The Sleep Pattern Linked To 10% Higher IQ (M)
Around one-third of the population are night owls, with one-quarter preferring to rise early.
Category: Sleep
Beat Insomnia: 11 Unusual Sleep Tips Backed By Psychological Research (P)
Avoiding caffeine makes little difference to sleep — but here are 11 things that do actually work.
Premium article
This is an extended Premium Membership article (1,300 words). To find out more, click here.
Struggling to get a good night's sleep?
With 30 percent of adults reporting short-term sleep issues, you’re not alone.
In surveys of what would improve people’s lives, a good night's sleep comes near the top of the list.
Poor sleep results in worse cognitive performance, including degraded memory, attention, performance and alertness.
So, here are 11 proven tips that will transform your sleep and leave you feeling refreshed and rejuvenated.
The Sleep Schedule That Increases Depression Risk
Getting seven or eight hours is not enough, study finds.
Getting seven or eight hours is not enough, study finds.
Sleeping irregular hours increases the risk of depression, even if the total amount of sleep is sufficient, research finds. People who sleep and wake at different times are just as likely to suffer depression as those who do not get enough sleep overall. The findings highlight how important it is to maintain regular hours of sleep — on top of getting enough total sleep. Irregular sleep schedules may cause mental health problems by disrupting circadian rhythms, the researchers suggest. Circadian rhythms are the natural sleep-wake cycles of the body. Sleep may be more restorative when it coincides with melatonin production and lower core body temperature, which are two circadian rhythms which help the body prepare for sleep. For the study, researchers tracked over 2,100 young doctors as they battled through their first year of training after completing medical school. Trainee doctors are well-known to experience highly irregular work schedules, along with reduced time for sleep. Psychologists gathered information about their sleep and wake patterns through wearable devices. Ms Yu Fang, the study’s first author, said:“The advanced wearable technology allows us to study the behavioral and physiological factors of mental health, including sleep, at a much larger scale and more accurately than before, opening up an exciting field for us to explore. Our findings aim not only to guide self-management on sleep habits but also to inform institutional scheduling structures.”The results showed that trainee doctors with the most variable sleep schedules scored the highest on depression tests — they also had the worst moment-to-moment mood. Professor Srijan Sen, study co-author, said:
“These findings highlight sleep consistency as an underappreciated factor to target in depression and wellness. The work also underscores the potential of wearable devices in understanding important constructs relevant to health that we previously could not study at scale.”Parents of young children will be well aware of the damaging effects of irregular sleep schedules on mental health. Ms Fang joked:
“I also wish my 1-year-old could learn about these findings and only wake me up at 8:21 a.m. every day.”The study was published in the journal npj Digital Medicine (Fang et al., 2021).
What Your Sleep Reveals About Your Personality
Introverts and extraverts react differently to sleep deprivation.
Introverts and extraverts react differently to sleep deprivation.
Introverts are naturally better at dealing with sleep deprivation after a busy day of social interactions, research finds.
Despite being kept awake for 22 hours, introverts remained more alert than extroverts when tested the next day.
It may be because introverts generally have higher cortical arousal.
In contrast, extraverts are vulnerable to sleep loss after interacting with many people during the day.
After being kept awake all night, they were more sleepy the next day than introverts.
Dr Tracy L. Rupp, who led the study, said:
“Extroverts exposed to socially enriched environments showed greater vulnerability to subsequent sleep deprivation than did extroverts exposed to an identical but socially impoverished environment
The ability of introverts to resist sleep loss was relatively unaffected by the social environment.
Overall, the present results might also be interpreted more generally to suggest that waking experiences, along with their interaction with individual characteristics, influence vulnerability to subsequent sleep loss.”
The study included 48 people who did a series of tasks for 12 hours either on their own or in a group.
Everyone was then kept awake for 22 hours and given periodic tests of alertness.
Although introverts and extroverts usually slept about the same on a normal night, it was the introverts who did better on the tests after being sleep deprived.
The introvert’s ability to resist sleep loss could be down to genetic factors.
Social interactions are often complex and require people to regulate their attention and alertness.
As a result, more sleep may be required to recover.
Dr Rupp said:
“These data have practical relevance for occupational shift work and military operational assignments, and theoretical implications for understanding individual-difference factors influencing vulnerability or resiliency to sleep loss.”
The study was published in the journal Sleep (Rupp et al., 2010).
The Hidden Risks Of Staying Up Late At Night — Even For ‘Night Owls’ (M)
Night owls say they feel great at night, but what is the effect on their mental health?
Science Says: These Foods Steal Your Deep Sleep (M)
These common foods could be sabotaging your rest.
Memory Doubled By Playing These Sounds During Sleep
These sounds played during sleep can enhance both memory and sleep.
These sounds played during sleep can enhance both memory and sleep.
Sounds played during sleep can enhance memory and may even benefit sleep, research finds.
The sounds, though, need to be in sync with the brain’s natural oscillations to work.
In the study 11 people were played ‘pink noise’ while they slept.
This sounds like gentle hissing that goes up and down — much like the lapping of waves on the beach.
Here is some pink noise to try out:
Measuring the electrical activity in the brain, they were able to synchronise the sounds with people’s brain waves.
When synchronised, people were better able to remember a list of words they had previously learnt.
In fact, they remembered nearly twice as many words.
If the sounds were out of sync, though, the effect was not seen.
Dr. Jan Born, who led the study, said:
“The beauty lies in the simplicity to apply auditory stimulation at low intensities — an approach that is both practical and ethical, if compared for example with electrical stimulation — and therefore portrays a straightforward tool for clinical settings to enhance sleep rhythms.”
The researchers think that keeping the sounds in sync may also help people to sleep.
They observed that the brain waves related to sleep were stronger when the sounds were in sync.
Dr Born said:
“…it might be even used to enhance other brain rhythms with obvious functional significance — like rhythms that occur during wakefulness and are involved in the regulation of attention.”
The problem for the home experimenter, though, is that the sounds need to be in sync.
Dr Born said:
“Importantly, the sound stimulation is effective only when the sounds occur in synchrony with the ongoing slow oscillation rhythm during deep sleep.
We presented the acoustic stimuli whenever a slow oscillation “up state” was upcoming, and in this way we were able to strengthen the slow oscillation, showing higher amplitude and occurring for longer periods.”
The study was published in the journal Neuron (Ngo et al., 2013).
The Seeds of Depression And Anxiety Could Lie In Childhood Sleep
Is a child’s sleep schedule a ticking time bomb for their mental health?
Is a child’s sleep schedule a ticking time bomb for their mental health?
Not getting enough sleep as a child increases the risk of developing emotional disorders later on, research finds.
Inadequate sleep creates more negative emotions and alters positive emotional experiences.
For example, after just two nights of poor sleep, children cannot get the same pleasure out of positive experiences, researchers found.
The children also found it more difficult to recall these positive experiences later on.
Poor sleep is already known to have all sorts of damaging effects, such as reducing the ability to:
- Self-monitor.
- Read other people’s body language.
- Identify the emotions of other people.
- Exercise self-control.
Dr Candice Alfano, who led the study, said:
“Healthy sleep is critical for children’s psychological well-being.
Continually experiencing inadequate sleep can eventually lead to depression, anxiety and other types of emotional problems.
Parents, therefore, need to think about sleep as an essential component of overall health in the same way they do nutrition, dental hygiene and physical activity.
If your child has problems waking up in the morning or is sleepy during the day, then their nighttime sleep is probably inadequate.
This can result for several reasons, such as a bedtime that is too late, non-restful sleep during the night or an inconsistent sleep schedule.”
For the research, 50 children between the ages of 7 and 11 had their sleep restricted for a temporary period.
The researchers concluded that, over time, poor sleep like this is likely to increase the risk of depression and anxiety.
People without the right amount of sleep do not seek out positive and rewarding experiences that require effort.
Dr Alfano said:
“There are multiple emotional processes that seem to be disrupted by poor sleep.
For example, our ability to self-monitor, pick up on others’ nonverbal cues and accurately identify others’ emotions diminishes when sleep is inadequate.
Combine this with less impulse control, a hallmark feature of the teenage years, and sleep deprivation can create a ‘perfect storm’ for experiencing negative emotions and consequences.”
The study was published in the journal Sleep Medicine Reviews (Palmer & Alfano, 2016).
How To Feel 10 Years Younger In Two Days (M)
Learn why feeling young isn’t just about perception, but also about this habit.
The Key To Better Sleep Is A Surprise To Most People — And It’s Free (M)
Science finally confirms what many thought could not be true about sleep.
