1. 5 Seemingly Harmless things that are stressing you out T hat Are Stressing You Out Read mor

2. Ever fly into a rage for no reason? You think you're calm, but something comes along and pricks your balloon, and suddenly you're screaming at the car in front of you It's almost like you were stressed out and on the verge of snapping for hours before that. But that's strange -- you didn't feel stressed out. There's no life crisis going on at the moment. Well, the hormones that trigger what we call "stress" are affected by all sorts of seemingly harmless things that science is just beginning to understand. Like... Read more

3. #5 Open Office/Classroom In one research project, they made a guy work in an open plan office while wearing a helmet that measured his brain activity throughout the day. They found that, despite the guy getting to spend the day pretending he was Professor X and that his desk was Cerebro, his brain was nervously working on overdrive all the time. It was processing all of the disturbances in the office, and we do mean all of them -- the subject wasn't just flipping out at the horsey laugh of the dude at the water cooler. Instead, his subconscious took in every little thing around him and rolled it into one giant ball of "I've had enough of this @#$%wearing a helmet

4. It may be as simple as the conflict between your brain knowing it needs to concentrate in order to do well and the environment not allowing it to. There's always a ringing phone, and the only thing between you and that @#$% who won't pick it up is empty space. There's always an office clown practicing pantomime on your right side so that you can just see him from the corner of your eye. And worst of all, there's always that nagging feeling that someone is watching you.

5. #4. All of the Little Background Noises in the World We live in such a noisy world that even what you think of as a "quiet" room features the faint hum of passing cars outside, the buzz of fluorescent lights, the fan on your desktop computerfluorescent lights

6. the key is that the noises you recognize as stressful (the workmen jackhammering your street open at 7 a.m.) are in fact only a small part of the problem. Loud or shrill noises like that get your attention specifically because they're rare and fairly easy to avoid in the grand scheme of things. But when the jackhammer ends, you're left with the low- level noise. The buzzing. The murmuring.

7. And the more severe the background noise, the more drastic the effects: Children living near airports and busy highways score lower on reading tests and are slower to develop language skills. Stress hormones mess with the brain's ability to memorize information because the hormones are telling the brain that there are more important things going on.drastic the effects

8. #3. All of the Little Lights in Your Bedroom Just as it's next to impossible to find a completely silent room in the modern world, it's almost as hard to find one that's completely dark. You turn off your light when you go to bed, but you don't turn off all of the lights: the streetlight shining in through your window, the blue LED on the front of your computer, your alarm clock, the TV somebody left on, the night light you keep in the hall so you don't trip over the cat on your way to the bathroom at 2 a.m., whatever.

9. If you sleep with a dim light, you don't get the amount of melatonin you need. On some level, we already know this -- you don't turn out the lights at bedtime to save electricity, you need it dark so you can sleep. Go to sleep during the day and you'll close the curtains to keep the sun out. So if you need darkness to sleep, it makes sense that incomplete darkness equals lower quality sleep. Oh, you are still sleeping, and you might even think you slept well. But your melatonin is still off, and melatonin helps regulate your mood.

10. #2. The Geomagnetic Field The geomagnetic field is a giant wave of magnetic energy that extends from the Earth's core all the way to space, where it meets the sun's solar wind. Occasionally, the sun will let off what is essentially a giant fart into said wind. This causes an eruption of really huge solar flares that can reach the size of 10 Earths, heading right at our geomagnetic field with all the subtlety you'd expect of a gargantuan star fart.geomagnetic fieldsolar windreally huge

11. Scientists have found fairly damaging connections between periods of high geomagnetic activity and stress. Not just any kind of stress, either -- we're talking dangerous depression here. Over the course of the last five decades, the peaks of geomagnetism and suicide rates tend to match up. Another study found that 10 to 15 percent of the population appears to be constantly affected by geomagnetic activity.have found connections10 to 15 percent of the population

12. #1. Smartphones It's hard to see how a gadget like that would cause stress. If anything, it should relieve it. Isn't playing a fun iPhone game at the dentist's office better than waiting in silence? Isn't knowing your wife can call you if there is trouble better than not knowing?

13. Have you ever felt "phantom vibrations"? You know what we're talking about; it's where you think you feel a vibrating notification from your phone, yet when you check, nothing has happened. Boom! That's smartphone-induced stress, right there in your face. It's called the "helpful-stressful cycle," and it works like this: You buy a smartphone with the thought that it would help you manage your workload and schedule. But the rest of the world now knows you have it. Your ability to stay in contact while on the road (or at home, or at a party, or in church, or...) isn't treated as a nice bonus by the rest of the world. They now expect it. So now it's not just nice that you can be reached if something comes up, it's assumed that you're staying on top of every situation. Sure enough, research has found that your stress levels increase with the number of times you check your texts and emails.helpful-stressful cycle

14. Melatonin Melatonin is a hormone secreted by the pineal gland in the brain. It helps regulate other hormones and maintains the body's circadian rhythm. The circadian rhythm is an internal 24-hour clock that plays a critical role in when we fall asleep and when we wake up. When it is dark, your body produces more melatonin; when it is light, the production of melatonin drops. Being exposed to bright lights in the evening or too little light during the day can disrupt the body' s normal melatonin cycles. For example, jet lag, shift work, and poor vision can disrupt melatonin cycles.

15. Your assignment Track how much you sleep a night for 7 days. Record time to bed, time awake, did you wake up at all during night? how many times, were there any lights on, any noises, what did you do right before bed. Pool results on a google form I will create by Friday Sept 21