Lord777
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How to get rid of overeating, persistent colds and bad moods? Sometimes it's enough just to get enough sleep.
Sleep, sweet dream: how nice it is when you don't need anywhere in the morning and you can lie in a warm bed, exchanging mortal affairs for blissful slowness. However, in practice, few people can afford this luxury: scientists have calculated that the average American sleeps about 7 hours a day (the Russian - about the same), and the Japanese is completely content with 6 hours. Overall, up to 70 million people worldwide do not get enough sleep.
Neurologist Michael Yaffe of the Universities of Florida has long studied how traumatic brain injury and lack of sleep affect the brain. In his article, he notes that as early as 1942, 84% of Americans were getting the recommended 7-9 hours; in 2013, only 59% can boast of this. And if we talk about the gender difference, then men sleep on average 25 minutes less than women, while the majority of respondents admit that they do not get enough sleep at all.
In some cultures, sleep has been called the "brother of death" (Johann Heinrich Füssli "Nightmare")
At the same time, it is not entirely clear how the "somnological" boundaries are established: who decides how many hours should be spent in the kingdom of Morpheus? Scientists believe that it is important to focus on your feelings here (and you can also check yourself on the Epworth scale): if seven hours is enough for you to feel cheerful, then this is “your” time. But if even after ten hours of sleep you feel overwhelmed and tired, it is just right not to reduce the amount of sleep, but to visit a doctor.
What healthy sleep brings us
Sleep deprivation is not limited to fatigue alone: Researchers have found that sleep deprivation can negatively affect synaptic plasticity and memory coding, leading to inattention and distraction.
And children who sleep less than the prescribed time usually boast about ten chronic diseases, including cardiovascular, diabetes, asthma, depression, obesity. True, it is not entirely clear whether the fact is that the wrong regime leads to health problems, or, on the contrary, it is these diseases that contribute to sleep disorders. For example, hyperthyroidism, a disorder of the thyroid gland, makes the child hyperactive and can cause insomnia.
Curiously, sleep deprivation has a direct link to overeating. So, in one of her lectures, science journalist Asya Kazantseva noted that people who do not sleep usually increase in weight, since insulin sensitivity decreases.
When we eat, sugar enters the bloodstream, and if we sleep as much as necessary, the cells receive "insulin signals" and begin to use sugar, if not, the cells lose their sensitivity to insulin, which in the worst case can lead to to the development of type 2 diabetes.
Plus, the release of leptin, which is responsible for regulating energy metabolism, decreases, and the release of ghrelin, the "hunger hormone", on the contrary, increases, which only enhances our appetite.
The situation is no better with immunity: due to insufficient sleep, immune cells risk losing the fight against malignant tumors, antibodies to influenza and resistance to infection are also reduced.
Sleep deprivation excites the sympathetic nervous system, causing a fight-or-flight response: blood pressure rises, the heart begins to beat faster, the endocrine system releases more cortisol, a stress hormone - in general, the sensations are not very good, and this is clearly not good for health.
Lack of sleep naturally affects social life - as you might guess, also negatively. In addition to the fact that you always feel a lack of energy and irritation that prevents you from adequately communicating with others, you also run the risk of sitting on sick leave more often (hello, killed immunity) and even becoming a participant in an accident : Jaffe cites studies in which lack of sleep is correlated with an increase in the amount car accidents.
... what about our brain?
The fact that lack of sleep prevents the memorization of information has been known for a long time. But in new studies, scientists managed to come to sensational conclusions: it turns out that during sleep, the glymphatic system is activated (by the way, it was only discovered in 2012), a brain self-cleaning system that removes "protein waste" ... Otherwise, the accumulation of "harmful" amyloid beta protein leads to the destruction of neural connections and the development of Alzheimer's disease. Even one night, which you spent not watching colorful dreams, but, say, having fun at a crazy party with friends, significantly increases the amount of beta-amyloid.
Our sleep-wake cycle is regulated by circadian (circadian) rhythms: it is they that allow us to adapt to the 24-hour world, and the main assistant in this is light, which directly affects sleep and the release of melatonin.
In the retina of our eye there are cells that interact with the "regulators" of the brain clock, based in the hypothalamus, and this interaction depends precisely on light. So, it was found that these neurons are exposed to blue light waves. And for us this is a big problem: it is blue that is the "favorite" attribute of computers and smartphones, and it is blue that increases the level of our anxiety, suppresses the production of melatonin and, accordingly, deceives our brain, convincing that it is day and not night outside. Therefore, it makes sense to reduce the brightness of the screen and exchange the news feed for a book 2 hours before bedtime.
In the literature, a dream that refers to the unconscious is considered as one of the tools of psychologism - the recreation of the hero's inner life (K. Bryullov "The Dream of a Grandmother and a Granddaughter").
Of course, it would probably be superfluous to say that sleep is the solution to all problems, but it is impossible to overestimate its effect, because it is often free medicine for us and the prevention of various diseases. And one should not discount the fact that the phenomenon of the "physiological state of rest" has not yet been studied so well, so that future research may still surprise us a lot.
Refuse night shifts at work, change the evening update of the social networks page to reading books rustling with pages, do not hesitate if you need not 8, but all 10 hours for sleep - and pleasant dreams!
Sleep, sweet dream: how nice it is when you don't need anywhere in the morning and you can lie in a warm bed, exchanging mortal affairs for blissful slowness. However, in practice, few people can afford this luxury: scientists have calculated that the average American sleeps about 7 hours a day (the Russian - about the same), and the Japanese is completely content with 6 hours. Overall, up to 70 million people worldwide do not get enough sleep.
Neurologist Michael Yaffe of the Universities of Florida has long studied how traumatic brain injury and lack of sleep affect the brain. In his article, he notes that as early as 1942, 84% of Americans were getting the recommended 7-9 hours; in 2013, only 59% can boast of this. And if we talk about the gender difference, then men sleep on average 25 minutes less than women, while the majority of respondents admit that they do not get enough sleep at all.
In some cultures, sleep has been called the "brother of death" (Johann Heinrich Füssli "Nightmare")
At the same time, it is not entirely clear how the "somnological" boundaries are established: who decides how many hours should be spent in the kingdom of Morpheus? Scientists believe that it is important to focus on your feelings here (and you can also check yourself on the Epworth scale): if seven hours is enough for you to feel cheerful, then this is “your” time. But if even after ten hours of sleep you feel overwhelmed and tired, it is just right not to reduce the amount of sleep, but to visit a doctor.
What healthy sleep brings us
Sleep deprivation is not limited to fatigue alone: Researchers have found that sleep deprivation can negatively affect synaptic plasticity and memory coding, leading to inattention and distraction.
And children who sleep less than the prescribed time usually boast about ten chronic diseases, including cardiovascular, diabetes, asthma, depression, obesity. True, it is not entirely clear whether the fact is that the wrong regime leads to health problems, or, on the contrary, it is these diseases that contribute to sleep disorders. For example, hyperthyroidism, a disorder of the thyroid gland, makes the child hyperactive and can cause insomnia.
Curiously, sleep deprivation has a direct link to overeating. So, in one of her lectures, science journalist Asya Kazantseva noted that people who do not sleep usually increase in weight, since insulin sensitivity decreases.
When we eat, sugar enters the bloodstream, and if we sleep as much as necessary, the cells receive "insulin signals" and begin to use sugar, if not, the cells lose their sensitivity to insulin, which in the worst case can lead to to the development of type 2 diabetes.
Plus, the release of leptin, which is responsible for regulating energy metabolism, decreases, and the release of ghrelin, the "hunger hormone", on the contrary, increases, which only enhances our appetite.
The situation is no better with immunity: due to insufficient sleep, immune cells risk losing the fight against malignant tumors, antibodies to influenza and resistance to infection are also reduced.
Sleep deprivation excites the sympathetic nervous system, causing a fight-or-flight response: blood pressure rises, the heart begins to beat faster, the endocrine system releases more cortisol, a stress hormone - in general, the sensations are not very good, and this is clearly not good for health.
Lack of sleep naturally affects social life - as you might guess, also negatively. In addition to the fact that you always feel a lack of energy and irritation that prevents you from adequately communicating with others, you also run the risk of sitting on sick leave more often (hello, killed immunity) and even becoming a participant in an accident : Jaffe cites studies in which lack of sleep is correlated with an increase in the amount car accidents.
... what about our brain?
The fact that lack of sleep prevents the memorization of information has been known for a long time. But in new studies, scientists managed to come to sensational conclusions: it turns out that during sleep, the glymphatic system is activated (by the way, it was only discovered in 2012), a brain self-cleaning system that removes "protein waste" ... Otherwise, the accumulation of "harmful" amyloid beta protein leads to the destruction of neural connections and the development of Alzheimer's disease. Even one night, which you spent not watching colorful dreams, but, say, having fun at a crazy party with friends, significantly increases the amount of beta-amyloid.
Our sleep-wake cycle is regulated by circadian (circadian) rhythms: it is they that allow us to adapt to the 24-hour world, and the main assistant in this is light, which directly affects sleep and the release of melatonin.
In the retina of our eye there are cells that interact with the "regulators" of the brain clock, based in the hypothalamus, and this interaction depends precisely on light. So, it was found that these neurons are exposed to blue light waves. And for us this is a big problem: it is blue that is the "favorite" attribute of computers and smartphones, and it is blue that increases the level of our anxiety, suppresses the production of melatonin and, accordingly, deceives our brain, convincing that it is day and not night outside. Therefore, it makes sense to reduce the brightness of the screen and exchange the news feed for a book 2 hours before bedtime.
In the literature, a dream that refers to the unconscious is considered as one of the tools of psychologism - the recreation of the hero's inner life (K. Bryullov "The Dream of a Grandmother and a Granddaughter").
Of course, it would probably be superfluous to say that sleep is the solution to all problems, but it is impossible to overestimate its effect, because it is often free medicine for us and the prevention of various diseases. And one should not discount the fact that the phenomenon of the "physiological state of rest" has not yet been studied so well, so that future research may still surprise us a lot.
Refuse night shifts at work, change the evening update of the social networks page to reading books rustling with pages, do not hesitate if you need not 8, but all 10 hours for sleep - and pleasant dreams!
