Extensive Listening: Week 4
Another lecture from TED Talks
and
An introduction on how to write a
summary
Purpose?

What's been our purpose in our listenings so
far?
Purpose Today:

To write a summary

How do we write a summary?
Our Listening
Russell Foster
“Why do we sleep?”
Why you should listen to him
“Much as your ear does double duty (balance
plus hearing), Russell Foster posits that the
eye has two jobs: creating vision, but also -as a completely separate function -managing our perception of light and dark,
providing the clues that our circadian
rhythms need to regulate sleep-wake cycles.
He and his team at the University of Oxford
are exploring a third kind of photoreceptor
in the eye: not a rod or a cone but a
photosensitive retinal ganglion cell (pRGC)
that detects light/dark and feeds that
information to the circadian system.
As Foster explains: 'Embedded within our
genes, and almost all life on Earth, are the
instructions for a biological clock that marks
the passage of approximately 24 hours.' Light
and dark help us synchronize this inner clock
with the outside world.
The research on light perception hits home as
we age -- faced with fading vision, we also
risk disrupted sleep cycles, which have very
serious consequences, including lack of
concentration, depression and cognitive
decline. The more we learn about how our
eyes and bodies create our sleep cycles, the
more seriously we can begin to take sleep as
a therapy.” (Taken from www.ted.com)
Okay, now write a summary!
The summary I wrote...
In the TED Talk called “Why do We Sleep” presented by
Russell Foster we learn how important sleep's role in
our life is, and why we should make sleep an important
part of our lives. He begins by reminding us that sleep
was regarded important in the past before the
invention of the light bulb, but today we despise sleep
and consider it a sickness. There are some theories that
explain why sleep is so important. He believes that the
restoration and brain processing that happens during
sleep are both good and proven theories. However,
we are living in a time when people are not getting
much sleep and its affecting us in many ways. It is
causing us to have poor judgment, use drugs and
caffeine, gain weight, and be overly stressed. The stress
in itself can cause many problems.
He then tells us how to know if we are sleep
deprived, and how to get a good nights rest. We
mostly need to make our bedrooms comfortable
places and avoid caffeine and bright lights right
before bed. Myths about sleep exist too and need to
be addressed. His last major point discusses recent
findings on sleep and mental illness. Actual
connections of genes have been found between
mental illness and a lack of sleep, and he hopes that
we can use this information to help those who suffer
from it. Overall this lecture hopes to change our
opinion about sleep and inform us on the dangers of
sleep deprivation.
Listen For and Make Guesses

What does Shakespeare say about sleep?

What does Margaret Thatcher say about sleep?

What's the hypothalamus? What's it do?

What's jet lag?

Explain his “Sleep for Dummies”

Give a definition of sleep disruption

What do you think schizophrenia is?
Homework


This week you will write a journal entry
about a lecture that you listen to
Also write this same listening on your listening
log. You do not need to write much info there as
you are already writing a journal entry