Category: Sleep
Getting enough sleep may help prevent cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s. A study reported in December shows that higher levels of leptin are associated with decreased risk for cognitive decline. Leptin levels are positively associated with sleep: when you get enough, your body’s leptin levels are higher.
One of the most important ways to maintain brain fitness is by getting enough sleep.
Most of us know how we feel when we don’t get enough sleep. Research shows that lack of sleep can affect your memory, raise your blood pressure, and increase your risk of stroke.
But how do you get a good night’s sleep?
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.
Several weeks ago, I had the opportunity to talk about brain fitness at a meeting of the Miami Rotary. After my talk, there were lots of questions. Several of the questions had to do with sleep and brain fitness. All of the questions seemed pretty good, so I thought I would answer them here in case other folks are interested. The first question is about sleep and brain fitness.
How we sleep changes as we get older. Many people over 50 feel as though that they don’t sleep as well as they used to. Their perception is supported by research evidence. Studies of sleep and aging show that how people sleep change as people get older. The normal cycles of light sleep, deep sleep, and rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep don’t occur in the same way. Deep sleep is often associated with feeling rested when you get up in the morning, and studies show that older people may not get as much deep sleep. It may take you longer to get asleep, and you may wake up more often during the night.
Older adults may get sleepy earlier and take more naps during the day. It’s not unusual for me to see people who complain about waking up too early in the morning. When I ask about their sleep, though, I find out that they go to bed at 9:00 PM and wake up at 3:00 AM. It’s true that’s a little early – but often these folks take a two-hour nap in the afternoon. They get eight hours of sleep, but it’s distributed in a different way. Although it’s sometimes hard to stop taking naps entirely, it’s often helpful to try to keep them to a minimum. If you sleep a lot during the day, you may not sleep very well at night.
So what about brain fitness and sleep? Study after study has shown that sleep deprivation affects your mental abilities and mood. So if you feel as though you can’t concentrate or work as well as you’d like after you don’t get enough sleep, it’s probably true. This may be especially true for tasks that require attention for a long time. Some of those kinds of tasks are harder for older adults to begin with, and may be even harder if you don’t sleep. Don’t think that you can’t function at all if you don’t sleep well – you’ll usually be able to function. But odds are you won’t function as well as you would like.
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I saw an interesting blog post yesterday evening on the site of the Huffington Post about the potential benefits of meditation – or at least about what one woman thinks might be the benefits. (more…)
Although many people are excited about the potential for using computers to train their brains, we shouldn’t forget that other techniques have been used to the train the brain for many centuries. I’m thinking about the large number of techniques for meditation. While free computer software still requires an investment in a computer, meditation only asks you to sit or lie quietly and focus your mind.
A recently-published study shows parts of the brain in long-term meditators are larger than the same parts of the brain in people who don’t meditate. The article by Eileen Luders and her colleagues appeared in a recent issue of the journal Neuroimage (Vol. 45, No. 3, pp. 672-678, April 15, 2009). The study showed that portions of the orbitofrontal cortex and the hippocampus were larger in persons who had been regular meditators for 5 or more years. The study is interesting because the parts of the brain that were larger are often thought to be important in helping people keep themselves emotionally balanced.
A number of strategies are likely to be helpful for meditators. There has been a great deal of interest over the last several years in mindfulness meditation. Researchers have studied how it can be used in reducing anxiety and depression. Mindfulness is based on Buddhist meditation (for a brief article, click here) but you don’t have to be a Buddhist to practice meditation. In fact, one of the most important persons who has promoted mindfulness is Jon Kabat-Zinn, a researcher at the University of Massachusetts. You can see a video presentation by him on YouTube by clicking here.