Some Truth about Sleep By Katherine Lightwood

Some Truth about Sleep 

By Katherine Lightwood

My colleagues always seem to be quite concerned with my lack of sleeping habits. Which is usually kind quite kind enough for me but I sometimes think is their concern really matters. I mean, do we need that much sleep as we are told so? 

Popular opinion is that you should get eight hours of sleep a night, but it might not actually be the numbers of hours you sleep but the quality of sleep that matters. Scientists weren't totally sure why we evolved to sleep.

When we sleep we are unconscious to the world leaving us vulnerable to predators, but every species that has been studied in details sleep, so there might be something beneficial to it? Not sleeping well!! Isn't just annoying, it's linked to poor overall health, lack of focus, memory loss and even Alzheimer's disease.

Broadly speaking there are two kinds of sleep non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and rapid eye movement (REM). 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 to all these phases. This can lead to anxiety, depression, fatigue, physical pain and sleep disorders ranging from insomnia to hyper insomnia which is sleeping too much. Bad sleep can even stop us from forming memories.

A new study looked at dendrites, branching outgrowth that carries 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 the non-REM sleep cycle. The letter end is marked by a slow wave activity in the brain. During that peaking, you are in a deep sleep phase and without it, your memories suffer.

A lot of research points to sleep hygiene a simple place to start. The same way you shower to clean your body, you want to clean your sleeping place too. Establishing healthy sleeping space like avoiding caffeine in the afternoon not napping late in the day and keeping your phones out will help too. Off course the stress that is keeping your body from fully relaxing are quite less simple to fix, but worth working on it if means healthy sleep for a healthy life.

So, that was my thought of the day. To see more posts like this make sure to visit our main page. And Do not forget to visit our institute's page to know more about graphic design, 3D, animation courses and other awesome stuff. Till then good day to you.

Katherine Lightwood