People are increasingly trying to understand what processes increase the production of melatonin, the hormone responsible for creating it Sleepiness. If so, we’re happy to announce it sleep using a very heavy blanket will help your body produce this substance! Read this new study and see why.

Read more: Infallible Rituals to Improve Your Sleep Quality

Why is a weighted blanket more beneficial for sleep?

The claim that there is a link between blankets and melatonin production came through an article published in the Journal of Sleep Research. To arrive at this result, the researchers invited 26 volunteers to sleep in a laboratory for a few nights to observe their behavior.

The proposal in question stipulated that participants should go to bed at 10 p.m., but that the lights would not go out until 11 p.m. Participants would be given either a lighter or heavier blanket, so the scientists would analyze melatonin production on both occasions.

Throughout the night, the scientists collected saliva every 20 minutes to map melatonin levels. This showed that volunteers wrapped in heavy blankets had, on average, about 32% more melatonin than participants using lighter blankets.

Why is this happening?

Although it has been possible to demonstrate the link between the heaviest blankets and the production of melatonin, scientists still don’t know exactly what is behind this phenomenon, but it is believed that this is because heavy blankets bring greater meaning of comfort and safety, but it is only a hypothesis.

Certainly, the study was important in finding another way to boost the natural production of melatonin. Dissemination of data has also been fundamental given the recent increase in demand for sleepinducing drugs to overcome melatonin deficiency.

Work on the ambitious “The Line” construction project in Saudi Arabia has begun. The 170-kilometer project is the subject of controversial debate.

In the middle of the year, the government of Saudi Arabia published spectacular plans for a city: it is a mirrored wall 170 kilometers long and 500 meters high, inside which an entire city is hidden. Despite its impressive length and height, the city is said to be just 200 meters wide. Also promised is a transport system that will take you from one end to the other in 20 minutes.

It should be a “model for nature conservation and better living conditions for people,” Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said of the project. It’s not the only vision of what the cities of the future might look like. The project, dubbed “The Line” and part of the NEOM development project, looks like a futuristic fever dream in previews. And yet: construction work has begun, as drone footage and satellite images of the area in northwest Saudi Arabia show.

Place is heavily criticized

The video shows several excavators digging a long, straight hole. It is unknown if this is the foundation of the city or an underground transportation system. The project is controversial: experts consider the claim that the building is sustainable and that it will subsequently be climate-neutral to be unrealistic.

While the images of the area on Google Maps still do not show works, SOAR, another service, already shows works: excavators (the red dots) are removing earth and rock (purple) from the depression (yellow). The buildings on the right are a settlement for employees.SOAR

The chosen site was also heavily criticized: people already lived in this area, the local Bedouin tribes now have to make way for the construction site. The human rights organization ALQST reported that three residents who were removed from the construction site were sentenced to death. Until now, little is known about the conditions of construction workers.

Navigation count 20 minutes, rfi time 12.17.2022, 19:20| Act: 12.17.2022, 19:20

Kipish, along with several of his companions, held a missile fin in front of the Luis de Vega machine gun he was using on Friday

After almost 10 months of Russian invasion of Ukraine, people have to feed their resistance from little heroes. He clings to her to keep his morale high. On a road leading to the outskirts of Kyiv there is a military checkpoint where a young man in uniform is the focus of the attention of his other companions. At 25, Kipish, a Ukrainian nickname meaning restlessness, poses proudly for the camera while holding one of the fins of the missile he claims – everyone claims – shot down with a submachine gun.

This is one of the 76 launched by Russia on Friday morning, according to Kiev authorities, who claimed to have shot down 60. It was one of the heaviest massive bombing raids on various regions of Ukraine and this group of soldiers from the capital He says he has reasons to puff out his chest. Kipish’s fellow combatants surround him so the group snap lives on for posterity. With them, as an integral part of the scenery, the machine gun with which they want the feat accomplished.

It was after nine in the morning when the first rocket was heard, says Evgeni, 50, one of the Post’s officials. With the alarm activated, the group’s commanders then gave orders to man defensive positions. But aside from their guns, they don’t have armored vehicles or heavy weapons. This 7.62mm machine gun is the best defense. It is carried in the middle of the snow on a rectangular wooden board supported on some tubes. All very homemade, which makes the story even more surprising.

Born in Kyiv, Kipish’s military experience can be traced back to those months of Russian occupation. He volunteered for the Territorial Defense Corps, and after it joined the army it is still on duty in the capital. He has a certain tone of normality that it was his superiors who gave the order to pull the trigger when they sensed a second missile in the sky. “I started shooting tracers and after two seconds it fell,” he comments with no fuss or hint of epicness. When asked if he felt anything, he replies “fear” because he thought he was going to explode and the distance wasn’t very great. But they heard no explosion. “We live,” he clarifies, emphasizing the obvious.

Vira, 39 (right), next to the remains of the rocket shot down in Kyiv on Friday.Luis de Vega

Then some approached the spot where the remains had landed. A few hours later, a group of bomb squads swarmed around the rocket, which was lying between bushes in a snowy field a few meters from the road that leads to the power plant towering around 300 meters behind it. A 39-year-old soldier named Vira, which she herself points out means faith in Ukrainian, crouches next to the wreckage and points to what she says has been numbered on the hull to make the weapon more difficult to locate. Despite the proximity of the plant, fog and sleet hardly allow the red and white chimney to smoke. Kipish and the rest of the military are deployed at a point located next to the populous neighborhood of Troieshchina, on the left bank of the semi-frozen-skinned giant that is now the Dnieper. Everything indicates that the target of this rocket was power plants.

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But is it possible to shoot down a cruise missile with this machine gun? The uniformed men themselves do not hide that it was a small miracle. In fact, unlike other occasions, they feel a certain need to back up their story with evidence and get the reporters to the point where the missile hit. “It happens once in a million,” he says at first when asked what happened to Jesús Manuel Pérez Triana, a Spanish analyst specializing in military affairs. But when he sees the photos of the missile barely being destroyed, he doesn’t see the performance reported by the military as unreasonable. He believes the impact of that 7.62mm round can leave “a finger-sized hole”. It is therefore not necessary to cause major damage. He also adds that these missiles “fly low and relatively slowly. If you’re lucky, you can hit them with a machine gun,” he concludes.

Russia “still has enough missiles for several attacks of this caliber. We have enough determination and confidence to fight back,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned late on Friday. The President congratulated his troops, in particular “the fighters of the 96th anti-aircraft brigade, who were protecting the Kiev region and were particularly effective.”

The young soldier who is the protagonist of this story does not consider himself special. “My family gives me strength to fight,” she says, referring to her mother, brothers and sisters. Kipish has a girlfriend but no children, although he admits he hasn’t been able to tell him yet. “The best reward is that this all ends,” he says. Evgeni, the boss, takes the floor to highlight his shooting style and how skilled he is behind the wheel. “A hero,” he concludes.

Around the power plant, the military admit that they are more brimming with morale than with arms and ammunition. Most took on the Russian invasion inexperienced. Such is the case of Basil, 22, originally from Avdiivka in the eastern Donetsk region. There he played in the youth team of local football team Shakhtar before settling in Kyiv to work as a laborer. Next to him is a veteran who, although he had served in the military, was a train driver before the war. Both approach surprised to see and feel this type of goliath that is the rocket. Basil gives the reporter his cell phone so he can take a souvenir photo of him on the spot.

Gera, one of the leaders of the group, appreciates the help his country receives from abroad and assures that it will never stop as the danger is permanent. Proof of this, he suggests, is that Friday morning’s bombing did not catch them off guard. But he never tires of repeating that they need more guns as they would achieve much more than the victory achieved with the machine gun that Kipish fired. “Guns… and tobacco,” he adds, smiling.

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The attorney for a 10-year-old boy accused of killing his mother unsuccessfully asked the judge to lower his bail to $100 so he could pay it with money from his piggy bank.

The child confessed to police that he shot his mother after she refused to buy her a virtual reality headset.

He is charged with first-degree murder in connection with this tragedy, which is said to have occurred on November 28 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States.

When he first appeared in court on December 14, the judge set bail at $50,000.

The defendant’s attorney then requested that the amount be reduced to $100, suggesting that that amount represented all of the child’s savings.

“We spoke to him about how he can pay for everything,” the boy’s attorney, Angela Cunningham, told ABC 7 Chicago. He told us about his piggy bank, which he filled with money he had been given and found among the cushions on his sofa.

The request was denied and the child remains in custody pending his next court appearance, scheduled for January 19, if he is unable to post bail.

South Africa’s president is seeking a second term and, despite a farm scandal, is considered the party’s strongest candidate.

Allies of the party and even some rivals of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa have condemned opponents who disrupted his opening speech with chants and shouts at a conference of the ruling African National Congress (ANC).

“We have to judge [the disruption] because it’s not the behavior of ANC members,” Siboniso Duma — chairman of the KwaZulu-Natal province ANC, the largest single power bloc trying to remove Ramaphosa — said on Saturday.

“You can’t just [make noise] when the president speaks,” he told broadcaster Newzroom Afrika, reflecting a backlash to Friday’s disruption that some people said could empower the president.

Ramaphosa was speaking at a five-day ANC convention to select candidates for the 2024 national election. The president is seeking a second term and is widely regarded as the party’s strongest candidate, despite a scandal surrounding the discovery of a cash stash at his Phala Phala game farm in Limpopo province.

While raucous chants of “Get out, Ramaphosa, get out!” he was barely heard during Friday’s address, his words drowning out for minutes before hecklers fell silent.

Ramaphosa is facing strong opposition from a rival ANC faction who are urging him to quit over the Phala Phala scandal. He has denied wrongdoing and has not been charged with a crime despite a parliamentary report that led to a failed impeachment trial.

The ANC’s presidential candidate has been a contender for South Africa’s top post since the end of white minority rule in 1994.

The conference was due to make a decision on the candidacy late Saturday, but some delegates said internal fighting meant it could be pushed back to Sunday or later.

“Conversations are ongoing. Compromises are underway,” ANC Vice Presidential candidate and Eastern Cape ANC chair Oscar Mabuyane told reporters. “Provinces are committed. nothing [is] finished at this point. We are all interested in coming out of here with a very solid, strong leadership.”

Ramaphosa’s political troubles have stirred supporters of former President Jacob Zuma, who is himself under investigation for allegedly working with three Indian businessmen, brothers Atul, Ajay and Rajesh Gupta, to siphon off state funds during his 2009-2018 tenure. Zuma denies these charges.

The main challenger from this camp is Zweli Mkhize, the former health minister whom Ramaphosa placed on special leave last year after allegations that his department had irregularly awarded COVID-19-related contracts to a company controlled by his former employees . Mkhize denies wrongdoing.

Some people said Friday’s incident could set back their challenge.

“That was completely out of order,” Zamani Saul, chairman of the North Cape ANC, told SABC News. “What you did yesterday is defiled [their] Campaign.”