Mindfully Healing

The real reason some people enjoy listening to sad music. Music that makes you cry gives pleasure, new research finds. This might help to explain the enduring popularity of sad music. The results come from a study that tested the cathartic effect of sad music. Participants in the study were divided into two groups based on their responses to four questions: “While listening to music, how frequently do you (1) get goose bumps, (2) feel shivers down your spine, (3) feel like weeping, and (4) get a lump in your

The first study to show higher brain-signal diversity than normal when people are awake. Neuroscientists have found that the brain enters a ‘higher state of consciousness’ under the influence of psychedelic drugs. People given psilocybin, ketamine and LSD under controlled conditions displayed more diverse neural signalling — a measure of the complexity of brain activity. This is the first study to show higher brain-signal diversity than normal when people are awake. Professor Anil Seth, one of the study’s authors, said: “This finding shows that the brain-on-psychedelics behaves very differently from

Certain types of anxiety can cause massive ups and downs in relationships. Partners who have attachment issues cause considerable instability in their relationship, research finds. One type, known as ‘attachment anxiety’ by psychologists, involves see-sawing feelings. It is the same reason that babies cry when they are taken from their mothers. Around one in five people have an anxious attachment style. A classic sign is wildly have varying feelings about the relationship from one day to the next. People experiencing attachment anxiety spend a lot of time thinking about what

During slow-wave or deep sleep, the brain is cleared of waste products. A single night of disrupted sleep is enough to increase a brain protein linked to Alzheimer’s, new research shows. A full week of poor sleep causes increases in another brain protein that is also linked to Alzheimer’s. The findings may help to explain why poor sleep has been linked to Alzheimer’s. Professor David M. Holtzman, who led the study, said: “We showed that poor sleep is associated with higher levels of two Alzheimer’s-associated proteins. We think that perhaps