Are you a worrier? Then you're more likely to be smart！

People prone to anxiety have higher levels of intelligence (IQ)?

• Researchers surveyed 126 students about anxiety and intelligence
• They were scored on the Cognitive Test Anxiety Scale and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale
• Those who ranked high for anxiety were also the most verbally intelligent
• Experts claim smart people consider past and future events in great detail
• This leads them to replay or imagine scenarios, worry and feel anxious   

Worriers can be kept awake at night replaying the day, or imagining all the possible worst case scenarios in their lives.

But they can at least take comfort in the fact that this behaviour could be a sign of intelligence.

More than 125 students were surveyed about their mood, anxiety levels and intelligence levels - and those found to worry the most, were also the smartest.

The research was carried out at Ontario's Lakehead University, led by Alexander Penney. 

The researchers surveyed 126 students about their anxiety levels, depression, overall mood, social skills, rumination and intelligence by gauging their responses to set questions.

The majority (77 per cent) of participants were women.

Based on their answers, each of the students were then ranked on the both the Cognitive Test Anxiety Scale (CTAS) and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS).

The higher scores on the respective tests indicate more severe test anxiety, and higher verbal intelligence.

People who are verbally intelligent are better at reading and writing, and have stronger verbal reasoning skills. 

By comparison, non-verbally intelligent people are better ‘hands-on’ learners and pick up skills using non-verbal clues.

In the study, those who ranked highest on CTAS were also the most verbally intelligent, according to the WAIS.

However, the students who scored highly for non-verbal intelligence were found to worry less.

Experts believe verbally intelligent people spend more time relaying past and future events, trying to make sense of them, for example.

This means they remember events, conversations and fears in greater detail than non-verbally intelligent people.

People who are non-verbal tend to pick up non-verbal clues, and live more ‘in the moment’ so have little need to replay situations.

‘It is possible that more verbally intelligent individuals are able to consider past and future events in greater detail, leading to more intense rumination and worry,’ said the researchers.

‘Individuals with higher non-verbal intelligence may be stronger at processing the non-verbal signals from individuals they interact with in the moment, leading to a decreased need to re-process past social encounters.’ 

心理学家：焦虑感强的人智商高

焦虑常被认为是心理健康的大敌，但加拿大湖首大学的研究者发现，焦虑水平最高的人往往也是最聪明的。

研究者选取了126名学生(77%为女性)，采用焦虑认知量表和韦氏成人智力量表对他们的情绪、焦虑抑郁程度、社会技能、反思能力和智商水平进行了测试。结果显示，焦虑评分较高的参与者，智力测试中的言语能力较强，更善于写作和阅读，语言推理能力也较强。心理学家认为，言语能力强的人会花更多时间对过去和未来的事情进行重演和设想，试图更好地理解事物的来龙去脉，也就意味着他们需要尽可能详细地记住发生过的事件、谈话和情感，进而经常陷入沉思，也容易焦虑。

You may want to contact us now for a brain screening or EEG screening session to empower your brain by using evidence-based method. 


Sources: 
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2879265/Are-worrier-likely-smart-People-prone-anxiety-higher-levels-intelligence.html#ixzz3TiFfuUR7 
http://psychcentral.com/news/2014/12/22/worrying-linked-to-high-verbal-iq/78985.html

脑波反馈催眠疗法：自律神经失调与治疗

「醫師，我老是失眠！」「可能是自律神經失調。」

「我經常莫名地心跳加速，呼吸急促！」「應該是自律神經失調。」

「我也沒做什麼事，整天就全身無力沒有元氣。」「可能是自律神經出問題。」

似乎愈來愈常從醫師口裡說出，自律神經失調這個診斷名詞，罹患自律神經失調的人真的愈來愈多了嗎？

嚴格說來，自律神經失調並非單一疾病，所以沒有自律神經失調的流行病學調查報告，但是臨床上，有自律神經失調的患者的確增加了，因為現代人的生活步調太快，人和人的關係複雜，家人、親密關係複雜，工作及同儕環境也變複雜，金融海嘯、找不到工作的流浪博士......，這些都是壓力來源，而自律神經失調是壓力下引起的症狀，所以有自律神經失調的人愈來愈常見。

自律神經失調症狀百百種

幾乎所有症狀都可能和自律神經失調有關。「老是覺得心慌慌，快要心臟病發」、「呼吸急促氧氣不足，像是氣喘發作」、「肚子老是痛，一下便秘一下拉肚子」、「每天起床就覺得沒元氣」，生氣緊張時可以「怒髮衝冠」，害怕時腳底發寒、冷汗直流，可以說從頭皮到腳底，血管及皮膚等等，幾乎所有症狀都和自律神經有關。

自律神經的變化常會連帶發生肌肉張力增加。因為當面對危險或是不好的情況，腦的警覺度提高，自律神經的交感神經和副交感神經兩大系統，會一起動員，讓全身所有的器官及組織來配合，最主要地，肌肉要隨時用力，準備迎接挑戰或躲避逃跑。所以，絕大多數自律神經失調的病人都有頭痛症狀，因為警覺性會讓人肌肉繃緊，頸部及肩膀僵硬痠痛。緊張時，肌肉的收縮肌和舒張肌同時用力，全身肌肉張度過高，身體過度消耗氧氣及葡萄糖等能量，人也容易全身無力、易累疲倦、沒有元氣。

除了這些共通症狀外，自律神經失調的症狀很千變萬化，有些人會以氣喘等心肺功能症狀為主，有些人則是容易手腳冰冷，讓人奇怪：同樣都是自律神經失調，症狀表現為什麼不一樣？

實際情形是，自律神經雖然不受意志控制，卻很容易被暗示，而且還有學習效果。有些人可能看過親人罹患心臟病，甚至因而過世，就特別擔心心臟，自律神經失調時就會以心跳過速為主。

明明不舒服 為什麼查不出來

由於自律神經失調影響的，只是器官及組織表面上的神經功能，但患者本身器官及組織結構完好，所以檢查儀器往往查不出問題。一般人得知檢查一切正常，可能會很高興，但老覺得不舒服的自律神經失調患者聽到檢查不出問題，反而會更焦慮，以為：「我病情這麼嚴重，醫師卻檢查不出來，表示我的病一定很嚴重！」自己嚇自己，症狀愈來愈加重。

如果就醫時選對了專業的精神科醫師，或遇到警覺性高的醫師，告訴患者「檢查雖然顯示沒有器質上的問題，但並不表示真的沒問題，而是功能上失去平衡」，讓患者知道有人了解他的病痛，他反而會如釋重擔，覺得自己終於有救了。

自律神經失調的症狀
自律神經失調的症狀可以用「五花八門」來形容，罹病個案的不適症狀甚至可以由頭到腳、在不同部位來回轉移。以下是常見的症狀：
1.頭：頭暈、頭重、頭痛、頭部發麻、發燙感。
2.眼：眼睛疲勞、眼痛、淚眼、眼睛張不開、視線模糊、眼睛乾澀。
3.耳：耳鳴、耳阻塞感。
4.口：口乾、口渴、口內疼痛、口舌異常感、味覺異常。
5.喉嚨：阻塞感、異物感、壓迫感、發癢、異常咳嗽。
6.手：發麻、發抖、疼痛、感覺異常、發冷、發燙。
7.腳：下肢麻木、發冷、發燙、疼痛、腳跟貼地疼痛、肌肉跳動。
8.肌肉、關節：頸部緊繃酸痛、肩膀緊繃酸痛; 全身肌肉疼痛、多處神經痛、 背部及腰部緊繃疼痛、關節倦怠或無力。
9.呼吸器官：呼吸困難、肋間神經痛、呼吸肌肉緊繃酸痛、呼吸道阻塞感、類似鼻塞而無法呼吸、不自主深呼吸或嘆氣。
10.心臟：心悸(感覺到心跳)、心跳加速、心跳強勁、心臟無力感、胸悶、胸部壓迫感。
11.血官循環：血壓起伏變動（會出現假性高血壓）、頭昏眼花、手腳冰冷、臉部潮紅燥熱、起立性暈眩、血氣上衝、偏頭痛。
12.消化器官：食道阻塞感、噁心、嘔吐、胃部發熱、胃部痙攣、腹脹、腹部疼痛、便秘或腹瀉、腸胃蠕動異常、肛門口不快感、便意感頻繁。
13.膀胱：膀胱神經敏感、尿意感頻繁、頻尿、排連不易、排尿後不適感、殘尿感、尿床。
14.生殖器：性功能障礙。
15.皮膚：多汗、不出汗、異常發汗、皮膚乾燥、全身發癢、發燙、發冷。
16.精神症狀：焦躁易怒、莫名奇妙的恐慌不安感、寂寞孤獨感、悲傷感、沒有慾望、注意力不集中、記憶力減退。
17.全身症狀：全身倦怠、異常疲勞、全身無力、提不起勁、輕度發燒發燙、缺乏食慾、睡不著、淺眠或多夢、白天賴床睏倦。

怎樣克服「自律神經失調」&「生活焦慮」？

Newmindcentre.com: 我们使用Neuro-Hypnotherapy方法来帮助您！

生物回饋治療EEG Biofeedback therapy：利用人的心智希望能影響人體自主神經系統-可調節心跳、血液與消化作用的不隨意系統。本方法可將腦波從貝他(壓力)波(beta wave)轉換到阿爾法(靜態)波(alpha wave)。

在马来西亚，我们的脑波反馈催眠疗法Neuro-hypnotherapy结合生物回饋治療和临床催眠法;脑波反馈催眠疗法Neuro-hypnotherapy教导您如何自我转换到阿爾法(靜態)波(alpha wave)或慢波(theta wave)，让您可以改善自律神经失调问题。

自律神經是很奇妙的系統，很容易受暗示；而催眠是心理暗示行为，施术者通过语言、声音、动作、眼神的心理暗示在受术者的潜意识输入信息。因此透过催眠疗法，可大大改善自律神經失調的症狀。

资料来源: 

http://www.cth.org.tw/?aid=57&pid=96&page_name=detail&iid=359

http://www.twhealth.org.tw/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=487&Itemid=20

http://www.astm.org.tw/

Sleep therapy in Malaysia

How Much Sleep Do You Really Need?

New research into who needs sleep most, and why.

Post published by Art Markman Ph.D. on Feb 11, 2015 in Ulterior Motives

High school students who stay up late perform more poorly in school the following day. A lack of sleep may cause you to mix together different memories that did not occur together. In young adults, sleep also affects the ability to learn new procedures(link is external). 

These benefits of sleep lead naturally to speculation that sleep may help older adults avoid the cognitive declines that come along with aging. One possibility is that older adults who suffer from sleep difficulties decline faster than those who don’t. Another possibility is that regular sleep throughout life is associated with lower levels of problems.

A paper in the January, 2015 issue of Perspectives on Psychological Science(link is external) by Michael Scullin and Donald Bliwise tried to sort out what is going on. They performed a massive meta-analysis. (A meta-analysis looks across the many published studies in an area of research in order to explore what really seems to be happening in an area.)

There are many ways to study sleep and its effects on thought and aging. Some studies use self-reports of sleep quality and measurements of cognitive performance.  Some of these self-report studies look at people of different ages. Others are longitudinal. They examine the relationship between the quality of sleep people get at one point in time and their performance later in life.

Other studies use other measures of sleep. Some use a device called an actigraph, which measures whether the person is moving. (The Fitbit is a kind of actigraph.) Long periods without movement are good signals (though not perfect) that a person is sleeping. Still other studies measure physiological aspects like brain waves so that it is possible to tell both that people are asleep as well as which stage of sleep they are in. Finally, there are experimental manipulations of sleep, including sleep deprivation studies as well as studies in which people are randomly assigned to conditions in which they do or do not nap.

There are a lot of interesting findings in this paper, and it is worth giving it a read yourself for a more complete look at effects of sleep on thinking. But here are a few highlights:

First, the relationship between sleep and improved thinking is strongest earlier in life and gets weaker later. A good night’s sleep helps young adults learn better the next day. Sleep also helps young adults consolidate (or solidify) memories from the day before more than it helps older adults. Middle-aged adults show smaller effects of sleep on learning, and older adults show almost no relationship between sleep and learning at all. 

Sleep deprivation studies tell the same story. Sleep deprivation generally hurts thinking performance, but these effects are much stronger in younger adults and small or even non-existent in older adults. (This may explain why I can play the sax in a blues band until 2 a.m. on Sunday nights and still function at work the next day.)

Of course, part of the difficulty with studying sleep in older adults is that older adults generally need less sleep than younger adults, and the older adults who get the most sleep tend to be those who are sick and whose bodies are fighting off illness.

These results do suggest, though, that the amount of sleep that older adults are getting at that phase of their lives is not a cause of cognitive decline.

A particularly interesting result is that the quality of sleep in middle age influences cognitive health in old age. The longitudinal studies are particularly helpful for this work. When adults in their 40s and 50s get regular sleep and allow themselves to get the roughly eight hours of sleep they need, they show fewer signs of cognitive problems like senile dementia when they are older. Indeed, one of the studies in this sample measured sleep quality of adults in their 40s and followed up with them 28 years later.

Putting all of this together, then, it seems that sleep is most important for current cognitive performance in younger people, and that sleep plays less of a role in thinking as we age. Sleep in middle-aged adults is still important, though, because good sleep habits in middle age are associated with better mental health in old age.

Source: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/ulterior-motives/201502/how-much-sleep-do-you-really-need?utm_source=FacebookPost&utm_medium=FBPost&utm_campaign=FBPost

In Malaysia, we provide neuro-hypnotherapy for sleep disorders and insomnia.

Contact us now for more information.