Tired Brains See the World in a Very Different Way
Our schedules are literally killing us.
Tired Brains See the World in a Very Different Way
Our schedules are literally killing us. We asked neuroscientist Russell Foster what sleeplessness does to your brain, and he offers his personal tips on how to get back on track.
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Photography by CK
Highlights:
→ Lack of sleep impacts the brain's ability to problem solve and consolidate memories, says Russell Foster, a professor of circadian neuroscience at the University of Oxford.
→ Insufficient sleep is associated with an increased risk of numerous disorders and conditions, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, dementia, depression, and schizophrenia.
→ According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 35 percent of U.S. adults report getting less than seven hours of sleep.
→ The good news: A simple low-tech bedroom routine can go a long way in improving your sleep health.
In the movie The Machinist, a year-long bout with insomnia sends forlorn protagonist Trevor into paranoid psychosis, complete with a corpse-like appearance, audio and visual hallucinations, and other various bizarre occurrences, both real and imagined (i.e., run-ins with a seedy Pontiac Firebird-driving co-worker with toes for fingers).
While a late night here and there might not result in such dramatic shifts between reality and delusion, scientists say, frequently missing out on sleep — which more than a third of us are guilty of — can take a disastrous toll on your health, from problems at work, in the classroom, and at home, to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. In one recent PNAS study, researchers found that even one night of poor sleep can increase β-Amyloid accumulation, a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease. And another study published in the journal Neurology, Psychiatry, and Brain Research revealed that people who regularly had less than seven hours of sleep were more likely to develop mood and mental health problems.
To get to the bottom of why we need sleep, the risks associated with getting too little of it, and simple steps we can all take to get more of it, we spoke with with renowned circadian neuroscientist, Dr. Russell Foster, director of the University of Oxford’s Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology and the Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute.
According to Foster, “sleep is an essential part of our biology.” By depriving your brain of sleep, you impair essential processes in the brain and reduce overall cognition.
“What’s exciting is that we’re beginning to appreciate why sleep is so very important, and I think societal attitudes, as a result, are changing towards sleep,” Foster says.
Let’s start with a fundamental question. Why do we need sleep?
For centuries, people have thought of sleep as this sort of down time. This time when the brain is not doing very much and the body is at rest. What’s emerged over the past 20 years has been that, while we’re asleep, we may be immobile, but there’s so much going on within the brain. In fact, so many processes that go on while we’re asleep essentially define how effective we are during the wake state. The laying down of memories. The information that floods in during the day is consolidated and turned into memories at night. But it’s not just the retention of facts. Essentially, the brain is processing information and it’s coming up with with solutions to complex problems.
Many of us have woken up in the morning having solved a problem we have been thinking about for some time. We now have some great studies from the lab which have shown that a night of sleep can enormously enhance our capability of solving problems.
There’s also the way that we process emotional information. The tired brain remembers negative experiences and negative facts, whereas it forgets the positive experiences.
Tired brains see the world in a very different way.
During sleep, we also process toxins. Beta-amyloid, for example, which has been associated with the development of dementia and Alzheimer’s, is partially cleared while we’re asleep. Then there’s the rebuilding of metabolic pathways and of energy reserves throughout the tissues of the body. NAD+ growth and repair are all occurring while we’re asleep.
What are some of the more serious consequences of missing out on sleep?
There are three domains we can think about where sleep loss will impact significantly on our lives. First, there’s short-term sleep loss, which can result in big changes in behavior. People who are sleep-deprived are much more impulsive — much more likely to run that red stoplight. They are lacking empathy, so they may fail to pick up on some of the social cues of their friends and family. Their ability to lay down memory, to problem solve, and their overall cognition is reduced. One’s sense of humor is also affected.
Longer-term sleep loss, as you see in shift workers, for example, who have been doing shift work for five, 10, 15, or 20 years, often you’ll see a raft of more serious issues. One issue is that it’s very likely that tired people tend to become very stressed. What we know about high levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, is it can suppress the immune system. That may be part of the explanation for why long-term shift workers have higher rates of infection, and also cancer. They also have higher rates of coronary heart disease, metabolic abnormalities, such as type 2 diabetes, and a greater tendency to be hooked on stimulants to drive the waking day.
Another area which has turned out to be very interesting is the hunger axis. If you are sleep deprived, you release more of the hunger hormone ghrelin into the body. That promotes the consumption of carbohydrates and sugars, and that predisposes us to obesity and weight gain.
Then, there’s a third category, which is that if you’re vulnerable to mental health problems, ranging from depression to bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, what’s very clear is that sleep disruption can exacerbate those conditions.
The best indicator of a slide into a depressive episode, whether its a first episode or recurrent, is a change in the pattern of sleep beforehand.
Data we published last year led by psychiatrist Dan Freeman was able to show that partial consolidation or reductions of levels of insomnia could reduce levels of delusion and paranoia.
What are your personal tips for getting a good night’s sleep?
There’s huge individual variation in sleep patterns, and I think the question we have to ask ourselves is: How do we know if we’re getting enough sleep? If you need an alarm clock to wake you up in the morning, you’re not getting enough sleep. You should ideally rise naturally from REM sleep. If it takes you a long time to wake up, if you’re really lethargic and not able to focus, that’s another very important sign you’re not getting enough sleep. Or if you need stimulants, such as caffeine, to stay awake during the day. If your friends and family have sufficient courage to let you know that you’re less empathetic, or you’re being snappy and your mood is altered. These are all important signs. Also, if you’re oversleeping during weekends, on free days, or when you go on holiday. This is all suggestive that you’re not getting enough sleep.
So, you have to take some individual control. And there are very basic tips that you can implement.
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