SLEEP - the best longevity hack!
Sleep. So simple. So under appreciated. Yet, for those looking to live long and well, sleep should not be ignored as a powerful means of living our best and healthiest life. On a recent TED Talk, sleep researcher, Matt Walker, PhD, highlighted several key benefits of having a healthy sleep strategy. Although it was an information-packed talk, there were a few important take aways:
Sleep and Learning – In order for you to effectively incorporate information for recall, the human body must “sleep on it!” Like the singer Meatloaf, there was more to his lyrics in his hit, Paradise By the Dashboard Lights, “Let me sleep on it, baby, baby, let me sleep on it…” Not only do we assimilate information better after a good night sleep, but we also make better judgments after being rested. As a side note to the song, a male’s testosterone is significantly impacted, negatively, by sleep deprivation. Unfortunately for both of the main characters it looks like he slept quite well before his “date!”
Studies of students subjected to sleep deprivation, of just 4 hours, revealed an average 40% drop in subsequent tests scores the following morning. This is significant! Consider the competition to get into college or professional schools and that the margins of successful admissions may be hair-thin.
Glymphatic System – Just discovered in 2012, scientists were finally able to describe how the body eliminates the waste products of brain metabolism. The short description of this process is that when, and only when, we sleep there is an in ingenious mechanism where cerebral spinal fluid washes over the brain, piggy-backing over the blood vessels, clearing out the toxins and metabolic waste products. The glymphatic system is analogous to the lymphatic system of the rest of the body. This is a very critical system, considering that the brain’s metabolic machinery never “sleeps.” In fact, 25 % if the energy usage in a given day goes to support the 3 pounds of delicate neuronal tissue sitting on top our body. Without sleep, the waste cannot be removed and we will suffer from brain fog and poor cognitive function until it is cleared. Can you understand what might happen with days of sleep deprivation, restless sleep, or insomnia?
Immune Function – When we get only half of the suggested 8-9 hours sleep, in a single night no less, our immune system is reduced by 70 percent! Think of the health and wellness impact this could have on our lives. Our T-helper cells, T-killer cells, and other circulating immune cells (analogous to our body’s SEAL Team 6 or Delta Force) are expected to protect us from viral and bacterial invaders with a blindfold and both hands tied behind their backs. In the age of Covid, this could mean the difference between a life threatening infection or an immune-protective antibody response. I’ll take sleep…
Night Shift Health Tax – For those that work as shift workers, I have some more bad news for you. Regular shift work is the health equivalent of smoking a pack of cigarettes a day! Not only are shift workers less likely to get rejuvenating sleep, but they live ten years less, on average, than their non-shift working counterparts. A combination of chronic sleep deprivation, circadian rhythm imbalance, immune dysfunction, and other factors contribute to poorer health and wellness. Reliance on stimulants to combat their body’s natural tendency to slow down at night, it often worsens the situation. Ever more stimulation is needed. Obesity, heart disease, cancer, and depression is more likely to be experienced by shift workers than daytime cohorts.
Aging and Cognitive Deficits – There is no secret to the fact that as we age we lose some of our cognitive edge. One of the physiologic reasons we tend to be more forgetful as we age is that we are less likely to get into the deep restorative sleep that is necessary for retention of information and information recall. Thought to be due to declines in certain hormone and neurotransmitter production, for example melatonin or GABA, or increases in stimulatory hormones or neurotransmitters like cortisol, histamine, dopamine, and acetylcholine, sleep can be a real challenge in our later years. Sleep deprived adults are more likely to develop cancer (think decreased immune protection), heart disease and heart attacks (there are 26 percent more heart attacks on the day we roll our clocks forward), and according to Dr. Walker’s recent findings, increased risk of Alzheimers dementia! You should now be pretty scared about missing sleep — I know I am!
Hope – I just gave you some examples of the incredible health risks we take when we deprive ourselves of sleep, but it is certainly not the end of the story. The happy ending of this story is that we most certainly CAN do something about these health, wellness, and longevity threats. From simple and free bio hacks to more elaborate strategies, we have a large menu to work with to obtain blissful sleep. Some of these are:
Setting a routine for waking and going to sleep.
Blackout shades on windows and using earplugs.
Eliminating blue light 2 hours prior to bedtime (avoiding TV or screen time).
Covering all extraneous lights in the bedroom.
Using the bedroom for sleep and amorous exploits only.
Cooling the bedroom to 65 degrees.
Weighted blankets.
Sleep apps that provide white noise or more sophisticated programs that provide binaural beats, white noise, or synchronized electrical stimulation to promote deep sleep.
Avoiding stimulants at least 8 hours before bedtime.
Use natural sleep inducing supplements like melatonin (start with a 0.3 mg serving size), chamomile tea, valerian, Passion flower, hops, lavender, ginseng, and 5-HTP. Consult an experienced Naturopathic physician, herbalist, chiropractor, Functional Medicine physician, or other health professional for guidance and serving sizes.
Exercise regularly, but avoid before bedtime.
Breathing exercises are highly effective and can turn off the sympathetic nervous system (think fight, flight, or freeze) and stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system (rest, relax, digest, and reproduce).
Sex. Sex can induce a hormone called oxytocin that is not only a “bonding” hormone, but a sleep inducing chemical produced by the body.
Meditation to reduce the brain activity and slow thoughts.
Light therapy. Specifically, a good nights sleep begins that morning. Getting out of bed and exposing yourself to sunlight as soon as you can, triggering the pineal gland to increase signals to release cortisol and suppress melatonin, aids your circadian rhythm and helps lay the physiologic groundwork for a great nights sleep.
And lastly, my favorite natural supplement to help modulate the many sensory inputs into the brain – CBD or hemp oil. Liv Labs, LLC, has a number of products, Lullaby and the 2500mg Full-Spectrum oil, that supports a restful and healthy sleep cycle (full disclosure: I am the acting Chief Science Officer). http://ultradocultrahealth.livlabsnow.com