We’ve all heard someone once in our life tells us to make sure we get our rest or that sleep is important to us. Have you ever stopped to think of the science behind this? Why is sleep important to us? What does sleep do to our brain? Sleep is important to many of our brain functions like how our neurons communicate with one another through synapses. Even while we’re asleep, our brains are continuously staying active. In fact, “recent findings suggest that sleep plays a housekeeping role that removes toxins in your brain that build up while you’re awake” (NIH, 2022). One such toxin is beta-amyloid, a waste product associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Sleep is also known to improve memory recall, regulate metabolism and reduce mental fatigue (Eugene, 2015).
Today, sleep is something a lot of people tend to struggle with. Lack of sleep or sleep deprivation has become a common issue, especially in college students. With stress in the lead for reasons for difficulties with academic performance, sleep problems are a close second (Emerson, 2022). According to this article, more than 70% of college students reported that they get less than the normal 8 hours of sleep. This lack of sleep follows alcohol use, caffeine and energy dependence and stimulant dependence which in return causes more problems along the lines of health. Sleep deprivation weakens the immune system, has a higher risk for diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease, and it can affect learning.
In his article "Circadian programming of the ellipsoid body sleep homeostat in Drosophila", Ravi Allada and his colleagues researched on how homeostatic and circadian processes come together to explain sleep and wake patterns in fruit flies. Their experiment consisted of taking sleep away from Drosophila during specific times of the day and the results showed a greater bounce back in the morning than in the evening. With these results, they found that the lack of sleep in the morning increases calcium levels and gene expression whereas this isn't the case in the evening. In other words, waking up earlier in the day rather than staying awake late at night, results in better health (Allada, 2022).
Bringing the two articles together, we can take the information gained from Allada et. al's article and apply it to humans as well. Going back to what I mentioned earlier about college students, getting enough sleep is critical to our health so it might be a good thing for our nights to consist of sleeping but mornings for productivity. In this way, we not only get any toxins cleared up through our sleep, but we get critical vitamins for our body by being up early in the morning. A takeaway we can get from these articles is to prioritize our sleep. A lot of us want to enjoy college while we’re there but our health should be a top priority.
Resources:
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.). Brain basics: Understanding sleep. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Retrieved December 14, 2022, from https://www.ninds.nih.gov/health-information/public-education/brain-basics/brain-basics-understanding-sleep
Eugene, A. R., & Masiak, J. (2015, March). The neuroprotective aspects of sleep. MEDtube science. Retrieved December 14, 2022, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4651462/
About Joe Emerson Joe Emerson spent 30 years as a magazine and newspaper reporter. (n.d.). The importance of sleep for college students. Office of Admissions. Retrieved December 14, 2022, from https://admissions.usf.edu/blog/the-importance-of-sleep-for-college-students#:~:text=More%20than%2070%20percent%20of,negatively%20affects%20their%20academic%20performance.
Andreani, T., Rosensweig, C., Sisobhan, S., Ogunlana, E., Kath, W., & Allada, R. (2022, June 23). Circadian programming of the ellipsoid body sleep homeostat in drosophila. eLife. Retrieved December 14, 2022, from https://elifesciences.org/articles/74327
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