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Study: More Sleep, Sharper Brain

Everybody feels refreshed following a good night’s sleep. But can you wake up smarter? More artistic perhaps?

German scientists say they have demonstrated for the first time that our sleeping brains continue working on problems that baffle us during the day, and the right answer may come more easily after eight hours of rest.

The German study is considered to be the first hard evidence supporting the common sense notion that creativity and problem solving appear to be directly linked to adequate sleep, scientists say. Other researchers who did not contribute to the experiment say it provides a valuable reminder for overtired workers and students that sleep is often the best medicine.

Previous studies have shown that 70 million Americans are sleep-deprived, contributing to increased accidents, worsening health and lower test scores. But the new German experiment takes the subject a step further to show how sleep can help to turn yesterday’s problem into today’s solution.

“A single study never settles an issue once and for all, but I would say this study does advance the field significantly,” said Dr. Carl E. Hunt, director of the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research at the National Institutes of Health.

“It’s going to have potentially important results for children for school performance and for adults for work performance,” Hunt said.

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Sleepers Solve Problems Better

Scientists at the University of Luebeck in Germany found that volunteers taking a simple math test were three times more likely than sleep-deprived participants to figure out a hidden rule for converting the numbers into the right answer if they had eight hours of sleep. The results appear in Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature.

The study involved 106 people divided into five separate groups of equal numbers of men and women ages 18 to 32. One group slept, another stayed awake all night, and a third stayed awake all day for eight-hour periods before testing following training in the main experiment. Two other groups were used in a supplemental experiment.

The study participants performed a “number reduction task” according to two rules that allowed them to transform strings of eight digits into a new string that fit the rules. A third rule was hidden in the pattern, and researchers monitored the test subjects continuously to see when they figure out the third rule.

The group that got eight hours of sleep before tackling the problem was nearly three times more likely to figure out the rule than the group that stayed awake at night.

Jan Born, who led the study, said the results support biochemical studies of the brain that indicate memories are restructured before they are stored. Creativity also appears to be enhanced in the process, he said.

“This restructuring might be occurring in such a way that the problem is easier to solve,” Born said.

Born said the exact process in the sleeping brain for sharpening these abilities remains unclear. The changes leading to creativity or problem-solving insight occur during “slow wave” or deep sleep that typically occurs in the first four hours of the sleep cycle, he said.

Better Memory

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The results also may explain the memory problems associated with aging because older people typically have trouble getting enough sleep, especially the kind of deep sleep needed to process memories, Born said.

“Even gradual decreases in the total time for slow wave sleep and deep sleep is correlated to a kind of decrease in memory function, and in turn to a decrease in the ability to recognize hidden structures or the awareness of such things,” Born said.

Other researchers said they have long suspected that sleep helps to consolidate memories and sharpen thoughts. But until now it had been difficult to design an experiment that would test how it improves insight.

History is dotted with incidents where artists and scientists have awakened to make their most notable contributions after long periods of frustration. For example, that’s how Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev established the periodic table of elements and British poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote his epic “Kubla Khan.”

Born and his team “have applied a clever test that allows them to determine exactly when insight occurs,” wrote Pierre Maquet and Perrine Ruby at the University of Liege in a commentary on the research, also published in Nature.

Maquet and Ruby both say the study should be considered a warning to schools, employers and government agencies that sleep makes a huge difference in mental performance.

The results “give us good reason to fully respect our periods of sleep — especially given the current trend to recklessly curtail them,” they said.

adapted from abcnews.go.com by By William McCall

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YOGA FOR BEDTIME

Need help sleeping? Doing yoga exercises before bedtime can be just what you need

Sit up in bed comfortably, either with your legs folded or straight in front of you; whatever you can do with the most ease. Sit up and lean slightly back on your pillows or backboard. Close your eyes and rest your hands on your thighs and just breathe here for a few minutes. This doesn’t have to be a serious meditation but just a short while to do nothing but breathe.

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Spiritual practices such as meditation or yoga are best done in an environment  of beauty and tranquility. And the clock/timer you use for your practice can make  a real difference in creating such an environment.  But using a timer with artificial “beeps,” or even “recorded gongs,” coming out of a plastic box can be less than ideal.  The Bamboo Zen Timepiece  is unlike any other meditation timer on the market because it features a real, natural,  acoustic, long-resonating gong, produced by its traditional Japanese style bowl-gong, or “rin-gong”.  Moreover,  The Zen Timepiece is made with sustainable natural bamboo, so it is as beautiful to see as it is to hear.  Once you use a Zen Timepiece, nothing else will do.

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Mindfulness

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“That massive cleaning effort is a metaphor,” says Rabbi Sherre Hirsch, author of “We Plan, God Laughs.””When your physical surroundings are cluttered, your emotional and spiritual self is cluttered. If your space is clean, then your mind is open and you can let God in.”

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“There is a direct relationship between the hours worked and its negative impact on sleep,” says James C. Walsh, vice president of the National Sleep Foundation. “This is particularly noticeable for people working more than 40 hours per week.” The study found most people tried to compensate for the lack of sleep during the week by tacking on a couple extra hours on the weekend.

Sleepy at Work and the Wheel

Ironically, while most sleep-deprived Americans say they give up sleep for work, nearly 40 percent say they are so sleepy several days a month that it interferes with their daily activities.

While sacrificing sleep can be counter-productive in the workplace, Gelula says it can be dangerous in a nation dependent on travel by car. Nearly one half of adults report they have driven while drowsy in the past year and nearly 20 percent say they have actually fallen asleep while driving.

“We have our work cut out for us to educate Americans that sleep is a necessity, not a luxury,” says Gelula.

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Waking Up in the Morning as a Form of Spiritual Practice

Waking up in the morning is a metaphor for life — a kind of daily microcosmic reenactment of our overall purpose for being in the world.  That is, just about every religious tradition emphasizes spiritual growth.  And the connection between “awakening” and spiritual growth can be found in practically all forms of spiritual teaching.

So if waking up in the morning really is a metaphor for our larger spiritual lives, this perspective might help us treat our morning ritual of getting out of bed as a kind of spiritual practice.  Indeed, when approached in this way, how we wake up in the morning can make a larger difference in our lives overall.

Fortunately, for those who want to wake up right, without being startled awake by an annoying alarm or some radio DJ, there is The Zen Alarm Clock.  This clock was designed to make waking up a kind of spiritual practice.  The Zen Clock wakes users with a built-in 10 minute gradual progression of acoustic chimes.  And this gradual form of “progressive awakening” has been thoughtfully designed to include esoteric features that are fitting for a form of spiritual practice.  For example, not only is the hardwood Zen Alarm Clock beautiful to see and hear, the clock’s chime is tuned to produce the same frequencies as the tuning forks used by musical therapists in their healing work.  Moreover, the Zen Clock’s pre-programmed 10 minute chime progression sequence advances according to the “golden ratio,” which reflects both the natural proportions of our own bodies and the patterns of growth used in the overall evolution of the universe.

Even those who care little about such esoteric details nevertheless report that they love waking up with the gentle chimes of a Zen Alarm Clock.  And as the makers of the Zen Alarm Clock hope, we may eventually come to see many of the simple details of our lives as forms of authentic spiritual practice.

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A Wake-Up Call for Your Health

A solid third of your life should be spent in slumber, and not just so you can recover from those happy hours gone wild. Sleep is critical for overall health, says Maas, “and people are starting to realize it’s a necessity, not a luxury.” As you snooze, your body repairs errant cells, builds bone and muscle, consolidates memories, and stores up energy for the days, weeks, and years ahead. Sleep is so important, in fact, that some doctors consider how much you get to be a vital sign, on par with body temperature and blood pressure, says Lankford.

When you’re spent, your healthy habits tend to disappear. Fatigue makes the body crave a quick hit of energy–otherwise known as a high-calorie carb-fest. (Ever hit a fast-food drive-through after a rough night?) Going to the gym, a smarter pick-me- up, can seem about as doable as taking a trip to Mars, which is why nearly 50 percent of women report skipping exercise when they’re beat, according to the NSF.

Habitually skimping on shut-eye can also lead to chronic health problems or worsen preexisting ailments. “Sleep deprivation is cumulative,” says Lankford.

“If someone needs eight hours a night and gets only six every night for a week, by Friday she will be functioning on sleep debt.” Long term, that can spell malfunctioning hormones that pave the way for increased risks of depression, heart problems, gastrointestinal issues, type 2 diabetes, and breast and colorectal cancers. (Breast cancer, for example, has been linked to high levels of estrogen and low levels of melatonin; production of both of these hormones is affected when you’re sleep deprived.)

Boulder, Colorado—an innovative company has taken one of life’s most unpleasant experiences (being startled awake by your alarm clock early Monday morning), and transformed it into something to actually look forward to. “The Zen Alarm Clock,” uses soothing acoustic chimes that awaken users gently and gradually, making waking up a real pleasure.

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Rather than an artificial recorded sound played through a speaker, the Zen Clock features an alloy chime bar similar to a wind chime.  When the clock’s alarm is triggered, its chime produces a long-resonating, beautiful acoustic tone reminiscent of a temple gong.  Then, as the ring tone gradually fades away, the clock remains silent until it automatically strikes again three minutes later.  The frequency of the chime strikes gradually increase over ten-minutes, eventually striking every five seconds, so they are guaranteed to wake up even the heaviest sleeper.  This gentle, ten-minute “progressive awakening” leaves users feeling less groggy, and even helps with dream recall.

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Imagine a long leisurely lunch with a nap instead of a cold sandwich in front of your computer.

“It makes absolute sense,” said Dr. James Parish, medical director for the Sleep Disorder Center of the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz. “Sleep research has recently and repeatedly shown us what we have known for a long time and that is that sleep deprivation is an epidemic in this country.”

A new global Internet survey by the U.K.-based Sleep Council, a non-profit organization that advocates more sleep, calls for implementation of the siesta. The survey, released Sunday, asked people when they felt most alert and productive. Of 12,000 respondents, mostly from the United States and Europe, 41 percent said in the morning, while 38 percent said they hit felt most alert in the evening.

“The implication is that the majority are not fully alert in the middle of the day — the traditional time for a siesta in hot countries,” sleep expert Chris Idzikowski, a professor at Surrey University who conducted the two-year sleep study, told Reuters.

A Sleep Deprived Nation

Sleep deprivation usually manifests itself in feeling especially drained in the afternoon, say sleep experts. It’s the time of day when serotonin and dopamine levels, which regulate mood, sleep and emotion, naturally dip. And if you are already sleepy, this dip is even more dramatic.

“This feeling of drowsiness is sometimes associated with the mid-day meal,” said Dr. Michael Smolensky, author of The Body Clock Guide to Better Health and professor of environmental physiology at the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston. “But it really has a lot more to do with natural changes in the brain at this time in the afternoon. The body clock naturally governs itself and it includes this natural dip in the afternoon.”

Many European countries and others with hot climates have long implemented an afternoon down time, or siesta, when stores close, business shut down and residents go home for a nap, or take a long rest at a cafe or restaurant.

Experts say that with a rest during the afternoon hours when the serotoninergic system in a person’s brain slows, workers might perform better at their jobs, and even be more safe.

“What we see in children and adults with this loss of alertness is also a loss of hand/eye coordination in the afternoon,” Smolensky said. “Frankly, I sometimes take a short power nap in the afternoon.” Another way to feel refreshed in the afternoon, if you are not one who naps, is to take a rest, walk around the block, sit on a park bench, Smolensky says.

Less Sleep, More Bragging

“[Americans] like to brag about how little sleep they need, almost as if they are bragging about how many cars we own,” said Dr. Phyllis Zee, director of Chicago’s Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s Sleep Disorder Center. “We say we can get away with something like six hours of sleep. But, that’s not enough sleep. Most people need eight hours of sleep. This is why we feel tired in the afternoon and run down.”

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The Council’s study suggests that workers allowed to follow their natural sleeping habits and rhythms would benefit employers by expanding working hours and production.

“It’s a very cultural thing for Americans to push themselves during the day,” said Zee. “With an economy that moves and changes quickly and rapidly, the harder you work and the longer hours you put in, you think you are more productive. But it reaches a point when you are sleep deprived, then you are just going to make mistakes and that productivity you perceive won’t matter.”

One of the most alternative alarm clocks is called The Zen Alarm Clock.  The Zen Clock’s long-resonating Tibetan bell-like chime makes waking up a beautiful experience – its progressive chimes begin your day with grace. When the clock’s alarm is triggered, the acoustic chime bar is struck just once … 3-1/2 minutes later it strikes again … chime strikes become more frequent over 10 minutes … eventually striking every 5 seconds until shut off. As they become more frequent, the gentle chimes will always wake you up – your body really doesn’t need to be awakened harshly, with a Zen Clock you’re awakened more gradually and thus more naturally.  Unlike artificial recorded sounds coming out of a tiny speaker in a plastic box, natural acoustic sounds transform your bedroom or office environment.

adapted from abcnews.go by By Rose Palazzolo

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Zen proverb: “Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.”

The idea is that we should find meaning in ordinary tasks, because true clarity is fleeting enough…

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Getting the Sleep of Your Dreams - Choose a Soothing Alarm Clock

We are a sleep-starved nation. Sixty-three percent of American adults do not get eight hours of sleep at night, about 70 million suffer from insomnia, and according to the National Sleep Foundation, nearly seven out of ten report frequent sleeping problems—although most remain undiagnosed. Alarmed? You should be. As Stanford University “sleepdebt” expert William C. Dement, MD, PhD, warns: “Lost sleep accumulates as a debt that must be repaid or health eventually deteriorates.”

This year, the Institute of Medicine released a report linking sleep disorders and sleep deprivation to a host of ills, including an increased risk of hypertension, diabetes, obesity, depression, heart attack, and stroke.

Scientists are confirming what yogis and ayurvedic physicians have reported for centuries: deep sleep rests the body and the mind. Our daily dose of shut-eye regulates our weight, strengthens our immunity, protects our cardiovascular health, repairs our tissues and cells, and restores our energy. Sleep also allows us to process, consolidate, and retain new memories; it balances our emotions, makes us better problem solvers, and feeds our creativity.

But according to yoga, deep, refreshing sleep has an even more important function: it helps us stay spiritually balanced. The ancientrishis (seers) classified sleep as one of the four fountains, or primitive urges (along with food, sex, and self-preservation), that operate at an instinctual level to maintain our survival. When one of these fountains is out of balance, it can imbalance the others, creating obstacles to spiritual growth. For example, when we skimp on sleep, we tend to overeat and imbalance the “food” fountain. Scientific research confirms this: A recent Stanford University study found that the less sleep people got, the heavier they were. Shorter sleep duration boosts our level of ghrelin, a hormone that makes us feel hungry, and suppresses another hormone called leptin, which makes us feel full. And at Case Western Reserve University, researchers who conducted a long-term study with 68,000 women over 16 years found that women who got fewer than five hours of sleep each night were much more likely to gain 33 pounds or more—despite the fact that they ate less than the seven-hour sleepers.

When we fail to get enough sleep, our anxiety level rises, too, disturbing the “self-preservation” fountain. Plus, it’s difficult to maintain a yoga practice when you’re overtired. Who wants to get up early to meditate after tossing and turning all night? Missing our practice can throw our whole day off balance and, worse, feed the cycle of insomnia.

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