Sleep Can Repair Your Brain, But Only If You’re Doing It Right

Key Takeaways

popular opinion is that you should get eight hours of sleep a night but it might not actually be the number of hours you sleep but the quality of your sleep that really matters scientists aren't totally sure why we evolved to sleep when we sleep we're unconscious to the world leaving us vulnerable to predators but every species that has been studied in detail sleeps so there's something beneficial to it not sleeping well isn't just annoying it's linked to poor overall health lack of focus memory loss and Alzheimer's disease broadly speaking there are two kinds of sleep non-rapid eye movement and rapid eye movement sleep together they encompass the stages of sleep that are vital for feeling rested in the morning if sleep is cut short we don't go through all these phases this can lead to anxiety depression fatigue physical pain and sleep disorders ranging from insomnia to hypersomnia which is sleeping too much bad sleep can even stop us from forming memories a new study looked at dendrites branching out grows from the neurons that carry electrical signals from synapses to the cell body activity in dendrites increases during sleep that increase is linked to short and repetitive brain waves called spindles these spindles peak at the beginning and end of non REM sleep cycle the latter end is marked by slow wave activity in the brain during that peaking you're in a deep sleep phase and without it your memories suffer so it's that deep sleep phase right before REM sleep that we really need the slow waves are associated with the most prominent brain activity during sleep they help transfer memories from the hippocampus to the prefrontal cortex where they are consolidated and stored these slow waves are also linked to attention and wakeful hours heart health metabolic regulation and overall cognition and missing out on that deep sleep can be as simple as having anxiety when we're stressed our bodies are primed to respond to situations by waking up when you're stressed the amygdalas fight-or-flight response doesn't totally shut down this means you can't enter that deep sleep or store to phase without this restorative sleep we don't restore our brains to a baseline condition and over the years this adds up the link between poor sleep and Alzheimer's isn't from a few bad nights it's from years of poor sleep that doesn't allow the brain to properly repair itself so what can you do a lot of research points to sleep hygiene as a simple place to start the same way you shower to clean your body you want to clean your sleeping space establishing healthy sleep habits like avoiding caffeine in the afternoon not napping late in the day keeping screens out of the bedroom and exposing yourself to light patterns that mimic your circadian rhythm could help to of course the stresses that are keeping your brain from fully relaxing are less simple to fix but worth working on if it means a healthy sleep for a healthy life if you liked this video be sure to subscribe for more seeker we've got so many videos on sleep click here to watch you'll sleep better at night and speaking of did you know some birds can sleep while flying by keeping part of their brain awake I wish I could do that