Psychology Today: How to Get Great Sleep
Blame it on the Industrial Revolution. Or maybe on the light bulb. But ever since man met machine, sleep has been on the skids. In 2001, 38 percent of U.S. adults said they were sleeping less than they were just five years earlier. Americans now average seven hours in bed per night, and close to 60 percent now report they have trouble sleeping at least a few nights every week. Seduced by 24-hour casinos, reruns and the Internet, Americans have plenty of diversions to keep them wired and alert. The biggest sleep robber of all, however, is work—the puritan ethic gone haywire in an era of global markets. To some degree, we can sacrifice sleep to oblige other demands on our time, but we pay a high price for the privilege. What we do at night affects everything we do during the day—our ability to learn, our skills, our memory , stamina, health and safety. Everyone has a troubled night sometimes, or even a run of them, which happens to the average person about once a year.
Sleep: The secret to a sound sleep lies inside the brain, researchers find - latimes.com
I am frequently amazed by my husband's ability to sleep through all kinds of noises that cause me to wake in a flash -- car alarms, smoke detectors that are running low on batteries, and especially kids who have lost track of their favorite blankie in the middle of the night. Thanks to a new study being published in Tuesday's edition of the journal Current Biology, I now know that his brain probably produces more sleep spindles than mine. You see, while we're sleeping, the thalamus -- the part of the brain that receives sensory input like sounds -- tries to relay information to the cortex, where the sounds are actually perceived. Sleep experts can see these transmissions on an electroencephalography test, or EEG. But, scientists believe, sometimes the brain throws up roadblocks to prevent the cortex from being disturbed during crucial periods of sleep when memories are consolidated. These roadblocks are sleep spindles, which also have a characteristic appearance on an EEG. -- Karen Kaplan
Scientific American: Naps Improve Memory of New Tasks
If you feel the urge to lay your head down on the desk for an afternoon nap, here’s something to tell your boss: a 90 minute snooze will actually help you remember that new task you just learned. Researchers at the University of Haifa published the results of their nap study in the journal Nature Neuroscience. They tested two groups—each was asked to learn to bring their thumb and finger together in a specific sequence. One took a 90-minute nap afterwards, the other didn’t. The group that slept had learned the sequence better by nightfall. By morning the two groups had evened out, but researchers say the nappers improved more rapidly the next day. Then the scientists took another two groups. --Cynthia Graber
Tips for getting to sleep faster & sleeping better
by Josh For practically all my life I’ve had trouble going to sleep. I’m not an insomniac…I just think a lot. Now, I may be a bit of an extreme case here, but I know for a fact that there are others out there who have trouble going to sleep. Don’t watch TV or even so much as look at a computer screen atleast 30 minutes before you lie down. These are the majority of the things I have either tried or actually do routinely.
How To Take An Effective Nap To Super Boost Your Productivity
“Sleep when you’re dead.” I’ve heard this more times than I can count. The idea is that you’ll have plenty of time to sleep when you die, so don’t waste your time while your alive. Napping and sleeping in general has become a sign of laziness or weakness. We should be willing, society says, to forego sleep in an effort to keep going, keep working, keep doing. But sleep and napping specifically, can actually make you a better and more productive person overall. So, get comfy, lean back and get a few winks. Take Off Your Shoes This is really essential. Lay Down Laying down for a nap tells your body that you are ready to sleep. “Sleep not only rights the wrong of prolonged wakefulness but, at a neurocognitive level, it moves you beyond where you were before you took a nap,” said Matthew Walker, an assistant professor of psychology at UC Berkeley who studies the effects of sleep and napping. Use a Blanket Or a coat or something to snuggle under. Limit Your Napping Time Nap After Lunch Set an Alarm
As we sleep, speedy brain waves boost our ability to learn
Scientists have long puzzled over the many hours we spend in light, dreamless slumber. But a new study from the University of California, Berkeley, suggests we're busy recharging our brain's learning capacity during this traditionally undervalued phase of sleep, which can take up half the night. UC Berkeley researchers have found compelling evidence that bursts of brain waves known as "sleep spindles" may be networking between key regions of the brain to clear a path to learning. These electrical impulses help to shift fact-based memories from the brain's hippocampus -- which has limited storage space -- to the prefrontal cortex's "hard drive," thus freeing up the hippocampus to take in fresh data. Spindles are fast pulses of electricity generated during non-REM sleep, and they can occur up to 1,000 times a night. "A lot of that spindle-rich sleep is occurring the second half of the night, so if you sleep six hours or less, you are shortchanging yourself.
Polyphasic Sleep
A couple days ago, I saw a post about polyphasic sleep on LifeHack.org. Since then I’ve been emailed about this topic as well, probably because I’ve written previously about becoming an early riser. Polyphasic sleep involves taking multiple short sleep periods throughout the day instead of getting all your sleep in one long chunk. A popular form of polyphasic sleep, the Uberman sleep schedule, suggests that you sleep 20-30 minutes six times per day, with equally spaced naps every 4 hours around the clock. This means you’re only sleeping 2-3 hours per day. Under this sleep schedule, your sleep times might be at 2am, 6am, 10am, 2pm, 6pm, and 10pm. How can this sleep schedule work? It requires some discipline to successfully transition to this cycle, as well as a flexible schedule that allows it. It was interesting to read some of the posts from people who’ve tried this sleep cycle. The downside to this sleep schedule is that it can be inflexible. Plus it’s just plain weird. Sleep well!
Want to Sleep Better? First, Reduce Your Cortisol Levels then Follow These Six Key Tips
Trouble sleeping? Your cortisol levels could be too high. Learn how to control them and get a good night's sleep. Here in America, recent statistics indicate that 1 in 8 people have difficulty falling or remaining asleep. Many adults are turning to drugs such as Ambien that have reported side effects like amnesia, sleep walking and unconscious "sleep-eating" during the night. Even preschoolers have insomnia. This phenomenon is a significant concern to us here at Body Ecology because deep sleep is one of the most fundamental ways our body heals itself. To start, it's important to explore why we have difficulty sleeping. Sleeping Trouble? The Stress or Death Hormones Cortisol is called the "stress hormone" because it is secreted during times of fear or stress, whenever your body goes into the fight or flight response. Cortisol suppresses another important, DHEA, the "youth" hormone. Cortisol causes blood sugar to elevate and this then leads to an acidic blood condition. Cortisol and Fear
