a role in that rise in drug use. The ad, entirely shot in an ominous black-and-white, ends with a boy of around age 12 standing on a playground smoking a crack pipe. Overall the ad plays on the public's fear of teen drug use and attempts to pin that fear to Clinton, but provides no real facts to establish that he played any role in its increase.
"Streetgov", Jimmy Carter (1980)
The streetgov ad is a series of "man on the street" interviews of people in California, where Carter's opponent Ronald Reagan was Governor. The overall implication of the ad was that individuals in Reagan's own home state believed that Reagan was too incompetent, and not trustworthy enough to be President of the United States. Clearly, this ad did not have its intended effect.
"Willie Horton"- The National Security PAC on Behalf of George H.W. Bush (1988)
The Willie Horton ad is easily one of the nastiest ads of all time in terms of playing on the fears of Americans. It accused Michael Dukakis on supporting weekend passes for first degree murders like Willie Horton, a convicted murderer who was given a weekend pass, only to commit a double murder and repeatedly rape a woman. Pictures of Horton, by all accounts a "frightening" looking African-American man, were shown throughout the commercial. The intent of the commercial was to cause Americans to associate Dukakis with Americans' irrational fears of being the victim of minority crime. Overall, this ad is the best example of implicit "race baiting" in political advertising history.
"Any Questions?", Swift Boat Veterans for Truth on Behalf of George W. Bush (2004)
The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth were an independent political group of individuals who claimed to have served alongside John Kerry in Vietnam. In the "Any Questions" ad, several members of that group outright accuse Kerry of having lied about his military record, lied to the U.S. Senate about what went on in Vietnam, and generally being an untrustworthy soldier. Any ad that attacks a 4-time Purple Heart recipient and Vietnam Veteran on his military record certainly falls into any definition of a nasty ad.
The "Daisy" Ad, Lyndon B. Johnson (1964)
Because President Johnson's opponent, Barry Goldwater, had previously made several statements painting himself as a national security extremist, this ad did not even have to mention Goldwater's name to convey its message. Despite only being aired one time, the ad is considered the most infamous political ad in television history.
The ad opens with an adorable little girl standing in a field, counting as she picks petals off a flower. When her count gets to nine, a
male voiceover begins a countdown from ten to one, and as the
male voice gets closer to one, the camera zooms in on the child's eye, and the sounds and images of a nuclear mushroom cloud appear on the screen. The ad ends with another voiceover which states "vote for President Johnson on November 3, the stakes are too high for you to stay home".
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election process since the 1952 race where Dwight Eisenhower defeated Adlai Stevenson. Recently, the Museum of the Moving Image has made the entire body of Presidential campaign ads available on its website in a project it calls The Living Room Candidate. After spending several hours digging through those videos, I have chosen the five nastiest political television ads of all time. By nasty I mean that the ad either directly attacks an opponent, or plays on the fears of Americans regarding some group (a minority race, for example) and implies that the country will be at risk from that group if the candidate's opponent is elected. Below are the top five nastiest ads of all time. All of these ads can be viewed on the Living Room Candidate website of the Museum of the Moving Image.
"The Threat", Bob Dole (1996)
Dole's ad opens with and image of the girl from the Daisy Ad discussed below, immediately evoking all of the fear that accompanied that ad to those who viewed it. The ad then goes on to equate the modern issue of teen drug use to the fear of nuclear attack thirty years before. The ad points to the doubling of teen drug use in recent years, and implies that the Clinton Administration's policies somehow played a role in that rise in drug use. The ad, entirely shot in an ominous black-and-white, ends with a boy of around age 12 standing on a playground smoking a crack pipe. Overall the ad plays on the public's fear of teen drug use and attempts to pin that fear to Clinton, but provides no real facts to establish that he played any role in its increase.
"Streetgov", Jimmy Carter (1980)
The streetgov ad is a series of "man on the street" interviews of people in California, where Carter's opponent Ronald Reagan was Governor. The overall implication of the ad was that individuals in Reagan's own home state believed that Reagan was too incompetent, and not trustworthy enough to be President of the United States. Clearly, this ad did not have its intended effect.
"Willie Horton"- The National Security PAC on Behalf of George H.W. Bush (1988)
The Willie Horton ad is easily one of the nastiest ads of all time in terms of playing on the fears of Americans. It accused Michael Dukakis on supporting weekend passes for first degree murders like Willie Horton, a convicted murderer who was given a weekend pass, only to commit a double murder and repeatedly rape a woman. Pictures of Horton, by all accounts a "frightening" looking African-American man, were shown throughout the commercial. The intent of the commercial was to cause Americans to associate Dukakis with Americans' irrational fears of being the victim of minority crime. Overall, this ad is the best example of implicit "race baiting" in political advertising history.
"Any Questions?", Swift Boat Veterans for Truth on Behalf of George W. Bush (2004)
The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth were an independent political group of individuals who claimed to have served alongside John Kerry in Vietnam. In the "Any Questions" ad, several members of that group outright accuse Kerry of having lied about his military record, lied to the U.S. Senate about what went on in Vietnam, and generally being an untrustworthy soldier. Any ad that attacks a 4-time Purple Heart recipient and Vietnam Veteran on his military record certainly falls into any definition of a nasty ad.
The "Daisy" Ad, Lyndon B. Johnson (1964)
Because President Johnson's opponent, Barry Goldwater, had previously made several statements painting himself as a national security extremist, this ad did not even have to mention Goldwater's name to convey its message. Despite only being aired one time, the ad is considered the most infamous political ad in television history.
The ad opens with an adorable little girl standing in a field, counting as she picks petals off a flower. When her count gets to nine, a
male voiceover begins a countdown from ten to one, and as the
male voice gets closer to one, the camera zooms in on the child's eye, and the sounds and images of a nuclear mushroom cloud appear on the screen. The ad ends with another voiceover which states "vote for President Johnson on November 3, the stakes are too high for you to stay home".
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