The Once a Week Brain

We freely admit we may not be getting enough sleep. We certainly don’t feel as creative as we used to. But then, back when this blog started a few months ago, we were very excited. The excitement has died down. And here’s a bit f rationalization: we’re glad it’s died down. Now we can let dedication to the subject at hand be our prime motivator.

Rationalization, but it’s out story and we’re sticking to it. While The Great Brain Robbery was once a twice-a-day blog, and then once a day, and then four times per week or so, we’re switching to once per week. We have not decided what that day is (yet—maybe it should be Tuesdays) but we’re hopeful that it will result in better-written posts. Or at least more thorough. More discerning?

In the meantime, here’ what’s we’ve been reading about lately:

• Wake Up: “6 Ways a Poor Night's Sleep Messes with You”
• Meditate: “Why You Should Meditate: Become a Multitasking Master”
• Eat Breakfast: “Eat More of These Four Things For A Stronger, Healthier Brain”
• Get Some Exercise: “35 Year Study Finds Exercise Reduces Risk of Dementia”
• Don’t Think Too Hard: “Mental fatigue impairs physical performance in humans”

We know you’ll forgive for this small change, since forgiveness is good for your brain anyway. Thanks for reading and keep looking forward to more!

 

Caffeine and Sleep and the Brain, a Terrible Lover’s Triangle

You’re tossing and turning. You just can’t get to sleep, but you’re exhausted.… to borrow a phrase from the kids today, double-you tee eff?

Research reported on by Scientific American and My Healthy Daily News suggests that if you’re a night person, you can drink all the coffee you want. Well, not all the coffee you want. But if you’re inclined to have a double-tall in the middle of the afternoon, go ahead.

But if you’re a morning person, best to avoid caffeine later in the day. It all has to do with your so-called chronotype (the fancy word for whether you’re a “day” person or a “night” person). Which begs the question: why do night people need caffeine later in the day at all?

As a nation, we’re all more or less sleep-deprived. While science says about eight hours is best, the average adult only gets six and half on the weekdays. Caffeine helps us get through until the weekend, when we try to pay back some of this sleep debt. 

But it’s no good if, even during your inadequate six and half, you’re not getting good sleep.

According to researchers, most people are neither “larks” nor “owls” and as such, should consider careful use of stimulants: a cup of coffee in the morning as part of a meal, not as a quick sleepiness eradicator. Remember: if you’re not awake 30 minutes after getting out of bed, you’re probably sleep deprived, and caffeine addresses the symptom, not the cause, if your ailment.

When in doubt, just eschew caffeine altogether and try to go to bed an hour early. Boring, yes, but you may find that, with enough sleep, you’re a morning person after all.

This is your Brain on Melatonin

“Your brain’s in a fog. You’re staring at the computer screen, trying to remember something—but you can’t even remember why you’re trying to remember it. You’re hunched, slack-jawed. What’s going on? Is this some kind of dementia? Alzheimer’s?”

Sound familiar?

That is, have you read the above paragraph before? It was posted here a week ago, on an entry about sleep. If you read it then and can remember it now, chances are you’ve slept a few nights since that first reading. And the same chemical that made you sleep probably helped you remember what you’d read.

Sleep and memory are inexorably linked, something scientists have theorized since the early nineteenth century, and tested as early as the 1920s. A study in 2006 found that the brain replays past events during sleep: rats where run through a maze, and brain scans during the run and while sleeping showed duplicate brain patterns. These patterns were occurring between the brain’s visual centers and the hippocampus; while the rats slept, visual memories were being moved from short-term to long-term memory (and, interestingly, the memories were played backwards).

Melatonin is essential to sleep, but the connection between melatonin and memory isn’t spurious. Your pineal gland produces melatonin, which causes drowsiness. While you sleep, melatonin acts as a powerful antioxidant, “washing away” free radicals, (including toxins associated with Alzheimer’s). This action is part of the process that allows for that “dialogue” between the visual cortex and the hippocampus.

Nutshell: As your eyes are exposed to less and less blue light at the end of the day, the pineal gland responds by producing melatonin, which makes you drowsy; and as you sleep, melatonin removes free radicals and facilitates the movement of experiences into long-term memory.

(And one theory holds that we experience this memory storage as dreams—and if the mechanism is not interrupted, you tend to wake up without any memory of dreaming, since the experience of dreaming is a separate conscious observation from the experiences that you were dreaming about—and there’s no “reason” to remember those temporary observations).

If you don’t remember the first paragraph, above, don’t worry: your brain encounters millions of pieces of data every day, and you can only process so much.

But if you want to make sure you do remember for later, why not sleep on it?

Go to Sleep, Clean Your Brain

Your brain’s in a fog. You’re staring at the computer screen, trying to remember something—but you can’t even remember why you’re trying to remember it. You're hunched, slack-jawed. What’s going on? Is this some kind of dementia? Alzheimer’s?

No, you’re just tired. It’s 1:30 in the morning, and you’ve had a rough day. You were up early, traffic was a nightmare, and work seemed to take forever. You went to dinner with some friends, which got you home late, and now you’re up past your bed time, trying to get a few things done online before finally hitting the hay.

You take your hand off the mouse, turn off the monitor, and wander, bleary-eyed, into bed. You’re asleep before your head even hits the pillow. And the next day… you’re fine. Maybe a bit groggy, but that clears right up. Your brain is yours again, ready to face challenges head-on.

Some people can get by on just a few hours sleep. Some are useless unless they get their full eight. Everybody’s different, but everybody does sleep. It’s more essential than food, and when we’re tired, even more compelling than thirst. Scientists still aren’t sure why sleep is such a necessary part of human existence.

But they’re one step closer to finding. Dr. Maiken Nedergaard, studying the brains of mice, has discovered that sleep allows for the flushing of built-up proteins. These proteins may play a role in the development of Alzheimer’s and other diseases.

It seems that when we’re asleep, not only do brains create far fewer of these proteins, but lower brain activity allows more room for spinal fluid to wash through, removing toxins.

Brushing your teeth every day, taking a shower, getting a good night’s rest—these are all ways of staying clean and healthy.