What Happens During Sleep
If I am going to make any changes to my Pillars of Wellness, and my routines that support them, I have to have a real reason! I have never believed that doing something because someone told you to at a certain point will keep you motivated to maintain that change over the long term. At some point, there will be a day where you are tired, stressed, frustrated, or challenged in some other way, and saying, “I am still going to do this because someone else told me to,” will not provide the necessary motivation to execute in the face of challenge. YOU have to understand the reason for creating the change you are seeking, and the actions required to create it.
So in this week's blog post, I wanted to discuss something that I think falls into this category BIG time! SLEEP! I am sure we have all heard the importance of sleep, and how we all need to get our 7-8 hours of sleep a night to be a healthy and functioning adult. But, WHY?!
Knowing what processes take place while you sleep, and understanding how they support your mental and physical self in recuperating and recovering from one day to the next will help you maintain consistency in getting more regular sleep, and reaping the benefits from doing so. That constant nagging inner voice of “I should get more sleep because that's what everyone tells me,” will not take you nearly as far in creating sound sleep routines as having this process be driven by, “I want to get more regular sleep because I know that it allows my body to do A, B, C, etc, which positively impacts my Wellness.”
As a Wellness Coach, I can tell you that sleep is essential for our overall health and well-being. During sleep, our body is able to recover and repair itself. Many of these repair processes are related to changes in hormone levels while we sleep.
One of the first processes to note taking place when we sleep, is our body’s ability to repair damaged tissues and cells. This damage could have been caused by our exercise routine, daily activities, or even an injury to the system. The body accomplishes many of these repair processes by releasing/regulating hormones during sleep which aid in tissue repair and growth.
In terms of the hormonal system, sleep also plays a crucial role in regulating hormones such as melatonin, which helps regulate our sleep-wake cycle, and cortisol, which helps regulate our stress levels. Sleep plays a role in the regulation of the HPA (hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal) axis which is responsible for the production of stress hormones like cortisol. Cortisol is an essential hormone that helps the body to cope with stress, but high levels of cortisol can suppress the immune system. Sleep is important to keep the HPA axis in check and to ensure that cortisol levels are not too high. This is beneficial, for example: even if you are maintaining other stress management practices regularly, you will become less effective at managing your stress over time if your cortisol levels are elevated due to lack of sleep.
Adequate sleep is also important for the proper functioning of many other systems in the body. For example, adequate sleep is essential for maintaining a healthy immune system. During sleep, the body's immune system is actively working to maintain overall health and protect against infection and illness. Research has shown that the immune system is most active during the deeper stages of sleep, such as slow-wave and REM sleep.
One of the ways the immune system is maintained during sleep is through the production of white blood cells, specifically T-cells and B-cells, which help fight off infection and disease. These cells are produced in the bone marrow and are released into the bloodstream during sleep.
Another way the immune system is maintained during sleep is through the release of cytokines, which are chemicals that help regulate the immune response. Some cytokines, such as Interleukin-1 and Interleukin-6, are released during sleep and have been shown to have a positive effect on the immune system, helping to fight off infection and inflammation.
Adequate sleep also supports improved cognitive function and consolidation of memories, and regulating mood through processing emotion, which supports mental health. During the day, we take in a lot of information, but much of it is retained in the short-term memory. During sleep, the brain is able to transfer information from short-term memory to long-term memory, which helps to improve memory retention and recall. Studies have shown that people who get adequate sleep after learning new information are more likely to remember it than those who do not.
In addition to memory consolidation, sleep also plays a role in the processing of emotions. During the day, we experience a wide range of emotions, and during sleep, the brain is able to process and regulate these emotions. Studies have shown that people who get adequate sleep are less likely to experience negative emotions such as anxiety and depression, and more likely to experience positive emotions.
Another process that takes place during sleep is the strengthening of neural connections, which is important for learning and cognitive function. During deep sleep, particularly slow-wave sleep, the brain produces slow oscillations that help to strengthen the neural connections that were formed during the day. This process is called synaptic consolidation and it helps to improve cognitive function and learning abilities.
WOW! That is a TON of processes all taking place in the time that we sleep every night to support us in the many hours we spend awake every day! To sum everything up here is a list:
Hormone Regulation
Tissue/Cell Repair and Building (Including nervous system)
Immune System Functioning to fight infections
Memory Consolidation
Emotional Processing
As I discussed at the beginning of this blog, connect getting more sleep to these processes taking place in your body! You do not just want adequate sleep because people say it's good for you… You want it, because you have a better understanding of how you are supporting your Wellness by doing so. And by supporting your Wellness, you are moving towards Actualizing your Potential in this BIG life of yours!
Sources:
Tononi G, Cirelli C. Sleep and the price of plasticity: from synaptic and cellular homeostasis to memory consolidation and integration. Neuron. 2014 Jan 8;81(1):12-34. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2013.12.025. PMID: 24411729; PMCID: PMC3921176.
Tempesta D, Socci V, De Gennaro L, Ferrara M. Sleep and emotional processing. Sleep Med Rev. 2018 Aug;40:183-195. doi: 10.1016/j.smrv.2017.12.005. Epub 2017 Dec 22. PMID: 29395984.
Huberman Lab Toolkit for Sleep: https://hubermanlab.com/toolkit-for-sleep/
