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If you’re failing math, you might think that you just need to study harder. If you’re not performing your best at sports, you might think you just need to practice more. But in both cases what you really might need is more sleep. Consider why.

Why do you need sleep?

• Sleep sharpens your mental skills. Sleep has been called “food for the brain”. It can help you improve at school, at sports, and in your problem-solving skills.
• Sleep improves your attitude and mood. Sleep-deprived people are more likely to experience mood swings, feel sad or depressed, and have problems getting along with others.
• Sleep makes you a safer driver. A study in the United States revealed that drivers aged 16 to 24 were “nearly twice as likely to be drowsy at the time of their crash” when compared with drivers aged 40 to 59.
• Sleep promotes better health. Sleep helps your body maintain and repair its cells, tissues, and blood vessels. Quality sleep can also lower your risk of obesity, diabetes, and stroke.

WHAT IS KEEPING YOU UP?

Despite the benefits we have mentioned, many teenagers aren’t getting the sleep they need. This is what some of them say:

• Social life. «It´s too easy to stay up late and waste time, especially on nights when I go out with friends»
• Responsibilities. «I love to sleep, but it’s hard to get enough with such a busy schedule»
• Technology. «My phone is a big reason I neglect my sleep. It’s hard to resist looking at it when I’m in bed»

How can you get more sleep?

• Check your viewpoint about sleep.

Sleep is a necessity, not a luxury. Without it, the quality of your work, and even the quality of your fun, will plummet!

• Identify your biggest obstacle to sleep.

For example, do you stay out late with friends? Do you feel overloaded with homework and chores? Does your mobile phone keep you up past your bedtime or wake you up after you´ve gone to sleep?

• Give yourself time to unwind.

If you start relaxing before it´s time to go to bed, you will likely fall asleep more quickly.

• Be proactive.

Rather than allow your circumstances to control you, take control of your schedule so that you get the sleep you need.

• Strive for consistency.

Your body´s internal clock will work for you, but only if you train it. Experts suggest that you go to bed and wake up at the same time each day. Try it for a month, and see how much better you feel.

• Let your phone “sleep” too!

For at least an hour before bedtime, resist the urge to browse the internet or send late-night texts to your friends. In fact, some experts warn that the type of light that comes from a phone, a TV, or a tablet can make it harder for you to get to sleep.

By Alicia Martínez (English and German Teacher at AIT)

En el artículo de esta semana os traemos una recomendación literaria que no os podéis perder: «The Grass is Singing» de Doris Lessing.

Reading an interesting book has always been a pleasure for bookworms.

On one hand it is a way to see the world through the eyes of another person, to live in another reality just for the moment you want or to be another person for some time.

Reading can be done anywhere and it prevents boredom and promotes relaxation.

On the other hand, it encompasses a wide range of genres and includes both fiction and non-fiction.

• Fiction: Novels, short stories, jokes, comics, poetry, lyrics, plays and scripts
• Non-fiction: Reference books, newsletters, letters, emails, biographies, memoirs, newspapers, magazines, websites

Today I would like to talk about a novel called “The grass is singing”. This novel was written by British Nobel Prize-winning author Doris Lessing. It was her first novel, published in 1950.

The novel begins with a newspaper clipping about the death of Mary Turner, a white woman, killed off by her black servant Moses for money. The news actually acts like an omen for other white people living in that African setting. After looking at the article, people behave as if the murder was very much expected. The bulk of the novel is a flashback of Mary Turner’s life up to her murder at the hand of Moses in the last chapter.

When you usually read a murder mystery novel you expect to know the name of the murder at the very end after going through the whole novel. But not in this novel as you know it from the very beginning and the author leads you through the protagonist´s miserable life on her husband´s unsuccessful farm.

If you prefer watching the film click on the following link and enjoy it: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3dohon

Once you start one cannot stop reading!

By H. Adjei, English and French teacher at AIT Language School

Hoy os traemos unos consejos muy útiles para mejorar tu salud. ¡Seguro que si los sigues, notas la diferencia!

*Disclaimer: I’m neither a doctor nor a health-care professional. This article was written by me as a result for research on reliable sources that I’ll link down below.

In this article I’m going to talk about six ways to improve your health. So, if you’re interested in improving you overall health, here are some ways to do it:

• If you care for your brain, sleep for 8 hours. It has been shown that having a good rest contributes to your productivity during the day, helps you to have loads of energy, improves your concentration level and even helps boost your metabolism to burn fat if you’re trying to lose weight.
• If you care for your blood circulation, massage your feet with oil before going to bed. Apart from improving circulation, stimulating muscles it also helps to reduce tension and ease pain off your feet.
• If you care for your stomach, avoid cold food. Cold should be avoided because it reduces stimulation of gastric fluids. Eating cold foods may result in contraction and poor blood circulation in the digestive system, leading to indigestion.
• If you care for your liver, avoid excessive fatty food. Eating excess fat creates a build up in the liver. When the liver does not process and break 
  down fats, as it normally should, people tend to develop fatty liver and other conditions such as obesity or diabetes. 
• If you care for you intestines, replace junk food for vegetables.  Junk food tends to just lie there in your stomach because we aren’t genetically programmed to easily digest this kind of food. Whereas vegetables help to cleanse the gut and the whole digestive system. 
• If you care for you kidney and heart, drink a lot of water during the day and less water during the night. You should also make sure to empty you bladder before going to bed.  Drinking water too close to bedtime can interrupt your sleep cycle and negatively impact the heart health. Withholding urine during sleep can cause the bladder to double its size and can eventually lead to a loose bladder, which causes involuntary urine release on the long run. Nevertheless, you must drink enough water throughout the day to avoid dehydration.

Hopefully this article is useful to each and every one of you!

Links of research sources:

www.sharecare.com (How does junk food affect the digestives system)

www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au (The Liver)

www.thedailystar.net.cdn.ampproject.org (How the cold affects the stomach)

www.health.harvard.edu (How the urinary system works)

www.ba-bamail.com (The benefits of acupressure)