Thursday, February 18, 2016

Benefits of Sleep - What the Research Says


The body clock is an ancient system, common to all life on earth that relies on sunlight and darkness, periods of activity and periods of rest to calibrate itself. Today’s society, with its electric lights, proliferating digital devices, global economy and ‘always on’ mentality, has scrambled our inner timing systems. In short we are living in an age of circadian dysfunction.

Emily Laber-Warren 

 
 
 
Researchers believe that with digital devices and 24/7 lifestyles, that we are messing with our body’s natural rhythms and threatening our very health. Basically, for many people, sleep deprivation has resulted in our natural circadian rhythm being out of sync.

According to Dr. Merrill Miller, a sleep expert and neuroscientist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), "Sleep services all aspects of our body in one way or another: molecular, energy balance, as well as intellectual function, alertness, and mood." Beyond that, sleep also helps support several aspects of mental health, brain function, and long-term wellness.

There is considerable research around the benefits of eight hours uninterrupted sleep. So what are the benefits?

1.    Sleep improves memory. Your mind is very busy while you are asleep. During sleep, your brain can strengthen memories or ‘practise’ skills learned while you were awake through a process called consolidation. "If you are trying to learn something, whether it’s physical or mental, you learn it to a certain point with practice," says Dr. Rapoport, who is an associate professor at NYU Langone Medical Centre. "But something happens while you sleep that makes you learn it better."

 

2.    Sleep improves stamina and reduces daytime fatigue. Children between the ages of 10 and 16 who have sleep disordered breathing, which includes snoring, sleep apnea, and other types of interrupted breathing during sleep, are more likely to have problems with attention and learning, according to a 2010 study in the journal Sleep. This could lead to "significant functional impairment at school," the study authors wrote.


3.    Sleep encourages greater creativity and sharpens attention. In a letter in Nature in 2010, scientists reported that subjects can solve 30% more anagram word puzzles when they are given the test after waking up from REM sleep than they could after non-REM sleep. More recent research published in 2012 found that sleep is particularly good at helping people solve complex problems.

Science has confirmed that REM sleep helps people be creative. At the University of California at Davis, researchers used a protocol called a Remote Associates Test (RAT) to quantify increases in creativity. They divided test subjects into three groups. One rested but did not sleep, one slept in NREM, and one slept in REM right before taking the test. Those in the waking/rest and NREM groups showed no increased in creativity as measured by RAT, whereas those recently woken from REM sleep showed an increase in capacity.
 

4.    Sleep improves academic results. For students, getting sufficient rest proves important for tests and exams. One larger survey from Belgium showed that university students who got at least seven hours of sleep achieved grades 10 percent higher than those with fewer hours of rest.
 

5.    Sleep helps maintain a healthy body weight. In one recent study conducted by University of Pennsylvania researchers, touted as the largest and most-controlled to date, 225 people were subjected to sleep deprivation and their weight and caloric intake was monitored over several days. In the study, participants in the sleep restriction condition gained more weight.


6.    Sleep reduces the possibility of depression and lower stress levels. Researchers have known for a while that mental health and sleep quality share connections. Two more recent studies published in the SLEEP journal looked at both adolescents and adult twins to learn more about the connections between sleep and depression, in particular. The twin study found that short sleep duration and long sleep duration significantly increased genetic risk for symptoms of depression. The teen study found that sleep duration of less than six hours per night also increased risk of major depression.

Teenagers need as much sleep as really young children, ten hours each night. Eight hours is okay but ten hours is better. Dr Rapoport says, it’s fine if we miss a little sleep to meet a deadline, but it is severe and reoccurring sleep deprivation that clearly impairs learning.

A good night’s sleep consists of 4 to 5 sleep cycles. Each cycle includes periods of deep sleep and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. It turns out that this pattern of cycling and progression is critical to the biology of sleep.

So what are the tips for getting quality sleep and keeping our circadian rhythm in sync?

·         Go to bed the same time each night and get up the same time each morning.

·         Sleep in a dark, quiet, cool, comfortable environment – block out light sources.

·         Exercise daily but not right before bed – not less than 3 hours beforehand.

·         Relax before bedtime – a warm bath or shower, reading or deep breathing.

·         Limit the use of electronics and blue screen/light devices before bed.

·         Keep mobile phones, chargers and all forms of digital devices out of the bedroom.

·         Avoid stimulants such as caffeine late in the day.

Parents, it may be tricky convincing your daughter or son that the benefits of sleep far outweigh the assignment deadlines, but with careful planning and a balance between regular eight hours sleep and forward planning for assessment, co-curricular and school commitments, you will reap rewards in the short and long-term health and wellbeing of your daughter or son. Sleep on it, and see what you think in the morning. J

Sleep is that golden chain that
ties health and our bodies together.

(Thomas Dekker)

References:

1.    Benefits of Slumber – NIH News in Health, April 2013. Accessed at:


2.    Laber-Warren,E. September/October 2015.Out of Sync. Scientific American Mind.

 

Benfits of Showing Kindness and Gratitude

Benefits of Showing Kindness and Gratitude
 
 
Be kind and compassionate to one another,
forgiving each other,
Just as in Christ God forgave you.
Ephesians 4:32


Wednesday, 17 February was Random Acts of Kindness Day. Given the latest research on showing kindness and gratitude, it’s a wonder that we need to designate a special day for random acts of kindness, but it seems we do. Maybe in the hurly burly of busy lives we sometime overlook the simple acts that make a real difference to our sense of wellbeing, our moods, our health and particularly, our mental health.

 

So what are the benefits of kindness and showing gratitude? The research is overwhelming in the benefits of altruism and simple acts of kindness and gratitude , not just from the work of Seligman, Fredrickson, Stratton and others in Positive Psychology, but also from a range of scientific studies too.

 
Benefits of Kindness and Gratitude:


·         Showing gratitude and kindness has a strong impact on positive emotions and wellbeing.

One of Plato’s interesting observations was that “a grateful mind is a great mind which eventually attracts to itself, great things”. Recent scientific research confirms that people who are more grateful and kind have higher levels of wellbeing and are happier, less depressed, less stressed and more satisfied with their lives and social relationships.


·         Kindness makes us happier.

Researcher Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ph.D. found that people who engage in kind acts become happier over time. Basically when we are kind to others, we feel good about ourselves and become more optimistic and positive. Another researcher, Elizabeth Dunn found that the act of helping another person triggers activity in the cortex regions of the brain, the parts involved in pleasure and reward. In essence, when we serve others, it produces the same sort of pleasure as gratification of a personal desire.

 

·         Doing kind acts for others reduces anxiety.

University of British Columbia researchers assigned people with high levels of anxiety to do kind acts for other people at least six times a week for four weeks. The researchers found that doing nice things for people led to a significant increase in people’s positive moods. It also led to an increase in relationship satisfaction and a decrease in social avoidance in socially anxious individuals.
 

·         Doing acts of kindness and gratitude lowers blood pressure and gives us healthier hearts.

According to Dr David R. Hamilton, acts of kindness create emotional warmth, which releases a hormone known as oxytocin. Oxytocin causes the release of a chemical called nitric oxide, which dilates the blood vessels. This reduces blood pressure and, therefore, protects the heart by lowering blood pressure.


·         Showing gratitude and kindness improve the quality of sleep.

A 2015 study in London, published in the Journal of Health Psychology found that gratitude helps improve the quality of sleep and lowers blood pressure too.

 

·         Showing collective gratitude improves the organisation’s outcomes.

In a 2015 study published in the International Business Research Journal, found that collective gratitude can foster employees’ organisational commitment, lead to positive outcomes, and helps eliminate toxic workplace emotions, attitudes and negative emotions such as envy, anger and greed in today’s highly competitive work environment.

 

·         Kindness slows the aging process.

Scientific journals have recently suggested that there is a strong link between compassion and the activity of the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve, in addition to regulating the heart rate, also controls inflammation levels in the body in what is known as the inflammatory reflex. One study of the lovingkindness meditation, found that kindness and compassion did reduce inflammation in the body, most likely due to its effects on the vagus nerve. Ultimately, reducing inflammation can slow the aging process.

 
Another takeaway point based on the research, is that the stronger the act of appreciation or kindness, the bigger the impact on positive emotions and social engagement. Famous comedian Bob Hope, once quipped, “If you haven’t any charity in your heart, you have the worst kind of heart trouble.” It seems then, with the latest research on kindness and gratitude, that this is very true.

 

We have lots of reasons then to practise kindness and gratitude on a daily basis and maybe not just on one special day. So what are you waiting for? Try to do one kind act each day and show gratitude each day and be surprised by how much your life can change.

 

References:

Jacobsen, D. 2015. 10 New Studies on the Benefits of Gratitude. Accessed at:



Keltner, D. 2009. Born to Be Good. W.W. Norton and Company: New York.