Good Night, Better Morning: How Sleep Impacts Your Health and Happiness

Sleep, as we all know is that time of day when we get to unwind, put on our pajamas, lay down in bed, and close our eyes. Pretty simple, but what happens from the time we close our eyes until we open them again in the morning? The following blog will dive into the psychology behind sleep, along with factors that impact our sleep.

What is Sleep?

Sleep, in simple terms, is a period of reduced activity. Sleep allows the brain and body to slow down and engage in processes of recovery, promoting better physical and mental performance. There is a wide variety of benefits to sleep including positive health, mood, and overall performance of daily activities. Sleep is so incredibly important for our everyday lives and actions. Knowledge of sleep is still being discovered and we should never underestimate the power of sleep.

Physiology of Sleep

While we sleep, our muscles go into a state of paralysis when our sleep cycle is changing stages. During sleep, the parasympathetic system controls our body, and our heart does not work as hard as it does when we are awake. During REM sleep and when waking, the sympathetic system is activated, increasing heart rate and blood pressure to the usual levels when we are awake and relaxed. Dreams occur during REM sleep, and the brain keeps muscles limp during this sleep stage, which prevents people from acting out their dreams. While we sleep, our body heals and repairs itself from the day. Sleep is so important to our conscious and unconscious, our mind and body, and the overall well-being of all living things.

·      Studies show that sleep deprivation can delay the wound healing process by up to 20%. Research published in Sleep Medicine Reviews found that sleep loss slows the production of cytokines, proteins that are essential for tissue repair and immune function.

·      During deep sleep, growth hormone levels increase, facilitating tissue repair and muscle growth. A study from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine found that athletes who get at least 8 hours of sleep show up to 30% faster muscle recovery than those who sleep less. 

·      A 2009 study in JAMA found that individuals who get fewer than 7 hours of sleep are almost three times more likely to develop a cold than those who sleep 8 hours or more. Sleep boosts immune function, allowing the body to better fend off infections.

·      Patients recovering from surgery or physical injuries who sleep 7–9 hours per night experience 40% faster recovery times, with fewer complications, according to studies in the Journal of Applied Physiology. 

·      Sleep, especially REM sleep, helps process emotional trauma. A study in Psychiatry Research shows that people experiencing high-quality REM sleep show 30% fewer symptoms of PTSD compared to those with disrupted sleep.

Neuroscience of Sleep

For most people, sleep is the time of day when we get to “turn off our brain”. However, this is far from the truth. Although sleep is the time for rest and recovery physically, the brain works constantly throughout the time we are asleep. Many regions of the brain, especially those involved in learning, processing information, and emotion, are more active during sleep than when we are awake. These regions are working together while you sleep, helping you process and sort information you’ve taken in during the day. This being the case can be so influential to students studying for a test, or an adult remembering important information for a critical job. A study from Harvard Medical School found that sleep can improve memory retention by 20-40% after learning new information. The hippocampus is linked to memory and data suggest that deep sleep before learning allows for optimal hippocampal activity and benefits memory encoding. A University of California study revealed that people were 33% more likely to make creative connections between unrelated ideas after a full night’s sleep. Creativity in our brain is linked to the prefrontal cortex. In people who’ve had a good night of sleep, the connection between the brain and the prefrontal cortex has been refreshed, boosting our creativity. The impacts of sleep on our brain, especially memory and creativity, can help in our everyday lives.

How to Have a Good Night Sleep

The constant to-do lists and plans that fill up our day can be extremely overwhelming. It is so important to have outlets and ways to help yourself wind down to create the best mental and physical environment for sleep.

·      Stick to a Schedule- Attempt to go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day, even on the weekends. Changes in sleep schedules can confuse our brain and body making it difficult to think straight and make rational decisions.

·      Exercise- Increases melatonin, reduces stress, and helps lower body temperature to aid sleep. Exercise releases energizing endorphins, experts recommend not exercising one to two hours before going to bed.

·      Avoid Caffeine and Nicotine- Both caffeine and nicotine are stimulants that can keep people awake. The side effects of either stimulant can take up to 6-8 hours to completely wear off. This can prevent falling asleep or lack in quality of sleep.

·      Avoid Afternoon Naps- Naps can trick our brains leading to a poor normal sleep routine. If a nap is needed after a long day at school or work, keep it short (10-15 “powernap”). If you are still tired, try eating something or stepping outside for some natural light.

·      Limit/Avoid Electronics Before Bed- Using technology 1-2 hours before bed can disrupt the melatonin surge needed to fall asleep. Reading a book or listening to music is a better way to spend our time prior to going to bed. The impacts of blue light that comes from our devices can also alter our sleep patterns.

·      Create a Good Sleeping Environment- Keep the temperature cool if possible and get rid of distractions (sources of light and sound). The room should be dark and silent for the best sleeping environment.

It may seem overwhelming to balance our whole day and then focus so much on our quality of sleep, but the outcome is so great. The constant stress and anxiety of our everyday lives will be decreased, and we will finally see the importance of sleep.

Stages of Sleep

1.     Stage 1 NREM sleep is the lightest stage of sleep. You enter stage 1 right after you fall asleep. This stage usually lasts a few minutes, making up about 5% of your sleep time.

2.     Stage 2 is still light sleep, but deeper than stage 1. During this stage, your brain waves slow down and have noticeable pauses between short, powerful bursts of electrical activity. Experts believe those bursts are your brain organizing memories and information from the time you spent awake. Stage 2 NREM sleep accounts for about 45% of your time asleep (the most of any stage). You’ll go through multiple rounds of stage 2 NREM sleep, and usually, each one is longer than the last.

3.     The deepest stage of NREM sleep is stage 3. It makes up about 25% of your total sleep time in adults. In stage 3, your brain waves are slow but strong. Your body takes advantage of this very deep sleep stage to repair injuries and reinforce your immune system. Without enough stage 3 sleep, you feel tired and drained even if you slept for a long time. That’s why your body automatically tries to get as much stage 3 sleep into your sleeping period as early as possible.

4.    Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is the stage of sleep where most dreams happen. Its name comes from how your eyes move behind your eyelids while you’re dreaming. During REM sleep, your brain activity looks very similar to brain activity while you’re awake. REM sleep makes up about 25% of your total time asleep. Your first REM cycle of a sleep period is typically the shortest, around 10 minutes. Each one that follows is longer than the last, up to an hour.

Authors Opinion

As a student and an athlete, I know how it feels to be exhausted. After a long day at school comes a 3 hour practice, then hours of homework and studying. From my experience, sleep is a key factor in how I balance my busy schedule. I attempt to reach 8 hours of sleep (although it is difficult) because based on scientific research, there is so much benefit and correlation between sleep and my performance in the classroom and on the court. In the past, I would study when I was very tired, I would use electronics 5 minutes before going to sleep, I had no normal sleep schedule, and I would take long naps. This is when I struggled the most, but once I created a better environment for myself, everything has taken a 180. Once I received the correct amount and quality of sleep for my body, I began to preform so much better in both the classroom and the courts, but I felt my mood increase. I haven’t conducted an official experiment, but I can say from my experience and past, sleep is so important for us all in so many ways.

Citations

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 https://www.news-medical.net/health/Brain-Activity-During Sleep.aspx#:~:text=It%20is%20believed%20that%20dreaming,brain%20is%20markedly%20more%20dynamic

Marketing Communications: Web | University of Notre Dame. Your Brain on Sleep, Page Design: Taylor Packet Developer: Shawn Maust Videographer: Ryan Blaske

https://www.nd.edu/stories/your-brain-on-sleep/#:~:text=Turns%20out%2C%20your%20brain%20pulls,than%20when%20you're%20awake

“What Happens When You Sleep?” Sleep Foundation, 22 Dec. 2023, https://www.sleepfoundation.org/how-sleep-works/what-happens-when-you-sleep#:~:text=Sleep%20allows%20the%20brain%20and,%2C%20energy%20levels%2C%20and%20mood

Van Der Werf, Ysbrand D, et al. “Sleep Benefits Subsequent Hippocampal Functioning.” Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, 18 Jan. 2009, https://www.nature.com/articles/nn.2253#:~:text=Our%20data%20suggest%20that%20deep%20sleep%20before%20learning%20allows%20for,activity%20and%20benefits%20memory%20encoding

“Good Sleep for Good Health.” National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 18 June 2024 https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/2021/04/good-sleep-good-health

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https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/12148-sleep-basics

“American Academy of Sleep Medicine: AASM: Medical Society.” American Academy of Sleep Medicine – Association for Sleep Clinicians and Researchers, 25 Sept. 2024, https://aasm.org/

Journal of Applied Physiology,  https://journals.physiology.org/journal/jappl