Optimising Your Brain's Nightly Recovery
The glymphatic system is essentially a version of your lymphatic system but in the brain. When you enter a deep sleep state, the cells in the brain make space to allow interstitial fluid to wash away any dead cells or toxic metabolites. I like to think of it as your brain goes through a car wash every night while you are asleep. We always knew interstitial fluid cleared out metabolites between cells but only recently discovered that this also occurs in the brain.
Why is this important?
There is a link between extra cellular amyloid-beta plaques (AB) and Alzheimer’s disease. These plaques occur naturally in the brain, with the glymphatic system responsible for clearing them. As we age these plaques become difficult to get rid of, taking twice the amount of time to clear. For perspective in a 50-year-old this process could take up to 9 hours.
This system depends on us being in a certain state to work at its capacity, we must be in slow-wave delta state. This state us mostly associated with REM sleep. The most alarming takeaway? A single night of sleep deprivation is all it takes for AB levels to surge within the brain’s memory centre. Now you understand why I believe sleep is SO IMPORTANT for health. Because it is.
So, how do we turn this science into better rest? If you want to maximise your deep sleep, your first line of defence is a solid sleep hygiene routine.
Regulating your circadian rhythm
The best and simplest way to regulate your circadian rhythm is to ensure you are getting both morning and afternoon sunlight in your eyes. This helps the body with its naturally occurring pulses of the hormone’s cortisol and melatonin. Cortisol’s role is to wake you up in the morning and melatonin’s job is to signal that it is nearly sleep time. Supporting this rhythm will allow your body to gain a deep restful sleep.
Reducing blue light exposure for up to 1 hour before bed
Blue lights occur from the television, the laptop and your phone. This lighting signals your brain to think it is daytime. This can affect how deeply you sleep, particularly if you are watching screens right up until you fall asleep. You can reduce this by putting night mode on your phone, turning the TV off at least half an hour before you go to bed or buy a pair of blue light blocking glasses to wear.
Optimising your sleep space
What do I mean by this? we sleep better in cooler, comfortable environments. Ensure the bedroom is of a cooler temperature and reduce or limit bright lights. Ideally your bedroom is only for sleeping, so whenever you jump into bed your brain instantly knows its time to sleep. Try to avoid screens in the bedroom at all and use a small lamp not the bright light.
Possibility of supplementation
If you are doing all the above and are still tossing and turning each night or waking up feeling exhausted, then it might be time to turn to some supplementation. I always recommend seeing a practitioner before self-prescribing. My favourite herbs for sleep are passionflower, valerian, lavender & Californian poppy.
Supplementation is very dependent on the presentation but GABA, Magnesium Glycinate, L-theanine and glycine have all been shown to help sleep quality and quantity. The idea with supplementation is to get your body into the state it needs to be in then slowly start to reduce the dosage.
