How happy is happy enough?

[Litany]

Morning people and night owls have to do more with the food you eat and your normal schedule.

What do you base that on?

I use to share a lab with a circadian rhythms groups. I can assure you all the test animals were getting the same diet and none of them were sneaking coffee. They did, however, exhibit variation in their clock genes.

My current place of employment conducts regular sleep studies. There are genetic differences between early and late risers and diet isn't going to change that.

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/27268/Can-you-reset-your-body-clock-

 

[blurricus]

You'd really be surprised how much food can affect your body. I worked in a university lab for a while doing tests on people's heartrates, brain activity, temperature adjustment, and other stuff that I didn't really know about. I volunteered for the study (got paid for it) too. A change of diet according to different bloodtypes and habits helped a lot of people. Also, the idea of excercising immediately in the morning and half-an-hour before sleep worked wonders. The night owls that got up in the morning and did jumping jacks, push-ups, sit-ups, and crunches had a more brain activity and a healthier heart-rate than the morning people. In the opposite way, they also had an easier time going to bed when they excercised a half-hour before sleep and had a warm glass of milk a few minutes before crawling into bed.

But then again, I'm not much for milk and my method of forcing people to become morning people is to play the didjeradu or wormie them until they wake up. It doesn't make them chipper, but it makes them wake-up fast.

 

[Litany]

But that's still not altering someone's natural circadian rhythm. Plus there's only a very small number of people that are truly early birds or night owls. The rest of us are in the middle of the distribution and minor shifts in either direction due to improved sleep hygiene aren't significant.

Sure, you can work with what you've got and make your morning struggle easier by exercising, that's not news. And you can improve your sleep by improving your sleep hygiene, again old news, but neither will change your natural rhythm. Hormonal changes throughout your life will have an effect on whether you're an early or late riser, but yet again that's chemical and not down to how many milky drinks you've been chugging.

I'm sorry but this statement...

Morning people and night owls have to do more with the food you eat and your normal schedule.

...is bunkum.

 

[saliotthomas]

Anyway the question was not about what happyness is,but the amount of it we need to be fulfilled.Witch is never enough,in my view.Because being satiated mean been dead intellectualy,there always a dream ahead,an unread book,a little bit more one can reach for.The pursuit of happyness is happyness itself,and it's fulfillement is negation.

 

[SFG75]

Anyway the question was not about what happyness is,but the amount of it we need to be fulfilled.Witch is never enough,in my view.Because being satiated mean been dead intellectualy,there always a dream ahead,an unread book,a little bit more one can reach for.The pursuit of happyness is happyness itself,and it's fulfillement is negation.

I have always admired those whose chaos is their order. There's just something about people who thrive in high intense situations, who have a constant nagging feeling about what they "should be" doing, but aren't. Gotta admire that.

 

[saliotthomas]

Thanks for the "fast and furious" sticker but i'm not sure i diserve it.
I guess my posts must sometime sound like clichés.

I meant that even normal people,with ordered lives have an aspiration to been more of what they wish to be or think they are.By reading a book they discover more of themself,by a deed or an act they fullfill more what they feel they are here to do.And by doing so are granted a certain degree of happyness.
It is said that the 20's are the best years of one life,in a spastic way maybe. I felt unsure of my choices,of what i wanted to be,very self-conscious.With the years i got more confident,more determined,and eventually happier.
So i don't think i shall ever be happy enought,without being a wild and chaotic man.Every one of us as his own way and it's the way that matters, not the goal.

 

[BeerWench13]

Only you can answer your original question. I don't think people who are always aspiring to be more are necessarily unhappy, just driven. Conversely, those who seem to be content with life as it is are not necessarily happy either. There are many things that drive a person to be more or do more. Some people are thinkers and some are doers. Again, I think it depends on the personality of each individual.

I have many aspirations that I have yet to fulfill and hope to always have more and more. I'm famous for saying to my hubby -usually after having discussed some crazy fantasy of mine- that if I stop dreaming I die.

 

[silverseason]

Isn't happiness really just a chemical reaction in the brain as are all other emotions?

This is not a small issue. If we can make people happy chemically, why bother to change any of the conditions - starvation, disease, loss of loved ones - which might otherwise make them unhappy.