Sleep and Circadian Rhythms

Oh how I love sleep!

Your sleep cycles and circadian rhythms play a vital role in the health of your body, but perhaps even more-so in the health of your brain. The area of your brain that controls your circadian rhythms is an area called the hypothalamus (because it resides just below your thalamus). The hypothalamus controls your drive states which is to say the drive you have for the behaviors you need in order to stay alive (eating, drinking, fighting, and sexual behaviors). Although sleep is not normally considered to be a vital drive state, I think sleep might be our most powerful drive state. I say this because although we can starve and dehydrate ourselves to the point of death we cannot resist the desire to sleep. If you could deprive yourself of sleep you would die, however our brains will not let that happen. Once our brain assesses the need for sleep it simply takes over and puts itself to sleep, and there is little we can do about it. Indeed, not even the strongest of men can resist sleep!

The control of circadian rhythms by the brain is one of my favotire subjects in Neuroscience and I could talk about it for hours, and in fact I do during more course at UCLA. I always end my lecture with my personal tips for sleeping well. That is because the majority of us will have sleep difficulties in our lives that are serious enough to warrant sleeping medication. I offer these tips as a way to avoid taking sleeping medications and as a way to help you achieve your highest mental acuity.  

 

• “Early to bed early to rise will make you healthy wealthy and wise”. Get bright light into your retinas as early in the morning as possible (after 7.5 – 8 hours of sleep). Also avoid getting bright light in your eyes if you get up in the middle of the night to get a drink of water.
• Go to bed and wake up the same time every day. And yes, that means 7 days a week.
• Perform a bedtime ritual. Whether you wash your face, or brush your teeth, get in the habit of doing the same nightly ritual and this will tell your brain that it is time to prepare for sleep.
• Always get 8 hours of sleep. Don’t disrupt your sleep cytoarchitecture! You need to have that last long REM period to maintain your optimal mental health.
• If you cannot sleep get out of bed! Try sleeping on the couch. Do not use the bed for anything other than sleep (well, maybe one other thing). You need to pair sleep and bed in your mind.
• Avoid drinking alcohol or taking GABA agonists (barbiturates, benzodiazepines) to help you sleep. They may help you fall asleep initially, but will cause you to have abnormal sleep cycles, and sleep that is not very restful.
• Do NOT rely on sleeping pills. If you must use sleeping pills do not use them more than 3 days in a row. Sleeping pills can quickly become habit forming which means that when you don’t take them you won’t be able to sleep. When they become ineffective due to tolerance you will have a serious chronic sleeping problem.

 

I believe that “rhythmicity” in your life is very important. If you eat at the same time every day you will notice that your body (liver, gall bladder) will begin to release the enzymes that are necessary to digest the foods that you typically eat at this meal. Therefore, I think that you can aid your digestion by giving your body the nutrients that it has prepared to utilize at this time. I also believe that your body will prepare to undergo the strain of exercise prior to your exercise period if you train at the same time every day. You will notice that if you switch your training schedule from say morning to night that it will take you some time before your body adjusts to the new schedule. I remember once that I switched from an evening to a morning training schedule and the weights seemed twice as heavy in the morning. It took me some time before I felt “right” during the morning training routine. The most important rhythm you maintain is your circadian rhythm. Monitoring your sleep patterns so that you fall asleep and wake up at the same times each day can have a dramatic effect on your physical and mental health. Your brain will automatically prepare you for sleep and wakefulness if you follow your rhythm. Help your brain to help itself by maintaining your own natural life’s rhythms.

I would like to share more about how circadian rhythms are controlled by your brain, but it would be a little long for this blog entry.  If you contact me I will send you the Chapter on Sleep from my book The Triumvirate of Human Brain Fitness.

 

~ by hbfarmstrong on June 15, 2009.