The Science of Sleep
This segment was featured on 60 minutes and their findings just confirm what we all know. Sleep is essential to how we feel. If you don’t get enough sleep you just don’t function like “normal.” You feel sluggish and like your thought processes are clouded. You know how this feels. If you’ve ever pulled an all night cramming session for an exam, you remember how poorly you may have done on the test. Your mind starts to wander and you feel like your in between consciousness. The studies conducted in the 60 minutes segments showed that sleep deprivation leads to a loss in your cognitive ability to remember. Prolonged sleep deprivation will eventually lead to death.
But let’s look at it on a cellular level. If you’re sleep deprived, then your cells do not get the chance to regenerate. Let this cycle go on for years and you essentially lose thousands of cells because they’re not getting a chance to regenerate. So what does this mean to you? Well, you begin to lose your edge where your brain processes tend to slow down slightly (we’re talking milliseconds). A few milliseconds is a long time for brain processes.
I always advise my patients to get at least 7 to 8 hours of true sleep per night during the summer months and at least 9 to 10 hours of sleep during the winter months. Your body’s circadian rhythms are dictated by the amount of daylight it gets. I also recommend to sleep in a dark, cool room. Avoid the blaring lights from the street and any sort of night lights as these actually cause an increase in cortisol output in your system. And you don’t get a good night’s sleep (as in REM sleep).
