Blackberry = Freedom?

How telling! Fours year ago this observation appeared in Men's Health: “You rush out and buy a Blackberry thinking that you'll be able to email and phone people from wherever you happen to be. Suddenly, everywhere will be your office. Within about a week the reality sets in. You're fiddling with the thing all day long, including right before you go to bed. It would be a useful device if you'd turn it off at about 6 p.m. and didn't turn it on again until about 8 a.m., but that's never going to happen.”

Loud Noise is Harmful

Too much information or communication, especially when it’s loud can harm you. The health effects of sound may, literally, echo through our bodies. A study in the Journal of Occupational Health took nighttime readings on workers who were exposed to loud sounds during the day.

The workers' sleep quality was poor, their nighttime heart rates never dropped as low as those of people not exposed to noise, and their cortisol levels were still elevated the following morning.

Caregiver Info You Can Use

Bottom Line Personal, a publication of Boardroom Reports, offers a most useful list: a Caregiver's "Emergency Kit"

* Personal basics:
Social Security number (original card or a photocopy).
Keys (home, car).

* Health information:
Photocopy of Medicare cared.
Copy of Medigap policy or policy number and agent contact information.
List of current diagnoses.up-to-date list of current medications with dosage schedule.
Primary care physician and specialists with phone numbers and which conditions they are treating.

* Legal documents:
Living will (if they want extraordinary measures taken in a medical emergency).
Power of attorney for medical and/or financial decisions.

* Financial information:
Co-signing power for bank and brokerage accounts and safe-deposit box
Savings accounts numbers
Investment information
Stock broker
Loans information
Pension, etc.

Too Much Info, too Little Sleep

Only 3 per cent of professionals get eight hours of sleep every night of the working week. According to Travelodge's 2007 sleep study, company directors are the most sleep-deprived of all, with 8 per cent getting under four hours of rest per night.

The survey included more than 5,200 individuals from 30 different careers to discover more about how work affects rest. Those in the travel industry, such as cabin crew and pilots, found it hardest to get to sleep: 86% struggled with sleepless nights. Teachers were the most likely to stay awake because they were worrying about their work (39%). Here are the top 10 most sleep-deprived professions are:

* Company directors (averaging 5.9 hours of sleep a night)
* Ambulance crew/paramedics (6 hours)
* Tradesmen (6 hours)
* Leisure and hospitality workers (6 hours)
* Police officers (6.1 hours)

* Factory workers (6.2 hours)
* Nurses (6.3 hours)
* Engineers (6.3 hours)
* Doctors (6.4 hours)
* Civil servants (6.4 hours)

The Strain of Cellphone Use

HealthDayNews.com: Cell phones and pagers, part of the technological revolution that was supposed to liberate everyone, is tethering people to their jobs to an unprecedented degree, to the point where family life is suffering. The study limited the blame to cell phones and pages, and not computer-based communication such as e-mail. Cell phones and pagers were linked to increased psychological distress and reduced family satisfaction for both sexes.

The research, by University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee sociologist Noelle Chesley, appears in the December issue of the Journal of Marriage and Family. "The use of cell phones and pagers was linked to increased distress and a decrease in family satisfaction over time," said Chesley, an assistant professor of sociology. "There is clearly a link between using the technology and experiencing increased access."