Learning Challenge, Sleep: Pt. 4

This week, I continue to learn more about sleep during the learning challenge. I was not able to complete this last week because I was slightly sick, and funny enough, I ended up sleeping 14-17 hours a day because of how tired I was. In order to learn more about sleep, this week I read: 10 Proven Ways Teachers Can Improve Their Sleep by Sarah Marsh.

The article delves into some interesting details about sleep. Some of them are more obvious, such as not keeping lights on before one goes to bed and not drinking caffeine too often before bed, but there are also more subtle ones such as consistency in bed times and the optimal room temperature of 65 F. I personally learned more about the finer details this week, one interesting one was exercising in the morning as opposed to the night.

There are interesting implications to all of these, and I'm considering trying as many as I can. One thing that would be interesting is how ingestion of melatonin affects sleep. Many of the people I know buy melatonin capsules, and will take one before going to bed as it can often help, but I wonder if it makes your body more immune to natural melatonin, and whether or not that makes it harder to sleep.

Melatonin is a drug released by the body to signal that it is time to rest. Source: Wikipedia

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Wikipedia Trail: From Indra to Pressure

This week, I researched more into Indra, the Thunder God, and followed a Wikipedia Trail that lead me to scientific pressure. My starting point: Indra, the Thunder God . Indra is a deity in Hindi and Buddhist texts, and he is often thought of as the Thunder God, God of the heavens, rains, lightning, and rivers flowing. He is known for defeating Vritra, a serpent monster associated with the drought, and he is seen in high regard. Also mentioned on his page is: Thor , the Norse God of Thunder. Thor is known for his red hair, beard, and his hammer that he wields. There is thought to be a parallel between Thor and Indra based on their hair color, and different weapons they wield that are considered to be signature items. Thor wields his hammer while Indra wields a thunderbolt named Vajra. Mentioned on Thor's page is: Thunder . This one should seem obvious, but an interesting thing about thunder is that while it is often considered to be connected to lightning in some way, it is a...

Week 10 Story: The Wise and Foolish Trader

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Week 6: Reading Notes, Mahabharata A

This week, we start reading a new Indian class, the Mahabharata, I chose to read the PDE (public domain edition) again, and this serves as notes for the first twenty stories within the epic. During the reading of the Ramayana, I would pre-read the plot on Wikipedia, this time, I will try to read only the PDE first, then the Wikipedia story if necessary. One thing that immediately stuck out was the high character turnover, compared to the Ramayana. In the Ramayana, there were not too many different characters, and the plot seemed to revolve around the characters. In contrast, the Mahabharata seems to have the characters revolve around a different plot. This seems to highlight the role that karma and the Gods play in the fate of the other people as their wills are shaped to the God's destiny. A second thing that stuck out was the role of curses in this story as well. In the ninth story of the PDE, "Pandu and His Wives", there is a similar role of a character killing som...

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