How to be happy and stay that way with little effort

Common sense would suggest that it’s better to have a lot of intense moments of extreme happiness rather than fewer, but researchers have found that this isn’t the case. In fact, it seems that frequent small pleasures and relatively few negative experiences may be both necessary and sufficient to produce happiness.

In three separate studies, investigators assessed the level of happiness of  subjects, each study using a different happiness scale, and then tracked the mood of the subjects at random times throughout the day and at the end of each day over a period of six to eight weeks by paging them to record their moods in a notebook.

What they found was that the self-reported frequency of happy moods reported by the subjects was more highly correlated to the happiness assessments than the intensity of their happiness. Individuals who reported feeling happy over 80% of the time but who had very few or no highly intense moments of happiness were all determined to be very happy by the assessments scores. Individuals who reported feeling less than happy more than 50% of the time were all assessed to be unhappy – even though they reported relatively more moments of very high positive happiness.

In fact, all of the subjects from the three studies who reported that they frequently felt happy scored highly on every measure of assessed happiness, independent of the intensity of their happy moods. Conversely, every subject who reported feeling less than happy most of the time scored as unhappy on every one of the assessments. This suggests that being in a happy mood most of the time is necessary to being happy. Although the data was consistent with it, there wasn’t enough of it at the extremes to solidly conclude that a happy mood most of the time is sufficient (i.e., all that is needed) to be happy.

Why don’t intense positive experiences make a person happy?

One reason is probably because they are very rare. For example, in the studies mentioned above, an extremely happy mood was reported on only 2.6% of the subject-days in the study. On the other hand, the majority of the subjects reported less intense but positive moods most of the time.

But there seem to be costs associated with intense feelings of happiness. Subjects who reported experiencing intense positive moods were also the most likely to report experiencing intense negative moods. Anyone who has been to a sporting event and observed hardcore fans has witnessed this firsthand. There’s mass ecstasy when the home team scores, and howls of unhappiness when the other team gets away with a foul. To care intensely about the outcome of something you can’t control is setting yourself up for these ups and downs.

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Theorists have produced models to explain why extremely intense happy moods are rare. In one model, extremely positive events must either be something new and novel or something negative that you became adjusted to suddenly goes away. Other models predict why intense ups and downs go together. For example, there’s one model which assumes all events are judged in relation to other events. So extremely good events are judged more positive if extremely bad events have occurred recently, and vice versa. This explains why lottery winners are less happy when small positive everyday events occurred thereafter. Winning the lottery raises the bar, so to speak. It may also explain why some people enjoy novels featuring dystopian worlds – it lowers the bar so their normal lives seem more happy by comparison.

Conclusions

The results of this study suggest that people who are successful at maintaining a low level positive mood will be happy. In other words, we should increase the frequency of low level happy experiences and decrease any unhappy experiences. Relatively intense happy experiences aren’t likely to increase our long-term happiness much and might actually be detrimental.

A large part of the population behaves as if how they spend their time and money in everyday moments is not terribly important but pursuing intense moments of happiness is. This is apparently the exact opposite of the optimal strategy. To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, everyday moments are the stuff life is made of.

Reference

E. Diener, E. Sandvik, & W. Pavot, Happiness is frequency, not the intensity, of positive versus negative affect, in Assessing well-being: Social Indicators Research Series, 2009, Volume 39, 213-231

How to lose weight and keep it off 

As Americans and others on Western diets continue to suffer from a weight epidemic, they continue to be told to eat less and get more exercise, and they continue to diet but then regain the weight they lose. Unfortunately, recent research suggests this will only continue.

For example, a recent study showed that dieters still feel hungry and obsess over food for long periods of time after losing a significant amount of weight from dieting. Hormones in the blood that help keep appetite in check were still significantly lower than before the weight loss a year after completing the diet. [1] The researchers suggest that, until the problem of reduced hunger reducing hormones is addressed, dieters will continue diet and relapse. Although some research has already been completed on the hunger hormone leptin, the results were “variable”. [2]

For most of human evolution, maintaining body fat actually played a major role in helping us survive and our bodies are apparently unwilling to let us give it up without a fight. [3] If we go without food or with a reduced level of food for even twelve hours, our brains will try to focus all our attention on getting more food. This focus on eating undoubtedly got our ancestors through numerous famines by storing up fat during good times. Unfortunately, we’re apparently having too many good times. Our fat stores an amazing amount of energy – which means we have to go hungry for quite a while in order to lose the pounds. One person underwent a therapeutic fast for over a year to reach a healthy weight. [4]

Food addiction is now receiving consideration as a real phenomenon, and that pharmacological and behavioral interventions similar to those used for drug addictions are needed. Take, for example, sugar-bingeing rats. Rats provided with a sugar and fat solution for just two hours per day consumed the majority of their calories from this solution even though regular mice chow was continuously available. Like opium smokers, they increased their consumption over time during the two hour window and then again after a period when the solution was no longer available daily. [5]

Drinks containing high fructose corn syrup are no longer just considered simply empty calories. Some now consider fructose to be a chronic liver toxin, much as alcohol is. Fructose continues to be strongly implicated in studies for causing cardiovascular disease, type two diabetes, and cancer, and for making our abdomens fat (which is considered a marker for cardiovascular disease). And since table sugar, sucrose, is half fructose, it is similarly implicated. [6],[7],[8] Unfortunately, most Americans seem totally unaware of this. One of the more vocal fructose critics is Robert Lustig, a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of California at San Francisco. A video of his 1.5 hour lecture, “Sugar: The Bitter Truth” garnered a lot of attention since it was released in 2009. If you haven’t seen the Lustig video, I recommend it if you have the time:

 

 

And perhaps fructose is making us more at risk for depression. Evidence is mounting that inflammation plays a role in depression, and adipose tissue in the abdomen (belly fat) is a primary source of inflammatory factors associated with depression. If body fat can cause depression and depression can cause body fat, there is the possibility of a viscous cycle. [9], [10]

On a more positive note, a large study was published in 2011 by the New England Journal of Medicine which examined the effect of diet and lifestyle on weight gain in non-obese individuals. The foods most associated with weight gain were not surprising: french fried potatos, potato chips, potatoes, sugar-sweetened drinks, processed and unprocessed red meats. French fries were by far the worst food and anyone who loves deep fat fried foods should take notice. Foods that were associated with weight loss were yogurt, nuts, fruits, whole grains and vegetables. Why yogurt consumption is associated with weight loss is unknown. It’s possible that gut bacteria influence weight gain or maybe yogurt consumers just tend to have more healthy behaviors. [11]

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So, what to do?

Until there are interventions for hunger hormones and food addiction, we will have to make use of the tools and knowledge we have now:

Stop consuming sugared drinks, including sodas, chocolate milk and fruit juices, starting now. Fructose in its natural form- fruits and vegetables- is fine. The fiber in these foods slow down the digestion of the fructose and it is processed via burning instead of storage. When you see a sugar drink, think “chronic liver toxin”.

See your doctor about the possibility of a therapeutic fast. Your doctor will probably suggest a restricted calorie diet instead as this is much safer. Fasting can be dangerous without regular blood tests to see what’s happening in your system, so don’t go it alone.

Exercising has long been known for playing a central role in controlling appetite. Exercise also detoxifies fructose by burning it instead of storing it as fat, and increases your metabolism, among other things. The average participant in the National Weight Control Registry (a data base of people who have maintained at least a 30 pound weight loss for one year or longer) burns around 2,600 kcal/week exercising. [12] For a 200 pound person, this is equivalent to one hour and fifteen minutes of walking at 3 mph per day. Even if you can’t adhere to a diet, and even if it doesn’t seem to help shed any pounds, you should still exercise.

Find a dieting plan or plans that you can stick with over a long period of time even though your body is attempting to undermine you at every turn. The safest bet is probably the paleolithic diet since humans evolved eating this diet over hundreds of thousands of years. (See the related link below for an example.) It includes no grains, milk products or refined sugar.

The type of diet you choose is not as important as your adherence to it. [13] You will feel hungry and constantly prompted to eat over an extended period of time (perhaps years) even after reaching your target weight, so put some serious thought into how you are going to deal with hunger. 

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Don’t try to be a perfectionist. Occasionally you are going to eat something you shouldn’t because it’s too tempting. Attempting to be a perfectionist makes an extremely difficult task next to impossible, so don’t go to tears if you sneak a donut once in a while.

Finally, set a weight goal that is specific and difficult to achieve. The harder the goal, the higher the performance. Specific goals (135 pounds by January 1) are better than vague goals (lose some belly fat) because vague goals are always met even if you don’t even try.

Related

Easy Diet Plan

References

[1] P. Sumithran, et al, Long-Term Persistence of Hormonal Adaptations to Weight Loss, New England Journal of Medicine, 2011, Oct. 27, 2011

[2] K. Masuok, Human Recombinant Leptin Administration as a Potential Obesity Therapy, Immunology Endocrine & Metabolic Agents – Medicinal Chemistry, Volume 10, Number 2, June 2010

[3] J. Wells, The evolution of human fatness and susceptibility to obesity: an ethological approach, Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, 2006 May; 81(2):183-205.

[4] W. Stewart, L. Fleming, Features of a successful therapeutic fast of 382 days’ duration, Postgraduate Medical Journal, March 1973, 49, 203-309 [pdf]

[5] D. Blumenthal, M. Gold, Neurobiology of food addiction, Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care 2010, 13:359–365 [pdf]

[6] G. Bray, Soft drink consumption and obesity: it is all about fructose, Current Opinion in Lipidology, 2010 Feb;21(1):51-7.

[7] K. Stanhope, P. Havel, Fructose consumption: potential mechanisms for its effects to increase visceral adiposity and induce dyslipidemia and insulin resistance, Current Opinion in Lipidology, 2008 Feb; 19(1):16-24.

[8] Sugar: The Bitter Truth, R. Lustig, (video)

[9] R. Shelton & A. Miller, Eating ourselves to death and despair: The contribution of adiposity and inflammation to depression, Progress in Neurobiology, 2010 August; 91(4): 275–299.

[10] R. Shelton & A. Miller, Inflammation in depression: is adiposity a cause?, Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience,  2011;13(1):41-53.

[11] D. Mozaffarian, et al, Changes in Diet and Lifestyle and Long-Term Weight Gain in Women and Men, The New England Journal of Medicine, 2011, June 23

[12] V. Catenacci, et al, Physical activity patterns in the National Weight Control Registry, Obesity, January 2008 ;16(1):153-61.

[13] A. Makris, G. Foster, Dietary approaches to the treatment of obesity, The Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 2011 Dec;34(4):813-27.

[14] G. Latham, E. Locke, Self-Regulation through Goal Setting, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 50, 212-247, 1991

Causes, and best sleep aids and therapy for short term insomnia

Episodic or short-term insomnia (i.e., trouble falling asleep, staying asleep or feeling tired during the day),  is fairly common, reportedly occurring in one third of the adult population.  Chronic insomnia (i.e., longer than 3 weeks) should be treated by a professional. Chronic insomnia is associated with numerous negative outcomes involving memory, task performance, judgement, obesity, heart problems and diabetes.

There appear to be three things you can do about insomnia: identify the root cause and fix it, use a sleep aid like chamomile tea before bed or utilize a sleep therapy such as relaxation therapy. And you can use any combination of fixes, aids, and therapies as needed.

Causes 

• Caffeine is a powerful stimulant and is present in many foods. Heavy consumption (> 500 mg per day or roughly 4 cups of coffee) can make you feel jittery, anxious and nervous.  Even a small amount can keep you up at night, depending on the person and how close to bedtime it is consumed. For the caffeine content of different foods see this, for example. Note the caffeine in the pain relievers/ fever reducers Excedrin® and Anacin®.
• Alcohol consumption helps you fall asleep because it’s a sedative, but may cause you to wake up frequently to urinate (it’s a diuretic) and cause headaches (duh, it’s a neurotoxin) that may keep you from getting back to sleep, so avoid drinking alcohol four to six hours prior to bed time.
• Smoking (nicotine is a stimulant). Note that it has been found that abruptly discontinuing tobacco use while continuing the regular consumption of caffeine doubles the amount of caffeine in the blood stream for some time.
• Overeating (a high calorie diet) can disrupt your internal clock, causing you to be awake when you would otherwise be asleep. The inverse is true as well (sleep deprivation may cause overeating), so there’s a possibility of a positive feedback loop developing.
• Lack of exercise (warning: pdf), except shortly before bedtime when it should be avoided.
• Excessive fluid intake near bedtime may wake you up prematurely to urinate.
• Not having regular bedtime and waking up times, shift work or jet lag.
• Stress, depression or worrying.
• Spicy foods (containing capsaicin) in the evening meal were found to markedly disturb sleep, possible due to elevated body temperature during the first sleep cycle.
• Aspirin and ibuprofen disrupted sleep in comparison to placebo by increasing the number of awakenings and percentage of time spent in the awake stage, and by decreasing sleep efficiency. Acetaminophen did not differ significantly from placebo on any measure of polygraphically recorded sleep.
• Withdrawal from illicit recreational drugs: cocaine, ecstasy and marijuana.
• Restricted breathing (allergies, cold, flu).
• Intermittent noise, which is more disturbing to sleep than continuous noise. The effect increases with the maximum level of the noise events and the ratio of this level to background noise level. White noise generators (aka white noise machines) can help mask intermittent noise by increasing the background noise level.
• Excessive cold or temperature swings during sleep.
• Physical conditions that cause discomfort (pain, itching, hot flashes, etc).
• Miscellaneous medical conditions (thyroid, bipolar, and anxiety disorders, irritable bowel syndrome, sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, etc).
• Television viewing at bed time is associated with sleep disturbance for K through 4th grade children. I have not found a study for adults, but higher television viewing time is associated with obesity in adults, which in turn is associated with sleep disturbance.
• Habitual snoring is significantly associated with daytime sleepiness, restless sleep, and hyperactivity for children.

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Sleep aids help you feel sleepy or reduce anxiety

Eat a small amount of carbohydrates prior to bedtime such as bowl of cereal, crackers or rice. Cherries contain carbohydrates, and are especially rich in melatonin, which helps regulate sleep, and may be useful as a sleep aid.

Tryptophan rich foods may help as a sleep aid, but the research results are mixed. Common high-tryptophan foods include: milk, nuts and seeds, bananas, honey, eggs. See wikipedia for lists of tryptophan containing foods.

Antihistamines containing diphenhydramine hydrochloride such as Benadryl ®, and Dimenhydrinate, marketed as Dramamine ® in the States, which is used to prevent motion sickness and nausea, both cause drowsiness and can be used as sleep inducers. You obviously want to limit the use of these substances due to possible side effects, and the fact that they become less effective as sleep aids with continuous use.

Chamomile is an effective therapy for anxiety. Chamomile is available as a capsule supplement and as a tea. But don’t use chamomile if you are taking aspirin or another NSAID due to potential interactions because of chamomile’s antiplatelet activity.

Numerous internet sites recommend mint tea as a bedtime drink to help one relax and that it helps the immune system and the digestive system, etc, but studies have found negative effects on the liver and kidneys.

Exposure to bright light (warning: pdf) in the evening may help you sleep longer if you are waking up too early. However, note that later wake-up times are associated with lower average grades for college freshmen, so you may want to avoid bright lights in the evening in order to wake up earlier.

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Sleep therapy

The following therapies have all been shown to be effective by properly designed experiments of adequate power. There are insufficient studies to tell which therapy is the most effective. Besides, most studies include two or more therapies at the same time.

Stimulus Control Therapy (also called the Bootzin technique)

1. Lie down intending to go to sleep only when you are sleepy. The goal is to become more sensitive to internal cues of sleepiness so you will be more likely to fall asleep quickly.

2. Use the bed only for sleeping; do not read, worry, watch TV, think about your day, or eat in bed. Sex, however, is entirely okay. You want your mind to associate being awake with other areas, not your bed.

3. If you’re unable to go to sleep, get up and move to another room. Stay there until you are really sleepy, and then return to bed. If sleep still doesn’t come quickly (about 10 minutes), get out of bed again. The goal is to associate the bed with falling asleep easily and quickly, and not with being unable to sleep.

4. Repeat step 3 as many times as needed.

5. Set your alarm and get up at the same time every morning, irrespective of how much you sleep you got during the night. This will help your body to acquire a consistent sleep-wake rhythm and keep you from making up for poor sleep by sleeping late.

6. Do not nap during the day unless you do it every day. You want to be somewhat sleep-deprived after a night of insomnia to make it more likely that you will fall asleep quickly the next night.

Relaxation training

Relaxation training involves methods aimed at reducing tension or intrusive thoughts at bedtime. This typically involves concentrating on relaxing specific body parts until you are completely relaxed. Compact discs are available from Amazon.com, for example, featuring soothing voices which can talk you through the process every evening prior to bedtime. Search for “relaxation audio cd”.

Sleep Restriction Therapy

This involves curtailing the amount of time in bed to the actual amount of time spent asleep, creating a mild sleep deprivation, and then progressively lengthening sleep time as sleep efficiency improves.

Related external links

Sleep deprivation

How much sleep do we really need?