Sleep and Brain Fitness

A number of people have asked me whether sleep has anything to do with brain fitness. The answer is, simply, yes. Many people feel as though they aren’t doing very much when they’re sleeping, and I suppose in a sense that’s true. We don’t remember what happened while we are sleeping, and so it doesn’t seem as though it was a very active time.

The truth is, though, that a great deal is happening during sleep. Scientists don’t understand everything that happens while we are sleeping, but we know a great deal about the consequences of not sleeping well.

When we don’t sleep well, we all know we don’t feel quite as sharp the next day. But there’s more. Research shows that when someone is deprived of sleep, they don’t perform as well on cognitive tests as they do when they are well rested. More, some levels of substances associated with inflammation are elevated as well. It looks as though poor sleep over time may have negative effects on your body and mind.

What can you do if you don’t sleep well? Adequate sleep hygiene is the first step. Make sure that you have a quiet place to sleep that is kept at a comfortable temperature. Keep distractions to a minimum. Avoid caffeine and alcohol near bed time. Some people can’t drink caffeinated beverages after noon, and some people have to quit drinking anything with caffeine at all. Smoking can disrupt sleep – nicotine can keep you awake, and some smokers wake up in the middle of night because their levels of nicotine go down during the night. Help your mind and body calm down at least an hour before going to sleep by stopping work or other mentally stimulating activities.

Probably one of the most important things you can do is to have a regular sleep schedule. Go to bed and get up at the same time every day, even on weekends. If you don’t sleep well on one night, don’t try to make up for it by sleeping late. Avoid naps during the day. Naps reduce the pressure to sleep at night, making it less likely that you’ll be able to sleep well. Exercising during the day, and getting exposure to sunlight during the morning may help you regulate the daily rhythms that help you to sleep.

If these things don’t work, see your doctor. A number of sleep problems may require special treatments. A qualified sleep doctor can help you sleep better, and sleeping better is a critical way for you to keep your brain fit.

Self-Efficacy

I recently had the opportunity to teach a brain fitness class for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute on the Coral Gables campus of the University of Miami. As part of the class, we focused a great deal on memory since that is one of the things people were most interested in.

I had anticipated strong interest in the class, but not as much as we actually had. I had thought perhaps 15-20 people would come to the class the first day, but 60 persons came the first day. As part of their participation, I asked students to complete several questionnaires about how they felt about their memory abilities as well as administered a short memory test. We did the same measures at the end of the class.

A striking finding in previous research is that memory self-efficacy is strongly related to actually memory abilities. This term refers to the extent to which you believe you have control over how your memory works and can cope with challenges. Sure enough, in our Osher class, we found that students’ memory self-efficacy was related to how well they performed on a memory class. That leaves two possibilities: people who have good memories have high levels of memory self-efficacy, or that people with high levels of self-efficacy have good memories.

Which is it? Other studies have shown that people with higher levels of self-efficacy respond better to memory training. I think the chances are that the answer to the question is one or the other, but both. Having memory problems may make you feel less well able to control your memory, but feeling as though you understand and control your memory may make you better able to cope with challenges to your memory.

How can you improve your memory self-efficacy? The short answer is to learn more about how your memory works and develop realistic expectations for yourself about how your memory should work. I like a book called The Memory Workbook by DJ Mason, ML Kohn, and KA Clark (New Harbinger, 2001). The participants in our memory class really liked it, and it includes a number of exercises that you can work through on your own.