Category: Sleep

10 Reasons Napping Is The Ultimate Power Move For Your Brain, Heart & Mood (P)

From “aha” moments to a 50 percent lower stroke risk, science proves that napping isn’t lazy — it’s a biological necessity for peak performance.

For most of us, the afternoon nap carries a faint whiff of guilt; it feels indulgent, unproductive, a little too close to giving up on the day.

While napping too much can be a bad sign in the elderly (1, 2), for healthy people, psychological research tells quite a different story.

These 10 studies reveal what napping really does to your brain, your mood, your cognitive performance, and even your long-term physical health.

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Why A 45-Minute Nap Can Reset Your Brain’s Learning Power (M)

The precise mechanism by which a brief afternoon rest resets your brain’s learning capacity.

The precise mechanism by which a brief afternoon rest resets your brain's learning capacity.

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The Sneaky Food Habit That’s Making You Tired All Day

Scientists followed 1,800 people’s sleep and diet over one year.

Scientists followed 1,800 people’s sleep and diet over one year.

A high-fat diet is linked to greater daytime drowsiness, finds a study of 1,800 men aged 35-80.

Researchers monitored participants’ eating and sleeping habits over a year.

Dr Yingting Cao, the study’s first author, said:

“After adjusting for other demographic and lifestyle factors, and chronic diseases, we found that those who consumed the highest fat intake were more likely to experience excessive daytime sleepiness.

This has significant implications for alertness and concentration, which would be of particular concern to workers.

High fat intake was also strongly associated with sleep apnea.”

The researchers found that 41 percent of the men had experienced daytime sleepiness.

Dr Cao said:

“Poor sleep and feeling sleepy during the day means you have less energy, but this in turn is known to increase people’s cravings for high-fat, high-carbohydrate foods, which is then associated with poor sleep outcomes.

So the poor diet-and-sleep pattern can become a vicious cycle.

The simple message is a common-sense one, but we need more people to pay attention to it: we need to eat better; a good sleep the night before is best.”

Related

The study was published in the journal Nutrients (Cao et al., 2016).

This Good Habit At Night Boosts Self-Control During The Day

A good habit that boosts attention, decision-making and the ability to resist impulses.

A good habit that boosts attention, decision-making and the ability to resist impulses.

Good sleep habits can boost attention, decision-making and the ability to resist impulses.

Good sleep habits include going to bed at the same time every night, avoiding caffeine late in the day and allowing time to mentally wind-down before bedtime.

Professor June Pilcher, who led the study, said:

“Self-control is part of daily decision-making.

When presented with conflicting desires and opportunities, self-control allows one to maintain control.

Our study explored how sleep habits and self-control are interwoven and how sleep habits and self-control may work together to affect a person’s daily functioning.”

Professor Pilcher explained the review’s conclusions:

“Poor sleep habits, which include inconsistent sleep times and not enough hours of sleep, can also lead to health problems, including weight gain, hypertension and illness, according to prior research.

Studies have also found that sleep deprivation decreases self-control but increases hostility in people, which can create problems in the workplace and at home.”

Since sleep and self-control are so intimately connected, improving sleep can help in many ways, Professor Pilcher said:

“Many aspects of our daily lives can be affected by better-managed sleep and self-control capacity.

Improved health and worker performance are two potential benefits, but societal issues such as addictions, excessive gambling and over spending could also be more controllable when sleep deficiencies aren’t interfering with one’s decision making.”

Related

The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience (Pilcher et al., 2015).

12 Science-Backed Ways To Sleep Better Tonight (P)

Studies reveal simple daily habits that can transform how quickly you fall asleep — and how deeply you rest.

Around one-third of adults do not get the minimum seven hours sleep per night, with up to one-in-seven experiencing chronic insomnia.

Although sleep problems are strongly associated with mental health issues, even people who generally sleep well can benefit from tweaking their routine.

For example, only 46 minutes of extra sleep is enough to generate improvements in a person’s overall flourishing.

People who sleep this much extra per night experience more gratitude and resilience, plus they display more prosocial behaviours, such as helping others.

These 12 studies provide tips on how to improve sleep for everyone, from what we eat and drink, to the bedroom environment and the thoughts racing through our heads.

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How To Improve Sleep: The Optimal Bathing Routine Before Bed

Bathing before bed is linked to falling asleep faster, sleeping for longer and sleeping more efficiently.

Bathing before bed is linked to falling asleep faster, sleeping for longer and sleeping more efficiently.

Having a bath or shower around 90 minutes before bedtime leads to the best sleep.Bathing before bedtime is linked to falling asleep faster, sleeping for longer and sleeping more efficiently, studies show.The best temperature for the bath or shower is between 104 and 109 degrees Fahrenheit (40-43 degrees Celsius).

Cooling the body’s core

Hot baths and showers work, slightly confusingly, because they end up lowering the body’s core temperature.The hot water stimulates the thermoregulatory system, which causes blood to move from the core to the hands and feet.This effectively cools the body’s core.A cooling body temperature helps signal to the body and brain that it is time to sleep.The reason is that our body temperature follows daily, or ‘circadian’, rhythms.Body temperature naturally fluctuates by around 2-3 degrees and is at its highest in the late afternoon and early evening.Around 90 minutes before bedtime, though, it is normally reduced by up to 1 degree.The body’s lowest temperature is achieved through the middle and later parts of sleep.

Reviewing the research

The conclusions come from a review of 17 separate studies that examined the connection between taking a bath or shower before bedtime and sleep quality.The results clearly showed the benefits of a hot shower or bath 1-2 hours before bedtime.Shahab Haghayegh, the study’s first author, said:
“When we looked through all known studies, we noticed significant disparities in terms of the approaches and findings.The only way to make an accurate determination of whether sleep can in fact be improved was to combine all the past data and look at it through a new lens.”

Related

The study was published in the journal Sleep Medicine Reviews (Haghayegh et al., 2019).

Why Insomniacs Stay Mentally ‘On’ After Dark (M)

Insomniacs experience persistent sequential thinking when the brain should be winding down.

Insomniacs experience persistent sequential thinking when the brain should be winding down.

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How To “Boost” Your Brain’s Performance While You’re Fast Asleep

People in the study slept better and their memory was boosted.

People in the study slept better and their memory was boosted.

Special sounds during sleep can improve sleep and boost memory.

The gentle sounds were timed to coincide with natural ‘brain waves’: the waves of electrical activity in the brain.

People in the study were able to recall 26 percent more words they had learned after being exposed to the sounds during sleep.

Dr Phyllis Zee, a study author, said:

“This is an innovative, simple and safe non-medication approach that may help improve brain health.

This is a potential tool for enhancing memory in older populations and attenuating normal age-related memory decline.”

Deep sleep is known to be critical for memory consolidation: the process by which memories are laid down for the long-term.

However, in older adults, the amount of time spent in deep sleep typically reduces.

The study compared the acoustic stimulation with sham treatments, which acted as a placebo.

Older individuals — who were targeted for the study — showed better sleep and enhanced memory only after the real acoustic stimulation.

The study’s authors explain their conclusions:

“Acoustic stimulation that was phase-locked to sleep slow waves in older adults had systematic effects on sleep indices and performance on a declarative memory test.

These results provide the first demonstration that acoustic stimulation alters SWA [slow wave activity or, colloquially, deep sleep] and can enhance word pair recall in older adults.

These results converge with other findings in young adults indicating that acoustic stimulation during sleep is a promising tool for altering SWA and enhancing sleep-dependent memory consolidation.”

The sound waves in the study were timed to coincide with people’s brain waves.

Their brain waves were read in real time and the sounds timed to help synchronise activity across the neurons.

Dr Nelly Papalambros, the study’s first author, said:

“The idea is to be able to offer this for people to use at home.

We want to move this to long-term, at-home studies.”

Related

The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience (Papalambros et al., 2017).

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