Exposure to Nature

 
Happy Monday! We hope, with two resolutions under your belt, you are still enjoying meals with no added sugar and getting better quality sleep!

Before we tackle our next big resolution, we'd like to recognize Earth Day with a micro resolution to spend more time in nature.
 
It has been almost 170 years since Walden, Thoreau’s exploration of living simply surrounded by nature, was published. In it, he famously says, “We need the tonic of wilderness… we can never have enough of nature.” Regarding cognitive tasks, he was correct.

A growing body of evidence has shown that exposure to nature improves performance of cognitive tasks and urban exposure may be detrimental to cognitive tasks. For example, a recent study found that those who walked for 35 minutes outdoors scored significantly better on the Stroop cognitive task than those who walked indoors on a treadmill. And a follow-up study found that those who walked outside in a forest scored better on a cognitive task than those who walked in an urban environment.
 
As with many phenomena, the mechanism by which this works is poorly understood but theories abound. Each theory relates to how we perceive the color (hue and saturation) and softer lines (fewer edges, less linear) of natural vs. urban environments, as well as the reduced need to filter stimuli such as traffic, crowds and signage. These benefits are best achieved by immersion in nature, but some benefits can be achieved by simulated environments (e.g., virtual reality).

In addition:

• Being outdoors provides daytime exposure to blue light, critical for the circadian rhythm which is responsible for the timeclocks in every single cell in the body and responsible for our sleep-wake cycles (you may remember we discussed this during the Sleep Better resolution).
  
  
• Being outdoors reduces the stress response and associated negative physiological effects (such as inflammation)—chronically existing in the “fight or flight” response when we don’t actually need to fight or run.
  
  
• Being outdoors exposes us to the terpenes of plants and trees and the aromatic compounds given off by them. Specifically, pinene found in rosemary, pine and basil has been found to have a bronchodilator effect (i.e., it makes breathing easier). The scents in terpenes also have a positive effect on mood (consider how sniffing an essential oil impacts you).

Short Sleep Genes, Sleeping Pills, and Coffee Naps... Oh My!

 We couldn’t conclude our sleep mini resolution without addressing a number of trends and miscellaneous tidbits of interesting information.
 
Don’t forget to keep logging in your calendar and trying our sleep tips each night.
  
CCP's Curated Sleep Tips

 
The short sleep genes
 
Can you imagine sleeping only 4-6 hours a night and waking up feeling refreshed, and also without suffering the negative physiological consequences of sleep debt? It is estimated that only 3% of the human population encodes for one of the known three “short sleep” genes mutations (DEC2, ADRB1, NPSR1). What a gift! In addition to not requiring sleep to feel refreshed, short sleepers have been found to be Type A personality types, driven, ambitious and also positive outgoing and optimistic.

 
Polyphasic sleep
 
Historians believe that monophasic sleeping (sleeping in a single block of time) didn’t become the norm until the 17th century. That notion, combined with erratic schedules and the need for productivity have led to a trend called polyphasic sleep whereby sleep is broken up into bursts over the course of the day (think single sleep cycles spread out over the course of the day)-much like an infant or animals in the wild. While this trend has many proponents, scientists agree the current research on groups of people who inadvertently follow this style of sleep because of their chosen careers (shift-workers, healthcare workers, emergency responders) is compelling enough to advise against this style of sleep. 

 
Sleeping pills
 
Oftentimes when people report difficulty falling asleep, they resort to sleeping pills. However, plainly and simply, sleeping pills are a crutch, allowing the user to mask a deeper physiological or psychological problem that is the source of their difficulty falling asleep.
 
Ironically, sleeping pills don’t actually provide people with more or deeper sleep. The net gain in sleep, depending on the brand, is roughly only 20 minutes of sleep. In actuality, sleeping pills provide sleep amnesia, where the individual forgets they haven’t slept. Sleeping pills can lead to “parasomnias,” whereby people walk, drive, eat, and do other activities while sleeping—talk about danger! Sleeping pills also interact adversely with a long list of over the counter or prescribed medications.
 
Reliance on sleeping pills is not without long-term health consequences either, such as memory problems, depression, hypertension, hormonal fluctuations and weight gain, just to name a few. You may recall from Week 1, that one study places the risk of developing dementia for sleeping pill users at 80%.
 
Worse yet, sleeping pills generally don’t fix the underlying cause of sleeplessness, rebound insomnia is usually inevitable. It is a good idea to have a chat with your concierge physician if you are using sleeping pills more than just a few times a year.

 
Dreams

 As discussed, we really don’t know why we sleep-we just know we need to get those Zzz's to stay alive and healthy. Unfortunately, we know even less about why we dream! There are more theories in existence about why we dream than we can count. We wanted to re-share this interesting piece of trivia about dreams. Dreaming occurs during the REM stage of sleep and is also called “paradoxical sleep” because the brain is very active, but the body is essentially paralyzed. Why is that? Probably so you don’t act out your dreams and injure yourself or others!

 
Stress

 Most people tend to find sleep difficult when under stress. However, there is a small subset of the population that when stressed, well, they fall asleep. Scientists don’t completely understand these “fear naps,” but if this is you, we wanted you to know you are not alone!

 
Coffee naps

 On a long road trip? Staying up late to study? Enter the coffee nap! It takes roughly 20 minutes for the caffeine in coffee to kick in, so the process is to have a cup of coffee, lay down for twenty minutes. Awaken refreshed and ready to go!

Use the calendar below to log your time in bed. If you have a sleep tracker, log actual hours slept. Note that the benefits of each resolution build upon the others, and the habits we develop are meant to stay with us well beyond the month the resolution is held. We will continue to log meals without sugar alongside our sleep progress.

Feel free to email your Motivated Mondays Coach Michele at [email protected] with your individual questions.

The Architecture of Sleep

 
Good morning! We hope our sleep tips are helping you wake up feeling primed and ready for the day.

 
CCP's Curated Sleep Tips

 
So far, we’ve discussed sleep pressure (the increasing pressure to sleep during the day determined by rising levels of our neurotransmitter adenosine), circadian rhythm (the daily sleep/wake cycles impacting all human physiology influenced by light exposure) and sleep debt (the difference between how much sleep you need vs. how much you get).
 
Now we would like to discuss another sleep topic: sleep architecture.
 
Theories abound but no one really knows why we sleep. What we do know is what happens physiologically to the body during sleep and how this impacts health and vitality.
 
Human sleep is characterized by a succession of sleep cycles. Within each sleep cycle are 4 stages. Within each stage, different physiological changes happen to recharge, restore and repair the body. Completing each stage and cycle fully is the key to sleep quality.
 
FUN FACT: Newborns and those with narcolepsy are the exceptions to the sleep stages rule. Newborns have three stages specific to their age, and narcoleptics spend very little time in earlier sleep stages and almost go straight to REM.

 
Sleep Stages

For the rest of us, one full sleep cycle runs about 90 minutes, and we go through about 4-6 sleep cycles per night. One full cycle consists of these four stages:

 
STAGE 1
Lasts about 7 minutes

This is your “nodding off” stage, where you are easily awakened.

You know that sensation of falling and being awoken with a start? That is called a Hypnic jerk and happens in Stage 1. Fun Fact: These involuntary, rapid muscular movements fall into the same family as hiccups, called myoclonus.

Brain plasticity begins. Brain plasticity is the ability of the brain to re-wire itself (i.e., learn and modify behavior and as we already know this is critical for avoiding cognitive decline!)

STAGE 2
 Lasts about 10-25 minutes

Still light sleep, but deeper than Stage 1.

Blood pressure and body temperature drops (recall how a hot bath causes a sudden drop in body temperature inducing sleepiness).

Muscles relax.

Memories are consolidated from short to long term, also critical for preventing cognitive decline!

 
STAGE 3
Lasts about 20-40 minutes
Termed "slow wave sleep" (SWS)

It is quite difficult to be awoken from Stage 3 sleep and if you are awoken, you will be very groggy and likely will suffer from sleep inertia.

Stage 3 is where much of the sleep “magic” happens. 

Stress hormones are reduced, also critical for preventing cognitive decline as these hormones can create oxidative stress in the brain.

Toxins washed from brain, also critical to prevent cognitive decline (Fun Fact: your brain swells during the day and at night it shrinks to its normal size through this glymphatic system process).

HGH and testosterone are secreted, encouraging tissue repair, muscle growth and development.

Immune cells are at peak levels improving immunity, also critical for preventing cognitive decline by protecting the blood/brain barrier.

STAGE 4
Lasts up to 4 minutes
known as the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) stage where dreaming occurs
 
This is when you achieve paradoxical sleep where the brain is very active, but the body is paralyzed so you don’t act out your dreams and injure yourself or others.

Here, the brain further consolidates memories and processes information, integrates them into the person’s world view, high level abstractions are formed, creative discovery is enhanced and problem solving occurs (hence the expression “sleep on it”).

Importantly, mood regulation and emotional processing also occur here via the amygdala.

The stages happen in succession and adequate time in each stage is required for the body to achieve benefits of sleep.

 
The Effects of Inadequate Sleep Quality

 What happens if you sleep with a snorer, or have a dog that barks when the wind blows or live on a busy street and as a result, your cycles are disrupted? In other words, what if you get through stages 1 and 2, but as you are entering Stage 3 something arouses you? Well, you go back to Stage 1 and miss out on the “magic” of Stages 3 and REM… uh oh!

Fragmented sleep, i.e., failing to complete the sleep cycles by awakening frequently, ravages the body impacting all areas of our health-no cell is left unaffected.

In addition, recent longitudinal studies have learned that the amount of time spent in each cycle changes with age. As we get older we spend more time in Stage 1 and less time in the critical later stages and these changes are associated with cognitive decline.
 
To complete our sleep cycles and to spend enough time in the later sleep stages, we need to build sleep pressure to fall asleep with relative ease (latency) and stay asleep for most of the night (quality) to achieve efficiency (time in bed vs. time spent sleeping) and reap the magic that sleep brings us.

All our sleep tips help achieve those goals! But the one tip that has the greatest impact on fragmented sleep is alcohol consumption. While a nightcap may help you conk out faster, alcohol will likely prevent you from entering the deeper/later stages of sleep, waking you in the middle of the night, increasing sleep debt.

Alcohol needs time to be metabolized at an approximate rate of 0.016% per hour. If you choose to imbibe before bed, try calculating the time it will take for your blood alcohol concentration (BAC) to drop to negligible amounts. (Please note: we are not encouraging alcohol consumption) Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) Calculator (Beer, Wine & Liquor)
 
TRACK YOUR PROGRESS

Use the calendar below to log your time in bed. If you have a sleep tracker, log actual hours slept. Note that the benefits of each resolution build upon the others, and the habits we develop are meant to stay with us well beyond the month the resolution is held. We will continue to log meals without sugar alongside our sleep progress.

Feel free to email your Motivated Mondays Coach Michele at [email protected] with your individual questions.​