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This is the secret to living a longer, wiser and happier life; the key to a smarter, more productive, healthier you. Welcome to the power of the Downstate.In The Power of the Downstate, Sara C. Mednick PhD will show you how to achieve robust health, sustained productivity and brilliant thinking by maintaining balance and finding harmony with your natural rhythms. The Downstate is the time and space in which restoration and recuperation from the day-to-day stress of living take place. It's when our body can restore our most vital functions at a cellular level, including giving our heart, brain and metabolism a rest. In essence, it's our opportunity to plug ourselves into a metaphorical outlet and power back up. In this revolutionary book, you'll discover how to:· access the Downstate via four key approaches: parasympathetic nourishment, sleep, exercise and nutrition· engage in simple, quick activities that make you feel rested and full of energy, such as mindfulness and breathing exercises· restore your inner balance with the four-week Downstate Recovery Plan, rich with bite-sized, science-backed tools and techniquesMore of us than ever are overwhelmed by hectic lifestyles and worried we don't have the time or energy to deal with pressures of work, finances, family and health, but this book will show you how to help your life feel full, productive and exciting again - without making compromises. Find out how to be more alert, productive and cognitively sharp during the day, enjoy consolidated, restorative sleep at night, and achieve a long life filled with mental and physical vitality.

Leverage your built-in rhythms of Upstates and Downstates to enhance energy, sharpen thinking, balance moods, fuel fitness, and more. If you're like most people, the relentless daily grind of go-go-go, do-do-do, can run down your energy and deplete your resources. While most of us find our lives full of “Upstate” moments that rev up our stress engines, it doesn't have to be this way. World-renowned sleep researcher Sara C. Mednick, PhD, shows us how we can access the most replenishing and repairing aspects of sleep through activities and moments that happen during our day by diving into our “Downstate.” Dr. Mednick shows that bringing ourselves back to the Downstate is critical for our health, well-being, and cognitive longevity. Drawing on her original findings—and those of others across many fields of medicine—Dr. Mednick creates a comprehensive picture of the Upstate/Downstate rhythms that orchestrate all of our bodies'vital systems, along with a novel theory that aging is caused by spending less and less time in Downstate activities. The Power of the Downstate offers practical, evidence-based insight into how we can all enable those systems to work together in better harmony. You'll learn: How our bodies and minds are guided by a natural Upstate/Downstate rhythm—and how our modern lifestyles disrupt these rhythms to our detriment;How our vital organs and systems benefit from spending more time in the Downstate – which decreases the risk for Alzheimer's disease, chronic illness, and early death;How we can activate the Downstate through rethinking how to breathe, eat, sleep and exercise; andThe practical four-week Downstate RecoveryPlus Plan.Get ready to be more alert, productive, and cognitively sharp during the day, feel greater intimacy and affection, and enjoy consolidated, restorative sleep at night... not to mention expand your years of mental and physical vitality.

A fresh, science-backed approach to reframing our often damaging relationship with technology—with tips on ergonomics, optimal screen-time, combatting ‘brain drain', and more. Reclaim health, happiness, and sanity in a plugged-in world with this self-help guide for the 21st-century worker suffering from burnout, Zoom fatigue, shortened attention span, and smartphone addiction. Evolution shapes behavior—and as a species, we've evolved to be drawn to the instant gratification, constant connectivity, and the shiny lights, beeps, and chimes of our ever-present devices. In earlier eras, these hardwired evolutionary patterns may have set us up for success, but today they confuse our instincts, leaving us vulnerable and stressed out from fractured attention, missed sleep, skipped meals, aches, pains, and exhaustion. So how can we avoid the pitfalls programmed into modern technology use? Tech Stress offers real, practical tools to avoid the evolutionary traps that trip us up and to address the problems associated with technology overuse. You will find a range of effective strategies and best practices to individualize your workspace (in the office and at home), reduce physical strain, prevent sore muscles, combat brain drain, and correct poor posture. The book also provides fresh insights on reducing stress and enhancing health.