How did you sleep last night? Did you wake up feeling rested or wiped out? If you’re getting less than the recommended seven to nine hours per night that is optimal for most adults, your brain will be suffering for it according to a report by America’s National Sleep Foundation. This recommendation is based on the advice of 18 leading sleep scientists, and it demonstrates that failure to get a healthy amount of sleep impacts on a whole host of measures of brain function. In short, sleep is one of the most important epigenetic environmental factors to impact our brains and our bodies. It’s also something we have a huge amount of control over, and I'd like to focus on it for the second in our series on epigenetics. Leaders who need their executive brain function (higher level, analytical thinking), to be at its peak on a daily basis, can’t afford to skimp on sleep. It’s a rule I repeat regularly with my students at MIT, and it’s one that’s often met with a collective sigh. Of course, I get it. It’s all too easy to take sleep for granted or to assume we can make up for episodes of sleeplessness with a few lie-ins. I’ve experienced this myself, particularly during periods of intensive travel, when jet lag makes prioritizing sleep and bedtime routines even trickier. But it’s a false economy to deprioritize sleep. Over time, habitual lack of sleep leads to an elevated risk of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. This because when we sleep, the glymphatic system, a waste clearance pathway in the brain ‘cleans’ the brain overnight, removing the by-products of neural activity, waste proteins, and metabolic products. When sleep is poor and this process is impaired, these waste products build up, leading to cognitive decline. If you want to assess your sleep, it’s important to understand that measuring sleep quality is more complex than simply clocking the time you go to bed and the time you wake up. Restlessness through the night and difficulty to drop off, or get back to sleep if you wake, are also indicators of unhealthy sleep disturbance. Keeping a sleep diary for a week or so will give you a good idea of how you're sleeping. Note down whether you woke up, took a while to drop off, and note how energized you feel on waking. The good news is, there are all sorts of things you can do to improve your sleep: Implement a screen curfew 60-90 minutes before you go to bed will protect your brain from the wake-up effect of blue light from devices. Avoid caffeine after 2 p.m. This might sound extreme, but caffeine has a half-life of 5-6 hours (this means that it’s half as strong after 6 hours. It takes a full 10-12 hours to leave your system, and whilst some people are more sensitive to its effect than others, it may be impacting on your sleep in subtle ways without you making the link. Even after six hours of drinking it, caffeine has been found to reduce sleep duration by an hour over the course of the night. Meditate regularly. It has significant sleep benefits. Whether you meditate before bed or at another time during the day, research suggests it will significantly improve your sleep quality. Studies show that regular meditators increase their slow wave and REM sleep. Meditation also helps regulate melatonin Use lavender as a trigger at bedtime. This will remind you that it’s time to sleep. Ensure your room is as quiet and dark as possible too. Fast to beat jet lag. I travel a lot and I’ve found that the best way to beat jet lag is to fast on the flight, as it resets the body clock to stay alert until we have found fuel. This is a throwback to our hunting and gathering days. Source
