Sleep Well Live Well

Last week, I shared that the way for us to combat the present-day saber tooth tiger was to be mentally and emotionally fit as well as physically fit. This is because psychological and social threats are just as scary and painful as physical threats.

Also, today we experience far more psychological and social threats than our ancestors with the way our society is structured.

Young girls see more images in a week on how they are supposed to be, look and have than their grandmothers saw in their lifetime.  This creates the psychological and social bars or expectations that we are supposed to aim for.  Young boys are starting to face the same expectations although not to the same extent.

Last week, I introduced the Healthy Mind Platter as a tool for us to be mentally and psychologically fit to cope with our daily soup of psychological and social threats.  “The Healthy Mind Platter” concept is from a Neuroleadership Journal by David Rock, Daniel J Siegel, Steven A.Y. Poelmans and Jessica Payne.

The first course on our platter is sleep time.

Neuroscientists have been trying for a long time to work out why, as humans, we need to sleep. In the 1990s J. Allan Hobson, a leading sleep researcher, quipped that the only known function of sleep was to cure sleepiness.

Research over the past 20 years has began to provide partial explanation for why we must sleep.  The scientist know that it does not just serve one purpose. Instead it appears to be needed for the optimal functioning of a multitude of biological processes – from the inner workings of the immune system to proper hormonal balance, to emotional and psychological health, to learning and memory, to the clearance of toxins from the brain.

None of these functions fail completely without sleep however sleep seems to enhance the performance of these systems instead of being absolutely necessary.

Any parent of infants will appreciate that you can continue to function with minimal sleep even though in a zombie state.

Physically, scientists have proven that lack of sleep affects our immune system so that it cannot work as efficiently to fight off illness.  Also, it makes the body less sensitive to the hormone insulin which increases the risk of developing obesity.

However, restricted sleep appears to have the greatest impact on the brain.  One of the rather horrifying possibilities is that when you are sleep-deprived, you effectively form twice as many memories of negative events in your life as of positive events.  This means you could potentially have a depressing memory of your day. That’s sad!

Also, when you are in a sad and negative state, it can be challenging to regulate your emotional responses.

On the positive side, sleep plays an important part in memory processing no matter the emotional state.  This has lead to the finding that sleep after learning leads to the selective stabilisation, strengthening, integration and analysis of new memories.  The mind after sleep controls what we remember and how we remember it.

This is important for helping the executive function of understanding future consequences of current actions and working towards future goals.

Scientists are proving the old adage – sleep on a problem.  Your mind will work during your sleep to make the connections to solve your issue.

The most recent exciting discovery is that sleep seems to clear out toxins in the brain which allows for better flow of fluid between the brain and spine.  This discovery may be important for diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

So, not getting enough sleep means that not only are you very tired but you could wind up sick, overweight, forgetful and very blue.

This is not a very good recipe for being mentally and emotionally strong.

For parents of young children, it is important to understand the impact that may be happening to you when you are sleep deprived.  It may mean that you need to find a way to nap during the day to top-up your sleep so that you can cope better.

Research is showing that even brief naps can improve alertness and performance.

Also, our busy lives tend to extend our days, so sleep seems to be something we think we can compromise to meet that deadline, respond to all our emails or ensure that our homes meet our expectations.  In reality, we are setting ourselves up to be less healthy and strong.

Where possible, I would recommend that you see sleep as essential to ensuring your physical, mental and emotional health.  Set up a nightly indulgent ritual for you that allows you to have a good night’s sleep that will flow through into a positive, energetic and mentally sharp following day.

Teach your children to have good sleep habits so that they will understand why it is important for both of you to have healthy and strong lives.  I used to ask my daughter did she want a cranky mum or a happy mum.  It worked sometimes!!

Next week we look at physical time.

Remember all of this and much, much more is provided in my Women’s Empowerment and Leadership Program.  The next program is on 5th and 6th April.