Sunday’s are best for emails: A study has found that the best time to send an email to your colleagues is on a Sunday. After analysing 8.7 million emails, researchers for Axios HQ found that those sent between 6pm and 9pm on a Sunday have an average open rate of 86%, compared with between 50% and 76% for the rest of the week. However, if you follow the advice to message colleagues on a Sunday it “could leave you with few friends in the office”. The Times
Buying a home has become more expensive than renting for the first time in 13 years for prospective UK homebuyers. Higher monthly mortgage payments are causing many first-time buyers to reassess the financial strain of ownership versus renting. Daily Mail
Six thousand. That’s how many of Britain’s high-street shops have closed in the past five years: one out of every seven high-street premises now lies vacant. Moreover, 48% of voters think the economy will get worse over the next 12 months. 22% think it will get better. Only 27% think the Tories are managing it well. The Observer
Shrinking populations. Within a few decades, the world’s population is expected to start falling for the first time since the Black Death. An analysis of 204 countries has concluded that owing to declining fertility rates, the global population’s growth is starting to slow – and that in the latter part of this century, it will start falling. A rate of 2.1 births per woman over her lifetime is required to maintain population levels. In 1950, the figure stood at 4.84 globally, but by 2021 it had fallen to 2.23. The UK’s fertility rate is 1.49 now. By 2050, it is projected to be 1.38 and in 2100, just 1.3. The Lancet
People feel older if they are under-slept. People feel older if they sleep less. Just two nights of broken sleep is enough to make people feel up to four years older, research has found. But when people in a study were allowed to sleep for nine hours, they felt just three months younger. Those who have less sleep are also more inclined to eat unhealthily, exercise less and seek out socialisation and new experiences less, meaning the overall feeling of being older may be intensified. People who prefer to go to bed and get up late typically felt older than their real age, but early risers felt older if their sleep was disrupted. If you want to feel young, the most important thing is to protect your sleep. Understanding what can make us feel younger may help people who want to experience the associated benefits, such as increased social and physical activity. The Royal Society
Shorter emails, better emails? If your emails are going unanswered, they could be too long. Two Harvard researchers recently sent one of two emails to around 7,000 school board members asking them to complete a brief survey. One email was 127 words and the other was 49. The shorter email surfaced nearly double the survey responses. The researchers explained there was a chance readers didn’t make it all the way to the survey request in the longer email – or that the length of the email suggested the survey wouldn’t actually be brief, either. Inc
Threat of long-Covid ‘exaggerated’. Academics have claimed that the risks of developing long Covid have been exaggerated by flawed research. Experts from the University of California said sweeping definitions of what constitutes long Covid, and a “striking absence of control groups” in many studies, meant data on the long-term effects and prevalence of Covid was unreliable. However, other researchers have “strongly disagreed” with the latest conclusions. Long Covid sufferers report fatigue, brain fog, chest pain and shortness of breath. The Times
