Melissa Hogenboom

Jan 16, 2025 | bbc.com | Melissa Hogenboom

Introducing Health Fix, our newsletter to boost your health and wellbeingJulia DufosseSubscribe to our weekly email with science-backed insights to bust myths, for international audiences. Most of us know that to live a long and healthy life, we should eat well, exercise and look after our mental health. But working out which steps will bring the most improvement to our health and wellbeing can be tricky. It gets especially hard when we are faced with so much conflicting advice.

Oct 15, 2024 | bbc.com | Melissa Hogenboom

Introducing Six Steps to Calm: Our science-backed, stress-busting email courseBBCThe BBC is launching a first-of-its-kind newsletter course, Six Steps to Calm, for international audiences. And in an increasingly polarised and pressurised world, more of us are experiencing this on a regular basis. While there's sadly no magic cure for mental health challenges, there are several evidence-based activities which can promote calmness and help us to reduce feelings of stress and anxiety.

Sep 30, 2024 | bbc.com | Melissa Hogenboom

Digital overload: Why women are doing a hidden form of workGetty ImagesMy phone pings and it's the school chat group reminding us that it's a dress-up day. I scramble to fashion an outfit together for our children to wear. I do this without thinking about it, before my partner has a chance to help. It's now been well established that in heterosexual relationships, women also do more of the hidden labour – the anticipating, planning and organising of the tasks that helps family life function.

Jun 12, 2024 | melissahogenboom.substack.com | Melissa Hogenboom

I’m extremely lucky that sleepless nights with regular wake ups are now several years behind us. It’s convenient that a lack of sleep warps the brain, because I can’t quite recall how awful it was at the time. We know sleep has a negative impact on mental wellbeing, this has been well established by decades of research, and yet we live in a society where women are routinely expected to be sleep deprived whilst also trying to raise little humans.

May 23, 2024 | sjawards.aaas.org | Melissa Hogenboom

There is now abundant evidence the brain is forming new connections all the time. Called neuroplasticity, it is often mentioned in the context of brain injury, where individuals have shown remarkable improvements and even recoveries after brain damage. But our brain can change in less dramatic ways when we learn new skills.