Do you really know?

According to a Direct Line Group study from 2022, over 70% of UK adults don’t get the recommended 7-9 hours of sleep per night. Nighttime micro-awakenings are a common contributing problem.

For many of us, they happen four to six times per night without us even noticing. And they usually just mark the end of a sleep cycle. But they’re more common in some people, and can be down to various factors like anxiety, mental hyperactivity, asthma, acid reflux, or arthritis. The effects of caffeine, tea, alcohol, and tobacco should also be considered. And it’s important to know...

Here we are, seven years after the announcement by the International Olympic Committee, the Paris Summer Games are about to begin! And for the first time since World War II, the usual four-year gap between the Games was disrupted, as the Tokyo Games were postponed to 2021 due to the global pandemic. In fact, this tradition of holding the Games every four years goes back a very long way and was not introduced by chance; it even has a name: the Olympiad. 

It’s a common misconception, but the term “Olympiad” actually refers to the four-year period between the Gam...

Whether you're lounging on a beach, exploring a new city, or simply taking a break from your daily routine, finding ways to calm your mind while on holiday is really important for our mental and physical health. We often promise ourselves we’re going to disconnect from day one, but it's not as simple as that. 

After all, when we’re at work our brains are constantly processing information, making decisions, solving problems, and dealing with stress. And we don’t just have an on-off switch allowing us to lower the intensity of our brain activity to zero in...

In past episodes of Do You Really Know, we’ve talked about the best holiday destinations in the UK and abroad, as well as how to find the most budget-friendly options. Today though, we’re going to talk about security. 

The idea of visiting many countries all over the world is enticing, but it's important to remember that some destinations are significantly more dangerous than others. Rather than making decisions based on intuition, why not consider using guidance that’s actually based on facts and statistics. One such example is the annual risk map produced by Swedish softwar...

I’m sure at some point as a child on holiday you were told not to go swimming right after eating. Popular belief suggests that we should wait a certain amount of time before getting into the water, in order to let our bodies finish digesting.

Some parents swear by a 30-minute rule, while others say up to two hours, depending on how heavy a meal has been consumed! But in reality, we know that digestion can actually take more than three hours.

Shouldn’t we all be waiting at least three hours in that case...

Whether it’s reading, journaling, enjoying breakfast, or scrolling through social media, these are just a few activities people indulge in while lounging in bed. For some, this has evolved into an art form, popularized by a viral TikTok trend known as “bed rotting.” This habit embodies a laid-back attitude, where productivity and responsibilities are momentarily cast aside in favor of a few minutes or hours of procrastination.

Eleanor McGlinchey, a sleep psychologist at Manhattan Therapy Collective and Associate Professor of Psychology at Fairleigh Dickinson University, suggests that spending time in bed before starting the day can provid...

Love Island is a typical example of a show that people love to hate-watch. The practice has become more and more widespread in recent years with the rise of streaming platforms. It seems mutual hatred makes for a strong bond!

The term was actually invented back in 2012 by Emily Nussbaum, a well-known critic for the New Yorker. She talked about how she couldn’t stop watching musical drama series Smash, despite finding it terrible from start to finish. It’s along the same lines as the “So bad it’s good” trend, which Ryan Bailey used to name his hugel...

Multitasking, or the art of juggling several tasks at once, is more common than ever before in the workplace. In 2022, a German think tank called Next Work Innovation released a study which showed that knowledge workers are interrupted on average every four minutes during the working day!

In a past episode of Do You Really Know, we discussed how our brains manage to cope with multiple demands at once. Suffice to say: it’s not easy! It can be really tricky to focus again after a distraction, and many workers believe interruptions negatively impact their productivity and we...

Sunscreen is essential when on holiday, and in the summer in general. But it doesn’t come cheap, and often the contents aren’t fully used by the time the holiday is over. It’s tempting to reuse bottles from one year to the next, to save money and reduce waste.

What many people don’t know though is whether sunscreen remains effective once it’s been opened, or whether using an out-of-date product is dangerous.

How can I tell if my sunscreen has expired? What are the risks of using out-of-date sunscreen? What steps should I t...

For many people, beaches are synonymous with the summer holiday season. Beach holidays have been popular since the second half of the 19th century, and are the archetypal form of mass tourism. With millions of people indulging in such getaways each year, it goes without saying that there’s a significant environmental impact. We regularly get riled when seeing pictures of beaches covered in plastic bottles, or turtles choking on straws. Around 10 million tonnes of waste end up in the ocean each year, with tourism hotspots creating 26% more than other cities. 

Are you saying my new eco-friendly lifes...