Fun things

[phinnia]

My class this evening was cancelled. This probably means that the presentation I had to do on Tuesday is now to be done on Thursday. *breathes sigh of relief*

Sean's vision therapist sent home something about a sleep study they're doing at one of the local med colleges with blind kids. Apparently there is some basis in fact for blind people to experience 'sleep drift' - you know, like Sean does oh, all the damn time, where he occasionally tries to go to sleep later and later and later and then his parents want to sell him by the pound on eBay ..? Something about the pineal gland and regulation by sunlight due to decreased light perception. And they've had some success with treating this using melatonin. So this is part of a study to chart the sleep drift and possibly also use the melatonin. Either way it sounds awesome and they may just keep him at the sleep center for a night or two, enabling myself and Chris to have a nice night with no boy. I am stoked. I'm calling them in the morning. I hope they take him, because that would just be neat. <sciencegeek>

Other things in Seaners' bag today: Mother's day 'card' (purple construction paper flower with picture), very cute little orange construction paper crown hat, paper bag puppet.

And whoever it was (I think it was reannon) who told me to read 'On Writing' by Stephen King? THANK YOU. It's excellent.

Comments

[kengr]

I can see that sort of thing "fitting". Most folks have biological clock that has a "free running" cycle (ie the wake sleep cycle they get with no outside cues as to time) that is longer than 24 hours. Some notably longer.

And there's lots of evidence that *bright* light resets the clock.

So yeah, I can see why that'd apply to the kidlet.

Hope it works.

[phinnia.livejournal.com]

It's one of those things that I kept HEARING and was a little skeptical about (I tend to be skeptical about a lot of that type of thing - filing it into the 'blind people have better hearing' camp until I find some actual concrete factual information to go with). I'm really glad they're doing the study though. It's at OHSU (you might have guessed). I haven't dealt with them before, this should be fun. :-)

[kengr]

Well, the "longer than 24 hour cycles" and "light resetting the clock" are both pretty well confirmed.

So they are studying the one unconfirmed idea. Does blindess interfere with the resetting?

Should be interesting to see the results of the study.

[erigeneia.livejournal.com]

Oh that is too cool! I read somewhere once (no, I can't cite sources) that the average circadian rhythm is a bit over 24 hours. So there's no reason we shouldn't shift, especially if we're not seeing the light cycles. That is so awesome! If he ends up going, will you please please tell me what they find out?

[phinnia.livejournal.com]

Of course! :-D I'm excited too. I really hope they take him. I'm calling in the morning, hopefully they'll be able to tell me more then.

[poopsmoothie.livejournal.com]

yeah, that's a good, good book.

[phinnia.livejournal.com]

I sat down and read the whole thing start to finish today. And I almost never do that.

[calya.livejournal.com]

ON Writing is an excellent book, and it has certainly been of great help and inspiration to me. I'm glad you found it to your liking as well.

[phelyan.livejournal.com]

I think I've advocated melatonin before, haven't I? It's really good against jet lag as well...

[phinnia.livejournal.com]

There's no real dosage for his age and weight that's been proven to work. That's part of what they're studying, actually. :-)