Want ideas on how to get a better night’s sleep?
Yang Chien-ming (楊建銘), a psychology professor at National Chengchi University, thinks more and more Taiwanese are asking this question, but not enough doctors and researchers are answering the call.
“There are many different doctors that take care of our body when we are awake, but not many who have an interest in what happens to our body when we fall asleep,” Yang said at a press conference yesterday prior to the International Sleep Symposium in Taipei this weekend.
Yang said this was unfortunate, because a growing number of people in Taiwan experience sleep disorders and insomnia.
“Sleep research is a relatively new field of study in Taiwan, but there is already a shortage of sleep therapists in clinics and hospitals,” Yang said.
Yang said some patients have to wait more than a week to see a doctor at a sleep clinic.
To solve this problem, Yang would like to see more Taiwanese doctors and researchers integrate their knowledge of the study of sleep.
For instance, Hsu Ya-chuan (徐雅娟), a graduate student at National Yang-Ming University and one of the few sleep researchers in the country, looks at the impact of 30-minute naps on the nervous system.
By studying the napping habits of 22 male university students aged 20 to 30, she found that if someone with a regular, afternoon napping pattern suddenly changes their nap habits, it could cause a disturbance in their nervous system, affecting work performance and emotions for the rest of the afternoon.
Hsu said the results of her research could serve as a guide for companies, schools and individuals on whether to support regular napping sessions.
A total lunar eclipse coinciding with the Lantern Festival on March 3 would be Taiwan’s most notable celestial event this year, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said, urging skywatchers not to miss it. There would be four eclipses worldwide this year — two solar eclipses and two lunar eclipses — the museum’s Web site says. Taiwan would be able to observe one of the lunar eclipses in its entirety on March 3. The eclipse would be visible as the moon rises at 5:50pm, already partly shaded by the Earth’s shadow, the museum said. It would peak at about 7:30pm, when the moon would
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday held a ceremony marking the delivery of its 11th Anping-class offshore patrol vessel Lanyu (蘭嶼艦), saying it would boost Taiwan’s ability to respond to Beijing’s “gray zone” tactics. Ocean Affairs Council Deputy Minister Chang Chung-Lung (張忠龍) presided over the CGA event in the Port of Kaoshiung. Representatives of the National Security Council also attended the event. Designed for long-range and protracted patrol operations at sea, the Lanyu is a 65.4m-long and 14.8m-wide ship with a top speed of 44 knots (81.5kph) and a cruising range of 2,000 nautical miles (3704km). The vessel is equipped with a
DEFENSE: The US should cancel the US visas or green cards of relatives of KMT and TPP lawmakers who have been blocking the budget, Grant Newsham said A retired US Marine Corps officer has suggested canceling the US green cards and visas of relatives of opposition Taiwanese lawmakers who have been stalling the review of a proposed NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.7 billion) special defense budget. The Executive Yuan has proposed the budget for major weapons purchases over eight years, from this year to 2033. However, opposition lawmakers have refused to review the proposal, demanding that President William Lai (賴清德) first appear before the Legislative Yuan to answer questions about the proposed budget. On Thursday last week, 37 bipartisan US lawmakers sent a letter to Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the heads
Two siblings in their 70s were injured yesterday when they opened a parcel and it exploded, police in Yilan said, adding the brother and sister were both in stable condition. The two siblings, surnamed Hung (洪), had received the parcel two days earlier but did not open it until yesterday, the first day of the Lunar New Year holiday in Taiwan, police said. Chen Chin-cheng (陳金城), head of the Yilan County Government Police Bureau, said the package bore no postmark or names and was labeled only with the siblings’ address. Citing the findings of a
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