YOUR 2024 BRAIN BRAWN MINI RESOLUTION SLEEP BETTER: WEEK 6

Originally published on April 16, 2024

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!

To recap our Sleep Better Mini Resolution:
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To recap our Sleep Better Mini Resolution:
​

1. We reviewed the critical nature of sleep to brain health and preventing cognitive decline
   
   
2. We addressed the concepts of: the need to fall asleep with relative ease, defined as latency, which is influenced by sleep pressure; the importance of staying asleep for most of the night to complete sleep cycles within our sleep architecture (defined as sleep quality); both prior points influence sleep efficiency (time in bed vs. time spend sleeping) to avoid sleep debt
   
   
3. To achieve all of the above, we provided a list of tips and suggested trying at least one a week to determine if it might influence your sleep score.

Remember, our mini resolutions are intended to create habits that build upon one another toward “Brawny Brains.” To emphasize the nature of the curriculum, we will continue to log meals without added sugar as well as our sleeping habits as we begin our next resolution next week.

​See you next week for a special micro resolution! Until then, keep logging!

GLOSSARY OF SLEEP-RELATED TERMS​

Circadian Rhythm. The 24-hour life cycle of an organism. It is most affected by lightness and darkness and impacts physical, mental and behavioral changes within the organism.
 
Sleep Pressure. The pressure to sleep. It is lowest in the morning upon rising and builds throughout the day to be highest at night.
 
Adenosine. A neurotransmitter that promotes sleep pressure. High amounts of adenosine promote sleep pressure.
 
Sleep Efficiency. The ratio between time spent sleeping vs. time spent in bed. Sleep efficiency of 85% or greater is considered ideal.
 
Sleep Latency. The time it takes a person to fall asleep. Less than 20 minutes is ideal.
 
Sleep Architecture. The basic pattern of normal sleep, divided into REM and non-REM sleep.
 
Glymphatic System. The waste clearance system for the central nervous system. It is most active at night during sleep.
 
Sleep Debt. The difference between the amount of sleep needed and the amount of sleep achieved.

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.
 

 
TRACK YOUR PROGRESS:  YOUR MINI RESOLUTION TO SLEEP BETTER

Log how many hours you've slept each day, and record which sleep tip you followed from the above link. Click to view and download the log.