Periods of heavy rain were again forecasted throughout the day, though it started with the sun appearing through breaks in the big cumulus cloud, so I went out and walked while I could before the downpours started. Then I completed this week's Thursday prayer video and uploaded it. I walked again during an afternoon gap between downpours, and didn't get wet either time.
With two funerals this week, there were orders of service to prepare and eulogies to look at, and this I did after supper. As we're on holiday in two weeks time, I also have to prepare material in advance, ready to upload while I'm away, rather than let work take up relaxation time. I enjoy doing these things if I'm not busy, especially the biblical reflections.
I found time to listen to last week's Radio 4 'The Life Scientific' podcast with Jim al Khalili interviewing a sleep researcher, Dirk Jan Dijk about a multi-disciplinary approach to understanding how sleep is related to health and performance effectiveness. It seems that too little or too much sleep can impact on the brain and may even contribute to to development of dementia. It doesn't have to be continuous for six to eight hours either. It's the overall quality of sleep that matters, even if it's broken and spread out. Significantly the universal habit over the past century and a half of artificial lighting, turning night into day, affects the circadian rhythm in some way.
Common knowledge that people sleep poorly if they spend too much time before phone, computer and television screens has led to the incorporation of software that reduces blue screen light glare in the evenings, and this helps mitigate the effect. It's better to switch off much earlier, which I admit I rarely do. I only find it hard to get to sleep if I'm travelling next day. That's excitement at the thought of doing something different.
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