text:
Are you worried about giving your bearded dragons too much fruit?
Have you wondered about different ways to broaden your bearded dragon’s menu?
If you are concerned your bearded dragon is only eating the same foods and want to try introducing something new, you might ask:
Can bearded dragons eat strawberries?
Owners can safely feed strawberries to their pet bearded dragons, but only as a special treat. Because of their sugar content, use strawberries as treats once or twice a week maximum.
In general, fruits should not make up a huge part of a bearded dragon’s diet, but the occasional strawberry isn’t a bad thing.
Continue reading this article to learn even more about bearded dragons and strawberries.
Table of Contents
Can Bearded Dragons Eat Strawberries?
Because strawberries are so easy to find in your local store and well-liked by many people, it could be you have some in your refrigerator or could get some at even the smallest grocery store.
But are they safe to put in your bearded dragon’s food dish?
Overall, fruits are not something you should be giving your bearded dragon very often.
Strawberries are on the list of fruits owners do feed to these animals, even if it is only as a treat.
Many beardies will love having strawberries as a treat, but they shouldn’t be a staple of their diet.
Strawberries do have tons of essential vitamins and minerals, like vitamin C, B9, potassium, and manganese, making them one of the best kinds of fruits to give your pet.
They have a low carbohydrate content and contain dietary fibers, great for helping with weight loss, improving the digestive system, and preventing some diseases.
Feed this beloved reptile a small number of strawberry pieces at most once or twice a week.
Don’t worry about the tiny seeds in the strawberries.
Because strawberry seeds are so small, they are safe for your pet too.
They are also really soft, just another reason they won’t do your bearded dragon any harm.
But just because they are safe doesn’t mean the animal can handle a lot of them.
Too many strawberry seeds will lead to stomach issues.
If you are sticking to the recommendation and only giving them strawberries once or twice a week, you will be fine.
Strawberry tops and strawberry leaves are also safe for your bearded dragon, but again, limit how much you give them.
Not every bearded dragon enjoys having strawberries, just like not every person wants to eat them.
If you just got your beardie, test them out, and see if they like strawberries.
Once you know what your pet likes and doesn’t like, you will be able to craft a menu filled with variety.
Can Bearded Dragons Eat Strawberry Jam?
You might love spreading jam on your morning toast, but this doesn’t mean you need to share with your pet.
Bearded dragons should not be given strawberry jam, and they definitely can’t be eating it.
Strawberry jam, and all other fruit jams and jellies, are packed with sugar as part of the preserving process.
Remember from above how fruits should be used as a treat because they have too much sugar?
Adding sugar to them only makes them worse for your pet.
Never feed your bearded dragons strawberry or any other type of jam or jelly because of the massive amounts of sugar involved.
Are Fruits Safe For Bearded Dragons?
Fruits are not part of the bearded dragon’s daily diet as they lead to a slew of health issues.
While there are many safe for your beardie to eat, you don’t want to overdo it.
Feed bearded dragons too much fruit, and their blood sugar level will be extremely high.
This is very unhealthy for them.
Fruits often lead to a calcium deficiency in bearded dragons because they are high in oxalates.
Oxalates bind to calcium, and when this happens, the animal won’t take in the calcium properly.
A calcium deficiency will lead to painful illnesses like Metabolic Bone Disease, a bone disorder, causing abnormalities and other problems.
Minor cases are treatable, but as the condition progresses, the symptoms will get worse.
Calcium supplementation is something you will need to do by dusting your pet’s food with calcium powder.
The sugar in fruits may also lead to tooth problems and tooth decay in your pet.
Fruits may also lead to obesity in your bearded dragon.
Because of the high amounts of sugar and a lack of exercise, obesity is a common problem for captive bearded dragons.
With moderation, you will prevent these problems and more.
Too much sugar, acid, and even water found in the fruits often cause over-fermentation in the gut, an imbalance in flora found in the gut necessary for proper digestion, and diarrhea leading to dehydration.
Even though strawberries are a good source of vitamins and minerals, this doesn’t mean the good outweighs the bad.
A varied diet of greens, veggies, insects, and fruits will reduce the likelihood of these issues.
Balance is crucial for the bearded dragon diet to reduce the chances of them developing different diseases.
What Other Fruits Can Bearded Dragons Eat?
There are many common fruits bearded dragons will regularly enjoy, in small doses.
While veggies, greens, and insects are considered better options for your pet daily, fruits are a nice treat.
Not all bearded dragons will enjoy all the fruits on this list, but they are safe.
In addition to strawberries, there are other berries safe to feed your beardie.
Try blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries as a treat, but be a little cautious with blueberries and raspberries.
They have moderate levels of oxalates, so don’t offer these too often.
Blackberries have a harder texture than other berries, so it will help cut them in half, especially if you give them to baby bearded dragons.
The cherry is also on the list of fruits to try, but be sure you remove the cherry pit before putting them in the enclosure.
If consumed, the pit may cause an impaction as the bearded dragon cannot break this down.
Watermelon is another safe fruit you might try to five your pet, but it doesn’t offer a lot of nutritional value.
Watermelon has high water content and may lead to over-hydration.
Over-hydration causes their droppings to be runny and flushes out good things like electrolytes.
Dehydrated bearded dragons will benefit from watermelon but offer small doses as a treat.
Apples, pears, peaches, bananas, mangos, cantaloupe, and grapes are also safe for your beardie.
Just be sure you are considering the levels of oxalates before feedings.
Mangoes and pears have higher levels of oxalates and should only be fed in moderation.
Fruits on this list will require some preparation beforehand.
You will need to remove stems, pits, seeds, skin, cores, and peels before feeding them to adult bearded dragons, as well as juvenile and baby bearded dragons.
As a rule of thumb, make sure the fruits, or any food you give bearded dragons, are cut into small bite-sized pieces.
This will reduce the risk of choking or not properly swallowing their food.
Adult dragons don’t have as much trouble with this, but this is especially important when you have a baby or juvenile bearded dragon.
Avoiding feeding fruits you find in the wild as they may contain chemicals like pesticides, insecticides, and herbicides.
Chemicals are very harmful to these animals and may cause early death.
Fruits To Avoid Feeding A Bearded Dragon
Bearded dragons have a long list of food items to enjoy, but there are several things on the list owners need to avoid.
One of these is avocado.
Avocados in any form and any amount are poisonous to bearded dragons.
They have extremely high levels of those calcium-binding oxalates.
It is so high; the bearded dragon won’t tolerate even the smallest amount of avocado.
Citrus fruits are also on the list of fruits to avoid.
This includes oranges, clementines, lemons, limes, and grapefruit.
The high levels of acidity are not good for your pet, and again the high sugar levels will wreak havoc on your pet’s system.
Citrus fruits commonly cause severe diarrhea, in turn leading to dehydration and a lack of nutrients.
Another member of the list is rhubarb because it contains nephrotoxin.
This will damage and even destroy your beardie’s kidneys.
Avoid this highly toxic plant at all costs.
Even though tomatoes are often considered a vegetable, they are fruit.
Don’t feed tomatoes to your bearded dragon.
Like citrus fruits, tomatoes are considered too acidic to give to your bearded dragon.
With so many fruits your bearded dragon can eat, it won’t be hard to avoid these few on the never eat list.
To ensure your pet stays healthy and lives a good long life, you need to provide them with the proper nutrition and know what they should or shouldn’t be eating.
Strawberries are a great way to treat your bearded dragon, but with their high sugar content, remember to use them only as a treat, not a daily staple.
Bearded dragons have their favorites and appreciate a varied diet.
With the list of different fruits safe for your pet, you are sure to find some treats they enjoy.
Just not too much.
The Bearded Dragon Handbook
You’ll save time and money right away with this easy-to-follow digital handbook. This is the guide you’ve been looking for everywhere.

domain: pet


text:
- Open Access
Self-reported sleep and exercise patterns in patients admitted with suicidal attempts: a cross-sectional comparative study
BMC Psychiatry volume 22, Article number: 326 (2022)
There is evidence that sleep disturbances and exercise are risk factors for suicide attempts; however, whether sleep disturbances are independently associated with suicide attempts is debatable. We compared the sleep and exercise patterns of individuals who attempted suicide to those of the general population and investigated whether sleep disturbances were independently associated with suicide attempts.
Over a year, individuals presented to the emergency department at Hamad General Hospital and Mental Health Services in Doha with suicide attempts (n = 127) filled out questionnaires on sleep and exercise, demographics, and clinical measures. A control group (n = 126) from two primary care centers filled out the same questionnaires during the same period.
Subjects in the suicide group were significantly younger, single, had a lower level of education, and showed considerably more early insomnia, daytime tiredness, interrupted sleep, and no regular exercise. The most common diagnoses seen with suicidality were adjustment disorder and major depression, and the most common method used to attempt suicide was an overdose. After multiple regression analysis, being Arab, belonging to the category “other nationalities,” unemployment, and early insomnia were significantly associated with an increased risk of suicide attempts.
This is the first comparative study on suicide in the Arabian Gulf. Individuals in Qatar with acute stress, depressive symptoms, sleep disturbances, and lack of exercise are at increased risk of attempting suicide. Thus, clinicians need to routinely screen for sleep and physical activity because of their significant contribution to physical and mental well-being.
Every year, approximately 800,000 people die by suicide , and even more suffer from suicidal thoughts and behaviors . Thus, there is an increasing need to identify the risk factors and warning signs for suicide to achieve timely interventions and minimize the global burden of suicidality. Sleep disturbances are also a significant public health concern, interfering with daily functioning, and negatively impacting mental and physical health. According to several cross-sectional and population-based studies conducted in various clinical populations, including adults, adolescents, war veterans, and children, sleep disturbance is a putative risk factor and an acute warning sign for suicidal thoughts and behaviors [3,4,5,6]. However, it is debatable whether this association is dependent on depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress symptoms, and other psychiatric illnesses . According to a 2015 systematic review and a 2012 meta-analysis, sleep disturbances were independently associated with an elevated risk of suicide attempts [7, 8], and another recent prospective study reached the same conclusion .
Furthermore, after a posteriori analysis of existing evidence, two recent systematic reviews concluded that sleep disturbances could be a potential biomarker for suicidal behavior [10, 11]. Another report showed that 92% of subjects with severe suicidal attempts had difficulty falling asleep, interrupted sleep, or early morning awakening . In contrast, others reported the loss of this significance after controlling for confounding variables such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress symptoms [2, 13]. Thus, sleep disturbances increase the long-term and short-term risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors, but whether this association is related to other clinical and demographic factors has yet to be elucidated.
Effective suicide prevention programs need to focus on modifiable measures, like sleep and exercise, for individuals at risk of suicide. The latter is known to offer resilience in the face of life’s stressors and confer a protective effect on mental health and suicide attempts . Exercise has shown efficacy in treating depression with effect sizes similar to those of medications . It has also led to increased physical and psychological well-being in patients with depression . It also exhibits a mood-stabilizing effect in bipolar disorder in adjunct to medications. Exercise may mediate these effects by increasing brain-derived nerve factor (BDNF), decreasing oxidative stress, and inducing epigenetic changes beneficial for mood disorders . Furthermore, aerobic exercise is also known to enhance the ability to regulate emotions through increasing executive function. In a randomized control trial, acute aerobic exercise increased the capacity to downregulate negative emotions in response to unpleasant emotional cues . Regarding suicide attempts, a case-controlled study showed an independent protective association between physical activity and the risk of suicide attempts . An extensive web-based survey among Korean adolescents showed that those who met the recommended guidelines for physical activity were less likely to report past suicide attempts . Similarly, in a population-based, case-controlled study, Simon et al. found that those who attempted suicide were less likely to report involvement in physical activity in the past month than controls .
There are also ethnic and cultural variations in these risk and protective factors  and their subsequent impact on suicidal thoughts and behaviors. For instance, there are geographical differences in sleep patterns , and the prevalence of insufficient physical activity also varies across countries . Thus, it is crucial to investigate the risk factors for suicide in various settings across the globe. For example, Qatar is one of the Islamic countries in the Arab peninsula known to have a low suicide rate . These apparent low rates are due to a lack of national suicide registries and the stigma surrounding suicide, an act condemned by Islam and considered sinful. This denunciation prompts victims and their families to conceal self-harm behaviors and suicide intents . So, in regions where individuals are disinclined to report their mental health symptoms, better screening techniques based on the risk factors may early identify those at an increased risk for attempting suicide.
The present study evaluated the risk factors and warning signs for suicide attempts in Qatar. In addition, this study assessed the sleep and exercise patterns in patients with suicide attempts compared to a general population sample with no psychiatric illness or suicide attempts. We hypothesized that the group with suicide attempts would have more sleep problems and less exercise activity than controls. Moreover, we investigated whether sleep disturbances were associated with an increased risk of suicide attempts and whether this association occurred independently of other socio-demographical and clinical characteristics.
This is a cross-sectional, case-controlled study assessing the relationship between sleep and suicide in Qatar. We conducted the study between January 2015 and January 2016, and the Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) at both Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) and Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM-Q) in Doha, Qatar, approved the study. All subjects signed a written consent after explaining the study’s purpose, procedures, and duration.
Setting and participants
Qatar is a rapidly growing country with a strong economy. The population of Qatar at the time of the study was about 2,400,000 , where the majority were expatriates (over 80%) from South Asia . The Mental Health Services is the only psychiatric facility in Doha with 80 beds inpatient capacity (95–100% occupancy) and ten outpatient clinics with daily visits for about 100 patients per weekday. We recruited the subjects with suicidal attempts (n = 127) through the Emergency Department of HMC and Mental Health Services in Doha during the one year indicated above. Another 35 subjects were approached to participate, but they refused. We enlisted the control group (n = 126) from two primary care centers in Doha and the Mental Health Services' visitors during the same period. Another 43 subjects were approached for the control group, but they refused. The inclusion criteria for the suicide group were: age 18–65 years, recent suicidal attempt within the last week, and the ability to sign written informed consent (English or Arabic). We established the suicide risk and intent using the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS) . The exclusion criteria were current medical problems that require immediate medical attention. The control group had the same criteria of age, absence of ongoing medical issues, and the capacity to sign consent. Also, they did not have any history of psychiatric disease or suicidal attempts.
Procedure and measurements
All the subjects answered questionnaires to cover the sociodemographics, medical and psychiatry histories, sleep, and exercise. The questionnaires and scales were available in both English and Arabic. The sleep questionnaire is a modified version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) , and the research team designed the exercise questionnaire. The Arabic versions (translated by bilingual clinicians) were culturally adapted for Arabic-speaking populations [29, 30]. These instruments were piloted in Arabic and English-speaking patients and controls in Qatar, and their feedback was reflected in the final versions. We instructed the participants to answer the sleep and exercise questions based on their experiences during the month before the suicidal attempt. The research team trained the bilingual raters to administer these questionnaires before the start of the study. They were randomly assigned on different days to administer the questionnaires to both the suicide and control groups.
We analyzed the data using the IBM SPSS version 26 (IBM Corp, Armonk, NY, 2015), with the significance level set at 0.05. We present the continuous variables as mean ± standard deviation (S.D.) and the categorical ones as frequency distributions. We compared the two groups using independent samples t-test for continuous variables, chi-square test for categorical ones, and Bonferroni corrections (option in SPSS) for multiple comparisons. The Kolmogorov–Smirnov test was used to assess normality. In this regard, we used Mann–Whitney U. We wanted to evaluate if sleep problems are independently associated with suicide. We used multiple logistic regression (backward conditional) using the significant variables from the bivariate analysis (control vs. suicide group) and the clinically relevant factors from other studies. We tested the best-fit model using Hosmer and Lemeshow test and by checking Nagelkerke R2.
Sociodemographic characteristics of the sample ( Table 1 )
There were no significant gender differences between the suicide cases and controls. The mean age of the suicide group was significantly less than the one for the control group (Table 1). The factors that were significant included marital status (χ2 = 25.43, p < 0.001), nationality (χ2 = 15.90, p < 0.001), education degree (χ2 = 18.53, p < 0.001), and employment status (χ2 = 28.11, p < 0.001). The suicide group had significantly more single or divorced/widowed subjects than the control group (p < 0.05). There were more subjects in the suicide group whose nationality was among the category “Other.” The latter included mainly the Philippines and a few from France, the United Kingdom, and the United States (Table 1). There was a trend for the factor related to the number of children, but it did not reach significance (p = 0.057), where the suicide group had a larger number of subjects with no children compared to the control group. The number of subjects with college/postgraduate education and the employed ones was significantly higher in the control group compared to those with suicidal attempts (p < 0.05) (Table 1).
Psychiatric profile of the suicide group (Table 2)
Table 2 summarizes the psychiatric features of the suicide group. Only 26.8% of the subjects who attempted suicide had past psychiatric diagnoses, where the majority had depression. During hospitalization, the majority received the diagnosis of adjustment disorder (31.5%), followed by major depression episode (26.0%), suicidal attempt (14.2%), and substance use disorder (10.2%). The most common method used to attempt suicide was an overdose (39.7%), followed by cutting wrists or stabbing themselves (25.4%), and then consuming poisonous material (17.5%). About 20.5% were hospitalized to a psychiatric hospital before, and 26.0% had a previous suicide attempt. The most common substance used was nicotine (smoking cigarettes) in 33.9% of the sample.
Sleep patterns in suicide and control groups ( Table 3 )
All the sleep measures were significantly different between the two groups except for day naps and early wake up (Table 3): sleep hours (χ2 = 21.06, p < 0.001), wakeup (χ2 = 33.02, p < 0.001) and sleep (χ2 = 30.12, p < 0.001) times, early insomnia (χ2 = 13.58, p < 0.001), interrupted sleep (χ2 = 8.34, p < 0.004), day tiredness/sleepiness (χ2 = 5.90, p < 0.015), sleep problems (χ2 = 25.43, p < 0.001), and sleep quality (χ2 = 20.18, p < 0.001). Comparisons revealed an equal number of subjects in each group sleeping for less than six hours. More subjects in the control group slept 6–7 h, and more subjects in the suicide group slept more than 8 h (p < 0.05). The suicide group showed more subjects who would sleep either early or late (and woke up later in the morning) while most of the control group slept between 11 pm and 1 am (and woke up between 4 and 6 am) (Table 1).
The suicide group showed significantly more subjects with early insomnia, interrupted sleep, and day tiredness than the control group. The sleep problems were not common in the suicide group, and the number of subjects with snoring was higher in the control group. More subjects in the control group scored excellent sleep quality (higher values mean better quality) compared to the suicide one (p < 0.05) (Table 3). We also analyzed the gender differences in the sleep patterns in the two groups (suicide vs. controls). Many of the sleep disturbances were significantly higher in the males attempting suicide than controls (early insomnia, χ2 = 19.66, p < 0.001; late insomnia, χ2 = 12.06, p = 0.001; interrupted sleep, χ2 = 21.75, p < 0.001) but not in the females. The sleep duration (χ2 = 18.97, p = 0.001), mainly sleeping less than six hours, and poor sleep quality (score < 3) (χ2 = 31.75, p < 0.001) were also more affected in the males of the suicide group (compared to controls) but not in the female ones.
Exercise patterns in suicide and control groups (Table 4)
All the variables on exercise were significantly different between the two groups: frequency (χ2 = 16.13, p = 0.001), duration (χ2 = 17.44, p = 0.002), and intensity (χ2 = 18.43, p < 0.001) (Table 3). The majority of the suicide group (71.7%) did not exercise at all. Among those who exercised, most of them were doing light exercise, 15–30 min one time per week, and these were mainly in the control group to manage weight and for general well-being (Table 1).
Multiple regression analysis
We conducted multiple regression analyses to check if sleep problems are independently associated with suicide after controlling for the other factors contributing to suicidality and sleep problems. The dependent factor was the group (control vs. suicide). The independent factors were age, gender, marital status, employment, having children, nationality, frequency of exercise, early insomnia, interrupted sleep, and late insomnia. The regression model with all the predictors was significant (χ2 = 144.98, df = 14, and p < 0.001). The Nagelkerke R2 showed that the model explained 58.2% of the variance predicted by these variables. The best-fit model was confirmed by the Hosmer and Lemeshow test (χ2 = 2.09, df = 8, and p = 0.98). The model gave an overall 79.4% correct rate of the outcome (control vs. suicide). The predictors that remained significantly associated with suicide after controlling for the other ones were nationality, employment, and having early insomnia (Table 5). Compared to Qataris, Arabs and other nationalities are 4.14 and 15.79 times, respectively, more likely to attempt suicide. The odds of unemployed subjects attempting suicide are 4.8 times more than the employed ones. Those with early insomnia were 2.58 times more likely to attempt suicide than those without such a sleep problem.
This study compared the sociodemographic characteristics and the sleep/exercise patterns between subjects with suicide attempts and those from the general population with no psychiatric disorders or suicide attempts. Additionally, we investigated whether sleep disturbances were independently associated with an increased risk of suicide attempts. We found that subjects with early insomnia, being expatriate, and unemployed, were independently associated with an increased risk of attempting suicide after controlling for age, gender, and other sociodemographic factors. Furthermore, those in the suicide group were less likely to report involvement in physical activity than individuals in the control group. We will discuss our results focusing on the aims mentioned above.
Sample characteristics and suicide
In the population residing in Qatar, the following features were significantly different in the suicide group when compared to the control one: young age (≤ 24 years), expatriate (other than south Asians), single, divorced/widowed, unemployed, lower education status, and unemployment (Table 1). This profile is similar to the previously reported risk factors for suicidality in other Arab countries , the Middle East North Africa region , and around the world [33,34,35]. In addition, females of a young age are at risk of attempting suicide in most populations [33, 36,37,38]. However, the 1:1 male to female in our suicide group (Table 1) does not follow the known pattern where females tend to attempt suicide more than males. This discrepancy can be explained by the fact that the male to female ratio in the population of Qatar is about 3 . Thus, the ratio in our sample does not reflect the ratio of the population in Qatar but indirectly indicates that there were more females attempting suicide in this population.
Our study showed that expatriates overall are more predisposed to attempt suicide than nationals in Qatar. Other neighboring countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council, where a high proportion of the population is expatriates, also showed the same trend. For example, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Bahrain reported a higher percentage of deaths by suicide in the expatriate populations than in the local community [40,41,42]. A potential explanation may be that expatriates are more likely to face immigration-related stressors, as identified in a recent investigation of individuals' psychosocial and clinical profiles visiting the Emergency Department in Qatar due to suicide attempts . Moreover, a review of the risk factors for suicidal behaviors highlighted the importance of social connectedness as a protective factor against lifetime suicide attempts among Filipino Americans . The latter study concluded that establishing an extensive family network was a survival strategy for the Filipinos . It is worth adding that most people under “other nationalities” in our sample were from the Philippines. Thus, separation from family due to immigration to Qatar might disconnect the Filipinos and other expatriates from this protective factor and predispose them to suicidal attempts. Further, a systematic review investigating suicide risk among immigrants and ethnic minorities in Europe found evidence that these two groups are at an increased risk of attempting suicide than native populations. Non-European immigrant women, including South Asian and black African origins, were at the highest risk for suicidal behaviors . Apart from basic psychosocial and psychopathological risks, these individuals may be exposed to additional risk factors such as language barriers, being distant from family, and worrying about family. The review suggested that the loss of social network and status, acculturation, and less knowledge about the healthcare system may trigger suicide attempts .
The most common psychiatric diagnoses in the suicide group were major depressive disorder and adjustment disorder. Our results are consistent with other worldwide population studies  including the Arab countries [31, 38, 43] and other international studies on patients with suicide attempts . Other common psychiatric diagnoses in our suicide group were substance use, psychotic disorder, bipolar disorder, and personality disorders, all of which have also been associated with an increased risk of suicide attempts [46, 48]. The most common method of attempted suicide was an overdose, previously reported in several international and regional studies [33, 49].
Sleep patterns and suicide
Our results showed that more individuals from the suicide group reported early insomnia or difficulty falling asleep than the control group. After conducting multiple regression analyses, we found that early insomnia was independently associated with attempting suicide (Table 5). Previous studies reported mixed results regarding the most common type of insomnia associated with suicide . For example, in one study with a sample from the general population, late insomnia and difficulty maintaining sleep were independent predictors of suicide attempts after controlling for demographic characteristics, psychiatric disorders, and chronic health conditions, but early insomnia was not . In another study, none of the types of insomnia (hypersomnia, difficulty initiating sleep, and difficulty maintaining sleep) was an independent predictor of suicide attempts . However, there is ample evidence that all three forms of insomnia (early, late, and sleep maintenance) are more prevalent in those who attempt suicide than the general population [2, 12, 51, 52].
Further, insomnia has been implicated in developing various psychiatric illnesses, which have been associated with an increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors . The severity of insomnia symptoms has been independently linked to suicidal ideation after controlling for depressive symptoms and anhedonia . In a retrospective study, patients with depression who reported a prior suicide attempt had more sleep latency than healthy controls . A 2018 nationwide retrospective cohort study in China compared patients with insomnia to those without and found that insomnia was independently associated with an increased risk for suicide attempts . Using a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults, Geoffroy et al. compared those who attempted suicide with those who did not and found that early insomnia, early morning awakening, and hypersomnia were more prevalent in the suicide group. These sleep disturbances were collectively associated with an increased risk of attempting suicide independent of psychopathology . It is worth noting that our sleep questionnaire covers the period before the suicidal attempt, which might indicate that insomnia can be a potential warning sign for the impending suicide attempt shown in the significant association between the two. However, this possibility cannot be confirmed in a cross-sectional study like ours. Still, other prospective and well-designed studies have shown that sleep problems can be a warning sign for further suicidal ideation and behaviors, independent of the depressive symptoms . Further, a review of sleep disturbances as potential warning signs for suicide recommended the importance of screening for suicide in sleep clinics . Our results also showed that most of the suicide group had no prior psychiatric history and even after the attempt, most of them were given the diagnosis of an adjustment disorder (Table 2). The association between sleep and suicide may involve several neurocognitive mechanisms. Sleep loss may lead to impaired executive functioning, risky decision making, difficulty in determining the importance of emotional stimuli, impaired emotional regulation, and increased negative affect . More research and close monitoring of patients are needed to understand the role of insomnia in suicide behaviors.
According to our results, the control group had significantly more individuals who reported snoring than the suicide group. However, there was no significant difference between the two groups concerning sleep apnea. Other studies have demonstrated that depression probably mediates the association between snoring/sleep apnea and suicide, and thus they were not independent predictors of suicidal ideation . Furthermore, several studies have identified an association between severe obstructive sleep apnea and depression [57,58,59], which increases the risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors .
Our results showed that significantly more individuals from the suicide group reported a sleep quality of 2 out of 5 (higher values mean better quality), and more individuals from the control group reported a sleep quality of 5. Further, more individuals from the suicide group reported that their sleep was interrupted. Previous studies agree that poor sleep quality is associated with an increased risk of suicidal ideation and death by suicide. In one such study, including patients with major depression, poor subjective sleep quality was associated with an increased risk of suicidal ideation . Another study found that non-restorative sleep and poor subjective sleep quality were significantly associated with death by suicide independent of depression .
We also found that more individuals in the suicide group reported sleeping more than 9 h a day. There was no significant difference in the number of individuals from the two groups who reported sleeping less than 6 h a day. In the general population and patients with depression or anxiety, 24-h sleep duration of \(\ge\) 10 h and \(\le\) 6 h has increased the risk of suicidal ideation and attempts across various experimental settings [51, 63, 64]. Perhaps our results did not show an association between sleeping less than 6 h and suicidal attempts due to our self-report measures. Subjects may have included the time taken to fall asleep and the time they stayed awake when their sleep was interrupted as part of the number of hours slept per night, which may have confounded the results.
Our results showed also significant gender differences in the prevalence of sleep disturbances where only males showed that all types of insomnia, short sleep duration, and poor sleep quality, were significantly more frequent in males with suicide attempt than controls. No such significant differences were seen in females. These findings are relevant in view of the known gender differences about suicidality and its attributes. Other recent studies have also reported gender differences in sleep patterns when assessing suicidal ideation and behaviors [65, 66].
Exercise and suicide
We found that compared to the control group, individuals in the suicide group were less likely to report involvement in physical activity during the past month. Moreover, individuals in the control group were more likely to report participation in physical activity at least once per week. Simon et al. also reported similar findings; individuals with nearly lethal suicide attempts were less likely to report involvement in physical activity in the past month compared to the controls . In another study with Korean adolescents, those who met the guidelines for physical activity were less likely to report a past suicide attempt . A large population-based, cross-sectional study in South Korea found that those who did not report involvement in physical activity over the past year were more likely to report suicidal thoughts . It is well known that acute aerobic exercise improves emotional regulation by improving the ability to attenuate negative emotions , enhancing resilience when dealing with life’s stressors . Thus, exercise shows potential as an adjunctive treatment for people experiencing suicidal thoughts and should be investigated in future research.
Strengths and limitations
This is the first cross-sectional study to examine the relationship between suicide and sleep/exercise patterns in the MENA region and Arab countries. It is essential to report that this study has a few limitations that should be controlled for in future studies. First, the sleep and exercise patterns were assessed using self-reported surveys, limiting the accuracy of such measures as more automated methods like actigraphy might be a better objective tool for sleep and exercise measures. However, it is worth reporting that some studies reported a moderate to strong correlation between many subjective measures and actigraphy when comparing sleep parameters in subjects with “mental ill-health” . Second, this cross-sectional design limits any inferential conclusion on the relationship between sleep/exercise and suicide behaviors. Prospective studies would be more helpful to clarify the relationship between sleep/exercise and suicide. Third, the sample size was based on the duration of study and convenience sampling and not on power analysis and estimation of the differences in the sleep parameters to be analyzed, which is a better way to find significant differences. Fourth, the design of this study by including subjects with major suicidal attempts (as most of them will have a psychiatric diagnosis) does not allow to control for the fact that the mental illness can confound the significant association between sleep and suicide. Finally, some of the tools used in this study lack formal validation and consistency with other studies abroad, limiting our findings' generalizability.
In conclusion, individuals experiencing insomnia symptoms should be assessed for suicidal ideation, and those with a prior suicide attempt should be monitored for insomnia symptoms. This is the first study in the Arab countries on the relationship between sleep/exercise and suicide. Our results provide a basis for further investigation of insomnia (being a warning sign for suicide) and exercise as therapeutic targets for reducing suicidality. Furthermore, sleep disturbances and exercise should be part of suicide risk assessment in all care settings to promptly prevent future suicide attempts.
Availability of data and materials
In order to protect the privacy and confidentiality of the research participants our de-identified data are available only upon request and after compliance with the policies and procedures of WCM-Qatar, HMC and QNRF for data sharing. Requests can be submitted to Suhaila Ghuloum at firstname.lastname@example.org.
Suicide. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/suicide; [accessed 4th October 2020].
Woznica AA, Carney CE, Kuo JR, Moss TG. The insomnia and suicide link: toward an enhanced understanding of this relationship. Sleep Med Rev. 2015;22:37–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2014.10.004.
Bernert RA, Hom MA, Iwata NG, Joiner TE. Objectively Assessed Sleep Variability as an Acute Warning Sign of Suicidal Ideation in a Longitudinal Evaluation of Young Adults at High Suicide Risk. J Clin Psychiatry. 2017;78(6):e678–87. https://doi.org/10.4088/JCP.16m11193.
Drapeau CW, Nadorff MR, McCall WV, Titus CE, Barclay N, Payne A. Screening for suicide risk in adult sleep patients. Sleep Med Rev. 2019;46:17–26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2019.03.009.
Harris LM, Huang X, Linthicum KP, Bryen CP, Ribeiro JD. Sleep disturbances as risk factors for suicidal thoughts and behaviours: a meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. Sci Rep. 2020;10(1):13888. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-70866-6.
McClure JR, Criqui MH, Macera CA, Ji M, Nievergelt CM, Zisook S. Prevalence of suicidal ideation and other suicide warning signs in veterans attending an urgent care psychiatric clinic. Compr Psychiatry. 2015;60:149–55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2014.09.010.
Bernert RA, Kim JS, Iwata NG, Perlis ML. Sleep disturbances as an evidence-based suicide risk factor. Curr Psychiatry Rep. 2015;17(3):554. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-015-0554-4.
Pigeon WR, Pinquart M, Conner K. Meta-analysis of sleep disturbance and suicidal thoughts and behaviors. J Clin Psychiatry. 2012;73(9):e1160-1167. https://doi.org/10.4088/JCP.11r07586.
Geoffroy PA, Oquendo MA, Courtet P, Blanco C, Olfson M, Peyre H, Lejoyeux M, Limosin F, Hoertel N. Sleep complaints are associated with increased suicide risk independently of psychiatric disorders: results from a national 3-year prospective study. Mol Psychiatry. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-020-0735-3.
Porras-Segovia A, Perez-Rodriguez MM, Lopez-Esteban P, Courtet P, Barrigon MM, Lopez-Castroman J, Cervilla JA, Baca-Garcia E. Contribution of sleep deprivation to suicidal behaviour: A systematic review. Sleep Med Rev. 2019;44:37–47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2018.12.005.
Chaib LS, Segovia AP, Baca-Garcia E, Lopez-Castroman J. Ecological Studies of Sleep Disturbances During Suicidal Crises. Curr Psychiatry Rep. 2020;22(7):34. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-020-01155-2.
Hall RC, Platt DE, Hall RC. Suicide risk assessment: a review of risk factors for suicide in 100 patients who made severe suicide attempts. Evaluation of suicide risk in a time of managed care. Psychosomatics. 1999;40(1):18–27.
Bernert RA, Nadorff MR. Sleep Disturbances and Suicide Risk. Sleep Med Clin. 2015;10(1):35–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsmc.2014.11.004.
Sturm J, Ploderl M, Fartacek C, Kralovec K, Neunhauserer D, Niederseer D, Hitzl W, Niebauer J, Schiepek G, Fartacek R. Physical exercise through mountain hiking in high-risk suicide patients. A randomized crossover trial. Acta Psychiatr Scand. 2012;126(6):467–75.
Hearing CM, Chang WC, Szuhany KL, Deckersbach T, Nierenberg AA, Sylvia LG. Physical Exercise for Treatment of Mood Disorders: A Critical Review. Curr Behav Neurosci Rep. 2016;3(4):350–9. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40473-016-0089-y.
Schuch FB, Vancampfort D, Rosenbaum S, Richards J, Ward PB, Stubbs B. Exercise improves physical and psychological quality of life in people with depression: A meta-analysis including the evaluation of control group response. Psychiatry Res. 2016;241:47–54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2016.04.054.
Zhang Y, Fu R, Sun L, Gong Y, Tang D. How Does Exercise Improve Implicit Emotion Regulation Ability: Preliminary Evidence of Mind-Body Exercise Intervention Combined With Aerobic Jogging and Mindfulness-Based Yoga. Front Psychol. 1888;2019:10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01888.
Simon TR, Powell KE, Swann AC. Involvement in physical activity and risk for nearly lethal suicide attempts. Am J Prev Med. 2004;27(4):310–5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2004.07.003.
Cho KO. Physical Activity and Suicide Attempt of South Korean Adolescents - Evidence from the Eight Korea Youth Risk Behaviors Web-based Survey. J Sports Sci Med. 2014;13(4):888–93.
Choo CC, Harris KM, Chew PKH, Ho RC. Does ethnicity matter in risk and protective factors for suicide attempts and suicide lethality? PLoS ONE. 2017;12(4): e0175752. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0175752.
Ong JL, Tandi J, Patanaik A, Lo JC, Chee MWL. Large-scale data from wearables reveal regional disparities in sleep patterns that persist across age and sex. Sci Rep. 2019;9(1):3415. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-40156-x.
Guthold R, Stevens GA, Riley LM, Bull FC. Worldwide trends in insufficient physical activity from 2001 to 2016: a pooled analysis of 358 population-based surveys with 1.9 million participants. Lancet Glob Health. 2018;6(10):e1077–86.
Pritchard C, Amanullah S. An analysis of suicide and undetermined deaths in 17 predominantly Islamic countries contrasted with the UK. Psychol Med. 2007;37(3):421–30. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291706009159.
Lester D. Suicide and islam. Archives of suicide research : official journal of the International Academy for Suicide Research. 2006;10(1):77–97. https://doi.org/10.1080/13811110500318489.
The Simplified Census of Population, Housing & Establishments, Ministry of Development, Planning, and Statistics; https://www.psa.gov.qa/en/knowledge/Publications/Other/Census%202015.pdf. 2015 [accessed 4th October 2020].
Population of Qatar by nationality – 2019 report; http://priyadsouza.com/population-of-qatar-by-nationality-in-2017/. [accessed 4th October 2020].
Posner K, Brown GK, Stanley B, Brent DA, Yershova KV, Oquendo MA, Currier GW, Melvin GA, Greenhill L, Shen S, et al. The Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale: initial validity and internal consistency findings from three multisite studies with adolescents and adults. Am J Psychiatry. 2011;168(12):1266–77. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2011.10111704.
Buysse DJ, Reynolds CF 3rd, Monk TH, Berman SR, Kupfer DJ. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index: a new instrument for psychiatric practice and research. Psychiatry Res. 1989;28(2):193–213. https://doi.org/10.1016/0165-1781(89)90047-4.
Kiwan N, Mahfoud Z, Ghuloum S, Yehya A, Hammoudeh S, Hani Y, Chamali R, Amro I, Mook-Kanamori D, Al-Amin H. Relationships between sleep patterns and metabolic profile in patients maintained on antipsychotics: a cross-sectional comparative study. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. 2019;15:2035–47. https://doi.org/10.2147/NDT.S207987.
Kiwan N, Mahfoud Z, Ghuloum S, Chamali R, Yehya A, Hammoudeh S, Hani Y, Amro I, Al-Amin H. Self-Reported Sleep and Exercise Patterns in Patients with Schizophrenia: a Cross-Sectional Comparative Study. Int J Behav Med. 2020;27(4):366–77. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529-019-09830-2.
Karam EG, Hajjar RV, Salamoun MM. Suicidality in the Arab World Part II: Community Studies. The Arab Journal of Psychiatry. 2008;19(1):1–24.
Malakouti SK, Davoudi F, Khalid S, Ahmadzad Asl M, Moosa Khan M, Alirezaei N, Mirabzadeh A, DeLeo D. The Epidemiology of Suicide Behaviors among the Countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region of WHO: a Systematic Review. Acta Med Iran. 2015;53(5):257–65.
Canner JK, Giuliano K, Selvarajah S, Hammond ER, Schneider EB. Emergency department visits for attempted suicide and self harm in the USA: 2006–2013. Epidemiol Psychiatr Sci. 2018;27(1):94–102. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2045796016000871.
Chihara I, Ae R, Kudo Y, Uehara R, Makino N, Matsubara Y, Sasahara T, Aoyama Y, Kotani K, Nakamura Y. Suicidal patients presenting to secondary and tertiary emergency departments and referral to a psychiatrist: a population-based descriptive study from Japan. BMC Psychiatry. 2018;18(1):112. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-018-1690-2.
Saddichha S, Prasad MN, Saxena MK. Attempted suicides in India: a comprehensive look. Archives of suicide research : official journal of the International Academy for Suicide Research. 2010;14(1):56–65. https://doi.org/10.1080/13811110903479060.
Brunstein Klomek A, Nakash O, Goldberger N, Haklai Z, Geraisy N, Yatzkar U, Birnai A, Levav I. Completed suicide and suicide attempts in the Arab population in Israel. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2016;51(6):869–76. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-016-1219-2.
Saberi-Zafaghandi MB, Hajebi A, Eskandarieh S, Ahmadzad-Asl M: Epidemiology of suicide and attempted suicide derived from the health system database in the Islamic Republic of Iran: 2001–2007. Eastern Mediterranean health journal = La revue de sante de la Mediterranee orientale = al-Majallah al-sihhiyah li-sharq al-mutawassit 2012, 18(8):836–841. http://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.26719/2012.18.8.836
Haj E, Hag E, Hanna R, Kamal F, Bishara B, Abdalla B. The Underlying Reasons of Suicide Attempts among Arab Population in the Holy-Land— Nazareth: View and Overview. Journal of Behavioral and Brain Science. 2014;4:190–200.
Qatar Monthly Statistics August 2020. Planning and Statistics Authority. https://www.psa.gov.qa/en/Pages/default.aspx ; 2020 [accessed 4th October 2020]
Elfawal MA. Cultural influence on the incidence and choice of method of suicide in Saudi Arabia. The American journal of forensic medicine and pathology. 1999;20(2):163–8.
Al Ansari A, Hamadeh RR, Ali MK, El Offi A. Suicide in Bahrain in the last decade. Crisis. 2007;28(1):11–5. https://doi.org/10.1027/0227-5910.28.1.11.
Al-Waheeb S, Al-Kandary N. Patterns of suicide in Kuwait: a retrospective descriptive study from 2003–2009. BMC Public Health. 2015;15:527. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-015-1862-7.
Al-Amin H, Singh R, Abdulrazzak M, Ghuloum S. Psychosocial and Clinical Profiles of the Cases Visiting the Emergency Department Due to Accidental Self-harm and Suicide Attempts in Doha, Qatar: A Retrospective Study. Community Ment Health J. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-020-00650-3.
Kuroki Y. Risk factors for suicidal behaviors among Filipino Americans: a data mining approach. Am J Orthopsychiatry. 2015;85(1):34–42. https://doi.org/10.1037/ort0000018.
Forte A, Trobia F, Gualtieri F, Lamis DA, Cardamone G, Giallonardo V, Fiorillo A, Girardi P, Pompili M: Suicide Risk among Immigrants and Ethnic Minorities: A Literature Overview. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2018, 15(7). http://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15071438
Bertolote JM, Fleischmann A. Suicide and psychiatric diagnosis: a worldwide perspective. World Psychiatry. 2002;1((3):):181–5.
Fegan J, Doherty AM: Adjustment Disorder and Suicidal Behaviours Presenting in the General Medical Setting: A Systematic Review. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2019, 16(16). http://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16162967
Park S, Lee Y, Youn T, Kim BS, Park JI, Kim H, Lee HC, Hong JP: Association between level of suicide risk, characteristics of suicide attempts, and mental disorders among suicide attempters. BMC public health 2018, 18. http://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-5387-8
Morovatdar N, Moradi-Lakeh M, Malakouti SK, Nojomi M. Most common methods of suicide in Eastern Mediterranean Region of WHO: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Archives of suicide research : official journal of the International Academy for Suicide Research. 2013;17(4):335–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/13811118.2013.801811.
Wojnar M, Ilgen MA, Wojnar J, McCammon RJ, Valenstein M, Brower KJ. Sleep problems and suicidality in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. J Psychiatr Res. 2009;43(5):526–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2008.07.006.
Dolsen MR, Prather AA, Lamers F, Penninx B: Suicidal ideation and suicide attempts: associations with sleep duration, insomnia, and inflammation. Psychol Med 2020:1–10. http://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291720000860
Shirley X. Li 1 SPL, Mandy W M Yu, Jihui Zhang, Yun K Wing: Nocturnal Sleep Disturbances as a Predictor of Suicide Attempts Among Psychiatric Outpatients: A Clinical, Epidemiologic. Prospective Study J Clin Psychiatry. 2010;71:1440–6. https://doi.org/10.4088/JCP.09m05661gry.
McCall WV, Blocker JN, D’Agostino R Jr, Kimball J, Boggs N, Lasater B, Rosenquist PB. Insomnia severity is an indicator of suicidal ideation during a depression clinical trial. Sleep Med. 2010;11(9):822–7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2010.04.004.
Sabo E, Reynolds CF 3rd, Kupfer DJ, Berman SR. Sleep, depression, and suicide. Psychiatry Res. 1991;36(3):265–77. https://doi.org/10.1016/0165-1781(91)90025-k.
Lin HT, Lai CH, Perng HJ, Chung CH, Wang CC, Chen WL, Chien WC. Insomnia as an independent predictor of suicide attempts: a nationwide population-based retrospective cohort study. BMC Psychiatry. 2018;18(1):117. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-018-1702-2.
Tae H, Jeong BR, Chae JH. Sleep problems as a risk factor for suicide: Are certain specific sleep domains associated with increased suicide risk? J Affect Disord. 2019;252:182–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2019.04.053.
Peppard PE, Szklo-Coxe M, Hla KM, Young T. Longitudinal association of sleep-related breathing disorder and depression. Arch Intern Med. 2006;166(16):1709–15. https://doi.org/10.1001/archinte.166.16.1709.
Shoib S, Malik JA, Masoodi S. Depression as a Manifestation of Obstructive Sleep Apnea. J Neurosci Rural Pract. 2017;8(3):346–51. https://doi.org/10.4103/jnrp.jnrp_462_16.
Wheaton AG, Perry GS, Chapman DP, Croft JB: Sleep disordered breathing and depression among U.S. adults: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2005–2008. Sleep 2012, 35(4):461–467. http://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.5665/sleep.1724
Bradvik L: Suicide Risk and Mental Disorders. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2018, 15(9). http://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15092028
Agargun MY, Kara H, Solmaz M. Subjective sleep quality and suicidality in patients with major depression. J Psychiatr Res. 1997;31(3):377–81. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0022-3956(96)00037-4.
Bernert RA, Turvey CL, Conwell Y, Joiner TE Jr. Association of poor subjective sleep quality with risk for death by suicide during a 10-year period: a longitudinal, population-based study of late life. JAMA Psychiat. 2014;71(10):1129–37. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2014.1126.
An KO, Jang JY, Kim J. Sedentary Behavior and Sleep Duration Are Associated with Both Stress Symptoms and Suicidal Thoughts in Korean Adults. Tohoku J Exp Med. 2015;237(4):279–86. https://doi.org/10.1620/tjem.237.279.
Goodwin RD, Marusic A. Association between short sleep and suicidal ideation and suicide attempt among adults in the general population. Sleep. 2008,;31(8):1097–101.
Blasco-Fontecilla H, Alegria AA, Lopez-Castroman J, Legido-Gil T, Saiz-Ruiz J, de Leon J, Baca-Garcia E. Short self-reported sleep duration and suicidal behavior: a cross-sectional study. J Affect Disord. 2011;133(1–2):239–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2011.04.003.
Wan Y, Xu H, Wang S, Boyda D, McFeeters D, Sun Y, Zhang S, Chen R, Tao F. Gender Differences in the Relationship Between Sleep Problems and Suicide Attempt in Adolescents. Front Psychiatry. 2020;11:133. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00133.
Childs E, de Wit H. Regular exercise is associated with emotional resilience to acute stress in healthy adults. Front Physiol. 2014;5:161. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2014.00161.
Biddle DJ, Robillard R, Hermens DF, Hickie IB, Glozier N. Accuracy of self-reported sleep parameters compared with actigraphy in young people with mental ill-health. Sleep Health. 2015;1(3):214–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleh.2015.07.006.
The team acknowledges the remarkable efforts of Ms. Talin Avades as a research coordinator for this study
This work was supported by the Medical Director’s Grant Competition of HMC in Doha, Qatar, under Grant GC 1009A.
Ethics approval and consent to participate
The institutional review board of both Weill Cornell Medicine in Qatar and Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar approved this research project (GC1009 A/11). All subjects enrolled signed a written informed consent after explaining all the details and duration of the procedures. The study was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration.
Consent for publication
The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
About this article
Cite this article
Siddiqui, M., Al-Amin, H., Rabeh, M.A. et al. Self-reported sleep and exercise patterns in patients admitted with suicidal attempts: a cross-sectional comparative study. BMC Psychiatry 22, 326 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-03929-9

domain: medical


To celebrate the company's eight anniversary, Xiaomi has officially taken the wraps off the highly anticipated Mi 8, as well as the truly remarkable Mi 8 Explorer Edition and slightly lower-end Mi 8 SE.
It looks like that oft-rumored Xiaomi Mi 8 smartphone will be joined to market by a smaller, slightly lower-end Mi 8 SE with an iPhone X-style notch of its own and a Snapdragon 710 processor. The Mi Band 3 is also coming.
Just in case the fast-approaching Xiaomi Mi 8 smartphone didn't feel exciting enough, a freshly leaked video appears to confirm both in-display fingerprint recognition and an eye-catching translucent backplate.
Up for grabs only in China at the moment, the groundbreaking Vivo X21 with under-display fingerprint recognition technology is set to expand to Singapore later this week, also heading to other "global" markets in the near future.
Like the P20 Pro, the luxury Porsche Design Huawei Mate RS features three very impressive rear-facing cameras. But there's also a sharper OLED screen in tow and under-display fingerprint recognition tech.
It's not just Samsung, but Huawei and other Chinese smartphone vendors that are trying hard to make in-display fingerprint recognition work, as 3D facial authentication methods remain expensive and risky.
In case it wasn't already abundantly clear, the OnePlus 6 is likely to embrace the notch, similar to the OPPO R15 and Vivo X21. The latter also features in-display fingerprint recognition in one variant.


text:
Kunlun Tech has just over 12 months to complete the sale of Grindr, as per the agreement it reached with a US government agency.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS), which assesses international acquisitions of American businesses, had ordered the Chinese gaming company to relinquish its ownership of the gay dating app in March.
This was due to fears that its involvement in Grindr was a potential national security risk, with users’ personal information and data possibly being leaked to the Chinese government.
If Kunlun Tech don’t find a buyer by 30th June 2020 it will be forced to sign the app over to a US trustee.
As reported by ABC News, advocacy group Privacy International explained: “As government officials, including US military and intelligence services officers, may be Grindr users, the US government is right to be concerned about the possibility of a foreign government gaining access to the most intimate aspects of their lives.
“The Chinese government has passed what’s known as ‘data localisation’ laws, which force companies to store data in their territory, opening up legal and technical avenues for access to their data centres.”
Grindr will also not be able to send any sensitive information back Chinese organisations once the deadline has passed.
The app was caught sharing the HIV statuses of its users with third-party product optimisation companies in 2018, but soon stopped the practice soon after the news came to light.
Read more here.

domain: news


text:
New and Upcoming Book Releases
June 2012 Books
Let the summer reading begin! New novels from Jess Walter, Mark Haddon, and Dave Eggers will headline in June along with nonfiction from Siri Hustvedt and Colm Toibin. Lots here to stuff in your beach bags.
May 2012 Books
May 2012 books include new novels from Toni Morrison, Hilary Mantel, and Richard Ford, a fantastic Melville-infused YA novel from China Mieville, a self-published author's postmodern epic, and more.
April 2012 Book Releases
This month, Christopher Moore is back to take on the Great French Masters, Jonathan Franzen delivers a collection of essays, and Ron Rash and Anne Tyler both emerge with new novels.
March 2012 Book Releases
Some heady stuff in March. A collection of essays from Marilynne Robinson on politics, faith, and more, Jonah Lehrer's book about the nature of creativity, fantastic fiction from Adam Levin, Hari Kunzru, and Etgar Keret, and more.
February 2012 Book Releases
Lone wolves and werewolves, a Presidential scandal and a Presidential tryst, and narrative nonfiction that reaches into the heart of Mumbai's impoverished underbelly. No lack for reading choices in February 2012.
January 2012 Book Releases
January 2012 is the month of the post-apocalyptic, dystopic novel as evidenced by Ben Marcus' The Flame Alphabet, Rod Rees' The Demi-Monde Winter, and Ryan Boudinot's Blueprints of the Afterlife. Also this month, new work from William Gass, Michel Houellebecq, and Pico Iyer.
2012 New Books
2012 starts off with a bang, not a whimper, with new work from Ben Marcus, William Gibson, Geoff Dyer, and Katherine Boo. And then it just gets better. Alain de Botton's Religion for Atheists promises to be an interesting read as does Believer editor Heidi Julavits' The Vanishers. The absurd is well represented in March by Mark Leyner, Etgar...
Books Coming in June 2010
Bret Easton Ellis' sequel to 'Less Than Zero,' an historical epic from the author of 'Cloud Atlas,' Ann Brashares ('Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants') new adult novel, and a post-apocalyptic, science fiction blockbuster that is being compared to Stephen King's 'The Stand' are some of the great books we'll be reading in June 2010.
Books Coming in May 2010
A long-awaited new novel from Martin Amis, Philip Pullman's controversial "The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ," the final book in Stieg Larsson's Millenium Trilogy, and more coming to hold us rapt and fill our idle hours in May.?
Books Coming in April 2010
Yann Martel's follow-up to 'Life of Pi,' new novels from Anne Lamott and Isabel Allende, entomologist E.O. Wilson's 'The Anthill,' a new biography (in five days) of David Foster Wallace, and more.?
Books Coming in March 2010
New Book Releases - February 2010
An acclaimed book of short stories from Australia, a couple of promising debuts, and new novels from John Banville, Don DeLillo, and Peter Straub.
New Book Releases - January 2010
A wonderful start to a new decade with new novels by Jaspar Fforde, J.M. Coetzee, Joshua Ferris, and Elizabeth Kostova as well as more nonfiction from Elizabeth Gilbert and a collection of short stories from T.C. Boyle.
2010 New Book Releases
Expect some great new book releases in 2010. Here is a preview of books coming in the first months of 2010, and I will update this page with links to expanded descriptions of each month's new releases.
New Book Releases - November 2009
Stories, and lots of them! Stories from Alice Munro and Augusten Burroughs, and even previously unpublished work from Kurt Vonnegut plus essays from Zadie Smith and a new Philip Roth novel will keep readers occupied as we head into the holiday season.
New Book Releases - October 2009
October's new releases include a collection of essays from Malcolm Gladwell, the long meditation on the meaning of manhood from Michael Chabon, A.S. Byatt's sprawling novel of Victorian through post-World War I England, The Children's Book, and more.
New Book Releases - September 2009
New books from Margaret Atwood, E.L. Doctorow, and David Byrne, as well as eagerly awaited follow-ups from Dan Brown and Audrey Niffenegger.
New Book Releases - August 2009
August is packed with hot books, including new releases from Thomas Pynchon, Pat Conroy, and Philippa Gregory. Throw one of these in your beach bag!
New Book Releases - July 2009
What to read this Summer. July brings us plenty to choose from, so grab one of these before you head out on vacation!
Books in August 2010
New books in August 2010 include new historical fiction from Phillipa Gregory and Per Petterson, a fascinating work of suspense from Karin Fossum, Rosencrans Baldwin's (The Morning News) poignant debut novel, and a brand new scientific investigation from my favorite popular science author, Mary Roach?
Books in September 2010
New novels from Sara Gruen and Scarlett Thomas, humor from David Sedaris and David Rakoff, A Soviet-era romance, science fiction you've come to love from WIlliam Gibson, and new, experimental work from 5 under 35 winner, Charles Yu.
Books in October 2010
Nicole Krauss and Dinaw Mengestu were both selected for The New Yorker's 20 Under 40 list, "twenty young writers who capture the inventiveness...
New releases in November include novels from Walter Mosley, Paul Auster, Salman Rushdie, Gunter Grass, and Orhan Pamuk; a posthumous novel from Jim Carroll, and The Instructions, perhaps the best novel McSweeney's has ever published.
November 2011 Book Releases
November caps off the Fall 2011 new book releases with some highly anticipated titles including Stephen King's time travel novel, 11/22/1963, the conclusion to Gregory Maguire's Wicked series, and Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs.
December 2011 Book Releases
December, typically a light month in publishing, has a few gems to boast about this year. Robert Bolano's The Third Reich, serialized in the pages of The Paris Review, is being published in one volume. Similarly, Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials (The Golden Compass, The Amber Spyglass, The Subtle Knife), is being published in a single omnibus...

domain: artistic


text:
Mohawk Council of Kanesatake (MCK) grand chief Victor Bonspille has called an emergency public meeting as PlanIT Consulting - the firm tasked with running the by-election that was suspended by him in September - has signalled acceptance of a legal letter shoring up the authority of a quorum of MCK chiefs who voted to resume it.
While the agenda for the November 16 meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the Ratihén:te High School gymnasium has four items, a lawyer’s letter pertaining to the by-election is front and centre.
“He just dumped that (meeting) on us because we sent a lawyer’s letter to PlanIT to clarify the appeals board’s lack of power to postpone the election and get the by-election going again,” said MCK chief Brant Etienne, one of four chiefs who voted for an October 4 BCR to that effect.
Bonspille had argued that the BCR was not binding, citing procedural reasons.
The lawyer’s letter, which The Eastern Door has not seen, would seem to contradict this conclusion.
“It just clarifies that it is okay to move forward, to follow quorum, that we have the go-ahead - just the legal guidance, legal approval, to move forward with the quorum - the document that we received,” confirmed Maris Jacobs of PlanIT, the electoral officer for the by-election.
Asked whether she was satisfied that the lawyer’s letter demonstrates this is how the procedure works, Jacobs confirmed that she was.
A meeting between chiefs and PlanIT was set to take place on the afternoon of Thursday, November 10, although an update could not be obtained by deadline.
“We have questions and details we’d like to cover. We’re proposing a new timeline. If everybody’s agreeable to that and if it’s reasonable, we’re coming up on the holiday season, so we want to keep that in mind as well,” said Jacobs ahead of the meeting.
The September 24 by-election to fill the seat vacated by Teiawenniserate Jeremy Tomlinson, who now helms the Kanesatake Health Center (KHC) as its executive director, was abruptly postponed by Bonspille on September 17 after advance voting had already begun.
At the time, Bonspille attributed the call to the appeals board, which was not vested with the authority to make such a decision.
Although Bonspille acknowledged calling next week’s emergency meeting, he refused to discuss it with The Eastern Door, citing a desire to keep discussions within the community.
“I’m not going to say anything on it because it’s a community matter and it’s internal,” he said. “I’m not going to put out our laundry like the other chiefs have done, so I’m not speaking on that.”
Etienne is not the only chief who believes the meeting is an attempt to derail a decision made by the majority of chiefs, however.
“Emergency meetings have been utilized for either self-benefit, to slander, or to try to change an outcome because there wasn’t an agreement with what the grand chief was asking,” said MCK chief Amy Beauvais.
The other three items are absenteeism at Council, direction on amending the electoral code, and a Surete du Quebec (SQ) fraud investigation update, presumably relating to the Emergency Response Unit (ERU) audit released earlier this year.
“The absenteeism I believe may be just slander. I know he was mentioning that some chiefs weren’t always at Council, but we do work from home sometimes,” said Beauvais.
MCK chief John Canatonquin has been on leave with a dislocated shoulder, although he is expected back next week. Another chief is currently out with a doctor’s note, Canatonquin said.
“(Bonspille) is fighting all over trying to find things against us,” said Canatonquin, who plans to attend the emergency meeting.
Meanwhile, according to Beauvais, the electoral code cannot be amended within three months of an election - and the community is currently “smack dab in the middle of one that’s supposed to be postponed,” she said.
Finally, Beauvais said Council has not been briefed on an update to the SQ investigation.
SQ spokesperson Benoit Richard confirmed to The Eastern Door that the ERU investigation is still ongoing but would not comment further.
Marcus Bankuti, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Eastern Door


Asian nations are looking to step up cooperation in combating trans-national crime, ranging from people smuggling to terrorism. Analysts warn there is some way to go before strategies to fight cross-border crime are effective.
Ministers from the Association of South East Asian Nations, as well as from China, Korea, and Japan will try to coordinate their countries' laws to combat trans-national crime, including terrorism.
The ministers met Thursday in Bangkok to find ways to fight the drug trade, human trafficking, sea piracy, arms smuggling, money laundering, terrorism, and economic and cyber crimes. The problem is that many countries define offenses differently, and what is illegal in one jurisdiction may be legal just across the border in another country.
ASEAN Deputy Secretary-General Wilfrido V. Villacorta says trans-national crime has become an urgent issue for Southeast Asia, especially given recent warnings of possible terrorist attacks.
"It is an urgent matter that [and] it has been addressed by ASEAN for several years, but the feeling of urgency is even more now in light of what is happening," he said. "And it is not only the region of Southeast Asia, the whole world is faced with this problem."
Carl Thayer, an analyst on regional terrorism at the Australian Defense Academy, says the major issue between ASEAN and northern Asia is drug trafficking from Burma - also known as Myanmar - into China.
"The key issue is China's push with Myanmar and Laos and Vietnam to try and control the inflow of drugs," he said. "Efforts have been made, but no one wants to be seen siding up with China against Myanmar."
Burma is a major grower of opium for the world market and also produces hundreds of millions of methamphetamine pills for the regional market, especially Thailand.
Mr. Thayer says ASEAN may have created a general framework to deal with trans-national crime, but still faces problems implementing the new policy.
"It will take a long time and as long as there is corruption or a lack of political will, or a lack of cohesion within a country, the effectiveness of all these measures will be limited," he said.
Authorities say that unless laws are harmonized, criminals will be able to move around the region to escape prosecution.


text:
What is Tamarind and how do you use it?
Tamarind is a fruit that grows inside pods that have a hard, brittle shell. Once this outer shell is broken, the soft fruit can be found on the inside, along with a fibrous casing (which supports the shape of the soft fruit) along with the seeds.
Tamarind – or perhaps tamarind paste – is an ingredient you may have noticed on lists for Asian (or Asian inspired) recipes. Growing up within my maternal North Indian family, I have regularly seen tamarind throughout my childhood and,therefore I feel it incredibly important to clear up several misconceptions about this wonderful fruit that are (often unknowingly) being perpetuated.
There are two main varieties of Tamarind.
The sweet variety, which is slightly smaller, is the variety that can be eaten. This sweet smaller tamarind has a flavour and texture that is similar to dates.
The second variety of Tamarind is slightly larger in size, and the taste profile is more ‘sweet/sour’ (think of the complex ‘tang’ of a good elderflower cordial – it makes the insides of your cheeks tingle). This second variety is what is used in cooking and for making sauces or chutneys as they are called in India (side note – did you know that the word ‘chutney’ came from India).
I will now explain the second variety in slightly more depth, which will then lead me onto Tamarind Paste.
Due to the second variety being larger in size, it is slightly more fibrous. When it is harvested, it is processed in machines that crush the tamarind pods which break the hard shell and is then packed down/shaped into blocks. These blocks consist of a mixture of the fruit pulp itself, all the waste of the shell, the fibrous casing and the seeds.
Whenever you see fresh Tamarind pulp in a recipe, these blocks are what should then be used. These are the blocks we use to make our Tamarind chutney and whenever we require tamarind in a recipe.
How to make fresh Tamarind pulp
Soak the block of Tamarind overnight (or for a period of 8-10 hours) in boiling water. Place a colander inside a large bowl, and pour the soaked tamarind into the colander and start to squeeze the pulp through the colander. All the ‘waste’of the shell, seeds and fibrous casing remain on the inside of the colander (and this should be discarded). Push this delicious pulp through the colander and collect it in the bowl underneath. This is the ‘gold’ for which you have been working! This pulp should then be used in recipes (you can also freeze this in small portions to avoid food waste).
How is Tamarind paste made?
The process for creating Tamarind Paste, is to take this beautiful pulp, and dilute it down with water and boil it…much like the process of taking freshly squeezed juice to make ‘juice from concentrate’. Personally, I would never use or consider buying or using Tamarind Paste in cooking – the taste doesn’t even come close to comparing to the genuine Tamarind pulp, and quite frankly, it doesn’t do justice to the real thing.
Tamarind Chicken recipe
Our family recipe is typical of most home-style North Indian chicken dishes…full of flavour (no sauce or gravy) with a marinade to push flavour into the chicken, as well as tenderise before the cooking process.
There are many ingredients in this marinade that provide flavour, but also heat or warmth (ginger, pepper, cinnamon) and so you will also see jaggery within the ingredients (unrefined cane sugar) which provides a sweetness to balance the warmth but without the intense sugary taste of a refined sugar.
This dish is perfect for when entertaining (indoors or outdoors), or for a delicious dinner when you are short on preparation time and want something without any complicated steps when assembling and cooking the dish.
– 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
-1 inch piece of ginger, finely minced
-1 green birds eye chilli, finely chopped
-1 teaspoon Pure Punjabi Garam Masala (premium quality hand-made by us)
-½ teaspoon pepper
-¼ teaspoon cinnamon
-1 teaspoon nigella seeds
-1 teaspoon salt
-2 tablespoons fresh tamarind pulp*
-1 tablespoon sunflower oil
-50g jaggery (or molasses/dark brown sugar)
-Juice of ½ a lemon
-4 chicken breasts (total weight somewhere between 500-600g)
*Note: Fresh Tamarind pulp is obtained by soaking the tamarind block and squeezing the pulp as described above. There is also a video of this process on our YouTube channel (Pure Punjabi Ltd). Click HERE to watch this process.
1. Put all the ingredients into a bowl and thoroughly mix, massaging the ingredients
together for at least 2 minutes (this pushes the flavour into the chicken and aids the marinading process). Leave to marinade in the fridge for at least 2 hours, but ideally a couple of days (or longer if the ‘use by’ date on the chicken allows for this).
2. Take the chicken out of the fridge 20 minutes before cooking it, so that it’s not ‘ice cold’ before you cook it (this allows the raw meat to relax and come closer to room temperature before cooking, which gives a more tender result once the chicken is cooked).
3. Grill or barbecue on a medium heat until the chicken is cooked through completely to the centre.
4. Serve hot with either our Jeera Rice or flatbread, side salad and some yoghurt.

domain: food


Mitsubishi Electric held a workshop for Monodzukuri Engineers Program
Mitsubishi was honored as a lecturer in the workshop "How to use programmable logic controller (PLC) with inverter" for students who joined in Monodzukuri Engineer Program at Thai-Japanese Institute of Technology on December 18, 2019
Speaker: K.Seksan Wattnachote
Monodzukuri Engineers Program is an additional program for students of the Faculty of Engineering which aims to develop students to be able to use engineering knowledge in product design and production processes through "Monodzukuri" concept.
In this workshop, students learned about basic of using FA (Factory Automation) equipment, wiring and setting parameters for operation. They used real equipment; compact programmable logic controller (MELSEC iQ-F (FX5U)) and inverter (FREQROL-A800 series) which can be used to improve the production process to be automated in order to prepare to become a Smart Factory in Industry 4.0 (Industry 4.0) as well.


Despite the impending end of civil rights-era crime investigations, the country is still finding ways to venerate civil rights heroes.
In San Diego this weekend, the U.S. Navy named one of its new ships after slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers. The cargo ship measures 689-feet and will deliver food, ammunition, fuel and other provisions to Navy combat ships at sea.
Evers’s widow Myrlie Evers-Williams, attended the christening of the USNS Medgar Evers and commemorated the event with the traditional gesture of breaking a bottle of champagne against the ship’s hull. Nearly a thousand naval officials, politicians, local citizens and members of the NAACP attended the christening.
“In a real sense, he set us all free,” Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said at the event. “His life was a mighty blow against the chains of racism that bound us all for too, too long.”
Evers was a World War II veteran and Mississippi field secretary for the NAACP who was shot and killed outside of his home in 1963 by a white supremacist. Evers was known for his work organizing voter-registration efforts, demonstrations and economic boycotts of white-owned companies that practiced discrimination. Evers also fought to have crimes against Blacks investigated thoroughly by local law enforcement and famously advocated to bring the killers of Emmitt Till -- whose 1955 lynching helped galvanize the movemeent -- to justice.
(Photo: PRNewsFoto/General Dynamics NASSCO/Melissa Jacobs)
TRENDING IN NEWS


text:
Love Island’s Olivia Attwood left fans baffled after sharing a series of loved-up snaps alongside boyfriend Chris Hughes as they attended Champions Day at Ascot Racecourse.
The blonde beauty, who has been inseparable from Chris since meeting on Love Island earlier this year, had fans asking if she was pregnant after some eagle-eyed Instagram users claimed to see a baby bump in the snaps.
Wearing a cut-out navy frilly dress and knee-high grey suede boots, the reality TV star stunned as she posed for a photo with her beau.
But the snap mistakenly sent fans into a frenzy, with one user asking: “Is Olivia pregnant? She got a bump.”
Another asked: “Pregnant? I see that bump?” While a third asked: “Are you pregnant? Best couple.”
But other fans rushed to defend Olivia, claiming her hip bone was giving the illusion of a baby bump, with one user writing: “It’s her hip making it look like a bump. She’s not pregnant!”
Chris Hughes confirms his relationship with Olivia Attwood’s stronger than ever as he captions this picture: “My Happy Place, all in one picture” [Instagram ]
And Olivia’s brother Max was forced to respond to the backlash with a witty remark, writing: “Lol ya’ll mad for thinking she’s pregnant, knowing Liv she probably necked a nugget share box to her self before she went to the races that’s all.”
The loved-up display between Chris and Olivia comes just days after the stunning star admitted that her boyfriend’s recent feud with Katie Price has made them “stronger” as a couple.
The Love Island couple have continued to put on a defiant display this week, after Katie Price finally showed the “52 text messages” apparently sent to her from Chris Hughes – which he has denied ever sending.
One text allegedly shows Chris calling his girlfriend “fame hungry” and of “loving publicity”.
Explaining how their relationship has been affected by the drama, Olivia said in her new! magazine online column that the situation has “made them more of a unit”.
“Chris and me are fine; it hasn’t put a strain on us at all,” she said.
“He has been under a lot of stress but it just brought us closer together. It’s made us more of a unit.
“When these things happen in a relationship it can either put a wedge and you turn on each other or it makes you stronger. It’s made us stronger,” she added.

domain: entertainment


text:
One of my favorite hobbies/pastimes/obsessions is juggling. From this page you can find out a little about myself, when I started juggling, and what I like to juggle.
In the media. A few articles in local papers I have been in.
This is info on the Urbana Adult Education Juggling Class I have taught.
Here is a list of the props I currently own. You'll usually find an assortment of these anytime you look into my juggling bag.
And when I'm not juggling I can be seen watching or reading some of the books or videos I own.
Please email firstname.lastname@example.org with comments and corrections.


text:
Sonam Kapoor with sister Rhea Kapoor launched a contemporary-chic clothing line. It’s called Rheson and its most definitely carving a footprint amid Pakistani fashionistas – and for good reason!
Mahira Khan and Mawra Hocane were recently seen attired in the up-to-the-minute brand and while Mahira seriously slayed with her irrefutable charisma and inimitable élan (duh!), Mawra miserably failed to influence our fashion radar. Again. Oops!
The Bol beauty aced her Rheson sari, loaning it her own spin. Her style howled a seamless combo of punk rock meets traditional flair – which is not only badass but ridiculously original.
Her monochrome crop top and leather shoes only added to her stifling-hot guise. Keeping her hair and makeup subtle and self-effacing, the Raees hottie skillfully verified the statement: ‘less is more’! Talk about being a head turner and a half!
The actor tried her level best to stand out and create a memorable aura as she was spotted in a Rheson top at a launch – but alas, her efforts turned out futile. Kudos for trying Mawra but the look you created squealed ‘blah’ and mediocre. It was the epitome of boring.
The asymmetric top which featured an interesting boat-neck was indisputably modish but the Sanam Teri Kasam actor dampened it by teaming it with khaaki pants that didn’t seem to fit right. So forgettable, we’ve already forgotten about it!
Have something to add to the story? Share it in the comments below.

domain: celebrity


PHOTO EXCLUSIVE: A Two-Show Day at Broadway's Chinglish With Johnny Wu
Johnny Wu, who takes on multiple roles in the Broadway production of David Henry Hwang's new comedy Chinglish, offers Playbill.com readers an exclusive look at a recent two-performance day. Read the Playbill.com story.
Now it's time to surrender to the most thrilling Broadway show ever imagined... the longest-running musical phenomenon in Broadway history. Unmask your savings today, because tonight belongs to Phantom. Tickets as low as $27!


Yes you're on the right page! Our company has the air conditioning repair solution for your household. We have the capacity to do the job on any Air Conditioning equipment in California. By coaching our workers on all models and famous brands of Air Conditioning in Cudahy, we’re absolutely sure that we can maintain your domicile more comfortable anytime. Want a rate on your Air Conditioning repair, Air Conditioning installation or Air Conditioning service in Cudahy? Just telephone us right now or e-mail us using one of our accessible easy contact forms! Latest Trane HVAC systems are highly functional and advanced pieces of technology. Nearly everybody take them for granted given that they appear to do a fairly easy job of either cooling or heating your residence or place of work. But, these products may sometimes fail. Repair from a certified Trane expert in Cudahy California can limit down time, and help keep your unit up and running.
You may not want to have a yearly service or inspection for your Trane equipment as it may seem expensive. However, a straightforward repair costs less than changing a whole unit. Read more to discover main reasons why standard maintenance for your HVAC appliance is mandatory.
Cudahy California Trane Air Conditioning Safety
Heater and Ventilation appliances are totally trustworthy when run as normal. Then again, any breakdowns can be potentially lethal. Models which use non-renewable fuels such as gas can release carbon monoxide which is very harmful. An annual checkup from a Trane Repair expert in Cudahy California keep your system functioning correctly and keep you and your family safe. Our Certified HVAC engineers can pinpoint the health of your systems help you keep your family safe. Our experts in Cudahy CA will also be able to install safety carbon monoxide sensors if requested. These lightweight alarms are mostly quiet, but will immediately warn you of CO accumulation in your home.
Excellent Trane Air Conditioning Repair Technicians in Cudahy California
By the way, we have tons of technicians and plenty of business vehicles nationwide. You know what this implies? It implies that one of our Trane experts is always in close proximity, when you need a furnace serviced in the depth of winter or an AC replacement before summer arrives. This correctly makes us Air Conditioning Repair company in Cudahy California for Trane units.
Enhanced Trane Appliance Performance With Alliance HVAC Air Conditioning Repair In Cudahy California
Popular Trane systems for sale in Cudahy California are very efficient. But nevertheless, gradually they can become less well-run that is the reason it is so essential for getting your Air Conditioning examined on a scheduled basis. The system will be fine tuned to amplify operation which could furthermore decrease running costs. After the HVAC device is safely adjusted and functioning at full efficiency you are going to generally spend less on energy usage than you paid for the Repair at the outset.
Extending Trane Equipment Lifespan With Air Conditioning Repair
Regular maintenance to your Air Conditioning appliances may help combat any minor conditions before they can create serious problems or damage to the total application. Preventive checks is the only way to increase the life-time of your Air Conditioning unit. Our Air Conditioning Repair technician will also clean away any waste which has accumulated inside the Air Conditioning and make sure that all grills are clean so the system can function risk-free and effectively.
Saving Cash With Your Air Conditioning Repair In Cudahy California
When your Air Conditioning stops working and demands Repair things can quickly become expensive. As we rely so very much on our Repair appliances, an emergency repair might be appropriate. Quite a few dealers bill extra for emergency call-out repairs, and it's also money that you didn't plan to pay. By simply using regular clean up on your Air Conditioning system you will save more money than you would think. By switching Trane parts well before they can wear out, the life span of your Air Conditioning unit is prolonged substantially. Periodic servicing fees are less expensive than the price of big Repair.


text:
"Latino health" seems to be as complex a term as "Latino."
Two new studies appearing in the Journal of Women's Health and the American Journal of Men's Health found significant differences in health trends among the three biggest Latino groups in the U.S.: Puerto Rican-Americans, Cuban-Americans and Mexican-Americans.
At last census, these three groups made up more than 15 percent of the nation's population. In South Los Angeles, Latinos account for about 57 percent of the people who live there.
Researchers looked at the overall health of men and women in these ethnic groups, as well as how they used health care services. They found that factors like education, work and location played a role in folks' health habits, but the study also has interesting implications for how – or whether – a person's race affects her or his health.
In a statement, Amy Ai, who conducted both studies, said "cross-subcultural differences" within Latino groups "may contribute to the different patterns in both physical and mental health."
In other words, there may be elements of, say, Cuban culture that don't exist in Mexican culture. Those elements, then, clearly won't play a role in the health of Mexicans.
Here's what the research teams found on women:
– Asthma: Puerto Rican-Americans reported the highest rates of this condition, followed by Cuban-Americans. Mexican-Americans reported a considerably lower rate.
– Diabetes: Mexican-Americans reported the highest rates.
– High blood pressure and heart disease: Cuban-Americans reported the highest rates.
– Obesity: About two-thirds of Mexican-Americans and Puerto Rican-Americans reported being overweight or obese, as did more than half of Cuban-Americans.
– Tobacco and marijuana: Puerto Rican-Americans reported the highest rates of smoking both cigarettes and pot.
– Health care: All three groups said they see a health provider pretty infrequently, but Puerto Rican-Americans used mental health services more than any other group; the same was true for Cuban-Americans and medical specialists.
As for the men:
– Puerto Rican-Americans have the highest rates of eight ailments, one of which is heart disease. About 20 percent have asthma, which is almost double or quadruple the rates for Cuban- and Mexican-American men. Of the three groups, Puerto Rican-Americans have the highest rates of depression, smoking and substance abuse.
– Cuban-Americans have rates of heart disease and cancer similar to those found in Puerto Rican-American men.
– Health care: All three groups said they don't often see doctors, whether for primary or specialty care.
In South L.A., Mexican and Salvadoran are among the most common ancestries for Latinos, according to the L.A. Times Mapping L.A. project.
Photo by Mike Young via Flickr Creative Commons.


text:
- Retail space devoted to food sales in the US has hit a record high.
- New store growth is outweighing demand, and grocers are cutting prices to compete.
- Department stores followed the same strategy in the last decade, and now they are closing stores and filing for bankruptcy at staggering rates.
Department stores and many mall-based retailers are closing thousands of stores after years of over-expansion. Now the grocery industry appears to be heading toward a similar fate.
Like mall-based retailers did in the 1990s, supermarkets have been expanding rapidly across the US in recent years.
"Over the past 10 years, we saw high growth from some of the more traditional players, which has resulted in saturation in the US, and forced mainstream supermarkets to slow openings," Danielle Dolinsky, an analyst at retail consulting firm Planet Retail RNG, told Business Insider.
For some companies, however, the pace of growth is only accelerating.
Discount grocers including Aldi, Lidl, and Dollar General are collectively planning to open thousands of new stores over the next couple years.
At the same time, tech companies like Amazon — with its recent acquisition of Whole Foods — are also entering the food wars.
Competition is ramping up at a time when the amount of retail space devoted to food sales in the US has already hit a record high.
The US has 4.15 square feet of retail food space per person, which is nearly 30 times higher than in 1950, according to CoStar Group data cited by the Wall Street Journal.
But demand hasn't kept up with unit growth.Total US grocery sales fell nearly 2% in the 12-week period ending July 15, compared to last year, according to Nielsen data.
Grocery stores have been slashing prices to drive sales and better compete, which is driving profits lower in a business that's already pressured by razor-thin margins.
Whole Foods' same-store sales have been falling for the last two years. Even long-dominant companies like Kroger, the largest supermarket chain in the US, are taking a hit.
Kroger's impressive 13-year streak of quarterly same-store sales increases ended earlier this year. That metric has now dropped for the last two consecutive quarters.
Kroger blamed the declines on food price deflation.
It's also facing growing price competition from Aldi, Dollar General, Lidl, Walmart, and others.
A 2014 price study found that Aldi's prices were about 22% cheaper than Kroger's. Aldi has more than 1,600 stores in the US with plans to open another 600 within the next couple of years.Walmart is also investing in its grocery department. The company has been expanding its click-and-collect program that allows customers to order groceries online, then pick them up at stores. Walmart also reduced prices on hundreds of grocery products last year and recently launched a grocery price-comparison test in 1,200 stores in an effort to edge out Aldi.
Business Insider compared prices at both chains in 2015 and found that Walmart was about 30% more expensive than Aldi.
Now, there's even more pressure to lower grocery prices with newcomer Lidl entering the US market.
Lidl, which has more than 10,000 stores globally, just launched its first US stores in June and plans to have 100 stores operating along the East Coast by mid-2018.Grocers near the new Lidl stores have already started dropping prices to better compete, according to a recent price check by Jefferies analysts in several Southeastern markets.
The Dollar General store in Roebuck, South Carolina dropped prices by 10% to 30% in response to Lidl entering the market, analysts said. Food Lion has also cut prices in markets where it competes directly with Lidl. The company sent executives to Lidl's stores in other countries ahead of its US launch to better understand the concept.
History is repeating itself
Department stores and many mall-based retailers started engaging in a similarly aggressive price war during the following years of over-expansion, and most never recovered. Shoppers grew accustomed to the constant discounts and stopped shopping full-price. Now, these retailers are closing stores, shedding jobs, and filing for bankruptcy at staggering rates.
Grocery stores could be heading down the same path. But they have one major advantage over department stores: e-commerce is less of a threat.
Shoppers have been slow to migrate online for their grocery shopping needs. Food accounts for less than 1% of total online sales in the US, according to a recent Goldman Sachs report.
The supermarkets that survive and thrive over the next decade will have to find ways to shave operating costs — primarily through the use of smart technology that strengthens inventory management and robots that improve the customer experience — and funnel those savings into ongoing price cuts.
Companies like Kroger and Walmart are already investing in these technologies. But many others are "unwilling, or unable, to engage," Goldman Sachs analysts wrote in a research note published Wednesday.
It's not yet clear who the winners will be as the grocery wars shake out, but there's little doubt that consumers will benefit as chains are forced to continue dropping prices and offer more convenient shopping services to compete.