No contact should last for a minimum of 60 days, and it includes no texting, no calling, and no interacting on social media. Here’s everything you need to know about how no contact after a breakup works: Just because some people have exes who reached out to them after a period of no contact doesn’t mean this will be the case for everyone. Moreover, trying to reduce your former partner to a formula or trying to control their behavior to meet your own needs is not very empathetic....

Medical school was the next phase of life that really taught me how to get to bed—anytime, anywhere I could. But my sleep wasn’t as deep or restorative because I was always falling asleep a little worried that I was going to be called to attend to an emergency situation. It took several years after I was no longer the “on-call doc” to be able to fall asleep without this worry, which definitely made my sleep depth and quality much better because I felt safe enough to let myself go deep....

“Our bodies have developed and adapted to live in our environment,” explains Lewis Nelson, M.D., chief of the division of medical toxicity at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. “Everything can be toxic at high doses, even things that we need to function normally, so the body has developed to maintain a normal level of compounds that may be toxic if allowed to accumulate.” You may be wondering, what are those organs, exactly, and how can you help them eliminate modern toxins?...

The main bacterial comes from the genus Lactobacillus, which has the important job of making lactic acid to stimulate healthy cervical mucus and discourage the growth of unwanted bacteria, yeast, and viruses. A healthy vaginal microbiome is also how you avoid the symptoms of yeast infections and bacterial vaginosis (BV), the two most common “ecological disorders” of the vaginal microbiome. Yeast infections are an overgrowth of what should be a relatively small population of yeast living in your microbiome....

As dream analyst Lauri Loewenberg puts it, “A vivid dream is one that is full of clear details, colors, involved storyline, produces strong emotions, and is remembered as if it were an actual, real-life experience.” Take nightmares for example. Therapist and dream expert Leslie Ellis, Ph.D., tells mbg that nightmares are a “prototypical vivid dream,” though vivid dreams aren’t always bad. (More on that later.) “Lucid dreaming is also another category of vivid dreaming....

For people who love with acts of service, love is not felt as much with abstract words and intention as it is with visible action and follow-through. Here’s everything you need to know about the pragmatic love language. At its core, an act of service is about someone going out of their way to meaningfully help and support the other person. When people take initiative to ease some of their responsibilities and burdens, it helps them feel taken care of, safe, and loved in return....

Luckily, there is one DIY practice that’s not only safe but actually beneficial for those with dry or sensitive skin. This is one relaxing spa-like experience you can trust to help your skin and make you feel great. Enter, milk baths. A milk bath is just as it sounds—a warm bath of water that you pour milk into. This can be liquid milk or powdered, and which kind of milk can vary, though donkey milk was the main player in historical milk baths....