The Age-Well Project

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...

Building habits to age well

What predicates how well we age? We know that socio-economic factors play a role, as do genetics. We may also experience good or bad luck, accidents, better or worse medical provision. But, ultimately, many of our health outcomes come down to habits. We also know that superagers – broadly defined as people over 80 with...

SMELL WITH EXTRAVAGANCE, THINK DIVERGENTLY, LEAN INTO THE TOUGH STUFF…

You may remember that last year I reported – with great excitement – on a study that found sleeping in a room infused with scented oils resulted in a 226% improvement in various sorts of cognition. In this experiment involving people aged 60+, those whose bedrooms were infused with a different oil for two hours...