What happens to your brain if you don't get enough sleep?

What happens to your brain if you don't get enough sleep?

What happens to the brain during sleep?

What are the benefits of a nap?

In a report published by the French magazine "Passion Santé", author Elca de Bishop says that the brain of a person who sleeps only 4 hours a day is 8 years older than the human brain who gets enough sleep.

The author adds that a person goes through 4 or 5 cycles during sleep, each of which is about an hour and a half, and each cycle consists of several stages.

The first cycle begins with a light sleep phase that lasts about 5 minutes. Then, regular electromagnetic waves travel from the depths of the brain to the cerebral cortex.

These waves follow every few seconds, until entering the second stage, which takes about 50 minutes, and it is very important for the process of preservation and storing information.

During this stage, the brain processes all the information that it collected during the day, and it is stored in the memory, in which the brain also reprocesses the information that was previously stored, and makes decisions about which memories it will retain or which it will erase from memory.

It has been shown - through scientific research - that the better the process of storing memories during this stage, the better you will be able to master the new tasks that you learned during waking hours in the required manner, so that some scientists believe that there is a link between IQ and the strength of electromagnetic waves during sleep.

During the third and fourth stages, a person enters a deep sleep, which is the period in which the body recovers and re-energizes after hours of accumulated stress during the day.

During the fourth stage, the brain waves become more like the brain waves of a sick person in a coma, and this stage lasts about half an hour at maximum.

According to the author, the last stage is known as "paradoxical sleep" or "rapid eye movement sleep", which is an important stage for improving mood and storing memories, after which awakening occurs naturally.

What happens when I do not get enough sleep?

1- Waste accumulation in the brain

During wakefulness, brain cells expand and close together greatly and contract during sleep, which creates an area that facilitates the flow of cerebrospinal fluid, which helps remove "brain waste", especially proteins.

These proteins accumulate in the brain more in people who do not sleep enough hours at night, and research has shown that people who sleep a few hours for several years are more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease due to the accumulation of "beta-amyloid" proteins and proteins. Tau.

2- Cognitive performance is affected

The author adds that lack of sleep directly affects the prefrontal cortex, which is the cerebral cortex that covers the front part of the brain and plays an important role in making decisions and solving problems.

One study analyzed the sleep patterns of more than 10,000 people and tested their cognitive performance, and the study revealed that the effects of lack of sleep can appear quickly by impeding the abilities of logical thinking and speech.

It showed that the performance of the brain of a person who sleeps only 4 hours per day is similar to the performance of the brain of a person 8 years older than him who gets enough sleep.

We sleep two hours less than half a century ago

The author affirms that lack of sleep has become a phenomenon associated with the contemporary lifestyle. Research has shown that we sleep on average about two hours less compared to half a century ago.

This is closely linked to the use of social media and watching television, as modern devices keep us awake longer during the night.

Scientists also believe that the blue light from screens inhibits the production of melatonin, which causes us to sleep fewer hours and do not get enough rest during sleep.

Benefits of naps

The author said that taking short naps helps "cool the brain" - metaphorically - and relieve mental stress and reduce feelings of fatigue.

Some studies have shown that those who take a nap can absorb new information better than others.

The idea is that sleep activates short-term memory and helps the brain to retain only important information in long-term memory, which makes room for absorbing new information.

Excessive sleep is also harmful

The author affirms that too much sleep harms the brain just like too little, and that the ideal length of sleep ranges between 7 to 8 hours per day, and the results of cognitive tests have shown that those who sleep much more than normal rates suffer from cognitive problems similar to those of sleepers few hours.