International News Desk – At Home: Incredible Journey Through Social Media – Around the World: The Case for More Sleep

International News Desk – At Home: Incredible Journey Through Social Media – Around the World: The Case for More Sleep

At Home: Incredible Journey Through Social Media

Oh, the things you can do with social media. Locate old friends. Make new contacts. Spread videos and share articles. Track down criminals. Or, in the case of one runaway cat, find your missing owner.

As the Edmonton Journal reports, the lost cat had begun living under a deck at a home in Victoria, BC. The locals, who were ?concerned for its welfare,? contacted Animal Control Services.

Animal Control Services realized that the cat had an identifying microchip, and the technology linked it to the Montreal SPCA from which it had been adopted. However, when the records were checked, staff realized that the cat’s owners had moved, and their number had since been disconnected. Unknown to the organization, the owners were now in British Columbia.

A staff member ?suggested Facebook was worth a try,? soon finding a matching Victoria-based name and initiating a friend request. For legitimacy purposes, the staff member ?decided to take photographs of the cat and use one as a profile picture.?

From there, ?contact was made? and cat and owner were reunited again. And equally happy with the outcome was Ian Fraser of Victoria Animal Control Services, who told reporters, ?It just shows you what ends we’ll go to try to locate someone and reunite them with their animal.?

Around the World: The Case for More Sleep

Feeling sleepy at work? That’s a cue you need more rest. But even if you don’t feel tired, minimal sleep can cause your brain to function at lower levels?without your knowledge.

As National Geographic‘s Daily News site reports, recent studies suggest that ?[parts] of your brain may doze off even if You’re totally awake.?

The study, which ?observed the electrical activity of brains in rats forced to stay up longer than usual,? showed that while the rats? ?overall brain activity? indicated that they were awake, parts of their brains were taking a snooze. Specifically, the brain regions which aid in problem solving ?fell into a kind of ?local? sleep.? Meanwhile, the rats had more difficulty performing more ?challenging? tasks.

However, a bystander ?couldn’t tell? that the rats were ?in any way in a different state of wakefulness,? University of Wisconsin, Madison neuroscientist Giulio Tononi told reporters. Tononi co-authored the study.

Scientists believe a similar effect occurs among sleep-deprived humans as well, which is significant. As Tononi told reporters, lack of sleep ?actually affects behaviour?you make a mistake.? Additionally, he cautioned that ?you don’t need to feel sleepy to screw up.?