Life update? Oh, nothing much to update you on here. I wasn’t even going to bother with a life update this month, seeing as though things have been so uneventful and dull…

Wait!

Sorry, was off in dreamland again. Trying to find some escape from the world crisis and the emotional pressure cooker that is my own home. Jeez Louise, what a shitty month!

It seems slightly petty to follow the usual trajectory of my life updates, which tend to start with something ridiculous and then move onto all of the things about parenthood that seem to constantly take me by surprise. I could tell you about how my youngest (three years and two months old) has started to say his little sentences with comically clear and crisp pronunciation – “Mummy, no T-reeees in the Ocean?” – and I could bang on for hours about Miss Clever-Clogs (five in June) and the way she’s suddenly got the hang of reading. The b-u-g was under the r-u-g.

But I have an overwhelming sense of feeling a little bit removed from reality at the moment. As a family we’re stuck in our own little bubble, here, more than ever before (I mean the combination of having young kids and moving out to the sticks is always going to isolate you whether you like it or not!) and it’s difficult to know what to write about. Are we all experiencing the same lockdown, wherever we are in the country or the world, or are we each having entirely different times?

Here’s what I’ve been up to for the last three-ish weeks (we’re on day 19 of our family self-isolation now): I’ve been a teacher, a mediator and a comforter, I’ve played shopkeeper, I’ve played cinema owner, I’ve invented eight different trampolining competitions and created numerous obstacle courses around the garden. I’ve watched Mulan, Toy Story 4 and Lady and the Tramp (Disney+, what a lifesaver!) and I’ve sat through hours of CBeebies. I’ve made a dragon out of a toilet roll holder, I’ve planted apple pips that will likely never grow, I’ve been inventive with food ingredients and then had to give the rejected meals to the chickens and I’ve had to give myself an emergency crash course in “having patience”.

Because it’s all just wearing a little bit thin, isn’t it? Being in such close proximity to others, even though they are (hopefully) the people you love the most. If you have small beings around then I won’t need to tell you that the work involved is constant and relentless; although I have to say I’m starting to get into the swing of it a little bit now. I just have to accept that I can’t really get much work done – even if I have the pocket of time freed up to work, I don’t have the all-important transitional period that you need to switch from mum-mode to work-mode.

So I’ll keep this update relatively brief – I’m not sure I have anything particularly novel to add, other than that I almost set fire to my foot with one of those electric pedicure things. You know the ones with the sandpaper that spins round? I was a bit over-zealous with it and now I have a slight dent in the ball of my foot and the bathroom smells of burning flesh.

Oh, it is grim this Covid situation, but I’m trying to retain a sense of humour. So many lives lost, so many jobs lost, so many lives changed forever – and nobody was expecting it at all. I think that’s the biggest shock. And I feel so all at sea with it, as though my little family unit is just bobbing along in this massive ocean where there’s no land in sight and no way of really knowing what’s going on…does everyone feel this way?

It’s hard to know whether any of the people in charge are doing the right thing, or doing certain things for political gain, or making colossal mistakes – I’d rather like for there to be a huge loud voice in the sky that would suddenly boom out, as though over a giant tannoy, and say

“hello world! This is your captain speaking!”

Wouldn’t that be amazing?

“Hello, Ladies and Gentleman. This is your captain speaking. My apologies for that rather bumpy takeoff – you’ll have noticed that I didn’t make any announcements; the crew and I had your safety as our primary concern and so we decided to concentrate on the control panel rather than lose all of your fucking lives in one colossal go! Anyway, we’re now cruising along at a steady RO of 0.9, having flattened the curve, and so long as you all stay with your proverbial seatbelts on then I have every confidence that we’ll have a successful landing in a new, very changed but very pleasant land.”

I just want someone to be in charge. I’d even turn religious if it meant that some Godlike figure would take control and pop his/her head out of the clouds to make wise decisions!

I must go. I’ve done my knee in on the trampoline and it’s the same side as the foot fire incident, so I’m off for a soak. May you and all of your loved ones be safe and healthy – if you feel the need to see my reassuring face (ha!) on a regular basis then you can find me most often on Instagram @modelrecommends.

The post Life Update: This Is Your Captain Speaking appeared first on A Model Recommends.

If you thought you were the only one having weird or extremely intense dreams during the coronavirus pandemic, you’re certainly not. CNN’s Chris Cuomo, who tested positive for COVID-19 this week, has been talking about the weird hallucinations he’s had from the related coronavirus fever, and yesterday told his older brother, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, about a dream where the Governor was wearing “a very interesting ballet outfit.” 

During a press briefing on April 2, the Cuomo brothers yet again got into a strange conversation, boasting their own brand of brotherly love. Governor Cuomo began the conversation by telling his brother that Chris looks “fit and fine”; Chris responded by talking about his fever dreams.

“You came to me in a dream,” Chris said to the governor. “You had on a very interesting ballet outfit, and you were dancing in the dream, and you were waving a wand and saying, ‘I wish I could wave my wand and make this go away.’ And then you spun around and you danced away.” Governor Cuomo replied that there’s “a lot of metaphoric reality” to the dream.

In the same way that our daily routines have changed during the pandemic, the ways in which we spend our nights have transformed, too — particularly when it comes to our dreams. Anecdotally, many people have been having odd and intensely vivid dreams during the coronavirus pandemic, whether they’ve been sick or not. Miriam, a woman living in New York, says that her fever dreams have been starting out normal, but by the end of the dreams she becomes conscious in the dream world and she feels out of control.

“For example, in one dream, I’m throwing a party in my parent’s home (where I desperately wish I was), I’m focused on the cakes and desserts, picking them out, pairing them with the right fruit, decorating the house, tidying up,” Miriam tells Refinery29. “People are arriving, the desserts are set, and then I look around to see the whole room is filled, people in close proximity with each other, and then the panic hits. What have I done? All of these people have to leave immediately. They’re too close, I’ve probably sentenced them all to death by now as they grab cake and talk amongst themselves. Before I get a chance to scream, to yell for these people to get out, I wake up.” 

In an interview with The Cut, Deirdre Barrett, a psychologist at Harvard Medical School, said the spike in many people suddenly recollecting dreams has to do with the fact that the pace of people’s lifestyles have slowed down—at least for non-essential workers, and people who are staying at home. “Changing one’s routine dramatically often leads to more dream recall. The American population [usually] runs around sleep-deprived,” she says. “I hear more people who — both because their workaholic activities are interrupted and their partying is on hold — they’re sleeping more. I think that’s probably the single biggest factor.”

Barrett also explained that something called REM rebound could also play a role. When someone catches up on missed sleep, they can experience a surge in Rapid Eye Movement Sleep, which is the phase during which dreaming happens. To investigate, Barrett has been collecting data on people’s dreams during the coronavirus pandemic through an online survey. “The majority of dreams have anxiety as the main emotion,” she says as to what she’s been able to observe from the survey results so far. The dreams she’s collected from people have ranged from “terrified nightmares” to more metaphorical threats, or other weird metaphors like violent grasshoppers, swarms, or the like. 

Nylah, a writer from Washington, D.C., says that while her dreams aren’t directly about COVID-19, her subconscious has still been returning to painful and traumatic events that take place in apocalyptic locations. “I guess what connects the locations is that they’re all empty or barren. Lots of dried out fields and empty neighborhoods and cities. I think it’s because I’ve been reflecting on all the ways that life is going to change when we emerge from quarantine… how empty places I used to go are now. And how I want to escape that trauma and build a different life for myself when I get out of quarantine,” Nylah says.

According to certain psychological theories like the threat simulation theory, human’s dreams have evolved to be the way they are in order to let us work through the events in our days and allow us to process any fears or anxieties that have been living in the background of our brains, only in a low-risk environment. Ultimately, dreams are supposed to help us prepare for how to deal with stress and strange scenarios in our everyday lives.

In more normal circumstances with less mass psychic trauma and worry than most people are experiencing right now, dreams would be much less vivid and intense. However, during periods of stress like this global crisis, it makes sense that everyone’s dreams are more wild than ever, almost like an episode of Stranger Things come to life. If you, too, are having intense dreams, trying some calming tea before bed, or perhaps melatonin might help — anything to avoid dreaming of Andrew Cuomo in a tutu.

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In a world of uncertainty and confusion, there is one voice that always seems to soothe my troubled mind, and it belongs to Martha Stewart. There is something undeniably comforting about her calm, steady, patient advice on how to frost a cake or fold a fitted sheet or wrap an oddly-shaped gift — and today, she’s lending her expertise to those staying at home to slow the spread of COVID-19. Let me just tell you, I feel more relaxed reading it.

“Where is my hairdresser Megan? Where is my makeup artist, @daisybeautytoye? Where is my colorist Parvin Klein @bergdorfs? Where is my manicurist, Luda @johnbarrettnyc? I think about you all daily as I attempt my own daily ablutions and preparations,” Stewart laments, before offering up her sage wisdom for the rest of us navigating this new normal.

You can practically hear Stewart’s low, creamy voice as she continues. “I warn all of you to not attempt frivolous ‘fixes’ during this time. Wash your hair, condition it, air dry it. Remove chipped polish and lightly file your nails. With all the hand washing, apply lots of rich hand lotion and reparative ointments. Cleanse your skin well and moisturize morning and night.” (I know a few dermatologists who would co-sign this message.)

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A post shared by Martha Stewart (@marthastewart48) on Apr 3, 2020 at 5:33am PDT

In Stewart’s self-isolation rule book, tinted sunscreen and lipgloss are imperative. So is applying a face mask thrice-weekly — you heard the woman. Slathering on CBD masks and serums are also considered Stewart-essentials, but so is watching your dessert consumption. “Watch your diet — baking is fun but too many cookies, too many cakes — Careful!!,” she warns. Too late, Martha, too late.

It’s simple advice, but coming from Stewart, it’s even more permission to prioritize self care in whatever form that looks like for you. Now excuse me while I meticulously apply my second facial treatment of the day — starting with a few of my own favorites, below.

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As the number of coronavirus cases remains on the rise, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and UPMC are working on a possible vaccine for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Scientists announced news of the potential vaccine, which has now been tested successfully on mice, on Thursday.

According to a press release from UPMC and the university, “When tested in mice, the vaccine, delivered through a fingertip-sized patch, produces antibodies specific to SARS-CoV-2 at quantities thought to be sufficient for neutralizing the virus.” 

In a paper announcing the vaccine in the journal EBioMedicine, co-author Andrea Gambotto, an associate professor of surgery at the university said the researchers hope to “get this into patients as soon as possible.” 

Through their previous work on SARS-CoV in 2003 and MERS-CoV in 2014, researchers and scientists in that lab have learned that a spike protein is of particular importance to building immunity against the virus. Thanks to that research, Gambotto said, “We knew exactly where to fight this new virus.”

The announcement comes as we enter the fourth month of the pandemic, with one-third of the global population now on lockdown trying to fight the spread of the virus through social distancing. While that strategy is working to flatten the curve in places that adopted the practice early on, the full effects of the virus are yet to be seen in places that waited to enforce stay-at-home orders. The novel coronavirus has now infected more than one million people globally and killed more than 54,000 people. The U.S. alone has reported more than 245,500 of those cases, with hotbeds for the virus in New Orleans, Chicago, New York, Seattle, and Detroit. 

Still, even as we take the necessary social precautions to slow the spread of coronavirus, only a vaccine can help people build immunity to it and prevent people from getting sick. There are currently at least 35 companies and academic institutions working to do so, four of which have developed vaccines that are in the animal-testing stages, The Guardian reports. 

Last month, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh estimated it could take at least a year to 18 months to develop a vaccine and get through the trial period. According to Louis Falo, a professor and chairman of the Department of Dermatology at the University of Pittsburgh who co-authored the paper in EBioMedicine, they would like to start clinical trials in about a month, “give or take. Maybe two months. We just started the process.”

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