You already know that sleep is essential for a healthy body, but what about your brain? Your brain requires adequate sleep to function properly. Have you ever noticed how exhausted you feel when you can’t fall asleep and wake up tired the next day? It’s hard to stay alert, and your productivity suffers. Studies even show that sleep deprivation reduces your reaction time and increases the risk of automobile accidents.
Sleep is one of the most important factors for feeling your best, mentally and physically. It also helps you be your most productive and helps preserve brain health longer term. Sleep even has a housekeeping function. It’s during deep sleep that misfolded proteins, like those that build up in people with Alzheimer’s disease, are removed through special channels called the g-lymphatics. If you don’t spend enough time in deep slumber, this system is less efficient.
The problem is this: Many people struggle to fall asleep. Others have problems staying asleep, also known as sleep maintenance. If you’ve tossed and turned and found that sleep wouldn’t come, these tips are for you. Here’s how to get a better night’s sleep to keep your brain healthy.
Have a Relaxing Bedtime Ritual
You’ve probably heard that a big part of getting a good night’s rest is creating a ritual, one with soothing steps you follow before bed. To sleep well, it’s not enough to just lie in bed. A bedtime ritual can soothe your brain and help you relax.
If you head for bed with problems on your mind and a high stress level, sleep will be a struggle. Having a relaxing nighttime ritual will calm your mind and help lower the stress hormone cortisol. When too much cortisol is coursing through your system, it’s damaging to brain health too.
Here’s an idea: Stretch it out! Stretching is a fantastic way to improve your circulation. To get a better night’s sleep, try a gentle yoga stretching routine. These stretches can reduce your heart rate and lower stress, all of which are beneficial for an excellent night’s sleep.
Gentle yoga will also help you breathe deeper, and activate your parasympathetic nervous system, the “rest and relax” component that keeps you calm. Deep, rhythmic breathing calms the nervous system and promotes deep, relaxing sleep.
Skip the Nighttime Sugary Snacks
Lighten up on the evening snacking. Stop eating after 6:00 P.M if possible. Eating sugary foods and refined carbohydrates can disrupt your sleep and lead to frequent awakenings throughout the night. Why does this happen? Sugar and refined carbohydrates cause blood glucose spikes, followed by a rapid drop in blood sugar. When your blood sugar drops, it activates your sympathetic or “fight or flight” nervous system and causes you to wake up.
If you must eat something a few hours before bedtime, eat light and avoid sugary snacks, alcohol, or caffeine. A relaxing cup of herbal tea may be helpful. A cup of Chamomile tea can help you get a good night’s sleep.
Take a Walk in the Morning
Studies show that exercising, including walking, in the morning improves sleep quality. Plus, exercise itself has brain health benefits. People who do aerobic exercise experience less loss of brain volume in an area of the brain called the hippocampus, a portion involved in memory and cognitive processing. Plus, if you take that stroll in nature, it helps lower the stress hormone cortisol. Who knows? Maybe you’ll see a beautiful sunrise too.
Reduce Sensory Stimulation Around Bedtime
Avoid using technology devices within a few hours of bedtime. These devices emit blue light that reduces the amount of melatonin the pineal gland in your brain releases. This interferes with sleep. Melatonin is an antioxidant hormone that regulates your circadian rhythm and sleep-wake cycle. Sleeping in a completely dark room helps maximize the amount released.
If you’re sensitive to the slightest noise, wear earplugs to bed. They’ll filter out background noise so you can snooze more peacefully. Plus, reducing outside stimulation gives your brain a reboot. Your brain needs periods of silence.
If silence doesn’t help you sleep, try a white noise machine. These play noise in all frequencies to mask ambient noise. The benefits of a white noise machine for sleep include helping you fall asleep, improving the quality of your sleep, blocking out bothersome noises, and helping you stay asleep.
Meditate
According to the Sleep Foundation, meditation may help you drift off to sleep faster. Some research even shows it’s as effective as medications used to treat insomnia. Plus, meditation has brain health benefits. Regular meditation improves focus, concentration, and eases stress. So, the combination of meditation and better sleep may have synergy.
The Bottom Line
Your sleep schedule and habits are just as important for your health, productivity, and happiness as what you eat. Beyond brain health, not sleeping enough has other health risks. Sleep deprivation can lead to a variety of health problems, including obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.
Sleep is important for healthy circadian rhythms and for the optimal function of hormones that control appetite and metabolism. Poor sleep disrupts these processes, which leads to the release of stress hormones that affect insulin sensitivity and glucose metabolism.
As a result, insulin resistance increases, cells become less sensitive to insulin, and glucose accumulates in the blood. That’s how lack of sleep increases the risk of type 2 diabetes. Plus, research shows that people who sleep less than 6 hours per night have a greater risk of all-cause mortality. So, put these tips to work for you so you can power down at bedtime and get a better night’s sleep!
References
- AlDabal, L., & BaHammam, A. S. (2011). Metabolic, Endocrine, and Immune Consequences of Sleep Deprivation. The Open Respiratory Medicine Journal, 5(1), 31-43. Retrieved 6 27, 2021, from ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc3132857
- Colten, H. R., & Altevogt, B. M. (2006). Extent and Health Consequences of Chronic Sleep Loss and Sleep Disorders. Retrieved 6 27, 2021, from ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/nbk19961
- Ellenbogen, J. M. (2005). Cognitive benefits of sleep and their loss due to sleep deprivation. Neurology, 64(7). Retrieved 6 27, 2021, from n.neurology.org/content/64/7/e25
- Schwartz, J. R., & Roth, T. (2008). Neurophysiology of sleep and wakefulness: basic science and clinical implications. Current Neuropharmacology, 6(4), 367-378. Retrieved 6 27, 2021, from https://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc2701283
- Sleep and Disease Risk. (n.d.). Retrieved 6 27, 2021, from Harvard Medical School: healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/matters/consequences/sleep-and-disease-risk
- org. “How Meditation Can Treat Insomnia”
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