Lack of Sleep, How it Affects Memory Loss

Anecdotal evidence abounds on the effect that sleep deprivation has on memory function, but it is good to get some hard data to back these up. Stanford University researchers have used a new technique which utilizes light to control the cells of the brain. From this they have teased out the finding that sleep which is broken up tends to lead to memory impairment in mice. The new method is called optogenetics, and it allows researchers to manipulate a single aspect of sleep. The study was head by Luis de Lecea, PhD, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University, and H. Craig Heller, PhD, professor of biology.


What the study indicated that even if the mice got the same quantity of sleep, that a minimal amount of continuous sleep was essential for memory to consolidate.
Experts have long thought that sleep is essential to memory retention, but it has been very hard to actually study these effects in isolation, as to disturb an animals sleep also tends to lead to stressing of the animal which can cause the results to be potentially due to this. Stress itself has been shown to affect memory also. As well as this fact is the malleability of memory when other factors of sleep are changed including quality and composition (e.g. amount of time spent in each different phase of sleep).

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In humans memory impairment is shown most clearly with people suffering from certain conditions such as alcoholism and sleep apnea. With optogenetics the researchers were able to genetically engineer specific cells such that they are then controlled by pulse of light. This was specifically targeted at the neurons which play an important part in going from waking to sleeping. With a 10 second burst of light, they were able to successfully fragment the sleep of the target organism, from their observations it looked like their total sleep, quality and composition of sleep was not changed.

How the memory was tested

The memory of the mice was tested by making them do a task, this involved putting them in a box with 2 objects, one new object and one which they had seen before. The rodent will tend to be more interested in the new object, so if they on average spend more time with the new object then, this suggests that they remember the other object. As expected the mice who had their sleep disrupted did not explore the novel object more, which the ones who had an uninterrupted sleep did explore the novel object.

Summary

This study suggest that it is important to not only get enough sleep, but also to ensure that the sleep is uninterrupted, to have good memory retention. This study probably has most implications for people who are suffering from sleep apnea because this can be very disrupted to a nights sleep.

Quiting Smoking Causing Insomnia - Stop Smoking

Issues with sleep are a significant side effect of the process of nicotine withdrawal that occurs when someone is quitting smoking. Generally people will tend to sleep longer than when they were smoking during the time period that the quitting is occurring. Generally the insomnia issues should be temporary and once the withdrawal symptoms of smoke have gone away so should the insomnia. There a few natural remedies which can be tried to help with the insomnia problems.

Reduce caffeine

Caffeine is a stimulant and will tend to keep you awake, so cut back where possible and only drink it in the morning and early afternoon to give the caffeine time to stop having its effect on your body. This is especially important for ex smokers as caffeine in the body of a smoker is digested at double the rate of a non smoker. This means that as an ex smoker you will have had a high tolerance to caffeine but once you stop with the smoking this tolerance will go and you will be much more heavily affected by caffeine

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Get more relaxed

Taking a bath is a great way to relax, get the environment right with dim lights and mood music to provide a calm and relaxing environment. Getting a massage is another great way to de-stress. Drink a cup of herbal tea. There are many types of teas which are specifically made for this purpose to promote sleep, they can be found in many herbal shops. Put on some soothing music. Choose Soft, mellow music to get the best relaxing atmosphere. For example you can listen to the sound of waves. Have a glass of warm milk as it may help sleep due to the fact that it is a food rich in the amino acid L-tryptophan. L-tryptophan helps to produce neurotransmitters such as seratonin. Other foods which have the amino acid L-tryptophan include: chicken, eggs, turkey, cheese, watermelon cashews. Avoid alcohol as this generally does not help with sleeping

Get some exercise

Get some exercise, even a short walk will help, but if you can't sleep, try a long walk a few hours before bed, this should set you up for a great nights sleep.

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Many people suffer from conditions such as menopause, insomnia, stress, PMS, Pregnancy, and shift work that make them chronically too hot or too cold and prevent them from sleeping well. They do not get enough sleep and may make their spouses or partners as miserable as they are.


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“Every woman going through menopause and hot flashes should get this pillow.” Tania.A. Tampa, FL

Lack of good sleep can lead to both subtle and major difficulties for anybody. From being irritable or less productive to increasing your risk of falls and accidents poor sleep can be a health and well being risk. Not getting sufficient sleep can weaken your immune system making you more susceptible to colds and other diseases.

How Much Sleep Do You Need? Adults

How much sleep is needed varies from person to person, however there are generally bands with which most people will fall. How much sleep is need tends to vary in distinct patterns with age.

How do long do different age groups sleep?

• Babies sleep for about 17 hours each day, this gradually reduces until older children need between nine and ten hours of sleep
• Adults tend to sleep between 7 and 8 hours sleep
• The elderly tend to sleep about the same amount of time as adult sbut they generally hae a more fitful sleep.

There is a significant variation in sleep patterns, as well as perceived sleep patterns, while awake at night it can seem like the periods of sleep are long when in fact what is happening is that it is just the perception of sleep which is leading to the assumption that there is a large lack of sleep occuring. Also there can be misreporting of how many hours someone sleeps either by trying to impress others or simply because they are not properly keeping track of how long the are sleeping or even notice when they have dosed off.

What is the minimum that can be slept

Some people have been known to get by on very little sleep, as little as 3 hours a day, this seems to be something specific to that persons psyiology.

Cause Of Insomnia

Insomnia is characterized as a sleeping disorder. It is the inability to fall asleep and/or remain asleep for a prolonged period. You may have insomnia if you have trouble falling asleep, or wake up a lot during the night and then cannot return to sleep, or wake up too early the next morning, or have sleep which does not leave you refreshed even though you slept for 8 hours.

There are three distinct categories of insomnia; Transient insomnia - most people will sometimes suffer from this temporary inability to sleep. Acute insomnia - the inability to consistently sleep for 3 to 6 months. Chronic insomnia is the most serious where someone cannot sleep almost nightly for a month. Insomnia has a tendency to increase with age, because as people age their ability to sleep for long periods of time lessens.

SleepRight Side Sleeping Pillow The major causes of insomnia follow:

• Hormones - these can cause insomnia for example hormone shifts during menopause and cause insomnia.
• Mental disorders - for example bipolar disorder, general anxiety disorder or clinical depression.
• Neurological disorder - such as brain injury or brain lesions
• Hyperthyroidism
• Wilson's syndrome
• Lack of sleep hygiene
• Circadian rhythm - anything which disturbs the circadian rhythm such as jet lag or shift work can cause insomnia.
• Stress - anxiety or fear may trigger insomnia, the key to treating this is to find relaxation techniques to reduce the stress levels
• Parasomnia - where sleep event disturb the sleep, events such as sleepwalking, nightmares, or REM behaviour disorder.
• Over active mind - where the act of falling asleep is obstructed by thinking
• Physical pain
• Psychoactive drugs - this includes certain medication, caffeine etc

Other sleep disorders apart from insomnia may disturb sleep:

• Sleep apnea - is a condition where a persons breathing is interrupted while sleeping, thus interrupting the normal sleep cycle. There are two forms, the obstructive form and the central nervous interruption form. With obstructive sleep apnea, some part of the respiratory tract loses muscle tone and collapses partially. While certain nervous system apnea is normally related to a cerebral vascular condition, premature aging or congestive heart failure. Treatment for this include, continuous positive airway pressure, variable positive airway pressure, automatic positive airway pressure, or potentially surgery to remove if there is an obstruction which can be removed.
• Nocturnal polyuria - this is excessive night time urination and can be disturbing to sleep. There can be various causes and it is important to consult a doctor to identify the root cause.

There are various potential treatments for insomnia, which is appropriate depends on which type of insomnia is the problem, and what is the root cause of the insomnia. It is important to identify when the insomnia started and if there what was the change in circumstance if any when it started.

What Is Sleep?

The purpose and mechanism of sleep is not fully clear. It is a recurring state where there is a suspension of sensory and motor activity, it involves either partial or total unconsciousness and most voluntary muscles are no longer active. This is contrast to someone who is awake in a resting state in that they can react to stimuli. During sleep the body is in a heightened anabolic state, growth and rejuvenation of the immune, nervous, skeletal and muscular systems is occurring at an accelerated rate. So far as it has been seen mammals, birds, and many reptiles, amphibians, and fish sleep. In humans regular is required for survival.

What is the optimum amount of sleep?

Generally adults sleep between 6 and 8 hours every day. However everyone has a different optimal level of sleep. Sleep is considered good when there is no feeling of sleepiness or dysfunction during the day. Sleep should occur in relation to the persons circadian rhythm and two major events need to occur to get a good nights sleep, there needs to be a maximum concentration of the hormone melatonin, and minimum core body temperature. A study by the University of California, San Diego, of more than a million adults found that the longest lived people are the ones who sleep for 6 to 7 hours. Other studies have shown that people who sleep more than 7 hours a day have an increased mortality. However it is unclear whether this effect is a cause or an effect as generally people who are depressed or of low socioeconomic status may be sleeping more. Also it has been implied that this lower sleep hours effect on mortality is only present when a the person is getting their optimal sleep rather than being woken up by an alarm.

What are the effects of sleep deprivation?

The central health effects of sleep deprivation, are a doubling of the risk of death from cardiovascular disease, and also that too much sleep can also be associated with a doubling of the risk of death. Short sleep is a risk factor for gaining weight, type 2 diabetes and hypertension. SleepRight Side Sleeping Pillow