Random thoughts late at night...

I went from sleeping lots (too much I thought) in early November when I was first off work, to waking up early (like 5 am) in the mornings and not being able to get back to sleep, to now staying up way too late and sleeping in late again. I guess for now it doesn't matter much, but I'll have to get more disciplined about sleep schedules before going back to work next month...

There were 2 articles in today's paper that I found interesting, both about scientific studies, and as it turns out, both summarized in this one article from the Chicago Tribune. The top part is about how caffeine has been found to specifically help with short-term memory (I like the part about how Americans consume three times the world average for caffeine and the writer's implication as to why):

Now a team of Austrian researchers using advanced brain imaging technology has discovered that caffeine makes people more alert by perking up part of the brain involved in short-term memory, the kind that helps focus attention on the tasks at hand.

And Americans seem most in need of concentrating their thoughts, since their average daily consumption of 236 milligrams of caffeine, equivalent to more than 4.5 cups of coffee, is three times the world average.

The bottom part of the article describes how researchers "found that marijuana smoking may increase the risk of schizophrenia in people who have a genetic susceptibility to the disease." For those of you who know my family history, you'll realize why this is of interest to me. (edit - no, I'm not a pot-smoker worried about developing schizophrenia - just wondering about someone else...)

And, on an election note (besides the Conservatives' promise to reduce the GST), I found this "VoteSelector Quiz" at PoliticsWatch.com. Yes, it's from last election, but I don't think the party platforms have really changed that much to make a big difference. You answer a number of questions and they tell you which party/leader your views are most closely aligned with. So should I be concerned that each time I've gone through the questions, I'm most closely aligned with Gilles Duceppe and the Bloc Quebecois ???

(BTW, thanks to anyone who's actually reading this - if there's anyone other than my dad, my husband, Geri and Kara ;-), please e-mail to let me know or leave a comment).