Categories
Fantasy Horror

Watched Sandman S1E1&2

Watched Sleep of the Just from m.imdb.com

While searching for an escaped nightmare in the waking world, Morpheus falls prey to Roderick Burgess, an occultist looking to summon and imprison Death.

First episode a little slow but more interesting than Preludes and Nocturnes from my memory (I almost quit reading before volume 2). Charles Dance is always great, smart casting to get a big name for that role to make the first episode hold up. Though it’s a bad sign when you need to end the episode with a teaser for all the exciting action in the rest of the season rather than setting up interest to continue watching within the story.

I like the guy they cast as Dream though his voice took a little getting used to, wasn’t what I’d envisioned. They did a good job of making Dream creepy when he doesn’t speak for most of the episode, angling his body awkwardly before the camera and keeping the cold silent stare. Helm looks great, ruby looks too small from my memory.

Episode 2, choked up over Gregory, but I’m not a fan of the Cain and Abel story.

They’re doing a pretty good job of keeping Dream sympathetic while showing his faults, like him even admitting he could have forgiven Alex for killing Jessamy and been released decades earlier, and refusing to call on his siblings for aid.

Big CGI budget for the show but they skimped on the credit sequence 😬

Not sure how I feel about it so far 🤷‍♀️

Categories
Health Self Care Work

Chronic stress recovery

4 elements of recovery activities:

  1. Psychological detachment
  2. Relaxation
  3. Mastery
  4. Control (choosing how to spend your time and doing things the way you want to do them)

Citing:

Sonnentag S, Fritz C. The Recovery Experience Questionnaire: development and validation of a measure for assessing recuperation and unwinding from work. J Occup Health Psychol. 2007 Jul;12(3):204-21. doi: 10.1037/1076-8998.12.3.204. PMID: 17638488. (No free full text)

Cortisol levels may actually be low in chronic stress due to:

  • Desensitization of the receptors that interact with cortisol
  • Exhausted secretion of cortisol
  • Enhancement of the negative feedback loop process

Citing:

Hannibal, K. E., & Bishop, M. D. (2014). Chronic stress, cortisol dysfunction, and pain: a psychoneuroendocrine rationale for stress management in pain rehabilitation. Physical therapy, 94(12), 1816-1825.

Fries, Eva, Judith Hesse, Juliane Hellhammer, and Dirk H. Hellhammer. “A new view on hypocortisolism.” Psychoneuroendocrinology 30, no. 10 (2005): 1010-1016.

(See also:

Fiksdal, Alexander & Thoma, Myriam & Hanlin, Luke & St. Pierre, Danielle & Chen, Xuejie & Rohleder, Nicolas. (2017). Chronic stress moderates late phase cortisol recovery from acute stress.

–> Chronic stress was evaluated using the Trier Chronic Stress Inventory (TICS) )

Recommend keeping consistent sleep and wake times to reinforce the normal pattern of cortisol release that is supposed to happen when you wake up.

(See also:

Duan H, Yuan Y, Zhang L, Qin S, Zhang K, Buchanan TW, Wu J. Chronic stress exposure decreases the cortisol awakening response in healthy young men. Stress. 2013 Nov;16(6):630-7. doi: 10.3109/10253890.2013.840579. Epub 2013 Oct 1. PMID: 23992539.)

Good explanation of adrenal dysfunction:

4 Secret Tips to Improve Adrenal Dysfunction

Categories
Health

Listened to Insomnia Podcast

Listened Insomnia: Strategies to Stop Struggling with Sleep with Dr. Alisha Brosse from offtheclockpsych.com

In this episode you will learn:

How our attempts to control our sleep can have paradoxical effects
Two behavioral approaches to insomnia that get your life back from tossing and turning
Common thinking patterns that get in the way of us sleeping
Why willingness and acceptance are key to ending our struggle with sleep

  • Sleep restriction – only allowing yourself to be in bed for the amount of time you sleep on average until you build up
  • Sleep intervention (?) – getting out of bed and leaving the room when you can’t sleep after 20 minutes
  • Willingness is key (willingness to try techniques, willingness to sleep)
  • Change your mindset around sleepless nights to reduce the pressure you put on yourself to sleep — it’s not that bad to go without sleep one night, you’ll be fine

Categories
Health Mental Health Resources and Reference

Sleep Hygiene and Tracking Sleep

Bookmarked What is Sleep Hygiene? – Sleep Foundation (Sleep Foundation)

Looking for ways to sleep better? Improving sleep hygiene can make your habits, routines, & environment more conducive to consistent and restorative sleep.

Printable sleep journal for tracking sleep (pdf)