Why is it that we spend 1/3 of our entire lives completely switched off from the world? Well, I guess because we’ve evolved and no longer have the worry of being royally fucked by a dinosaur during the night? Because dangers like this and further equivalents still existed, we’d be the most stupid species on the planet to be in this unaware, unresponsive, and unprotected state we call sleep, wouldn’t we?
Seriously though, we do spend 1/3 of our entire lives completely switched off from the world because we really need to. That is, so we can rest and recover via sleep, in order to experience everything life has to offer and live life to the fullest – which requires all of our systems and senses firing on all cylinders, which can only recalibrate during… you guessed it… sleep.
Perception, logic, memory, decision, functionality, creativity – the list goes on – these things can only operate optimally with sufficient sleep, no matter who you are. If you’re one of those people who ‘only sleeps 4 hours a night and functions fine’, well, bravo, BUT, you’re categorically not performing as optimally as you could be.
And just to re-emphasise, we really are a stupid species, because we’re in fact the ONLY species to purposely deprive ourselves of sleep, without any legitimate gain. Madness. And you can probably guess that in doing so, we miss out on tonnes of benefits and maintenance that our brains and bodies require, which only a full night’s sleep can provide. So next time you think you’re ‘cool’ because you’ve decided to do an all-nighter (apart from if the odd indulgence of course…) but especially for no good reason, think again you absolute melt. Quite simply, the shorter you sleep, the shorter you live.
As Sleep King Matthew Walker says (who I’ll refer to several times in this passage): “sleep is the single most effective thing we can do to reset our brain and body health each day”. In doing that, we are enabled to make the most out of our waking hours. More generally, life. As we know, wellness should be the practice of contributing to an amazing healthspan, not just a lifespan. And without good sleep hygiene, a great healthspan is impossible. With the caveat of enjoying life now and again and a few late night boogies TILL THE BREAK OF DAWN*, it’s quite important we do have quality sleep, regularly and sufficiently, so we can achieve that healthspan. And making sleep a priority, ultimately leading to better sleep, begins with an awareness of what sleep actually is and a little understanding about how exactly your body does sleep, in order for you to align your sleep routine with your body’s natural processes.
*One of my favourite movie quotes from ‘Project X’… it also reminds me of Dawn, the beautiful mother of one of my best friends Ham (Adam). I don’t know why, but for some reason he used to get rather irritated by us saying “we can’t wait to wake up at the crack of dawn tomorrow”..
So why should we actually sleep? Well, in short, sleeping recalibrates your brain – as said, learning, memory, logic, choices, more broadly social and psychological skills all get reinforced. For your body: your appetite is regulated, the immune system is bolstered, insulin and glucose is balanced, your cardiovascular system and blood pressure rests, and your gut upholds a flourishing microbiome. Ooh la la.
So go to sleep okay. Y0u won’t regret it. Just don’t sleep too much though.
As at a certain point, crossing the threshold of too much sleep, can have a negative effect which can result in a range of symptoms. But broadly speaking, between 7-9 hours is the sweet spot.
So. To the technicals.
There are TWO main factors that determine our body’s need for sleep:
- Circadian Rhythm
- Sleep Pressure
1.
Your circadian rhythm is an internal 24-hour clock that sits deep in your brain – for the nerds, it’s in the suprachiasmatic nucleus. It regulates wakefulness and sleep through a variety of methods: regulating body temperature, timed preferences with the metabolic rate, urine release and hormone release. The latter of which concerns the hormone called melatonin, which you may have heard of.
Melatonin is the “vampire hormone” released at night (nerds: by the pineal gland), usually around dusk. “It provides the official instruction to commence the event of sleep, but DOES NOT PARTAKE in the sleep race itself” (quote sleep king Matthew Walker). What a twisted little satanic dictator hormone eh?
Your circadian rhythm is affected by our exposure to daylight/light and the intake of food, and uses both as information. I don’t feel like it’s my job to tell you to stop staring at the bright LED lights of all-consuming Tik Tok before trying to sleep, nor smash a cookie in seconds before closing your eyes, that’s your choice. But hopefully this information highlights why it’s preferable to pay attention to your circadian rhythm and how you can affect it, that is if you seek quality sleep.
2.
Sleep pressure is essentially a chemical barometer that continuously registers the amount of time we’re awake. It’s caused by build-up of the brain chemical adenosine, which in turn uses a dual-action mechanism to turn down the ‘volume’ of wake-promoting brain regions and turn up the dial for sleep-promoting regions.
Adenosine levels/the chemical barometer naturally builds up during the day when we’re awake, so by the time we’re ready for bed, it’s at a high level and ready to be cleared via sleep. Things like exercise and diet also contribute to adenosine levels, hence why it’s always a good idea to have good wellness practices – not a coincidence as to why you sleep better after a good workout.
There is one DRUG that has a huge impact on sleep, tiredness and adenosine though… and I’ve used the word ‘drug’, because that’s what it is. It’s called… caffeine.
And if you’re a coffee loving hipster, – now is the time.
Sleep, is affected by caffeine, simple. Whether you do think it does, or not, it does, you coffee-loving hipster, flailing around with your little cafetiere grasping an overpriced bag of beans from Columbia, eagerly waiting to defend your night time addiction for caffeine.
Maybe you feel as though it really doesn’t affect you, but it will categorically disrupt your sleep, and will end up reducing the functionality of your body/brain due to not getting enough sleep, or sufficient quality sleep, if you consume it too close to going to sleep.
I repeat. Caffeine is a legal drug. Sugar is a legal drug. Both contribute to making sleep worse. But let’s stick to caffeine for now, because I can’t handle the thought of sugar (and other ‘drugs’) effects on sleep as well, whilst I type this, ironically, past my bedtime.
I quote the Sleep King again: “consumption of caffeine represents one of the longest and largest unsupervised drug studies ever conducted on the human race … perhaps rivalled only by alcohol … and it continues to this day.”
He also asks the reader “Can you function optimally without caffeine before noon? If no, likely you are self-medicating your state of chronic sleep depravation.” Read that again. Mental right? He’s not saying, never have a cup of tea or coffee in the morning, more so, if you cannot do that without having a negative reaction or not being able to function properly, then you need to sleep – and to not rely on caffeine. And in the process, more sleep and less caffeine will help the relationship you have with caffeine. It’s quite self-fulfilling isn’t it.
THEN you can enjoy the true benefit of caffeine (when you’ve regulated it better), without the negative effects of addiction/reliance. Whether that’s coffee, or tea, or matcha, or whatever.
I love lots of different types of tea, but particularly matcha because of it’s slow-release caffeine that unlike coffee doesn’t spike, it stays at a lower but more sustained level throughout the day, preventing a ‘crash’.
(For more content on Matcha, visit HERE)
Coffee’s caffeine peaks after around 30 minutes, but has a half-life (which is used to measure a drug’s efficacy) – so if you had a coffee at say 4pm, 50% or more could still be active in your chubby little face (jokes) at 10pm.
SO, as said:
There are two main factors that determine our body’s need for sleep:
- Circadian Rhythm
- Sleep Pressure
BUT, they do not communicate with each other, they are separate systems. Separate systems, that do however usually align with one another – and are informed by each other. Clear as mud right.
So in an attempt to see through that mud, A VERY EXCITING equation could look like this:
Urge to be awake = high wake drive (circadian rhythm) + low sleep pressure (low adenosine)
Urge to sleep = low wake drive (circadian rhythm) + high sleep pressure (high adenosine)
(You will have noticed we’ve been joined again by the second bloody satanic little dictator hormone, adenosine.)
And here’s another VERY EXCITING FOLLOW-UP equation:
Getting through an all-nighter (or having ‘second winds’ etc.) = high/upward wake drive (circadian rhythm) + high sleep pressure (high adenosine).
So despite being very tired, your urge to sleep won’t be quite as high as when your circadian rhythm and your sleep pressure align like with above. What is actually happening is that despite your sleep pressure/adenosine levels remaining high, your circadian has cycled back around to being in the awake state, generating all of the bodily ‘things’ (like hormones being released) that come with that – hence why you feel more awake and are able to get a ‘second wind’.
And here’s ONE MORE VERY EXCITING FACT (not equation) about circadian rhythms – they change/shift throughout our lives, as we age.
So if you’re a parent, asking a teenager to go to bed and expect them to fall asleep by 10pm, it is the circadian equivalent of asking an adult to go to sleep at 7pm or 8pm. And asking them to wake up at 7am, is the circadian equivalent of asking an adult to wake up at 4am or 5am. So Mum or Dad reading this… back, the FUCK off and let your kids party and keep you up until at least midnight until when their circadian rhythms have slowed down again. Or maybe not quite that, but you get the point..
I’m not blaming parents for enforcing sleep at this earlier times, societal norms such as the ways schools’ timings operate don’t help of course. Ultimately for reasons concerning optimum sleep, these early times are something which should change in the future to accommodate the future generations’ sleep and brain development.
Question? Yes?
When are you technically asleep?
Well…
Your Thalamus is your ‘sensory gate of the brain’. This usually sends sensory signals to the cortex. But when the Thalamus imposes a sensory blackout in the brain during sleep, it prevents those signals reaching the cortex. This means your body is no longer consciously aware of the information broadcasts being sent from your outer sense organs – your brain has lost waking contact with the outside world. BOOM, straight from your toes to your ugly little face, you are asleep.
Moving on to more really bloody fascinating sleep things – hardcore shit, like, dream sleep…
There are 2 TYPES OF SLEEP: NREM and REM (Non-Rapid Eye Movement + Rapid Eye Movement).
There are 4 stages of NREM – 1, 2, 3, 4 – increasing in ‘depth’. This is deep sleep.
REM is ‘dream sleep’ – when our brain activity is ALMOST IDENTICAL to when we are awake!
Both NREM and REM sleep ‘battle’ for brain domination during the night, and each tends to reoccur every 60-90 minutes. Typically, NREM sleeps dominates the early part of our sleep, while REM dominates the latter part.
NREM generates slow, synchronised brainwaves. REM generates fast, non-synced brainwaves – similar to when we’re awake.
This is probably my favourite fact about sleep (Christ alive I never thought I’d write that…) – but it’s FASCINATING… and it’s this:
During REM sleep, our brain can be 30% MORE ACTIVE than when we are awake.
Yes you read that right. But read it again.
Mental right?! Or is it just me? … Just me? Okay, great. Anyway.
Sleep King MW depicts the difference between REM and NREM sleep really well: imagine there’s a microphone dangling in the middle of a huge crowded stadium – when we’re in REM sleep, it’s like all of the individual supporters (in this case brain neurons) are chanting completely different things at different times, and the microphone picks up this cacophony of sounds, essentially frenetic brain activity. Compared with NREM sleep, deep sleep, where instead, all of the crowd is chanting in unison – meaning our brainwaves are slower and much more synchronised. The deeper sleep we’re in, the slower and more synchronised the brainwaves are.
Deep/NREM sleep (stages 3 & 4) – means that more distant parts of the brain can connect, and the brain collaborates better together. One benefit of this is a ‘file transfer’ process, where things like memories, learnings and skills get transferred from the short-term storage site of the hippocampus, to the longer-term storage destination which is the cortex – neocortex for the nerds. This process happens every night!
It can even happen during naps, if they contain enough NREM sleep.
This also explains why sometimes we are better at things when we ‘sleep on it’! By sleeping, it’s pretty much like we ‘gain access’ to a better overall understanding of these things – i.e the next day waking up and something ‘clicks’ and we’re better – like mastering a football trick, or a certain rhythm when playing a musical instrument.
REM sleep is greatest, when the brain is undergoing it’s greatest construction. Another great analogy from the Sleep King is this: think of REM sleep as an internet service provider, that goes round each neighbourhoods (in this case regions of your brains), and provides fibre optic to each of them, servicing and improving them each night.
Oh, and not to alarm you, but during REM sleep, you are completely paralysed. Apart from your eyes (hence Rapid Eye Movement). No biggie. So again, thank fuck dinosaurs aren’t here anymore, because I doubt we’d have been able to kill them with just our eyes moving, whilst our eyelids are shut… However, our bodies aren’t THAT stupid to do this with no benefit – we’re actually paralysed so our minds can dream safely, without actually acting out our dream experience!
In terms of benefits, REM sleep is essential for emotional and mental health, including things like rationality, sanity. It’s also crucial for problem-solving and creativity (which also applies to NREM sleep) – again, ‘sleep on it!’ Plus, REM sleep is the only time that our physiological response to stress and acute anxiety is shut off – via Norepinephrine, also called noradrenaline (both a neurotransmitter and a hormone) not being produced.
And let’s face it, we’d all love zero stress in our lives… well, this is the exact time to experience it!
This leads me to another EXCITING equation:
A balanced night of NREM + REM sleep = better rationality, more emotional control, improved memory storage, consolidated learning, clearer logic.
To make it clear you need both adequate NREM and REM sleep to indulge in the whole host of benefits each provide. If you get up extra early, say for a flight, you might miss out on a percentage of the benefits, concerning either type of sleep. Just know that these benefits cannot be magically brought back when you miss a night’s sleep – when the opportunity has gone each night, no matter how much you sleep the next night, that day’s benefits have gone.
Two more things before I nod off (hopefully you haven’t yet)…
1. SOME PEOPLE CAN CONTROL THEIR DREAMS! LUCID DREAMING IS A THING AND IT’S CRAZY!
Studies using MRI scans have proven it. I’ll let you do your own research/discovery in to the exact examples, but the headline is this: science has objectively proven that lucid dreamers can control when and what they dream, while they are dreaming. I’ll say it again, that is mental (literally).
2. Mouth taping will do wonders for your sleep. No it’s not some sort of bondage or fetish you dirty-minded individual. It ensures you nose-breathe entirely throughout the night which has a whole host of benefits, like stopping sleep apnea, which can be a major problem if not treated. It’s a whole other world of wellness I’m fascinated by and I will for sure write about it soon, but wanted to quickly mention.
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So there we go – we’ve come to the end of our little foray into sleep. Hopefully it’s been educational and helpful. Hopefully you are still awake.
Matthew Walker really is the sleep king, he’s brought a lot of this consciousness around sleep into the modern world. All credit to his and others research, data and examples. If you’ve enjoyed reading this I urge you to get his book ‘Why We Sleep’. Other sleep experts you can check out include: Dr. Charlene Gamaldo, Dr. Clete Kushida, and Dr. Michael J Breus.
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As said, when it comes to wellness I don’t want to advise on what you should be doing with your life/health practices, I want to outline the information that helps you inform your decisions when acting on them.
We’re all going to die. But you really can’t ‘sleep when you’re dead’ – nor reap the vast benefits of sleep – so you might as well make the most of it now. Because in turn that will contribute to a better life, increased health, increased happiness.
From my perspective:
The Sleep Conundrum = learning to find a healthy balance of moderating your sleep, so you can function optimally and consistently throughout life, but knowing when to sacrifice it for a bloody good time or life experience.
Or maybe you have another way of putting it?
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Written as part of The Wishing Wellness – visit here for more content on sleep.
The Wishing Wellness 