Have you struggled to stay awake in a business meeting happening seven time zones from home? Have you been excited about a vacation in Paris, only to find yourself dozing off over your Coquilles St. Jacques [a French scallop recipe]?

More often than not, disrupted sleep cycles put a damper on your travel experience. But if you know a few secrets, travelling can be enjoyable, productive, and relaxing rather than stressful and exhausting.

Air travel

Jet lag spells trouble for a traveller. It occurs when you cross multiple time zones in a short period. We’re able to jet over multiple zones in a matter of hours, but our internal biological clocks can’t acclimate that fast, and we feel out of sync. The effects are most pronounced when flying east or west.

The main symptoms of jet lag include daytime sleepiness, insomnia, poor concentration, slower reaction times, and gastro-intestinal problems. Depending on your sensitivity to time change, jet lag starts becoming apparent after you cross three time zones. After that, it usually takes about one day to recover from each zone crossed.

Children under age three seem to be unaffected by jet lag, but the older you get, the more it impacts your body and mind. Outgoing, social people, as well as people who tend to be more flexible, find it easier to adjust to time-zone change than reserved, shy, and tranquil folks.

Here’s how to minimise jet lag:

Pre-flight

• Adjust your biological clock. Start living on destination time before you’ve even left your home.
• Avoid early morning departures.
• Arrive at your destination in time for a full night’s sleep. Reach a day early and get some rest.
• Avoid red-eye flights—flights that depart late in the night, typically after 10pm.
• Pre-select a comfortable seat. Choose one that reclines [those in emergency rows don’t] and one that offers a little extra legroom [any on the aisle]. Steer clear of bathrooms, galleys, and bulkhead seats.
• Arrive at the airport early. This makes things less stressful, plus it betters your chances for an upgrade.
• Pack a sleeping bag. Include an eye mask, travel pillow, earplugs, slipper socks, gum [for equalising ear pressure on takeoff and landing], moisturiser, lip balm, and a nasal decongestant. Wear loose-fitting clothes and dress in layers for warmth and comfort.
• Don’t leave trip preparations until the last minute. Be well-rested, not exhausted, when you start your journey.

In-flight

• As soon as you’re seated, set your watch to destination time.
• Drink lots of water and juice to counter dehydration.
• Avoid consuming stimulants [including caffeine] and alcohol.
• Remove contact lenses to avoid dryness and irritation.
• Use noise-cancelling headphones.
• Use a light-generating gadget to help reset your biological clock. You can simulate daytime during a night flight with a battery-operated, artificial-light gadget such as the Litebook.
• Stroll down the aisle periodically to improve blood circulation. When muscles become tense from immobility, heavy fatigue may set in. Stretch in your seat to help you stay limber and build energy prior to arrival.

Post-flight

• If you fly east and it’s morning at your destination, but still the middle of the night in your head, don’t go to sleep. Even though you’re exhausted, it’s better to push through the day and fall into bed early that evening.
• If you fly west and it’s already evening according to your biological clock, spend time outdoors in the afternoon sun. The light will help you feel fresher and adjust your internal clock.

At the hotel

• Request for an out-of-the-way room. Reserving a room on an upper floor and away from elevators, stairways, and vending machines will limit your noise exposure.
• Pull the drapes at night to block city light and reduce noise.
• Keep the room at 65 degrees [around 18 degrees Celsius].
• Get some exercise. If you need to stay up, even a brisk walk after a long flight will raise your endorphin levels. This will reduce stiffness and pain, relax your muscles, and suppress drowsiness.
• Bolt the door and hang out the “Do not disturb” sign.
• Set the alarm and request a wake-up call.

Car travel

Many drivers insist they can tell when they’re about to fall asleep, but research shows otherwise. Most drivers who nod off do so without knowing it.

Sleep expert William C Dement says many people experience ‘microsleeps’ or ‘uncontrollable and unpredictable bouts of sleep that happen faster than a seizure.’ We may fall asleep only for a few seconds, but, behind the wheel of a car, even that much is enough to do a lot of damage.

Drowsy driving is equal to drunk driving. Here are the drowsy driving warning signs:

• Uncontrollable yawning
• Heavy eyelids
• Loss of focus
• Drooping head
• Wandering thoughts
• Memory loss of how you got from one place to another
• Drifting lanes, tailgating, and missing traffic signals
• Continually jerking the car back into the lane or drifting off of the road.

How can I stay awake when I feel drowsy?

If you experience any of the above-mentioned symptoms of drowsy driving, pull over immediately to a safe area, lock your doors, and take a nap.

A 15- to 20-minute power nap will only supply about 30 more minutes of driving time, though. Drink some strong coffee or cola and take a brisk walk before resuming your trip.

Remember that if you experience one or more of the warning signs, you’re driving impaired and are endangering yourself and others.

Also, opening windows, turning on the air conditioning, or cranking the radio will not prevent you from falling asleep at the wheel if you’re sleep-deprived.

So what can I do to stay safe if I am driving long distance?

• Start well rested. Driving requires total mental and physical alertness. So get adequate sleep the week before you leave.
• Don’t rely on caffeine or medications to stay awake. Although caffeine will give you a short burst of energy, it’s not a replacement for real rest and alertness.
• Stay on schedule. Drive when you’re most alert.
• Avoid driving through the night. Your body craves sleep after dark.
• Don’t put yourself in a time bind. Plan for congestion, bad weather, and unpredictable delays by leaving early.
• If possible, don’t drive alone. Conversation and sharing the driving load relieves tiredness and monotony.
• Be uncomfortable. Adjust the car temperature and environment so it’s not too pleasant. Keep the temperature cool and avoid listening to soft, sleep-inducing music.
• Don’t use cruise control.
• Take frequent breaks. Stop and get out of the car once every two hours. Eat a light, protein-rich snack to facilitate alertness. Chewing gum also helps keep you sharp.
• Exercise during breaks. Move your body briskly to increase heart rate and boost alertness.
• Monitor your medications. Avoid driving if you have used drugs that induce drowsiness.
• Do not consume alcohol. Even one drink, if you’re tired, can severely impair your ability to drive.
• Move eyeballs. Instead of staring straight ahead, scan your mirrors and the road, blinking frequently and naturally.
• Book the roadside Ritz. If you’re driving for consecutive days, make sure you get a good sleep on the in-between nights.

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Get the right gear

Bedroom: Keep it simple

Decorate your bedroom as simply as possible. Choose muted colours such as neutrals or light pastels for the walls and bedding. A light blue ceiling is generally considered soothing. If you use brighter accents, avoid contrasting colours because they discourage rest.

Keep the bedroom decor to a minimum and reduce visual clutter and stimuli. For example, leave toiletries in the bathroom. Clear off that bureau. Get rid of all those magazines and books on the night table.

A plant, a scenic painting and photos of family are sufficient decorations to balance a bedroom with pleasant memories and produce equally pleasant dreams.

Mattress: Get a good one

Do you wake up stiff or in pain? Are there visible sags and lumps [in the mattress, not you]? Have you recently gotten a better night’s sleep somewhere else [maybe even in a tent]? If you answered yes to any of these questions, it’s probably time for a new mattress. Here are some tips for buying a great one:

• Try it out: Don’t get lured or bogged down by product claims. Test it. When you lie down, your head, neck and spinal cord should be aligned as if you were standing. Make sure your body is well-supported at all contact points, especially the lumbar region [lower spine]. It doesn’t matter if the mattress is classified as soft, medium or firm as long as it provides a good foundation. If you and your partner prefer different mattresses, consider buying twin beds and pushing them together.
• Look under the hood: If you’re considering an innerspring mattress [a mattress that has wire coils for support], ask about coil count [higher is better]. The coils should also be individually pocketed for low motion transfer. Otherwise, you’ll be sleeping on a trampoline, and a light movement by your partner will disrupt up to 20 per cent of your deep sleep. Some foam mattresses generate heat, so ask your mattress dealer if you can test one at home for two weeks in the summer to make sure you’re comfortable. If you like waterbeds, make sure the vinyl is thick enough to ensure durability, and that the bladder has several compartments to reduce seasickness.
• Give yourself plenty of room: If you share your bed, be aware that a full-size mattress only affords enough space for a single sleeper who’s, at most, 5ft 5 inches tall. Thus, you should be considering only queen- and king-size models. To be safe, test the mattress with your partner to be sure there’s enough room for both of you to sleep comfortably.
• Spend what it takes: You spend one-third of your life in bed. This is not the place to pinch pennies. Buy the best mattress you can afford. And if we still haven’t convinced you, know that you are not the only one who reproduces in your bed. The weight of your mattress doubles every 10 years due to dust mites!

Pillow: Comfort counts

Just as there are different sleeping styles, there are different pillows to suit them. When selecting a pillow, try it out just like you did your mattress. Make sure it’s firm enough to support your head and neck and maintain your spine’s normal curve. If you tend to fold or stack your pillows, do exactly that in the store.

A good way to test if your old pillow is still good to sleep is to fold it in half. If it unfolds and returns to its original shape, it’s still usable. But if your pillow doesn’t return to its original shape, you have a dead pillow. Throw it out.

If you usually sleep in a foetal position [most people do], consider a ‘side-sleeper’ pillow. These have two seams so the pillow doesn’t cause neck discomfort. Although a high-quality down [fine feathers] or synthetic pillow with high fill power is often preferable, foam, air, water and buckwheat pillows can provide good support as well.

Bed sheet: Feel matters

Picking a great sheet should start with the feel. Don’t pay too much attention to thread count [the number of threads per square inch of fabric] because sheets may be woven with 2-ply yarns in order to double the thread count. This allows the manufacturer to label the product in a misleading way.

Although thread count plays a part, the preparation of the yarns [i.e. if they’re spun or combed] ultimately determines how the product will feel and wear. For maximum comfort, stick with 100 per cent cotton. It is an ideal fabric due to its absorbent, breathable qualities.

Nightwear: Dress for rest

Soft, loose-fitting, breathable garments are ideal. Do not wear nightclothes that are too light or heavy for the season. Avoid fabrics like wool that can irritate your skin. Cotton is a great choice for nightwear because it’s comfortable and breathable.

Although nightgowns and pyjamas are fading out of style, especially among young adults, the more popular sweatpants and sweatshirts can still work as long as they’re cottony and comfortable. Be wary, however, of things like hooded sweatshirts because the extra fabric can bunch up at you neck and disrupt sleep.

When the weather [or the situation] warrants, by all means try sleeping in the nude. It’s equally, if not more, conducive to great sleep.

Create the mood

Your bedroom should be a personal sanctuary associated only with rest and relaxation.

Here are some vital factors that make a perfect bedroom:

Temperature

19°C is the ideal sleeping temperature. If you’re used to a sauna-like bedroom, reduce the temperature gradually. A bedroom that’s too warm can even induce nightmares as neural activity in the brain will increase in intensity and duration as body temperature rises.

Conversely, a room that’s too cold keeps your body from fully relaxing because it’s trying to protect its core temperature. If 19°C feels too frigid, add a blanket, night cap, pair of socks, a special someone or a warm puppy.

Humidity

Does humidity matter? Yes! Ideal bedroom humidity is between 60–70 per cent. Invest in a humidifier, especially in winter months, to make sure your bedroom isn’t too dry. A humidifier will also provide a low, constant hum that neutralises background noise. Additionally, air out your bedroom every week to ensure good air quality.

Lighting

Light is one of the most powerful cues for initiating and maintaining wakefulness. The lighting in your bedroom should provide a soft, warm glow. Use low-wattage, tungsten bulbs [45–60 watts]. Also, gradually lowering the brightness will fatigue your eyes and promote drowsiness. Once the lights are out, make sure your bedroom is as dark as possible. Wearing an eye mask is another alternative.

Sound

A quiet bedroom is crucial to a good night’s rest. Noise as low as 60 decibels—the level of a normal conversation—can stimulate your nervous system. Most people can adapt to certain recurrent noise like a ticking clock or highway traffic. However, irregular, intermittent sounds like clinking radiators and honking taxis will keep you up.

You can mask these disruptive noises with the hum of an air conditioner, humidifier, fan, the static between radio stations, a CD of chirping crickets or rolling surf—generally any sound that is low and consistent. There are lots products on the market that generate white-noise. But these solutions are just as effective

Snoring spouse

If you have a partner who snores, use earplugs or invest in noise-cancelling headphones. An occasional poke in the ribs also works, although pinning a sock, with a tennis ball inside, to the back of the nightshirt is more humane. This keeps the perpetrator on his/her side and less likely to snore.

Snoring can endanger the heart by narrowing arteries and raising blood pressure. So if you or your partner snores loudly, consult your physician. The best treatments are usually non-invasive; don’t hesitate, you’ll both live longer.

State of your mind

Avoid watching TV, surfing the web, using Facebook, playing video games or using your iPad within one hour of bedtime. Not only is such activity cognitively-stimulating and anxiety-producing, but TV screens and computer monitors also emit a great deal of blue light. Hence, sitting in front of either within an hour before going to bed is one of the worst things we can do for our sleep pattern—it confuses the brain [our brain is getting ready for night time yet is receiving this signal to suppress melatonin and therefore be alert].

Alternatively, you can wear high-quality blue light blocking glasses that do not distort colours and in fact, sharpen the clarity of both images and text. They are intended to fit over prescription eyeglasses or can also be worn on their own.

Crawling kids

If you have young children, don’t let them develop the sleep-disrupting habit of crawling into your bed on a regular basis. If they insist, try putting a sleeping bag on the floor. That way, they’ll probably return to their own room after a while where the bed is more comfortable.

With inputs from Rebecca S Robbins

This was first published in the November 2010 issue of Complete Wellbeing.

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Why we sleep

We sleep for two reasons: First, our bodies run in cycles called circadian rhythms, of which the sleep cycle is one. Many of these cycles, such as heartbeat, blood pressure, respiration, metabolism and temperature, drop or slow down during the sleep cycle. Mission control for all these processes is a part of the midbrain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus. This is where your master body clock is located. If this nucleus is damaged or removed, you end up taking lots of short naps instead of one long sleep period.

Your circadian rhythms are set by various time cues called zeitgebers. Light is the most powerful zeitgeber that affects sleep. Daylight wakes you up and darkness triggers the release of the hormone melatonin that brings on sleep. Noise and temperature also play key roles in the regulation of your sleep schedule.

The second reason we sleep is because the longer we’re awake, the greater our need for mental and physical restoration. It takes one hour of sleep to pay for every two hours of wakefulness. So we start to tire after being up for about 16 hours. Sleep debt is cumulative, which means the longer you deprive yourself of rest, the more you’ll need it to feel rested. How drowsy or alert you are depends on both your circadian rhythms and your sleep debt.

While you are sleeping…

Given that we spend [or should] spend one-third of our lives sleeping, it’s alarming how little we know about our down time. Does it surprise you that 40 per cent of laypersons and physicians think the brain shuts down and takes rest when we fall asleep? Many people believe that soon after going to bed they drift into deep sleep, remain there for some time, have an occasional dream, and then awaken for the new day. Actually, there are several stages of sleep, each marked by significant physiological changes.

The night is divided into non-REM [non-rapid eye movement] and REM [rapid eye movement] sleep. REM sleep is the period in which most dreams take place. Non-REM is also referred to as ‘slow-wave’ sleep and is subdivided into several stages, earmarked by different brainwaves and purposes.

Non-REM sleep

As you close your eyes, your brainwaves become slower and more regular. This stage is akin to meditation. Next is the Stage 1 period, which lasts for about five minutes as your breathing slows and your large muscles begin to relax.

The transition to Stage 2 is sometimes marked by a fleeting sensation of falling, causing you to wake momentarily with a jerk [not referring to your spouse]. During this period, you disengage from the environment and become blissfully unaware of any outside stimuli. Researchers believe Stage 2 is the beginning of actual sleep. It’s marked by spikes in brainwave activity called sleep spindles and K-complexes, which interrupt those previously regular waves. Stage 2 lasts 10 ­– 25 minutes, but you’ll return to it several times before daybreak, accounting for half of your night’s slumber.

Next comes Stage 3 sleep, which is characterised by slow brainwaves called theta waves. These are interspersed by even slower delta waves. You’ll spend just a half-hour here, but eventually it will comprise up to 20 per cent of your total night’s sleep.

When the theta waves disappear, you enter stage 4. This is the deepest sleep stage, which consists totally of delta waves. On your initial visit it lasts for 30 – 40 minutes. If aroused during Stage 4, you’ll feel groggy and disoriented. During this stage, blood pressure drops, respiration slows and blood flow to your muscles decreases. The secretion of growth hormone by the pituitary gland also peaks, stimulating body development and tissue repair. That’s why uninterrupted deep sleep of significant duration is especially critical for children and adolescents. And it’s also why we sleep more when we’re sick. So in Stage 4, you’re completely unaware of your surroundings and at your most vulnerable. It’s the closest humans get to hibernation.

REM sleep

After 30 – 40 minutes of Stage 4 sleep, you re-trace your steps through Stages 3 and 2. You’ve now been asleep for about 90 – 100 minutes. Then something astonishing happens: Instead of going back into Stage 1 or ‘twilight’ sleep, your sympathetic nervous system becomes more active than it is in slow-wave sleep or even when awake. Blood flow to the brain, respiration, pulse rate, blood pressure and body temperature all increase. Your eyes dart back and forth under their lids, and you enter the highly active stage of REM sleep.

Here, messages from the brain’s motor cortex are blocked at the brainstem. As a result, muscles relax, and you’re unable to move. That’s why REM sleepers are described as having “an active brain in a paralysed body.” It’s during the first part of REM that you experience your first dream of the night. Just like clockwork [because, in fact, this entire system is run by your biological clock], you enter REM sleep every 90 minutes throughout the night. When you’re sleeping adequately, you visit it 4 – 5 times, with each REM period being twice as long as the last. This is why your final few hours of rest are so important; they’re almost entirely REM sleep. If you’re asleep for eight hours, you’ll have spent between one-and-a-half to two hours of the night in REM.

Although dreaming can occur in all stages, about 85 per cent takes place here. REM dreams are usually the most vivid and emotional. But REM just isn’t about dreaming. The previous day’s events are solidified into permanent memory traces, and sequences of learned skills [like a new golf swing] become muscle memories in this stage.

To be wide awake, energetic, psychologically, emotionally and physiologically at your best, you must play every movement of the symphony of the night. The problem is many of us never get beyond Stage 2 sleep, due to stress, ageing or medications taken for other medical problems such as rheumatoid arthritis, hypertension or type-2 diabetes.

If you don’t sleep…

Adequate sleep is essential for performance and general health. There’s no escaping the debilitating effects of insidious sleepiness, no matter how motivated, responsible or strong you are.

Physical effects

Not sleeping makes you prone to…

• Wrinkles: Sufficient sleep is required to maintain good skin texture and a healthy glow. The first area of skin to be effected by a lack of sleep is the eyelids. The skin is very thin here, so lack of sleep causes puffy eye bags, fine lines, and dark circles. In the long term, lack of sleep causes the skin to age faster leading to wrinkles, poor texture, and discoloration much earlier in life than in well-rested individuals. During sleep, the body metabolises free radicals that accelerate ageing and cancerous growths. Without sufficient sleep, more free radicals are present in the skin leading to poor skin quality and even skin cancer. Sustained sleep deprivation impairs host defence. So, if the skin is exposed to bacteria or is healing from a lesion, lack of sleep will increase the amount of healing time required and may result in more severe bacterial skin infections.
• Daytime drowsiness: This usually manifests itself as a temporary drop in energy and alertness around mid-afternoon. It’s accompanied by feelings of inattentiveness and grogginess, particularly when doing dull or repetitive tasks. It’s more likely to occur after a heavy meal or a low dose of alcohol, or while sitting in a warm room, listening to a boring lecture, or participating in a dull meeting. These factors do not cause sleepiness; they simply unmask the physiological fatigue that’s already present.
• Microsleeps: These are brief episodes of sleep that you’re unaware of and that occur during waking hours. Lasting only a few seconds, microsleeps can produce inattention, resulting in accidents and injury.
• Sleep seizures: These are unintended longer episodes of sleep that come on as rapidly as a seizure, occurring without warning in a severely sleep-deprived person.
• Colds and flu: Jan Born at the University of Luebeck in Germany found that people who sleep less than six hours per night have 50 per cent less resistance to viral infection than those getting eight hours of sleep. In addition, Sheldon Cohen of Carnegie Mellon University found that those sleeping less than seven hours per night are three times more likely to get a cold than those who sleep longer than that.
• Weight gain: Lack of sleep lowers leptin levels in the brain and raises ghrelin levels in the stomach. These hormones are responsible for regulating our appetite. When you’re sleep-deprived, you’re more likely to overeat—craving carbs, sugars and junk food.
  Researchers at Columbia University, USA as well as the University of Chicago, USA have found that people who sleep five hours per night have a 50 per cent higher chance of being obese, while those who sleep six hours have a 23 per cent greater risk.
  Professor Francesco Cappuccio at the Warwick Medical School found that less sleep is associated with an almost two-fold increase in obesity—a trend that he says is detectable in children as young as five. The research also linked short sleep with a higher body-mass index [BMI] and waist circumference over time.
• Diabetes: A study at the University of Chicago, USA involving healthy young men with no risk factor for diabetes found that after just one week of inadequate sleep, they were in a pre-diabetic state. Researchers attributed the result to overactive central nervous systems [caused by not sleeping], which affected the ability of the pancreas to produce enough insulin to adequately regulate glucose levels.
• Heart disease: Not sleeping often causes the body to produce more stress hormones. Such an imbalance can lead to arteriosclerosis, which can cause heart attacks and stroke, in addition to hypertension, muscle loss, increased fat storage, loss of bone mass, and lower production of growth hormone and testosterone.
  In addition, short-sleepers miss out on REM sleep [predominant between the seventh and eighth hours of the night], during which time the heart pumps more blood to the muscles. This helps it relax as blood pressure falls. By cutting back on sleep, we’re preventing this innate regulating system from doing its job. According to Diane Lauderdale of the University of Chicago, USA, just one extra hour of sleep per night decreases the risk of coronary artery calcification by 33 per cent. This is accompanied by a 17-mm drop in systolic blood pressure.
• Cancer: Women who exercise regularly and were generally healthy had a 47 per cent higher risk of cancer if they were sleeping fewer than seven hours. Research at the Stanford University also found that good sleep habits can be a valuable weapon in fighting cancers, citing melatonin [released during sleep] and cortisol production [involved in regulating immune system activity] as vital players in recovery.

Night-shift workers [both male and female] have a 35 per cent higher risk of colorectal cancer. According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, shift-work is a “probable” carcinogen, due to too much light exposure and the consequent lack of melatonin secretion.

Blind women have 50 per cent less risk of breast cancer than sighted women. Why? Active sighted women often stay up late, spending too much time in the light. Again, exposure to light and lack of sleep block the release of cancer fighting melatonin and raises oestrogen levels, which can cause breast cancer.

How sleep affects mental functions

New research shows that sleep and mental functioning are closely linked. But we didn’t need science to tell us that. Just look around at the successful, happy people you know. Are they the ones falling asleep at their desks, in meetings, or on the couch after dinner? To the contrary, those who are most productive and prosperous are the ones who are well rested [and can remember what they had for dinner the previous night]. Without a doubt, a good night’s rest is the best brain food.

Memory

No matter how intelligent you are, losing sleep means losing brain power. People who sleep less than six hours after learning new information show no improvement the next day, and those who don’t sleep at all perform only half as well on memory tests as their well-rested counterparts.

During REM sleep, the brain is able to remove irrelevant details, creatively process the information, and even restore temporarily misplaced info that you couldn’t recall during the day. This purging and purifying removes poor information that is competing with pertinent material, thereby enhancing memory.

Retention

Experiences that become memories are laid down in the first two hours of sleep in the hippocampus [a memory centre in the brain]. In the next four hours, if a memory is to be retained, it must be transferred from the hippocampus to a place where it will have physical permanence, the neocortex, the wrinkled outer layer of the brain where higher thinking takes place.

“Unlike the hippocampus, the neocortex is a master at weaving the old with the new. And partly because it keeps incoming information at bay, sleep is the best time for the ‘undistracted’ hippocampus to shuttle memories to the neocortex, and for the neocortex to link them to related memories,” report Harvard Medical School experts Robert Stickgold and Peter Wehrwein.

During the final two hours of REM sleep, the brain takes the information and repeatedly reruns it in a process called REM replay. So as you can see, any sleep longer than six hours helps in memory retention, but it takes eight hours to fully incorporate learned material. That’s why you should make an extra effort to get a full night’s sleep after studying for an exam, rehearsing a presentation, or learning a new set of skills.

In order to prepare information for retention, the brain filters out what’s unimportant and solidifies the essentials, cross-referencing it with what’s already on file. This process of making connections between the new information and what was previously known is called memory consolidation. With inadequate sleep, you may be able to form new memories, but you won’t be able to retain them.

Learning

There is a direct correlation between REM sleep and learning efficiency. In fact, it seems the brain knows when it needs more consolidation time. Researchers studying people in intensive language programmes have found that the amount of time they spend in REM sleep naturally increases the night after learning. As a result, they benefit from protein synthesis during REM sleep that increases the strength of the connections between brain cells and facilitates memory consolidation. Loss of REM sleep prior to learning can result in a 50 per cent reduction in the awareness of mental cues that help to establish memory.

Adequate sleep after learning, however, is most crucial. This is the only time that memory enhancement occurs. Research subjects who were deprived of sleep the first night after learning still showed no sign of improvement even after two subsequent nights of full sleep. In some cases, it has even been shown that people develop amnesia for the information learned. The simple truth is if you’re not sleeping after learning new information, you might as well spare yourself the trouble of learning in the first place. You need to remember to sleep, because you have to sleep to remember!

Behavioural effects

Not sleeping makes you prone to…

• Mood shifts, including depression and irritability: Mood is one of the first traits to be affected by sleep loss. Miss even one night of sound rest and your threshold for anger lowers. You can quickly lose friends, upset loved ones, foil negotiations and make enemies.
• Stress, anxiety and loss of coping skills: Sleep loss leads to amygdala, an area of your brain involved in rage and aggression getting activated. There’s also decreased activity in your limbic system that regulates anxiety.
  Feelings of not being able to cope, even with simple problems or moderate workloads, can become overwhelming and result in increased worry, frustration and nervousness. You can lose your perspective and be unable to relax under even moderate pressure. Stress produces sleep loss and sleep loss produces stress. While the sleep-deprived are shuffling through life and have less control over emotions, the well-rested are more alert and less stressed.
• Less socialising: In short, you’d rather stay home than go out. It’s not because you’re anti-social; it’s just that you’re too tired.
• Sub-par mental functioning/perception: Losing sleep makes you less efficient at just about every task. In general, it creates a dulled-down version of yourself, with a duller reaction to negative events, and even a drop in your taste sensitivity.
• Concentration problems: Since your mental faculties are not alert, sleep loss affects focus.

• 

  Difficulties with memory: Functional magnetic resonance imagery [FMRI] scans of brain activity in sleep-deprived individuals trying to perform even simple tasks show momentary lapses of functioning in several important regions. During sleep, the brain moves short-term muscle memory into long-term muscle memory, where you can more easily retrieve it later. It also affects your ability to think logically and critically making it difficult to assimilate and analyse new information.
  When you’re sleepy, your brain works in a completely different way than when it’s well rested. In fact, some parts don’t work much at all. FMRI images show that sleep-deprived brains have much less activity in the right hippocampus. Thus, losing sleep means losing memory, and not just for tomorrow—but for months afterwards.

• Reduced ability to communicate: Speaking and writing skills deteriorate with sleep loss.
• Lower creativity: Lack of sleep severely disrupts many duties of the hippocampus, which means you’ll have less of an ability to conceptualise.
• Impaired motor skills and coordination: If you lose a full night’s sleep, your physical movements will be sluggish, focusing will be difficult, and you’ll tend to “zone out” more frequently. Sleep deprivation dampens your senses and impairs your perception, much like driving drunk or under the influence of drugs. One drink of alcohol on six hours of sleep is the equivalent of six drinks on eight hours of sleep, in terms of your ability to drive. Never get into a car with anyone who is the least bit sleep-deprived and has been drinking alcohol. Driving drowsy has the same effect as driving drunk.

People who sleep a full night show increased activity in the cerebellum, a region of the brain responsible for speed and accuracy.

If you think you’re in good shape but aren’t sleeping well, you’re cheating yourself out of an even better sense of well-being, little to no extra effort required.

With inputs from Rebecca S Robbins and Rebecca G. Fortgang, Cornell University. Rebecca S Robbins is a doctoral candidate in communication, health and psychology at Cornell and is the co-founder of Sleep for Success. Rebecca G. Fortgang is a BA with honors in linguistics and cognitive science from Cornell University.

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