Little by little, the “digital wellness” movement is drawing attention to the havoc that digital over-consumption is wreaking on our mental and physical wellbeing and also acting upon it. A growing number of tech developers and behavioral scientists are developing apps that rein in emails, texts, incessant news alerts and requests of all sorts to put users back in control. They have had some recent…
In the countries that work the hardest, social norms and legislation are changing in a way that is more conducive to wellness. In Japan, the country that invented the term for death by overwork (karoshi), Prime Minister Abe has just pushed through a piece of “work-style” legislation that will curb working hours by introducing mandatory caps on overtime hours and penalties for violators. Meanwhile, in…
THE BUSINESS OF WELLNESS This is the incredible story of GOOP—a company worth $250 million that sells sometimes questionable wellness products and services. This new article in The New York Times Magazine reveals the extent to which the celebrity-effect can deliver value out of thin air. Gwyneth Paltrow, the movie star, has become a major player in a wellness industry that is big business on…
WELLNESS EVIDENCE A new study that tracked 829 teens for sleep time and quality found that a good night’s sleep seems to be crucial for their metabolic health. Shorter sleep time was associated with higher glucose levels, systolic blood pressure and triglycerides and lower HDL cholesterol—all signs of poor metabolic health. While other studies have linked bad sleep with obesity, this study is notable because…
The world is suffering from a mental wellness crisis: Roughly one billion people suffer from anxiety, and one in four people experience mental disorders. To answer the need for more evidence-based pathways to mental wellbeing, the GWI’s Mental Wellness Initiative will release a new, in-depth report, Mental Wellness: Pathways, Evidence and Horizons, in early October at the Global Wellness Summit in Italy. It will present…
A 4-Day Workweek? A Test Run Shows a Surprising Result – The New York Times, July 19, 2018 This is an interesting example of how working less may lead to higher productivity. A New Zealand financial firm that let its employees work four days a week while being paid for five says the experiment was so successful that it hopes to make the change permanent.…
