Sleep, The Brain and The Mind - Part 2 of 2

Welcome to the second part of out post on Sleep, The Brain and The Mind.


ACTIONS TO PROMOTE BETTER SLEEP
 
Over the years working with a host of clients I have found the following to be very effective to improve the quality of sleep, which in turn improves the functioning of the brain and mind.

Reduce the amount of caffeine
Whenever you’re awake, a chemical called adenosine slowly accumulates in your brain.  And this adenosine binds to receptors which slow down brain activity.  This simply means the more adenosine there is, the more tired your brain feels.  So the longer you’re awake, the more tired you become. Conversely, while you sleep, the concentration of adenosine declines, gradually promoting wakefulness. 

The reason why a great majority of us turn to coffee as a pick-me-up is caffeine is incredibly similar to adenosine in structure. The caffeine works it’s way through your bloodstream and into the brain, where it starts to compete and binds with adenosine receptors. Since caffeine is not adenosine you don’t feel sleepy.

After you have knocked back a coffee or two caffeine molecules are parked in many of the adenosine receptors.  This means adenosine can no longer bind and it’s calming properties are diminished. This great for you when you’re feeling tired and still need to work.  This is not so great if you need to get to bed.  Adenosine levels in the brain are quite vulnerable to caffeine several hours after consumption.

Over the long term, using caffeine as a stimulant your brain will responds by creating more adenosine receptors.  This means even more caffeine is  needed to give you that jolt. It also means that when you try to quit drinking coffee or miss your daily intake, you might experience some withdrawal symptoms and feel more tired than you would have before you ever drank coffee. 

Caffeine is also very good at stimulating the production of adrenaline, which is the fight/flight hormone. This increases your heart rate, gets your blood pumping, and even opens up your airways.

My suggestion to you is to cut your caffeine by the late afternoon and your chances of getting a good night sleep increases dramatically.

Light and the Brain
The brain is quite sensitive to the light.  The presence of light or it’s absence affects sleep.  How does this work?

In the centre of the brain is a tiny structure called the pineal gland.  It secretes a sleeping hormone called melatonin to help you go to and stay asleep.  The production of melatonin is dependent on the signals the pineal gland receives from the retina.  If the signal indicates it is dark then melatonin is produced helping you to fall asleep.  Conversely, the pineal gland will halt the production of melatonin if it receives a signal that there is light.   Therefore, bright light in the late evening will trick your brain into keeping you awake because it prepares you for daytime

Many of us have gotten into the habit of crawling into bed and checking our smart phones, tablets or laptops.  Some of us might even have a television in the bedroom.  These glowing devices are a direct message from the retina to your pineal gland to shut off production of melatonin.  You are pretty much creating artificial day light. 

My advice to you is to avoid staring into any of these devices just before you go to bed.  Start winding down your evening with soft light and use the chemistry of your brain to your advantage.

Food and the Brain
What you eat in the evening has a major effect on the quality of your sleep. The best foods to consume in the evening are those that are rich in tryptophan.  The reason is tryptophan is an amino acid that converts to serotonin (the chemical responsible for maintaining a proper sleep cycle) and the all-important melatonin (the sleeping hormone you learned about in the previous section).

Foods like turkey or other poultry are rich sources of tryptophan.  Fish, such as tuna, halibut, cod, sardines, scallops and salmon are also a treasure trove.  Nuts and seeds, like cashews, almonds, walnuts and sunflower seeds are also a brilliant source.  Lastly, there are legumes, such as kidney beans, lentils, black beans and split peas.

I highly recommend staying away from simple carbohydrates like white rice, white bread, white pasta and sugars.  Eating these types of foods increases the blood glucose and contribute to shallow sleeping and can often result in awakening during a sleep cycle.  Instead, eat foods that are rich in tryptophan.

Alcohol and the Brain
I am quite confident that most of you are quite aware of the effects of alcohol on our brains.  Let’s simply take a little deeper look at how it affects our sleep. 

Your body has two sorts of neurotransmitters (brain-chemicals); one that excites you (keeps you awake) called Glutamate and one that relaxes you called GABA. Glutamate is most active during your waking hours. Conversely, GABA is most active during your hours of sleep.  So when you fall asleep your brain Glutamate levels should drop and your brain GABA levels should rise. This facilitates a deep and restful sleep.

When we drink alcohol it has a very calming effect on us.  We tend to feel more relaxed and at ease.  We feel some of our inhibitions fall away.  There is the notion that a glass of wine in the evening has the affect of relaxing us and helping us to fall asleep.  This is true to some extent.

Alcohol has an initial sleep inducing effect, but that is where it ends.  When the alcohol is broken down by the body it can lighten sleep and cause frequent and early awakening.  Simply put, alcohol is the arch enemy of a good nights sleep.

Alcohol acts like GABA and parks itself in the GABA receptors.  This in turn dampens down glutamate activity making you feel mellow and relaxed.  That is the reason why that glass of wine in the evening can make you feel drowsy after a long day at the office.

The problem is that alcohol creates a counterfeit GABA effect.  Initially, you feel tired and may fall asleep, but 3 to 4 hours later when the effects of alcohol begin to taper off the excitatory effects of glutamate kick in.  This means your body and brain start to feel agitated and you awaken.

Since the GABA receptors were all occupied by the alcohol, the brain thinks it has produced enough GABA and thus turns off production.  So there is now not enough GABA, which is the principle inhibiting neurotransmitter of the brain, to counter the excitatory effects of the glutamate swimming around in your head.

The major problem with alcohol consumption in the evening is mid-sleep cycle awakening.  There is no problem getting to sleep, but you can’t stay asleep.  Simply put, alcohol really messes up with your sleep maintenance.

If you find yourself waking up in the wee hours of the morning with your mind racing and you are unable to get back to sleep, ask yourself if you really need that glass of wine in the evening.

Conclusion

I truly believe more knowledge means more informed choices.  Knowledge itself is interesting but it is not power.  Applied knowledge is the actual power. 

Now that you know some of the brain science behind sleep, you can make more informed choices to get a better nights sleep.

As I wrote in the opening paragraph…A healthy mind sustains a healthy brain.  A healthy brain sustains a healthy mind.  There is a symbiotic relationship between the two. It is this very relationship that determines the quality of our lives in the present and into the future. 

In my next post, I will be discussing in greater detail the effects of exercise on our brain.

We encourage you to share your questions, opinions and comments.

Thanks again for taking the time to read our blog.
________
Interested in applying the findings of brain-science to your professional life?

Please visit us at www.MINDtalk.no

You can also follow at: https://www.facebook.com/MINDtalkCoach
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Sleep, The Brain and The Mind - Part 1 of 2

A healthy mind sustains a healthy brain.  A healthy brain sustains a healthy mind.  There is a symbiotic relationship between the two.  It is this very relationship that determines the quality of our lives in the present and into the future.

Over the next few posts I want to focus on how to maintain a healthy brain and a healthy mind.  I will dedicate each post to a specific topic where I will explore the science of maintaining the brain and the mind.  After I have explored each issue I will list a series of actions that you can employ to keep your headspace in tip-top shape.

Let me be straight with you right here, right now.  There is no light-switch solution.  What I mean by this is that you can’t simply flip the switch and everything is good.  Like any other improvement in life it requires an investment in time and effort.  If you follow the simple actions outlined in each post and stay dedicated, determined and disciplined you will start to see improvements in two to three weeks.

With that said let’s jump into the first post, which will be presented in two parts.  Let's take a look at Sleep, The Brain and The Mind.


SLEEP
We spend a good third of our lives sleeping.  So if you are fortunate to live to the decent age of 85 years old you will have spent 28.3 years sleeping.   This number may seem quite shocking, but trust me your brain needs your mind to be off line in order for it to do some must-needed house cleaning. 

The activity of sleeping is crucial to our health and well-being as much as nutrition, breathing and exercising.  The reason why we need sleep is still under investigation by various fields in science and the picture is not complete, yet.  What each of us does know is how much more energized we feel and how good our mood is after a solid nights sleep.  The question that still remains: what’s really happening in our brain and body when we are at rest?

Most people are under the assumption that when we fall asleep the brain quiets down.  As counter intuitive as it may seem the brain actually stays active when we sleep.  What quiets down is our mind - the conscious part of our brain.  The chemical signals and the electric firing between the  neurons in our brain are just as active in sleep as during the waking hours. 


SLEEP CYCLES
Sleep happens in cycles of approximately 90 minutes.  There is a general consensus among sleep experts that a good nights sleep ranges between 6 to 8 hours.  This means that on average we need between 4 to 5 sleep cycles of 90 minutes to feel invigorated and refreshed.

Within one sleep cycle our brains move through a range of depths of sleep, which are often referred to as sleep waves.  The waves frequencies and amplitude are measured by an instrument called an electroencephalogram (EEG).  As we sink deeper into a cycle of sleep the amplitude of these waves increases, while their frequency diminishes correspondingly.

There are typically four stages of sleep with their own individual wave frequency ranges.  These are measured by an EEG trace. So if your sleep cycle was being measured this is what would be picked up:

 Fig 1: EEG reading of the different sleep waves.
Courtesy of Sleepdex - Resources for Better Sleep

Fig 2: The stages of sleep waves with frequency and amplitude.
Courtesy of Sleepdex - Resources for Better Sleep


THE BENEFITS OF SLEEP

Cleaning the Brain
In 2013, a number of studies found that sleep gave the brain a chance to  wash out damaging molecules that built up during waking hours.  What was discovered is that the space between neurons (brain cells) increased when asleep aiding in the efficiency to clean out damaging molecules accumulated during waking hours.

The scientists at the University of Rochester found that these ‘toxic’ molecules were associated with speeding up neurodegenerative diseases - a wasting away of neurons indicative of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.  Sleep is crucial for literally cleaning and maintaining the brain.

Archiving Experiences & Consolidating Memory
Another major benefit of sleep is that it allows time for the brain to form new memories and to consolidate older memories with more recent ones.  

The hippocampus is the structure in the brain that is involved in memory creation by consolidating the events we have experienced and lessons we have learned.  Sleep also plays a very important role in learning, because it helps us to solidify new information through better recall, while reducing the likelihood of forgetting.

More specifically, REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep is key to consolidating procedural memory (how to use your iPhone or drive a car) and deep sleep (non-REM sleep) is key to consolidating explicit memory (remembering a phone number or address).  Sleep deprivation can significantly affect the hippocampus’ function to form memories.

Normally, the activating brain-chemicals (neurotransmitters) norepinephrine, epinephrine, and cortisol subside at night as we drift into a more relaxed mind state readying ourselves for sleep.  These brain chemicals are usually more present in awake and stressed states of mind.  The lack of sleep increases the level of these activating chemicals and has a direct affect on the proper functioning of the hippocampus.

Improving Performance
To expand on the previous point sleep is key to consolidating our procedural memory.  This is the type of memory related to motor tasks, like learning to ski, swinging a golf club or putting on your pants so they become automatic behaviours.

During REM sleep there are short bursts of brain waves at strong frequencies that are called sleep spindles.  During this period of sleep the the brain moves short-term memories stored in the motor cortex to the temporal lobe, where they are stored as long-term memories.  Simply put, sleep is essential to improving the performance of any physical skill.

Improving Innovative & Creative Thinking
When the conscious mind is offline and the unconscious brain can let loose the mental sparks can begin to fly.  When we are sleeping the unconscious brain can make some astounding new connections.  Watson and Crick, the discovers of the DNA helix, said the solution came to them in a dream state.  They dreamt of rolling a newspaper and a profound ‘a-ha’ moment exploded.  The shape of double-helix sprang forth that explained how DNA was structured. 

The sleep state can make new associations that may not be possible in a waking state.  In 2007, a study at the University of California at Berkeley found that sleep can help to make completely unassociated connections that can lead to awe-inspiring insights of innovation and creativity.  The study found people were 33 percent more likely to make connections between seemingly distantly related ideas.


THE CONSEQUENCES OF POOR SLEEP

• The lack of sleep can lead to an increased risk of insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure. In addition to this, the lack of sleep can mimic many of the signs of aging and the seriousness of many medical conditions, while causing changes to metabolism as well as to the endocrine system.  

• The lack of sleep also suppresses the immune system resulting in more body stiffness and aches. Stress increases the release of norepinephrine and epinephrine, and they also decrease the amount of slow-wave sleep.

• The lack of sleep can lead to weight gain even after only 6 to 7 days.  The reason for this is there is an increase in the production of ghrelin.  The hormone responsible for promoting appetite.  At the same time, there is a decline in the production of the leptin.  The hormone responsible for reducing appetite.  To throw more on top of this, your increased munchies due to the lack of sleep increases your need to consume food that is heavily loaded with calories.  This will also include foods that are sweet, starchy and made up of simple carbohydrates.  (I will spend an entire post looking at diet and nutrition as it relates to the brain).

• The lack of sleep lowers glucose tolerance, increases the activity of the reactive mindset (the fight/flight response) and increases activating brain-chemicals associated with stress (cortisol, norepinephrine, epinephrine)

Our next post is Sleep, The Brain and The Mind - Part 2 of 2

We encourage you to share your questions, opinions and comments.

Thanks again for taking the time to read our blog.
________
Interested in applying the findings of brain-science to your professional life?

Please visit us at www.MINDtalk.no

You can also follow at: http://on.fb.me/1BQtCRE
                                      https://twitter.com/MINDtalkCoach