The Age-Well Project

MELATONIN AND OTHER MARVELS

I’m just back from walking through Sicily, which has reminded me of the importance of sunlight, darkness and exercise for fantastic sleep. After days of long and strenuous walking – up and down the Madonie mountains and their steeply-sided medieval villages – I slept like a dog/baby/log (as you prefer). Here, in the mountains, the...

Travel, plastics and, er, gorillas!

Annabel and I have long appreciated the benefits of travel to help us age well. We know our brains and bodies thrive on new experiences, new places, new people. So we weren’t surprised to read research published last month in the Journal of Travel Research (not a publication we’d come across before) that suggested travel...

HOW TO GET MORE VITAMIN S

I recently conducted a month-long experiment in which I sat on a Chat Bench almost every day, talking to complete strangers. The results so startled me that I wrote about it for the Washington Post (behind a paywall but subscribers can read the full piece here). Hundreds of people responded to the article, keen to...

Change, and ageing well

The change in seasons is powerful, isn’t it? Whether it’s the transition from summer to autumn here in the UK, or winter to spring in the southern hemisphere, we feel it dramatically. And, of course, we evolve, and age, as each season passes. Annabel and I started this blog more than 10 years ago now,...

THE AGEWELL JOYS OF SUMMER NIGHTS

How’s your sleep been recently? I seem to sleep for fewer hours during these light-filled nights, which I suspect is how our ancestors also slept. More in the long dark months and less in the white nights of summer. Call it seasonal sleep if you like. I’ve also been up and about in the dark...