SciAm A Day in the Life of You

there is such a thing as brain food.The guts of the day: Getting down to business. 1:00 P.M. to 4:00 P.M.1:00 P.M. The tired brain.Partial recall: Why memory fades with age.Can you help your brain stay young(er)?Predicting Alzheimer's disease.How forgetting is good for the brain.Asleep at the wheel-almost? It could be narcolepsy.1:54 P.M. Just time for a six-minute power nap.2:00 P.M. Bored bored bored.Can't get no satisfaction? Maybe it's ADHD.ADHD and risk taking could be good--sometimes.Wired and hooked: Addicted to technology.3:00 P.M. Your pain is mainly in the brain.How pain hurts your brain.Mind under matter, mind over brain.Is hypnosis real?A window into traumatic forgetting.4:00 P.M. Exercise your brain.Exercise grows neurons and improves memory.Why we get food cravings.The most dangerous time for teens.The teen brain is still changing.But don't forget hormones.Time out: Letting go and coming home. 5 P.M. to 8 P.M.5:00 P.M. The dimming of the day.Is it really depression? Or just a bad patch?Searching for the pathway to depression.Maybe you're just SAD.Magnetic energy may work when meds fail.A peak time for suicide.Good grief: Addicted to grieving.6:00 P.M. Coming home.An oxytocin high.Nobody home? Loneliness hurts.Oh, those comforting cravings. Or is it addiction?Bottoms up: Where many alcoholics end.Is addiction the result rather than the cause of brain damage?Still crazy after all these years? Aging isn't stopping drug use.7:00 P.M. Gotta sing, gotta dance.The musical path to the brain.Music survives brain damage.Your brain expands to store music.So you think you can dance?Born to rock.The creative brain.Right brain, left brain?Don't oversimplify that right brain stuff.The musical ear is learned, not born.8:00 P.M. Humor is healthy.The best medicine.Tracking your internal laugh track.TV addiction is no mere metaphor.Winding down: Fear, sex, sleep, and dreams. 9:00 P.M. to Midnight.9:00 P.M. Things that go bump in the night.How fear works in your brain.Who's afraid? Not these brain cells.When the brain decides it's time to scram.The many parts of a violent brain.10:00 P.M. Lust, sex, and love.You've got that loving feeling . . . .Your brain on sex.Women, men, and orgasms: How alike are they?Does the penis have a brain of its own?What's love got to do with it? Plenty, it turns out-for women.Are you born gay? Sexual orientation is biology, not choice.11:00 P.M. Falling asleep.The five stages of sleep.Insomnia: Curse of the night.Perhaps less is more?Interrupted sleep? Don't call it insomnia. It's normal.Call me sleepless.Still awake? Can you catch up on lost sleep?Is insomnia worse for night owls?Midnight. Sleeping in the midnight hour.Strolling in your sleep.Drifting into dreamland.Was Freud right about dreams?Do banished thoughts resurface in dreams?Want to dream more? Try sleep deprivation.Night crew at work: 1:00 A.M. to 4:00 A.M.1:00 A.M. Night crew at work.Cleaning up your neural garbage.Why your brain doesn't take a break already.The 10 percent myth.2:00 A.M. Going against the clock in your brain.Disasters on the night shift.Lack of sleep affects doctors as much as alcohol.Less sleep? More fat.Biorhythm and blues: Faulty clocks.Resetting your body clock.3:00 A.M. Awake and anxious.Where the nightmare begins.A false alarm.That pill to fix your ills has a price.3:30 A.M. Night nurse on duty.4:00 A.M. Last sleep.4:30 A.M. Awake so early?Your brain tomorrow.Sources.Glossary.About the Author.Index.

serotonin. The explanations are easy to read, and they incorporate anecdotes and callouts that deftly explain neuroscientific content. VERDICT Appealing to lay scientists, Scientific American readers, and all those interested in how to care for their brain as it matures and ages, this book will be a popular science title. ( Library Journal )