Studies are showing that insomnia may alleviate depression. This has been documented in over 1,700 patients in more than 75 published papers during the last 40 years. Sleep deprivation can elevate your mood even if you are not depressed, and can induce euphoria. The results are not well known outside of a small group of sleep researchers because it's not as convenient as taking a pill. Prolonged sleep deprivation is also not desirable, and can lead to cognitive defects like reduced working memory and impaired decision making. J. Christian Gillin from the University of California at San Diego and the San Diego Veterans Affairs Medical Center, found that a small area of the cerebral cortex in the front of the brain was consistently overactive in depressed patients, but it quieted to normal levels when patients were deprived of sleep, relieving depression. Scans suggest that something happens in the sleeping brain that can bring on episodes of depression. Genetic studies have shown families who have extended REM sleep have a greater risk of depression. One major class of antidepressants, tricyclics, blocks REM sleep, which suggests that sleep deprivation may work against depression the same way.
Source: New York Times
There was a worldwide increase in anti-Semitic attacks following Israel's 2009 incursion into Gaza. According to the Stephen Roth Institute for the study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism and Racism, the UK saw 374 violent attacks against Jews compared to 118 in 2008, while France had 195 attacks compared to 50 in 2008. Four percent, or 41 instances, were armed assaults, 15 percent were weaponless assaults, three percent (34 instances) were arson, and 29 percent were threats of violence against Jews and Jewish institutions. The UK and France led the chart primarily because the countries are home to Europe's largest Jewish and Muslim communities, according to Roni Stauber, a researcher at the institute. For 2009, the institute also recorded 138 violent attacks against Jews in Canada, 116 in the US, 33 in Germany, 28 in Belgium, and 22 in Austria.
Source: Haaretz.com
The US Army will court martial a lieutenant colonel who refused to deploy to Afghanistan, who claimed that orders from President Obama are “illegal.” Army doctor, Lieutenant Colonel Terry Lakin, believes Obama was not born in the United States and so does not meet constitutional requirements to be president and commander-in-chief. "I believe all servicemen and women, and the American people, deserve the truth about President Obama's constitutional eligibility to the office of the presidency and the commander in chief," he said in a video statement posted on YouTube on March 30.
Source: MSNBC.com
