Ted - the Neuroscience of Sleep Flashcards
Often referred to as the “body clock”, the circadian rhythm is a cycle that tells our bodies when to sleep, rise and eat, regulating many physiological processes. This internal body clock is affected by environmental cues, like sunlight and temperature.
When one’s circadian rhythm is disrupted, sleeping and eating patterns can run amok. A growing body of research is examining the adverse health effects a disrupted circadian rhythm can have, like increasing the chances of cardiovascular events, obesity, and a correlation with neurological problems like depression and bipolar disorder.
The single most important behavioural experience we have is sleep.
36% of your life is spent sleeping.
Shakespeare: ‘enjoy the honey heavy dew of slumber’
We now treat sleep as an enemy as we occupy the dark. Our ignorance about sleep is profound.
When you’re asleep the brain does not shut down. In fact, some parts of the brain are more active when in the sleep state.
3 hypotheses why we sleep:
1/ Restoration
2/ Energy Conservation
3/ Brain function - brain processing and memory consolidation. Sleep has been estimated to give us a 3-fold advantage when problem-solving. Sleeping at night enhances our creativity.
We probably sleep for multiple different reasons. Sleep is not an indulgence.
Our society is hugely sleep-deprived.
Microsleeps are brief, unintended episodes of loss of attention associated with events such as blank stare, head snapping, and prolonged eye closure which may occur when a person is fatigued but trying to stay awake to perform a monotonous task like driving a car or watching a computer screen.
Lack of sleep leads to:
1/ Poor Memory
2/ Increased Impulsiveness
3/ Poor Judgement
4/ Poor Creativity
If you are a tired brain, caffeine represents the stimulant of choice.
Alcohol used moderately can be used a sedative. However, it is only a short-term measure because it adversely impacts memory consolidation and processing.
If you sleep 5 hours or less a night then you have a 50% more chance of being obese.
Tired people are hugely stressed, leading to loss of memory. Sustained stress leads to loss of immunity; you become more predisposed to infections and cardiovascular disease.
Sleep for dummies:
1/ Make your bedroom a haven. Make it dark and cool.
2/ Brush your teeth in the dark
3/ Turn off mobile phones
4/ Ideally do not drink caffeine after midday
5/ Seek out morning light
Myths:
1/ We need 8 hours of sleep a night - NOT TRUE. It varies from person to person
2/ Old people need less sleep - NOT TRUE
There is a clear link between mental health and sleep deprivation/disruption.
Mental illness and sleep are not simply associated but they are physically linked in the brain.
The neural networks that predispose us to normal sleep and normal mental health are overlapping.
We now have evidence of a genuine mechanistic overlap between these functions.
Sleep deprivation exacerbates mental illness.
Take sleep seriously. It can improve concentration, attention, decision-making, creativity, social skills and health. Lack of it can cause anger, mood change, impulse, and drinking/smoking.
Sleep is God. Go worship.
