Sound Sleep for a Sound Mind
Sleep occupies one-third of our time on earth. Scientist still don't know why we need it. But what they do know, is we need it.
Research suggests that a poor night's sleep can trigger up to 30 percent rise in anxiety levels. Sleep disruption is now recognised as a contributing factor of all anxiety disorders with a reduction in sleep found to predict consequential day-to-day increases in anxiety.
Sleep is an important function of living beings. With that in mind, what do the experts tell us on how to harness this free source that only we can control?
The power of sleep
Neurosurgeon Rahul Jandial states 'sleep is a firestorm of brain activity.' During sleep our brain is reorganising information, deleting, and storing the day's activities for long-term retrieval. Sleep is not as restful as we assume. Rather, sleep calls on deep powers of the brain never used during wakefulness.
Sleep transforms short-term memories made during the course of the day, into long-term memories that can last a lifetime. Dr Jandial explains it well when he says, 'you can think of sleep as the time when your brain ships memories from your hippocampal loading dock (where memories are first made) to distant corners across your brain.
Sleep supports and increases problem-solving insights, physical performance, and retention of information. Students retain information and do better on tests and exams following a good nights sleep.
While we sleep much of what we experienced during the prior day is deleted from our memory. Not all short-term memories and insights go into long-term storage. An essential function of sleep is to take out the garbage, by erasing and forgetting information from the day that would only serve to clutter the synaptic network in our brains.
Not only does sleep enable the process of deleting and forgetting unnecessary information, it also provides the opportunity for cellular debris built up during the day, to be flushed from the brain.
How much sleep do we need?
In 1965 Randy Gardner, a 17 year-old high school student decided his science-fair project would involve not sleeping for 11 straight days. He accomplished this feat, setting a world record that year for sleep loss. However, what happened to his mind was the major insight of the experiment. Randy became forgetful (what could almost pass as Alzheimer's disease), nauseous, and no surprise, tired. He hallucinated, became severely disorientated and paranoid (thinking a local radio host was out to get him). In the last four days of the experiment he lost motor function, his fingers trembled and his speech slurred.
In 1995 Allan Rechtschaffens, a sleep researcher, devised an experiment reducing the sleep of rats. A few days into the experiment their body temperatures fell, they lost weight, ulcers appeared in their tails and paws, and after a few weeks they died.
Other research sheds light on other functions affected by sleep loss. The ability to utilise consumed food falls by about one-third. There is a decrease in the ability to make insulin and extract energy from glucose. At the same time there is a marked need to have more insulin because the body's stress hormone levels begin to rise in a deregulated manner. If this continues, it appears to accelerate the ageing process.
Sleep loss hurts attention, executive function, immediate memory, working memory, mood, qualitative skills, logical reasoning ability, and general math knowledge.
There is mounting body of research on the benefits and disadvantages of sleep. But one of the significant disadvantages of too little, and even too much sleep, is that as we age this can increase mortality. Sleep hygiene as some refer to it, is not to be ignored!
Based on a rigorous review of scientific literature, The National Sleep Foundation provides recommendations for hours of sleep needed as per age (https://www.sleepfoundation.org)
Recommended sleep ranges
Newborns (0-3 months): Sleep range 14-17 hours each day
Infants (4-11 months): Sleep range 12-15 hours
Toddlers (1-2 years): Sleep range 11-14 hours
Preschoolers (3-5): Sleep range 10-13 hours
School age children (6-13): Sleep range 9-11 hours
Teenagers (14-17): Sleep range 8-10 hours
Younger adults (18-25): Sleep range 7-9 hours
Adults (26-64): Sleep range 7-9 hours
Older adults (65+): Sleep range 7-8 hours
Lark, owl or hummingbird
Scientific literature calls early rises an 'early chronotype'. They report being most alert around noon, and feel the most productive a few hours before they eat lunch. They don't need an alarm clock and their favourite mealtime is breakfast. Larks become increasingly drowsy in the early evening and are ready for bed about 9pm.
At the other end of the spectrum are 'late chronotypes,' the owls. Owls report being most alert around 6pm and most productive in the late evening, rarely wanting to go to bed before 3am. They need an alarm clock to wake up in the morning. If they had their way, most would not wake up before 10am. Their favourite meal time is dinner and they drink a lot of coffee to keep them 'going.' Owls invariable accumulate a massive sleep debt.
Larks and owls cover about 30 percent of the population. The rest are hummingbirds. Some hummingbirds are more larkish and some more owlish and some are in between. Interestingly some people say that infants are larks – wake early, and adolescents are owls – wake late and stay up late. In infants and adolescents these are usually temporary shifts.
Researches think these sleep patterns are detectable in early childhood and burned into the genetic complexities of the brain that govern sleep/wake cycles.
Can we catch up on sleep?
Some research suggests the notion of catching up on sleep is inaccurate. However, neurosurgeon Dr Jandial suggests new research shows you can. He reports it is usually the second consecutive morning sleep in that the restful feeling for the sleep deprived kicks in. He suggests that if you work long hours and are sleep deprived, protect those weekend sleep ins.
The teenage brain
A lot is going on in the adolescent brain during puberty. This is a time when sleep is important for brain and mental health. Teenage brains are learning at a fast pace and neural networks are rapidly pruned if not used. Sleep deprivation inhibits this necessary synaptic pruning and prioritsing of information. Sleep helps teenagers manage stress, eat better, and assists in the consolidation of memory and learning.
Specific to the teenage brain is the later release of the sleep hormone melatonin. In adolescents this hormone is released up to two hours later than adults. Hence the desire to go to bed becomes much later than their parents.
This no sleep zone for teenagers can be around nine or ten o'clock, just when parents usually want to go to bed. Melatonin also remains in the teenager's system for longer making it harder to wake up in the morning. Understanding this hormonal change can provide good insight to helping support your teenager's sleep pattern.
Teenagers are in a phase of rapid learning cycle. A good nights sleep has been shown to help consolidate new information and motor learning more effectively. Sleeping is not a waste of time.
Helping kids develop a healthy sleep routine
Research clearly shows us how important sleep is for the development and maintenance of a healthy brain, mind and body. Help your child develop a healthy approach to sleep with the following:
Follow the guidelines for recommended number of hours sleep.
Teach your child to make their beds in the morning. If they have a terrible day and they feel like nothing went well, at least they can return to a well made bed!
Establish regular meal times and avoid sugar before bedtime.
Reduce the access to technology at least an hour before bed to help support melatonin production and increase tiredness. LED devices suppress melatonin by about 22 percent.
Keep technology out of the bedroom when lights are out.
Develop a routine of mindfulness breathing exercises with your child to help calm their mind before bed. A suggested sight is https://www.smilingmind.com.au/
Have a set time where difficult questions or topics are not asked until the next day. For example with a teenager you can have 'the ten o'clock rule.' This helps eliminate potential blow ups if your son or daughter doesn't get what they want i.e. the car keys. They either ask earlier when everyone isn't tired, or wait until the next day. Make this an earlier time for younger children.
Difficulty falling asleep?
Sleep experts suggest the following as good practice for the promotion of regular restorative sleep for teenagers and adults.
Keep a consistent sleep schedule: get up at the same time every day, even on the weekends or vacations. This will help you stay in the circadian rhythm that sets the internal clock for falling asleep.
Avoid caffeine in the afternoon or evening: caffeine can stay in your system for ten to twelve hours.
If you don't fall asleep after 20 minutes, get out of bed: read but keep the lights dim and try not to turn on the TV.
Avoid technology in bed. The light emitted from phones and devices hits the pineal gland behind our eyes and suppresses sleep. Use technology only if listening to a podcast or mediation app, not even reading an e-reader as there is light here too.
Limit exposure to bright light in the evening. Start turning down the lights around 8.00pm.
Turn off electrical devices at least 30 minutes before bedtime. Put your phone on nighttime mode at 8.00pm and try to avoid looking at it after this time— a digital sunset.
Sound sleep leads to a calm sound mind!
Sourced
American Academy of Sleep Medicine website, https://aasm.org
Daniel Jin Blum, PhD. (2016). Sleep Wise: How to feel better, work smarter, and build resilience. Berkeley, California. Parallex Press.
Frances E. Jensen, M.D and Amy Ellis Nutt. (2015). The Teenage Brain. London. Harper Collins.
Jandial, R. (2019). Life Lessons from a Brain Surgeon: the new science and stories of the brain. USA. Penguin Random House.
John Medina (2008). Brain Rules. Victoria, Australia. Scribe.
National Sleep Foundation. https://www.sleepfoundation.org/press-release/national-sleep-foundation-recommends-new-sleep-times
Simon, E.B, Rossi, A. Harvey, A.G. & Walker, M.P. (2019). Overanxious and Underslept. Journal of Nature Human Behaviour. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-019-0754-8 (nature.com/nathumbehav)
Smiling Mind. https://www.smilingmind.com.au/
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