Richard Wiseman's Blog, page 20

How to wake up feeling great…..

Here is the latest Night School video showing how the 90 minute rule can help you to wake up feeling great!

 

Answer to the Friday Puzzle….

On Friday I posted this puzzle….

A boy and a girl are chatting.

“I am a boy”, said the child with black hair.

“I am a girl”, said the child with white hair.

At least one of them lied. What colour hair does the boy have?

 

If you have not tried to solve it, have a go now.  For everyone else, the answer is after the break.

Both the boy and the girl must have lied, and therefore the boy has white hair.

I have produced an ebook containing 101 of the previous Friday Puzzles! It is called PUZZLED and is available for the Kindle (UK here and USA here) and on the iBookstore (UK here in the USA here). You can try 101 of the puzzles for free here.

It’s the Friday Puzzle!

First, we have just released this fun video about the psychology of yawning.  Hope you enjoy it.

So, to the puzzle. Please do NOT post your answer, but do say if you think you have solved the puzzle and how long it took. Solution on Monday.

A boy and a girl are chatting.

“I am a boy”, said the child with black hair.

“I am a girl”, said the child with white hair.

At least one of them lied. What colour hair does the boy have?

 

I have produced an ebook containing 101 of the previous Friday Puzzles! It is called PUZZLED and is available for the Kindle (UK here and USA here) and on the iBookstore (UK here in the USA here). You can try 101 of the puzzles for free here.

7 surprising facts about sleep and dreaming

My new book on sleep and dreaming, Night School, is published today.  It has been 2 years in the making and so I am very excited to see it out there!  Based on research, mass-participation experiments and the world’s largest archive of dream reports, it reveals how to…

…get the best night’s sleep of your life

…discover what your dreams really mean

…learn information while you sleep

….banish jet-lag, nightmares and snoring

To give you a flavour of the material, here are 7 surprising facts about sleep and dreaming…

1) If you want to feel sleepy when you head to bed …

Banish the blues: Blue light from computer screen and smartphones keeps you awake.  Try turning down the screen brightness or wearing glasses with amber-tinted lenses for two to three hours before you go the bed.

2)  If you want to fall asleep quickly…

Use positive imagery and the paradox principle: First, imagine yourself in a very pleasant scenario. Make the scenario as detailed as possible, but avoid anything that’s too exciting, perhaps planning your dream holiday or thinking about your perfect evening out. If that doesn’t work, try to stay awake. Strange as it sounds, forcing yourself to actually remain awake is one of the best ways of nodding off.

3) If you lie in bed feeling worried …

The list: If you have a lot on your mind, make a list of all of the things that you have to do the next day. If you are worrying about something specific, jot that down too and try to allow the thought to drift through your mind, rather than focusing on it.

 4) If you wake up in the middle of the night …

The jigsaw method: You might be experiencing a perfectly natural phenomenon known as ‘segmented sleep’, where people sleep in two long blocks, with a gap of roughly thirty minutes between them. However, if you lie awake for more than twenty minutes, get up and do something non-stimulating for a few minutes, such as working on a jigsaw.

5) If you want to help overcome jet lag…..

Book flights following the simple adage, ‘Fly east, fly early. Fly west, fly late’.

 6) If you are experiencing a recurring nightmare, or bad dream …

Imagery rehearsal therapy: Spend some time during the day describing your nightmare, creating a different ending for the episode, and then imagining this new and improved ending. Studies show that this simple technique stops nightmares 90 per cent of the time.

 7) If you want to gain an insight into your concerns and worries …

Dream work:Describe a striking dream in detail, look for ways in which it applies to your life, and then use this as the basis for change. Research shows that around 80 per cent of people find that this yields an important insight into their concerns.

 I hope you enjoy Night School!  You can buy the book in the UK here and in the US here.

 

 

Sooooooo unfortunate……

I am a big fan of terrible layout errors like this…..

 

 

There are loads more over on this website. Enjoy. Oh, and my Night School book is out tomorrow.

Dogs watch magic trick

First, my new book, Night School, is out in a couple of days and there is a nice article about how to get a better night’s sleep here.

Second, lots of people sent me this and I like it lots.  Ladies and gentlemen, I give you dogs watching magic tricks…..

 

Answer to the Friday Puzzle…

On Friday I posted this puzzle….

How many triangles are hidden in this image?

If you have not tried to solve it, have a go now.  For everyone else, the answer is after the break.

48! How did you solve it?

I have produced an ebook containing 101 of the previous Friday Puzzles! It is called PUZZLED and is available for the Kindle (UK here and USA here) and on the iBookstore (UK here in the USA here). You can try 101 of the puzzles for free here.

It’s the Friday Puzzle!

Please do NOT post your answer, but do say if you think you have solved the puzzle and how long it took. Solution on Monday.

How many triangles are hidden in this image?

I have produced an ebook containing 101 of the previous Friday Puzzles! It is called PUZZLED and is available for the Kindle (UK here and USA here) and on the iBookstore (UK here in the USA here). You can try 101 of the puzzles for free here.

Bear in a queue

Lancelot sent me this and I have been laughing at it all day.

Stunning contact juggling

@jbrownridge brought my attention to this yesterday  - and boy is it good! Enjoy.