Boost yourself on: Health, stress relief, self-care, sleep quality

Foreword

Everyone sleeps; some people earlier or later than others, but everyone
sleeps at some point. Since sleep is a part of our lives, it is imperative that we
understand everything about it and how we can use it to our advantage. Why
We Sleep is the culmination of many years of research and fact-checking on
sleep and sleep therapy. It answers all your questions about sleep and helps
you to understand why you need to get enough of it.

Matthew Walker, Ph.D., is a scientist and professor of neuroscience and

psychology. His research in the field of sleep and its effects on human health
led him to create this insightful summary. Steve West is an award-winning
English voice actor. Together, they shed light on a topic that promises to
challenge you to lead a healthier lifestyle.

“The best bridge between despair and hope is a good night’s sleep.” ~
Matthew Walker
1. Sleep is one of the most important determining factors of
your body’s health

You probably read this topic thinking you already know what sleep is, but
when is the last time you slept for 8 straight hours? If this question makes you
cringe, don’t feel bad, a lot of adults don’t get a lot of sleep. There’s a growing
“sleep shortage” in the larger population of adults, which is why many people
are tired and sick.

People in modern society often push sleep aside for the “more important
things,” but what can be more important than sleep? In the next few chapters
of this tidbit, you will understand why sleep is necessary for a balanced life.

Tons of accidents are actually a result of a fatigued driver at the wheel; even
cases of Alzheimer’s have been attributed to a decline in individuals’ sleep.

The Earth runs on a 24-hour rhythm, and our brains have a sleep clock,
which forms the circadian rhythm that syncs with the 24 hours of the day. This
feat is achieved by a part of the brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus.
This cluster of neurons is located atop the eyes and relay light from the sun at
sunrise and the dimming at sunset. Walker’s research showed that without
the sun’s light to prompt the brain, humans operate on a clock that is slightly
off from 24-hours. The circadian rhythm isn’t the same with everyone. We’re
essentially differentiated into three groups:

● Morning Larks: people who retire early to bed and wake up early the
next day. They make up 40% of the population.

● Night Owls: people who have a hard time falling asleep at night and
wake up late into the next morning.

● The In-Betweens: who can swing from being a lark to an owl, although
without their own control, they adjust to either depending on the
situation
What really happens when we feel the need to sleep? Well, it’s simple: The
suprachiasmatic nucleus sends signals to your brain in the form of a hormone
known as melatonin, which tells your brain and body it needs to sleep.

Keep reading to understand how different hormones control our sleep cycle,
how you can get the most out of your body, and why it is important to practice
the right sleep hygiene.

Did you know? Melatonin can be used as a remedy for jet lag as it induces
sleep when you shouldn’t normally be resting.

2. There are different levels of sleep, and in these levels, the

brain does the important work of saving your memories and
dreams

There are two types or levels of sleep: NREM — non-rapid eye movement —
and REM — rapid eye movement. The former refers to a sleep type that has
long, slow, and steady brainwaves and is characterized by a non-conscious
state. While REM describes a conscious yet not awake state that is
characterized by sharp, erratic brainwaves. These two levels of sleep occur
about 90 minutes apart and are necessary for a person to enjoy a complete
sleep cycle.

REM and NREM have different functions. The role of NREM is to untangle,
unclutter the unnecessary neural pathways created during the day as you
sleep. REM sleep serves the purpose of strengthening the necessary
connections and saving precious memories and learning skills.

If you don’t sleep well, it’ll be difficult for you to organize your thoughts and
emotions during day-to-day tasks.
To put you to sleep, your brain starts off by sending your body deep, slow
NREM waves that put you in a hypnotic state, and you can’t help but sleep.
After which, it sends much quicker, sharper REM waves that put you in a
wake-like state known as dreaming. Dreams cover a large variety of
experiences that might be impossible in real life. Not everyone dreams, but it
can be an interesting experience if you do.

3. As we grow older, our sleep patterns experience changes

Our sleep patterns change through our lifespan, from gestation to adulthood
and old age. When a person is a fetus, they spend a great deal of their 24
hours in deep REM sleep due to a very important task the brain undertakes
known as synaptogenesis. Synaptogenesis refers to the creation and
development of synaptic pathways and neural networks that will be essential
for the infant when it is born. However, when it grows to become a young
child, the sleep pattern changes and becomes an erratic struggle between
deep REM and awakening, meaning the child will wake several times during
the night. This is because the brain hasn’t synced with the Earth’s rhythm.

Many external factors prevent one from having adequate sleep, and it is
crucial to learn how to control those factors.

Moving forward to adolescence, the child starts to experience more of a

decline in REM and an increase in NREM, meaning they’d most likely sleep
for much longer up until the end stage of adolescence when there is a spike
in REM sleep. All of this changes though, when you reach adulthood, there is
a much greater difficulty to fall or stay asleep, one of the chief reasons why is
a weaker bladder that keeps getting full during the night’s sleep, thus causing
you to wake to pee more often.
As you grow, many things about you change. It is up to you to identify the
patterns that make you feel good about yourself and engage in activities that
promote a healthy lifestyle.

4. When we sleep, we give the brain and the body time to rest
and heal

Sleep is good for your brain; in fact, the brain is the chief beneficiary of sleep.
Firstly, it helps the brain to unburden itself of excess unwanted information
picked up during the day. As we go through the day, our senses pick up on so
many stimuli in our environment. This can be a conscious or unconscious
process. As we sleep, we rid our brains of excess information.

NREM sleep is responsible for freeing up space in your brain so you can
learn new things the next morning.

Secondly, sleep is very important for the conclusion of a day of learning as it

helps strengthen and establish stronger neural links and pathways associated
with the newly learned data (REM). This second benefit of sleep also extends
to increase proficiency in acquired skills like math, open-heart surgery, riding
a bike, or flying a plane.

In addition, sleep increases creativity, which is another example of REM

sleep, because when you are in deep REM, your brain recreates and replays
the day’s activities and memories and whatever data you encounter in a
colorful manner. This is usually the birthplace of the most outlandish, most
creative ideas.

“Oftentimes, our dreams aren’t really one thing we saw, heard, or smelt; it is
your brain’s way of making art from the pieces you gave it.”
~ Matthew Walker
5. When we choose to lose sleep, it comes back to haunt us in
very serious ways

There are a ton of dire consequences of insufficient sleep. Just as a full dose
of sleep can be beneficial to your brain, the lack or reduction can adversely
affect the brain. A few of the ways that lack of sleep affects us are as follows:

● High chances of car crashes come with insufficient sleep. Reports say
that fatigue-related accidents are more than alcohol or drug-related
deaths.

● Emotional irrationality is also a result of lack of sleep; rash comments

and actions will increase as you deny your brain of rest.

● Increased tiredness and forgetfulness are other symptoms of sleep

deprivation as well.

● A high risk of Alzheimer’s arises when you deny your brain the needed
sleep hours. This previously undecipherable illness has been found to
have a link to sleep or the lack thereof. Walker urges that we take our
sleep-health seriously or risk this dilapidating condition.

● Insufficient sleep can weaken your immune system and leave you
prone to life-threatening diseases such as cancer. With your immunity
on a low, it is increasingly easier for just about anything to crawl into
your bloodstream, even something as dire as cancer.

● Heart attack cases might be associated with high cholesterol and

genetics, but Walker established through research that a chief culprit is
insufficient sleep. It actually leads to weak metabolism and aids the
buildup of unwanted food in the heart’s passageways, and causes
obesity which ultimately leads to a heart attack.

If you keep going through life without adequate sleep, your brain will slowly
deteriorate, and so will your body, and this will lead to the weakening of your
vital organs.

6. Dreams are the result of your brain playing with your

thoughts, imagination, and memories to create marvelous new
stories

Dreams are a marvelous manifestation of our thoughts and sensory

information and a result of deep REM sleep. Brilliant minds such as Sigmund
Freud theorized that dreams are a wish-fulfillment endeavor, and according to
modern science, we might be able to prove he was right or wrong. We’ve
come to learn that dreams are in fact a mixture of logical/illogical thought
processes mixed with our experiences of the day, week, or the last three
decades of our lives.

“An all-round reduction in quality of life is the result of sleep deprivation.” ~

Matthew Walker

The brain alters deep NREM waves and sends deep REM instead to initiate a
dream. But how? When we enter deep REM sleep, four areas of the brain are
turned on; the part controlling visual perception, the part responsible for
movement, the part responsible for autobiographic memory, and the part that
controls emotions. These 4 parts work hand in hand to trick your mind into
believing what you see, hear, feel, and smell are very real. This is also
because the part of the brain responsible for logical reasoning, the prefrontal
cortex, will be shut down throughout. These four zones are actually 30%
more active when we dream, meaning that to dream is to feel more awake
than awake.

So what exactly happens in a dream? Sigmund Freud postulated that they

were unfulfilled wishes manifesting in disguised forms, a way to bring our
hearts desires to pass in our sleep since we can’t get them in real life. But this
theory isn’t based on science and as science has told us, the function of
dreams, or REM sleep, is to strengthen neural pathways made during the
day.

Dreams have been known to alter brain chemistry and make you feel
refreshed and better in the morning.

Dreams help to decode details of that earlier day, as mentioned in previous

chapters as a benefit of REM sleep. This breeds creativity, as shown in a
study done by Walker. Patients were made to solve puzzles and unscramble
words before and after sleeping, with one half getting REM and the other
getting NREM sleep, respectively.

Surprisingly, the group that had REM sleep was far more creative than the
one who only had NREM sleep. They were more eager to solve problems,
and they undertook tasks with little stress while their counterparts were
notably flat and uninspired.

7. There are many sleep disorders and conditions, and these

can affect sleep patterns in different ways

There are various sleep disorders, medical conditions that either occur during
sleep as a result of sleep or in the hindrance of sleep. Sometimes, these
conditions are usually misdiagnosed, and a truckload of sleeping pills is
prescribed. Some of these conditions are explained as follows:

● Somnambulism: This condition refers to sleep — Somnus — disorders

that involve some form of movement — ambulation. It encompasses
conditions such as sleepwalking, sleep-talking, sleep-eating,
sleep-texting, sleep sex, and, very rarely, sleep homicide. This is often
 associated with REM sleep, but it actually is a malfunction during
NREM sleep where the body experiences a jolt of nervous experiences.

● Insomnia: this is the inability to sleep. It is often set off by either a

psychological strain or an emotional strain. It has two variations: onset
sleep insomnia and maintenance sleep insomnia. The former refers to
the inability to fall asleep, while the latter is the inability to stay asleep,
these two conditions can affect one person sadly. It shouldn’t be
confused with willful sleep deprivation; insomnia is a very serious
condition and if you know anyone who has it, take them to a
professional for help.

The consequences of sleep loss in the form of insomnia are hypertension,

anxiety, cardiac failure, and great stress.

● Narcolepsy. This is a condition that is characterized by a total

detachment from society and a nonchalant attitude towards anything
but sleep, manifesting as excessive daytime sleeping, apnea/sleep
paralysis, and cataplexy. The first symptom is a state of “sleep attacks”
where the patient is forced to sleep against their wishes regardless of
where they are or what they’re doing. The second symptom refers to
the inability to move or talk when you’re asleep; this is as a result of
deep REM sleep; dreaming. Cataplexy is a pseudo-sleep state that
mimics REM sleep and leaves you paralyzed.

● Fatal Familial Insomnia (FFI): this is a genetic sleeping disorder that is

caused when there is an attack on the Thalamus. This keeps the
sensory signal awake always and keeps the patient from ever being
able to sleep.

Despite these devastating consequences of not sleeping or sleeping enough,

there is such a thing as too much sleep. The healthy amount of sleep you
need is around 6.75 to 7.2 hours. Anything higher can actually increase and
not reduce your mortality risk.

Conclusion

Sleep is as important to any living creature as oxygen. Its benefits are too
vast and profound for us to keep cheating ourselves from the chance to get
them. As we live out our days, we encounter more and more reasons why
sleep is either unimportant or inaccessible. You need to cultivate a habit of
sleeping; it can literally save your life.

Our daily lives pose a danger to our sleep-health. Some non-medical things
actively steal our sleep; a few of these modern causes of insufficient sleep
include the advent of constant electric light as well as LED light, regularized
temperature, pharmaceutical sleep treatments, caffeine, alcohol, alarms, and
an early work schedule. There are so many external factors that can ruin your
sleep, but it is up to you to take note of them and try to mitigate their effects.
Eat healthy foods, set a time for sleep each day, and try to stay away from
your electronic devices when it’s bedtime.

If you feel unwell, it is best to see a doctor immediately. If you do not sleep
enough, you cannot be a good parent, spouse, or employee. Nothing beats
taking care of your health at all times.

Try this:

Take time to manage and monitor your sleep schedule and ensure that you
get at least 6.75 hours of unassisted and unmedicated sleep from today and
for the rest of your long life.