Detaching from work — mentally, physically and electronically — is necessary to recover from job stress during nonwork hours, according to a Kansas State University researcher.

YoungAh Park, assistant professor of psychology and former businesswoman in the competitive South Korean workforce, has researched the stress crossover phenomenon between working couples, work-family boundary management and processes of work stress and recovery from stress.

She noted that staying connected to work through smartphones, tablets or laptops has become the norm, although being plugged in allows work-related issues to spill over to the family domain and disrupts recovery from job stress.

“Competition in the workplace is getting fierce. People may worry about job security, want to increase their salary or advance in their career, so they feel they have to be more dedicated to their work. They show that by being available outside of normal work hours through communication and information technologies,” Park said.

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A new study has for the first time shown that certain nutrients may play an underlying role in short and long sleep duration and that people who report eating a large variety of foods – an indicator of an overall healthy diet – had the healthiest sleep patterns.

Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania analyzed data from the 2007-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which includes demographic, socioeconomic, dietary, and health-related questions..

The authors found that total caloric intake varied across groups. Short sleepers consumed the most calories, followed by normal sleepers, followed by very short sleepers, followed by long sleepers. Food variety was highest in normal sleepers, and lowest in very short sleepers. Differences across groups were found for many types of nutrients, including proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals.

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A person’s profile on Facebook may reveal signs of mental illness that might not necessarily emerge in a session with a psychiatrist, a new study has suggested.

According to study researcher Elizabeth Martin, a psychology doctoral student at the University of Missouri, social media activity when used as a tool in psychological diagnosis can remove some of the problems associated with patients’ self-reporting, the CBS News reported.

Martin’s team recruited more than 200 college students and had them fill out questionnaires to evaluate their levels of extroversion, paranoia, enjoyment of social interactions, and endorsement of strange beliefs.

The students also were asked to log onto Facebook. They were told they would have the option to black-out parts of their profile before some of it was printed out for the researchers to examine.

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Orthopaedics expert, Dr VV Prasad answers readers’ questions on bone health. Get your doubts cleared and see them featured on our FAQ page every Monday.

This week’s answers:

I tried some karate high leg kicks and developed this pain in my right leg above the knee area at the right side of the leg.It has been 11/2 months now but my leg pains when ever I do padmasana and  immediately after getting up from the pose I cant walk without lymping.

I showed to a doctor (4 days back) and got treated for 2 days after which the pain got worst after his massages and reached all the way up to my thigh. He pressed so hard I felt the pain during themassage and told him but he continued and said it was natural to feel pain. He also did some electric waves therapy.

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