Sleep is an important part of our lives and is essential to key body functions. How we feel, react and develop are all things that are directly impacted by quality of sleep. Emphasis on quality of sleep is especially important to allow stimulation of certain brain areas. Living healthy is all about maintaining and balance, sleep is part of that balance and hitting multiple REM cycles every night is key. Quality of sleep is essential to this and there are a number of sleep trackers now that communicate sleep performance while we snooze at night. With lockdown in place, the early wake up and commutes have been cut to just a walk to the home office. In theory, this gives more time to sleep or perhaps shift sleep windows entirely during the evenings.
Studies show that across various demographics, people are getting longer hours of sleep but a key observation was quality of sleep. Aligning one’s body clock is no easy task. It can be a gruelling test of self-discipline and I have first-hand experience in dramatically shifting sleeping patterns. It’s not easy but it is also indication that our days need to be filled with activities that feed better into a natural body clock. Cutting away late night activities and staying activities during daylight hours is a basic step to achieving this. REM is important and the longer we spend in a state of sleep, the window to experience REM cycles increases.
Yet achieving REM sleep is not a simple task of getting tired from one’s day. Many factors play into this and science suggests that certain foods packed with tryptophan can provide better sleep. Tryptophan is an amino acid that is used for protein synthesis and neurogenesis. The latter is an interesting part of neuroscience in which new brain neurons are made. Loss of neurons can result in a number of disabilities and healthy of production of them is key to support memory function in the body. Researchers of Japan have determined that neurogenesis is carried out in the hippocampus, a complex structure within the brain that is responsible for long term learning and memory functions. In adults, adult-born neurons (ABNs) are responsible for the consolidation of memory. I have spoken about the various memory functions in the complex brain network but through experimentation and manipulation, scientists have observed that this type of neuron consolidates during REM sleep cycles. This is yet another door that has been unlocked as the mysteries of the brain are understood. Improving memory and being able to monitor and even manipulate through certain therapies may yield great medical developments in the future.
Sources
https://sciencenews.org/article/coronavirus-covid-19-lockdowns-people-sleep-more-not-better
https://www.technologynetworks.com/neuroscience/news/adult-neurogenesis-plays-an-important-role-in-rem-sleep-335803
https://www.ninds.nih.gov/Disorders/Patient-Caregiver-Education/Life-and-Death-Neuron
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3548359/
