How Kamala Harris Took ‘Freedom’ Back from the GOP

Freedom
I can’t move
Freedom, cut me loose
Singin’, freedom! Freedom! Where are you?
‘Cause I need freedom, too
I break chains all by myself
Won’t let my freedom rot in hell.

                        –Beyonce, “Freedom”

To Beyonce’s soundtrack, Vice President Kamala Harris announced her campaign in an ad that used the word “freedom” four times. She framed her messages about the economy, gun violence, and abortion as “the freedom not just to get by, but get ahead:” “the freedom to be safe from gun violence;” and “the freedom to make decisions about your body.” At her Delaware campaign headquarters, she talked about the “sacred freedom to vote.” “Our fight for the future,” she added, “is also a fight for freedom.”

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For half a century, that word “freedom” has been mostly absent from the vocabulary of Democratic campaigns. The word and the concept, as well as its cognate, liberty, have been coopted by Republicans since Ronald Reagan was a candidate for president. (“Freedom,” Reagan said, “is never more than one generation away from extinction.”) But Republicans did not just commandeer the word, they also changed the concept. They altered our sense of its meaning from a vision of equality (which Beyonce calls on), to a more limited, “negative freedom” — freedom from state power, from regulation, freedom from any obstacle put in the way of free enterprise. Harris is remaking the sense of freedom from the negative freedom of overcoming constraints to the positive freedom of self-realization and achievement.

It was the philosopher Isaiah Berlin who first made the distinction between positive freedom—freedom to—versus negative freedom, freedom from. Positive freedom is the ability to exercise choice, to act on one’s free will. Negative freedom is the freedom from constraint imposed by others or the state, a limit that restricts one’s goals or potential. In their traditional belief in small government, modern Republicans embraced the idea of negative freedom, freedom from the power of the state. Berlin noted the age-old tension between freedom and equality, and that the pursuit of absolute freedom, especially freedom from any restrictions, can often undermine equality and promote authoritarianism.

The Framers mostly emphasized positive freedoms, the freedom to worship, and freedom of speech and expression. They believed their creation of a constitutional republic was the best means of protecting individual freedoms. It was Lincoln who first coupled the notion of freedom with the idea of equality. He saw the infringement of freedom for some as undermining freedom for all, and viewed emancipation as expanding freedom for all Americans, not just formerly enslaved Americans. The Progressives in the early 20^th century continued this idea, and saw government’s role as freeing people from economic exploitation while creating more economic opportunity.

It was Republican Herbert Hoover, by popularizing “rugged individualism,” who portrayed freedom as liberty from an overweening government. Franklin Roosevelt went in the opposite direction and saw the prospect of our freedoms being crushed by global Fascism. To ensure the perpetuation of liberty, he proposed the Four Freedoms. Two were positive freedoms, speech and religion, and two were negative freedoms, freedom from want and freedom from fear. Both Eisenhower and Kennedy saw freedom through the lens of the Cold War, and tried to ensure that Americans were free from tyranny. It was Reagan who revived Hoover’s notion that government impeded freedom more than it protected it (“I love my country but fear my government”), and pushed the word out of the Democratic lexicon.

But Vice President Harris’s revival of “freedom” was not something that came out of nowhere: Since the 1960s, Democrats grasped the idea of positive freedom as self-realization, the ability to fulfill one’s potential without constraints. This had its public side in the civil rights movement, which was the freedom to not be discriminated against, and the personal freedom of achieving one’s potential. Joe Biden mentioned freedom 15 times in his 2024 State of the Union, and said “freedom and democracy” four times. (Obama used the word a total of four times in his final three States of the Union.) Harris is performing the same trick of combining the narrative of saving-our-democracy with protecting and enlarging upon our freedoms. That’s a more inclusive message, and a winning one. Listen for a more liberal use of the word and idea of freedom this week at the Democratic Convention, not just by the candidate but all her surrogates.

The Vice President has even started using the word liberty, a staple in the conservative vocabulary and combining it with freedom. “We want to have the pride all people have to freedom and liberty,” she said to the United Auto Workers, “to make choices, especially those that are about heart and home and not have their government telling them what to do.” Those are words that could have been spoken by Ronald Reagan; Harris is commandeering those ideas of both positive and negative liberty for the Democrats. Rather than campaigning on abortion rights (which an ultra-conservative Supreme Court made an immediate issue) she links freedom and liberty with personal choices about “heart and home,” embracing another traditional conservative notion: that culture, not politics shapes a nation. That’s how parties expand their tent and their base.

What we are likely to hear at the convention is Harris and the Democrats rhetorically attempting to forge a union between conservative ideas of liberty and freedom and liberal notions of equality. This not only echoes the Progressive era mixture of positive and negative freedoms, it also coincides with a recent revival of the ideas of the philosopher John Rawls, who built on Isaiah Berlin’s ideas of positive and negative freedom. Rawls sought to reconcile a conservative respect for individual freedom with a liberal emphasis on fairness, and create a society that reduces inequality while being both more democratic and meritocratic. That’s what Harris seems to be trying to do. Her language describes a middle path in the classic debate between liberty and equality, where conservatives say your equality diminishes my liberty, and liberals say your liberty diminishes my equality.

That path leads toward a larger consensus. As Trumpism has taken over the GOP, it’s shrinking itself to older white Americans who feel that somehow the American Dream has been denied them..

Donald Trump was the first “declinest”—someone who sees the future more negatively than the past—ever elected president. The Republican party of John McCain and even Reagan sought to broaden its tent to include Hispanics, new immigrants, and people of color. (“Latinos are Republicans,” Reagan said. “They just don’t know it yet.”) A Democratic candidate who combines the rhetoric of freedom with the language of equality is blending the language of traditional conservative Republicanism with traditional Democrats. This not only assumes a big tent, it invites everyone in.

The United States will be majority non-white by 2050 and the Democrats recognize that within that new majority, there is the old ideological continuum of left and right. Why not capitalize on that by blending conservative and liberal rhetoric? Why not be the party of the left, right, and center? Harris is breaking the rhetorical chains that have narrowed the Democratic party’s appeal for the last few decades.

When she says, “We face a choice between two very different visions for our nation: one focused on the future, and the other focuses on the past,” Harris is reviving the traditional language of optimism — something that has appealed to American voters, well, since the beginning.

source https://time.com/7012007/at-the-democratic-convention-kamala-harris-will-use-the-language-republicans-used-to/

The Former Mayor of San Francisco Is Threatening to Sue Donald Trump. Here’s Why

Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown said he would consider suing former President Donald Trump in an interview with CBS News this week. His comments come amid a continued struggle over whether the two endured a treacherous helicopter ride together—something the former President and current Republican presidential nominee says did happen, but Brown says did not.

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“Somebody has got to make sure that he stops lying,” Brown is quoted as saying. “If he keeps it up, at some point, I’m going to give him a taste of his own conduct. If he sues the New York Times for printing that I said he lied, I’m going to sue him.”

During a press conference on Aug. 8 at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Trump was asked about Vice President Kamala Harris—the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee in the upcoming election—and her past relationship with Brown. (It’s understood that Harris and Brown dated for some time in the mid-1990s. In 2020, Brown authored an opinion piece for the San Francisco Chronicle titled: “Sure, I dated Kamala Harris. So what?”)

In response, Trump told a story, describing him and Brown as passengers of a helicopter that had an emergency landing.

“Well, I know Willie Brown very well,” Trump said. “In fact, I went down in a helicopter with him. We thought maybe this was the end. There was an emergency landing.”

Trump went on to say that Brown told him “terrible things” about Harris.

In his 2023 book Letters to Trump, in which he published his letters to a number of influential people—the former President discussed the alleged helicopter incident in the caption of a photo of him with Brown.

“We actually had an emergency landing in a helicopter together. It was a little scary for both of us, but thankfully we made it,” the caption read.

However, as reported by the New York Times soon after Trump’s press conference, Brown has denied this ever took place.

“You know me well enough to know that if I almost went down in a helicopter with anybody, you would have heard about it,” Brown, who also denied any ill-will between himself and Harris, told the publication. Current theories suggest that Trump may have mixed up Brown with other politicians. For example, former California Gov. Jerry Brown once rode with Trump in a helicopter in 2018 to survey wildfire damage, yet no emergency landing was reported. On Aug. 9, Politico also reported that former Los Angeles city councilman and state senator Nate Holden claimed he once rode with Trump in a helicopter heading to New Jersey, which a fellow passenger said ended in an emergency landing

After the New York Times posted the story on Aug. 8, Trump fought back the next day, reportedly calling Maggie Haberman, a reporter at the paper. According to Haberman, Trump shouted that he had proof of the alleged helicopter ride, and that he was  “probably going to sue” over the article.

Now, Brown has responded to Trump’s threat to sue.

In his interview with CBS News, Brown is also quoted as saying that Trump’s story is “a deliberate misrepresentation” and is just “a distraction from the magnificence” of Harris’ “ascendancy” in the past weeks since President Joe Biden endorsed her run for presidency, with most of the Democratic Party following suit.

TIME has reached out to the Trump campaign and the Willie Brown Institute for comment and further information.

source https://time.com/7011982/former-mayor-san-francisco-willie-brown-donald-trump-helicopter-story/

The Infants Among the War Dead

In the 10 months since the attacks of Oct. 7 that sparked the Israel-Hamas war, nearly 20,000 babies have been born in the Gaza Strip. And some 115 newborns have been killed, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health, whose casualty figures are regarded as reliable by the U.N. and the U.S. government.

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The twins Ayssel and Asser were less than 4 days old when their lives, and that of their mother, Joumana Arafa, ended in a bombing in the central Gaza city Deir al-Balah. Their father, Mohammed Abu al-Qumsan, was out retrieving their birth certificates Tuesday when he reportedly got a call from a neighbor, telling him the place he and his family had been sheltering was hit by an Israeli airstrike. His mother-in-law was also killed.

“What did my wife do to deserve dying with our children? My children were just 3 days old,” Abu al-Qumsan said in an interview with Turkish television, mournful but composed. “I had not yet celebrated them. She had not yet celebrated them.”

In videos shared on social media, however, Abu al-Qumsan was inconsolable, sobbing and wailing at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where he had raced hoping to find his family alive. He said he found them in a freezer.

The death of any infant is a profound event, but babies killed in war can summon extraordinary power, including in a parallel battle for sympathy. In the immediate aftermath of the Hamas attack, Israeli officials stoked global outrage at the deaths of 1,200 on Oct. 7 by focusing intently on small children killed at close quarters. The Prime Minister’s office circulated graphic images from blood-spattered nurseries, and erroneous reports of decapitated babies circulated worldwide for months.

Read More: On TikTok, Gaza’s Palestinians Plead to the World: ‘Don’t Scroll’

In Gaza, where the death count this week reached 40,000 people, the Health Ministry calculates that women and children account for more than half of the dead. A June AP study found the percentage appears to have declined from the first months of fighting, yet images of Gaza’s youngest victims still summon the strongest response—and the circumstances of their deaths sketch relatable details of family life when homes were still standing. Couples who had struggled to conceive now mourn the “miracle child” produced by IVF. Doctors seeking hope delivered a newborn girl by cesarean from a pregnant woman killed in an airstrike, only to see her, days later, also die. An English teacher, after the death of her brother and his two young sons, wrote of relief at her own miscarriage.

With Gaza’s health care system largely reduced to rubble, pregnant women and infants are the most vulnerable. (In an Associated Press interview, Abu al-Qumsan said his wife, who was a pharmacist, was temporarily unable to walk due to her c-section.) Babies in Gaza are malnourished, the U.N. reports, and many are too weak to cry. A shortage of ventilators and incubators makes infant care even more difficult. In a Gaza population of 2 million people, an estimated 50,000 women are pregnant, and many are forced to give birth without anesthesia, painkillers, check-up appointments or hygiene materials. According to a March report, only two hospitals still offer maternity care, leaving many women to give birth in cars, tents or, in some cases, “amid the rubble.”

As pregnant and breastfeeding women struggle to provide for their children, the stage is set for long-term disaster. “We have reached a stage where we have to choose which babies will live,” Dr. Ahmed Al-Shaer, pediatric specialist at the Al-Helal Al-Emirati Maternity Hospital said in a U.N. interview.

Abu al-Qumsan’s story is one that has been shared widely online, and inspired an outpouring of support. The Sameer Project, a donations-based aid initiative, helped provide a tent after the Qastal Tower building, where he and his family were staying, was partially destroyed. “He’s not in the greatest state of mind,” Hala Sabbah, co-founder of the Sameer Project, said.

The arrival of the twins had been announced by their mother on Facebook. The post is now flooded with hundreds of condolences. “There are some pure people out there,” Abu al-Qumsan said, according to Sabbah. “My feelings are all over the place.”

source https://time.com/7011918/gaza-infants-death-toll-twins-killed-israel-hamas-war/

Fire Breaks Out at London’s Somerset House, Home to Priceless Works by Van Gogh, Cézanne

LONDON — More than 125 firefighters worked to douse a fire Saturday at Somerset House, a large central London arts venue that contains priceless works by Monet, Cézanne and Van Gogh.

Heavy smoke and flames that could be seen coming from the roof around noon had died down a few hours later as firefighters poured water on it from the buckets on ladder trucks. It appeared from video footage that flames had burned a hole in the roof of the building located next to the River Thames.

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The cause of the fire was not yet known, the London Fire Brigade said.

Somerset House said staff and the public were safe and artworks were not in the area of the fire. The venue had been scheduled to host a breakdancing event.

“A fire was spotted at about midday in one corner of the west wing, the site was immediately evacuated and the London Fire Brigade called, who arrived very quickly,” Jonathan Reekie, director of Somerset House Trust, said. “The west wing is mainly offices and back-of-house facilities, there are no artworks in that area.”

The fire was on the opposite side of the large complex from The Courtauld Gallery that features works such as Vincent Van Gogh’s “Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear” and “The Descent From The Cross” by Peter Paul Rubens.

The neoclassical building was reconstructed nearly 250 years ago after the original Somerset House was demolished after being neglected.

The original palace was built in 1547 by Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, who was later executed at the Tower of London.

Queen Elizabeth I lived in the palace as a princess for five years before ascending to the throne.

source https://time.com/7011963/fire-london-somerset-house-van-gogh-cezanne-paintings/

Wrongful Death Suit Against Disney Serves as a Warning to Consumers

A wrongful death lawsuit against Walt Disney Parks and Resorts is serving as a reminder to consumers of the importance of reading the fine print when signing up for a streaming service or smartphone app.

The lawsuit was filed by the family of a New York woman who died after eating at a restaurant in Disney Springs, an outdoor dining, shopping and entertainment complex in Florida owned by Disney.

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Disney is arguing that the lawsuit should be dropped because the plaintiff, the woman’s husband, once signed up for a trial subscription of the Disney+ streaming service. That service, they argue, includes a subscriber agreement in which the customer agrees to settle any lawsuits against Disney out of court through arbitration.

Such agreements, which customers quickly consent to by clicking “I agree” when downloading an app or a streaming service, are so stacked against the consumer that it’s often difficult to offer good legal advice, said John Davisson, director of litigation at the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

“The consumer is presented with this contract and really doesn’t have an opportunity to negotiate the terms,” Davisson said. “It’s yes or no.”

What are the details of the lawsuit against Disney?

Kanokporn Tangsuan’s family says in the lawsuit that the 42-year-old New York doctor had a fatal allergic reaction after eating at an Irish pub in Disney Springs.

The lawsuit claims Tangsuan and her husband, Jeffrey Piccolo, and his mother decided to eat at Raglan Road in October 2023 because it was billed on Disney’s website as having “allergen free food.”

The suit alleges Tangsuan informed their server numerous times that she had a severe allergy to nuts and dairy products, and that the waiter “guaranteed” the food was allergen-free.

About 45 minutes after finishing their dinner, Tangsuan had difficulty breathing while out shopping, collapsed and died at a hospital, according to the lawsuit.

A medical examiner determined she died as a result of “anaphylaxis due to elevated levels of dairy and nut in her system,” the lawsuit said.

What is Disney’s position?

Disney said in a statement this week that it is “deeply saddened” by the family’s loss but stressed that the Irish pub, which also is being sued, is neither owned nor operated by the company.

More notably from a consumer protection standpoint, Disney argues that Piccolo had agreed to settle any lawsuits against Disney out of court through arbitration when he signed up for a one-month trial of Disney+ in 2019 and acknowledged that he had reviewed the fine print.

“The first page of the Subscriber Agreement states, in all capital letters, that ‘any dispute between You and Us, Except for Small Claims, is subject to a class action waiver and must be resolved by individual binding arbitration’,” the company wrote in a motion seeking to have the case dismissed.

Arbitration allows people to settle disputes without going to court and generally involves a neutral arbitrator who reviews arguments and evidence before making a binding decision, or award.

Piccolo’s lawyer, in a response filed this month, argued that it was “absurd” to believe that the more than 150 million subscribers to Disney+ have waived all rights to sue the company and its affiliates in perpetuity — especially when their case has nothing to do with the popular streaming service.

What can consumers do to protect themselves?

While it’s difficult to give consumers actionable advice when such agreements are so lopsided in favor of companies, Davisson suggested supporting lawmakers and regulators who are attentive to these issues.

The Federal Trade Commission has historically supported the idea of disclosure terms protecting companies, even though the agreements are often dense and hard for typical consumers to comprehend. But Davisson says there has been a shift among policymakers and federal regulators.

“Generally, it’s understood that it is literally impossible for consumers to read and interpret and fully understand all of the contracts that they’re being asked and expected by the law to agree to and abide by as they go about their day,” he said. “Especially in an increasingly online world in which we’re interacting with dozens or hundreds of platforms and services a day.”

source https://time.com/7011786/wrongful-death-suit-disney/

The Best Way to Treat Insomnia

Some lucky sleepers climb into bed, close their eyes, and are out cold within five minutes. Others stare at the ceiling for an hour, check the clock, try to find a fresh angle of the ceiling to observe, and then toss, turn, and repeat, every night, week after week.

Insomnia affects 10% to 15% of the U.S. population, and it’s usually caused by a variety of biological and behavioral factors, says Dr. Sairam Parthasarathy, director of the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center for Sleep, Circadian and Neuroscience Research. Women, people who work nights, and seniors are among those most at risk. It often runs in families, and recently, experts concluded that COVID-19 can trigger new insomnia.

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While everyone will experience the occasional sleepless night, usually brought on by stress or lifestyle changes, chronic insomnia occurs three or more nights a week, lasts more than three months, and can’t be fully explained by a health problem. “For those who are in the ‘very severe’ category, it can be debilitating and incapacitating,” Parthasarathy says. “We see people where it’s crippling, and then there are some where it’s been annoying them for years”—and when they retire or otherwise have more free time, they finally decide to do something about it.

There’s good reason to work on putting your insomnia to sleep: The sleep disorder is associated with an increased risk of hypertension, diabetes, obesity, depression, heart attack, and stroke. And it can make you miserable.

Fortunately, resetting your sleep schedule can help the majority of people recover from insomnia—and cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, or CBT-I, is a proven way of doing it. But it takes time, and it’s not always an easy process. 

A new sleep schedule

CBT-I is like “a brain retraining program,” says Dr. Jing Wang, clinical director of the Mount Sinai Integrative Sleep Center and an associate professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Over the course of weekly sessions for around four to eight weeks, you’ll work with a sleep doctor or psychiatrist to target the behaviors and habits perpetuating your insomnia.

One of the cornerstones of treatment is sleep restriction therapy, which helps reset and create new habits around what happens when you’re in bed. Patients generally keep a sleep diary tracking what time they get into bed, when they wake up, and how many hours they actually sleep, Parthasarathy says. Then, doctors use that information to create a temporary schedule. Imagine, for example, that someone goes to bed at 8 p.m. and gets up at 6 a.m., but they’re only actually asleep for six of those hours. The rest of the time? They’re lying there in agony, stressed over the fact that they’re still awake—or they’re rummaging through the fridge, and then turning their laptop on to at least make that sleepless time productive. 

With sleep restriction therapy, Parthasarathy would work backward from that hypothetical patient’s wake time (6 a.m.), since it’s probably non-negotiable due to work. Then he would instruct the person to get into bed at midnight—with the idea that they’d fall right asleep and get the same six hours of sleep before getting up at 6 a.m. Other patients will have different get-into-bed times, based on how many hours they’re currently sleeping per night, and what time they need to get up. (Doctors never set a schedule that drops someone below 5.5 hours of sleep per night, however.)

No matter how tired a person feels leading up to midnight—or whatever other sleep time they’ve been assigned—they’re not allowed to climb into bed. “We’re trying to consolidate the sleep period, and take off the time where sleep is not actually happening in the person’s bed,” he says. “By making them go longer without sleep, their brain becomes thirsty for it. So when they go to bed at 12, they’re not tossing and turning for an hour. They fall asleep in 5 or 10 minutes.”

Read More: What’s the Least Amount of Sleep You Need to Get?

After one week, Parthasarathy assesses how well his patients are sleeping. While sleep diaries aren’t always 100% accurate, he’s found that patients generally do a good job estimating how long it took them to fall asleep, and how much they were awake during the night, especially given that many watch the clock. If someone’s sleep efficiency was greater than 90% every night—meaning they slept for more than 90% of the time they were in bed—he’ll relax their sleeping window by 15 minutes, so they get to go to bed slightly earlier. He’ll continue adjusting the sleep window by 15-minute increments weekly until the person’s sleep efficacy drops to 85% to 90%. “If it falls below 85%, that means there’s a lot of them lying around in bed, and we don’t want that,” he says. With time, patients’ sleep schedules are adjusted to their ideal bedtime—and by then, their body has learned that as soon as they get into bed, it’s time to fall asleep. “There’s subliminal programming that happens in our brain,” Parthasarathy says.

Though CBT-I is considered safe and effective for most people, sleep restriction can be exhausting; as Parthasarathy acknowledges, things often get worse before they get better for people with insomnia. That’s why he advises people with conditions like a seizure disorder or bipolar disorder to avoid CBT-I—lack of sleep can be triggering. It’s not always the right choice for people in jobs that require vigilance, either, like public-transportation drivers. 

In general, even if you proceed with CBT-I, it’s important to be safe in those hours before you’re allowed to get into bed. “The first week or two after starting sleep restriction, people will feel sleepier,” Parthasarathy says. “Some of them are like, ‘Why am I doing this to myself?’” In addition to avoiding risky behaviors like driving, experts recommend filling the hours before you’re allowed to get into bed with relaxing activities: maybe journaling, taking a bath, or meditating.

Setting yourself up for success

Improving sleep hygiene is an essential part of CBT-I, Wang says. That includes adopting new habits around screens: Wang recommends turning off phones, computers, and even the TV at least one to two hours before going to bed. Part of the problem with screens, she says, is the light they produce: It suppresses melatonin, the hormone that helps prepare you for sleep.

The content on your screens can also be problematic. People have heightened reactions to, for example, watching the news, Wang points out—while some stay up late to catch whatever’s going on in politics or around the world, the scenes they see playing out can upset them to the point that they’re unable to sleep. Watching a horror film before bed can have a similar effect.

In addition to keeping your bedroom as dark as possible, consider ditching your alarm clock. “Cover it, or take it out of the bedroom,” Wang advises. “That act of looking at the time is activating. You’re taking a mental check: ‘OK, it’s midnight, I need to be up in five hours.’” That kind of stress certainly does not encourage sleep.

Wang also urges patients to ditch the sleep trackers—or at least look at them less frequently. Some people get fixated on combing through data, she’s found, obsessing over every slight change in their sleep patterns. “There’s always night-to-night variability,” she says. “So for somebody for whom looking at that data is causing a lot of anxiety, and that’s getting them more worked up, I really encourage them not to check it.”

Adjusting lifestyle habits

What you eat and drink before going to bed can play a role in how soundly you sleep. Doctors generally recommend not eating right before bed—late meals are linked with more frequent wake-ups during the night. And it’s a good idea to cut off caffeine intake by 12 p.m., says Dr. Emerson Wickwire, section head of sleep medicine at the University of Maryland Medical Center.

Proceed carefully, too, with alcohol intake. “Alcohol makes everything about sleep worse,” Wickwire says, “with one exception—you’ll fall asleep faster.” After that, things take a turn. Alcohol is a muscle relaxant, which means it relaxes the muscles in the upper airway, potentially causing symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea, even in people who aren’t diagnosed with the condition. “The second reason that alcohol can impair sleep is that it changes the distribution of sleep stages across the evening, or what’s called sleep architecture, and that can negatively impact brain function,” he says. You might find that you experience more fragmented sleep after drinking, waking up frequently and having trouble falling back asleep.

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Read More: How to Stop Procrastinating at Bedtime and Actually Go to Sleep

People with a napping habit also need to make adjustments while undergoing CBT-I. The sleep drive is influenced by how long you’ve been awake and how active you’ve been, Wickwire says. While napping is OK for people who don’t have insomnia, it can thwart progress during CBT-I, because it means someone won’t be as tired when it’s time to go to bed. For example, if you get up at 7 a.m., you’ve been awake for 16 hours by 11 p.m.—which means your body should be craving sleep. “But if you take a nap at 6 p.m., by 11 p.m. you’ve only been awake for four or five hours,” he says, which could sentence you to a night of tossing and turning.

A role for medication

Clinical practice guidelines from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine consistently recommend CBT-I as the first-line treatment for chronic insomnia. “There are multiple studies that have compared outcomes between behavioral treatments and medication treatments,” Wickwire says. “And in general, CBT is equally effective in the short term, with gains better maintained over time.” Research suggests that CBT-I leads to fewer side effects than medication, a lower chance of relapse, and a tendency for sleep to continue improving long into the future.

“No pill can teach your body how to sleep,” Wickwire says. “At the same time, that’s not to say that all sleep medications are bad.” Patients should talk to their provider; sometimes, like in especially severe cases, it makes sense to combine CBT-I with a prescription sleep medication.

Read More: How to Get Your Partner to Stop Snoring

Over-the-counter sleep supplements are a different story. It’s important not to rely on products like ZzzQuil, Benadryl, melatonin gummies, or Advil PM, Wang says. “If you’re sick and need to take one, that’s fine.” But with melatonin especially, “There’s a lot of variability and potential for misuses, or inadvertently causing the reverse effect. We really discourage self-medicating for insomnia.”

Light at the end of the tunnel

People with insomnia often start to see improvement in how much sleep they’re getting within a couple weeks. Exactly how quickly people respond varies, Wang says; some might need six to 12 weeks before noticing a meaningful difference. 

Wang likes to remind patients—who are often stressed and exhausted—that change is possible. “Oftentimes it’s very slow. We don’t expect that tomorrow, these issues will all go away,” she says. “It’s the little steps and consistency—and encouraging people who feel like this is too hard that, yes, it may get worse before it gets better.” But if you keep at it, she adds, long, peaceful nights of slumber will be more than a sweet dream.

source https://time.com/7011068/insomnia-best-treatment-sleep-schedule/

Everything to Know About WhatsApp’s Latest Update and How to Access It

WhatsApp, the instant messaging application owned by Meta, released an update this week, introducing animated stickers from GIPHY,  the popular GIF platform.

In a blog post, Meta wrote that the “integration lets you find and share relevant and engaging stickers, without having to leave the app.” WhatsApp, which recently hit 100 million users in the United States, says that users can access the new GIPHY features by updating the app in theApp store.

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Before the update, U.S.-based WhatsApp users were among those who could stay within the app to send GIFs from GIPHY—which was previously owned by Meta— but now they will be able to expand their use to animated stickers. Users will be able to search for different stickers using keywords or emojis.

Read More: Mark Zuckerberg Just Intensified the Battle for AI’s Future

The update goes even further for Android users, expanding access to a “custom sticker maker” in which iOS users have already had access to for some time. With the sticker maker, WhatsApp users can create personalized stickers using photographs in their camera roll, or they can edit existing stickers using the cut, draw, and crop tools.

Meta also shared on its blog that if, after searching, users do not find the GIF they want, they can utilize Meta AI to create more custom stickers. All of a user’s stickers can be organized through customizable dashboards called a “sticker tray.”  

This AI sticker feature is currently available to iPhone and Android users in the United States.

source https://time.com/7011741/whatsapp-update-explained-latest-stickers-giphy-ai-features/