Sleep! Sleep! Sleep!

The following can interfere with sleep:
• Caffeine - coffee, sodas, tea, chocolate
• Tobacco
• A room that is too hot or too cold
• Light
• Noise
• An uncomfortable bed
• Using alcohol before bedtime
• Being hungry
• Eating a large meal close to bedtime
• A snoring bed partner
• A pet in the bedroom
• TV in the bedroom
• Getting too stirred up before bedtime can make it hard to go to sleep

Some tips that promote sleep:
• Make 8 hours of sleep a regular habit. Sleeping less during the week and trying to catch up on the weekend doesn’t work.
• Try to go to bed at the same time every night.
• If you have a clock that is always lit up, turn it so you can’t see the time.
• Exercise every day.
• Turn off your TV and computer an hour or two before bedtime.
• If you nap, keep it short and early in the day.
• Try reading before bedtime, but use a low-watt bulb.
• Do not eat a few hours before bedtime but don’t go to bed hungry. If you eat something, choose food that is light and nutritious. Avoid spicy or greasy food.
• Take a hot bath before retiring.
• If you feel you need to worry, tell yourself that you will only worry in the daytime. Make your bedroom a worryfree zone. Learn relaxation techniques to reduce stress and worrying.
• Listen to relaxation tapes before retiring.
• Do not lay awake in bed for more than 20 to 30 minutes. Get up, do something boring for a little while, and then go back to bed.
• Your bed is for sleep and sex. If you are not doing either of these, stay out of bed.

Cell signaling under salt, water and cold stresses

Low temperature, drought, and high salinity are common stress conditions that adversely affect plant growth and crop production. The cellular and molecular responses of plants to environmental stress have been studied intensively (Thomashow, 1999; Hasegawa et al., 2000). Understanding the mechanisms by which plants perceive environmental signals and transmit the signals to cellular machinery to activateadaptive responses is of fundamental importance to biology. Knowledge about stress signal transduction is also vital for continued development of rational breeding and transgenic strategies to improve stress tolerance in crops. In this review, we first consider common characteristics of stress signal transduction in plants, and then examine some recent studies on the functional analysis of signaling components. Finally, we attempt to put these components and pathways into signal transduction networks that are grouped into three generalized signaling types.

Source: The Plant Cell (2002) vol. 14, p. S165-S183