(Health.com) — No matter how dedicated you are to getting your shut-eye, sometimes a less-than-stellar night’s sleep is inevitable. The good news: “One bad night’s sleep isn’t going to hurt you long term,” says Joyce Walsleben, Ph.D., coauthor of “A Woman’s Guide to Sleep.”
But it can make you feel not so great the next day. Luckily, there are ways to feel normal (or very close!) after a rocky night’s rest.
1. Open your shades
A big dose of sunshine is the first thing you’ll want to try. “Natural light resets your body clock, helping you function better all day,” Walsleben says. “Even the low light on a cloudy or rainy day wakes you up better than any indoor bulb.”
Early-morning sunlight is best for helping you start the day feeling rejuvenated. To perk up fast, open your shades as soon as you get up.

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2. Grab the right eats
“When we’re tired, our instinct is to reach for sugary foods for a quick rush,” says Samantha Heller, R.D., clinical nutrition coordinator at the Center for Cancer Care at Griffin Hospital in Derby, Connecticut. “But those foods make your blood sugar spike and crash, setting off a roller coaster of energy highs and lows.”
For lasting energy, start your day with healthy protein and whole-grain carbs, Heller says. Try a whole-wheat English muffin with peanut butter and a sliced banana.
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3. Try this if you can’t take a nap
The ideal remedy for the mental fatigue that occurs after sleep loss is an afternoon nap, says Matthew Edlund, M.D., author of “The Power of Rest.” But since that’s not possible for most people with jobs, the next best thing is a form of active rest called “paradoxical relaxation.”
Edlund explains: Focus on one muscle group in your body for at least 15 seconds, concentrating only on how it feels and nothing else. Repeat up and down the body. Surprise — you feel recharged.
4. Drink your coffee nice and slow
No need to gulp down that morning brew: Pour it into a thermos and sip slowly enough to make it last most of the workday. People who consumed the caffeine equivalent of just 2 ounces of coffee per hour still got a kick, according to a study in the journal Sleep. Just cut off the java by 3 p.m., or you may have trouble falling asleep that night.
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5. Take a walk to wake up
The time of

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Berkeley, California (CNN) — When a boy struts in a tutu or a girl dons boxer shorts, it makes grown-ups nervous. It’s one of the first lessons kids who are gender nonconforming learn.
Mich is biologically female, but didn’t identify as a girl. As a child, Mich insisted on having boy-cut short hair, shunned all things pink and refused to play with dolls or wear dresses.
At age 3, “I told my mom I wanted to be a boy,” said Mich, who requested to be identified by first name only. “And, throughout the years, I learned that saying that was not right … and so, you hide this part of yourself. But you still know something’s up. The problem with kids is that they don’t have the language to say it, but they know.”
The pressure to be more girly came from Mich’s parents and other adults, rather than school bullies, said Mich, who now is 25 and lives in the Bay Area.
“The messages from adults, especially my parents, were this was not how it was supposed to be,” Mich said. “I don’t think it was subtle. I would cut my hair really short and my mom would say, ‘Why do you look like a boy? You can’t be a boy.’ An adult would say, ‘Why aren’t you in a dress?’ They’re pushing this message on you.”
When teenagers and children reject conforming to their biological gender roles, they are often teased, misunderstood or scorned by both peers and adults.
A study published in Pediatrics this month showed that children who do not conform to gender roles are more likely to be abused, increasing the likelihood they will have post-traumatic stress disorder by the time they’re in their 20s.
Gender nonconformity means that an individual tends to associate with roles, behaviors and activities of the opposite gender, rather than those of his or her biological sex. This could be a boy who grows his hair long or paints his nails, or a girl who only wears male clothing. These issues are often confused with transgender identity, but they are not the same thing.

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Gender nonconforming behavior occurs in one out of 10 children, according to the study. A vast majority of these kids do not need medical interventions, because the behavior tends to fade as they grow older.
In the study published Monday, nearly 9,000 respondents were asked to recall their childhood experiences before age 11, including favorite toys, games, roles they took while playing, media characters they imitated or admired, and feelings of femininity and masculinity. When they reached adulthood, the participants were surveyed again — this time about whether they experienced physical, sexual, or emotional abuse and were screened for PTSD.
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The results showed “very clear patterns,” said S. Bryn Austin, one of the study’s authors. “The young people who as children were most nonconforming were much more likely to report mistreatment or abuse, within the family, by people outside the family. They were targeted for abuse.”
There should be extra precautions taken to protect them, she said.
“We are concerned about the health and risk

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The June 5, 2008 edition of Phytomedicine reports a study based on an idea generated by the knowledge that estrogen has been demonstrated to affect neuronal development, differentiation and survival. Genistein, diadzein and other isoflavones have been shown to mimic the pharmacological actions of the steroid estrogen, due to their similarity of structure. So, researchers hypothesized that the natural mixture of phytoestrogenic isoflavones found in the herb red clover could protect the brain from glutamate toxicity. They used a human cortical cell line to test the efficacy of the red clover. Neuronal viability was ascertained and neuronal membrane damage was quantitatively measured.The results gathered suggested that exposure of the cell cultures to glutamate resulted in concentration-dependent decreases in neuron viability. Concentrations of glutamate ranging from 0.01 to 5 mm were toxic to the cultures. However, when the cells were pretreated with 0.5, 1 and 2 mug/ml of the isoflavone enriched fraction from red clover, there was a significantly increased cell survival and significantly decreased release of cellular lactate dehydrogenase, an indicator of cell damage. This indicates that the neurons treated with red clover isoflavones were protected from the cell death induced by glutamate exposure. In addition, the pretreatment with the isoflavone enriched fraction prevented the morphological disruption caused by glutamate as shown in microscopic inspection.

About MSG

MSG is a food additive found in nearly all commercially prepared food. It boosts the taste of food, but not in the way you might imagine. MSG tricks your brain into thinking the food that you are eating tastes really good. But be warned, MSG is what is known as an excitotoxin to the brain. When you eat food containing MSG, it arouses the brain into the large-scale production of dopamine, creating a drug rush that gives you a short sensation of well being or euphoria. And because MSG is extremely addictive, you keep coming back for more and end up overindulging. In the process, we end up destroying our brain cells.

Food processors love MSG because it makes inexpensive ingredients taste good. Moreover, because it comes from an amino acid, it can be added to foods with labels that say ‘natural’ or ‘organic’. It’s extremely difficult to find any canned or packaged soup, dried soup mixes, prepared meals, fast food, junk food, or Chinese food that does not contain MSG. It’s in prepared gravy, salad dressing, seasoning blends and mixes, canned beans, bullion cubes, broths, chili and stews. Stores that cater to the health conscious carry many of these MSG containing items.

Because consumers have found about the dangers of MSG food processors have gone to extremes to be sure that consumers do not know it is being placed in their products. Amazingly this has been permitted by the FDA. You will rarely see MSG listed on the label, because it is cloaked. Some of the names used to cloak the MSG are as follows:

Hydrolyzed vegetable protein , autolyzed vegetable protein, textured vegetable protein, hydrolyzed yeast extract, autolyzed yeast extract, plant protein extract, sodium casein ate, calcium caseinate, yeast extract, textured whey protein, natural flavor.Most refined foods targeted for children also contain high levels of MSG; canned or packaged spaghetti, alphabet soup and chicken noodle soup, microwavable cups, packaged dinners etc. “A meal of this food can raise the blood level of excitotoxins to a value proven in primates to destroy brain cells. A child’s brain is four times more sensitive to damage by excitotoxins

Protect Yourself From MSG With Red Clover Herb