ssues & ideas EDITOR JES HOVANES THE VOICE, THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 2015 7 Unexpected effects of the everyday TV bingeing bad Turning to the boob-tube to cope with stress doesn’t provide the desired relief By ETHAN REYES ith whole seasons of content Wi: available immediately like House of Cards, on Netflix, stressed Langara students may use TV to escape more than ever. “Youre going to be stressed no mat- ter what,” said Langara general studies student Kelsey Dawes, who said anxi- ety for students is unavoidable. For admitted ‘binge-watchers’ like Dawes, stress can increase consump- tion of television. According to a study entitled “Chil- dren’s coping after psychological stress. Choices among food, physical activity, and television,” by Katherine Balantekin and James Roemmich from the Department of Pediatrics at Univer- sity at Buffalo. “Television is one of the most com- monly reported coping behaviours [for stress],” as it provides an effective es- cape mechanism, said the study. Only easily stressed children who watched above-average levels of television in- creased their viewing times when stressed further. The study shows that television also kept the children from exercising, a proven stress reducer. Dawes said that while she does hold movie marathons to relax, she also em- phasises the importance of spending time with a trusted group of friends. “For big things that really affect your life... it’s good to have a support sys- tem,” said Dawes, who found hers in her church youth group. She said that even her youth pastor watches too much television from time to time. “He’s 27 but he watches Once Upon a Time,” said Dawes. “He worships it; it’s absolutely hilarious.” By TANYA COMMISSO tudents can cut back their irritability and lack of sleep by pushing back the screen time before bed, according to experts. A study posted on the National Sleep Foundation website suggests that pushing back school start times to 8:30 am. can help to combat sleep deprivation among teens and students. If school begins any earlier, teens’ sleep patterns are disrupted. Telsa Atkinson, an arts and science diploma student at Langara College, attends a history class at 8:30 a.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays. She said she finds the start time to be the happy A student takes a nap on a bench at Langara College. TANYA COMMISSO photo ggression Kept-awake rats bit more researchers than their well-rested friends medium between too early and too late. “T find that ’'m sharper when I get up around 7 a.m. to make it for my 8:30 a.m. class,” she said. “If I sleep in any more or less, I end up feeling foggy in my classes.” Based on studies conducted on both animals and people, sleep deprivation is linked to increased irritability. Irritability can lead to aggressive behaviour, said psychology professor Ralph Mistlberger, who runs the Circa- dian Rhythms and Sleep Laboratory at Simon Fraser University. “If you look at studies done on rats, they’re more likely to take a bite out of your finger when they’re deprived of sleep,” Mistlberger said. Mistlberger said he suggests that avoiding bright light emitted from laptops and smartphones two hours before bed is an effective method of sleep hygiene training - a method of behavioural practice designed to promote better sleep quality. He recommended downloading computer applications that adjust mon- itor brightness to reflect the time of day. For example, f.lux dims your screen to a warm tone during the evening. “Light exposure is the worst thing about modern life,” he said, citing light as responsible for regulating sleep in the morning and disrupting the natural sleep-wake cycle at bedtime. SLEEP deprivation 1 2 Causes decreased performance at work and school Increases the risk of heart problems and migraines Is related to obesity, diabetes, hypertension and depression Source: National Sleep Foundation BRYAN Mc GOVERN photo Students Joanna Tran and Thomas Jones were spotted cuddling in the Students’ Union Building. Science shows cuddling really can be a buzz kill A new study shows that snuggling counters the bodily effects of alcohol By BRYAN Mc GOVERN from cuddling might also kill our buzz, literally. New research conducted at the Uni- versity of Sydney and published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has discovered that small levels of oxytocin, the cuddle hormone, can reduce the effects of al- cohol in the brain. In an interview with Science Daily, Dr. Michael Bowen, lead author of the study, said oxytocin prevents alcohol from accessing the sector of the brain that causes intoxication. In the study, rats were put into a drunken state and then given a coordi- nation test. Those that were served a combination of alcohol and oxytocin passed the test. This “sobering-up” effect could lead to the use of the hormone in new treat- ments for alcohol-use disorders that target this mechanism, according to the study. Langara College biology instructor Chris Conway found the study interest- ing, but ridiculous. He said he worried about the negative effects that intro- Te: warm fuzzy feeling we get ducing a hormone like oxytocin could have on the human body. “Tinkering with hormones is always a little bit risky,” said Conway. Langara College biology department chair Mario Moniz de Sa agreed there are dangers with introducing oxytocin into the fine balance of hormones in the human body. “You should never play around [with] hormones in your body,” Moniz de Sa said. According to the study, the sobering effect of oxytocin has yet to be shown in humans. And it will not change blood alcohol level. The potential of presenting the brain with a hormone grown outside the body could have other effects that con- cern Conway. “It could be positive in dealing with alcohol but might be negative for other things,” he said. He also wondered what researchers plan to do with their findings. “If you’re telling me that the one positive so far is that it reduces the ef- fects of alcohol I would just say stop drinking as much alcohol.” Paul Sunga, Langara College biology instructor, said the purpose of the re- search is to find all the effects of oxyto- cin in this case. “All this research in animals and in humans just gives us [a] better base of understanding so we know what these hormones do,” said Sunga.