I was prompted by an advertisement on the radio this morning to check out the site of one of the main charities related to progressive deteriorating neurological conditions because I was curious to see how much information was available on what we can do to minimise or even potentially prevent these. I was a bit disappointed to see that the importance of sleep is only listed as expected to be added to the list because these benefits have been known for at least six years; additionally, at times like this I am reminded of my lynae who was so open to new ways of treating the body and in particular those he would call “can do no harm”.
As many of you already know, I follow and learn from a few professors in the USA who are involved with leading research into healthy ageing. One of these is Matt Walker, Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley who is a world leading academic specialising in the science behind sleep.
In his first lecture, I learnt about “sleep spindles” as well as the importance of us getting a minimum of 6, but ideally 8 hours sleep / night. The other key take-away for me was learning about astrocytes which are specialised cells found in our central nervous system which perform a number of key functions, one of which is the clearing out of old brain cells when we sleep. Essentially what Prof Walker has found is that if we do not get enough sleep, these cells do not get sufficient time to take out the trash so to speak.
Here is a paper which outlines the research done in the laboratory showing these cells then go into overdrive and start breaking down healthy cells:
https://www.techtimes.com/articles/208412/20170527/sleep-deprivation-cause-brain-eat-itself-study.htm
Another study you may be interested in outlines the potential correlation between sleep deprivation and road traffic accidents (RTA):
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5859531
Here’s a study done on the benefits of delaying school starts and the associated reduction in RTAs:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2603528/
It’s clear that a decent night sleep means we wake up feeling refreshed and ready to take on the day; as opposed to that sluggish feeling I know I get if I’ve not slept well. Conditions like dementia scare me – imagine not being able to remember things like the people we love and fun things we have done…
