The association between unconscious and conscious routines and the corresponding effects on health

Since childhood, we have always been taught about the importance of sleep. It has keen effects on our attitudes and our ability to stay awake or be alert in academic settings. But that is just at a general level of knowledge, as neuroscientists we know there are endless mechanisms and consequences that involve our circadian rhythm or sleep in general. In a holistic sense, it appears as if the most important practice that reeks the most positive outcomes is routine.

In an article published by Scientific American, titled "Hacking Dreams Could Help People Heal," sleep experts found that people could alter the ending of their nightmares by altering the ending during their conscious states, and by using sensory stimuli while awake and asleep to trigger a similar state. The outcomes associated with the similar sense state are closely related to how our brain waves have similar routines while we sleep compared to when we are awake in an effort to further consolidate learned information. Specifically, circadian rhythm experts found that in both mice and human models, if presented with a routine/maze consciously, the brain waves that are measured when the animal models are conscious, match the waves that are measured when they are asleep. This suggests the brain automatically works to master what is presented to us in real-time while we sleep. So getting back to the general idea presented earlier, sleep is crucial! Not only for growth, rest, and focus but also for the foundation of our learning systems. This sleepy study shows an instance in which we, consciously, can contribute to our unconscious experiences. However, there have been studies that also show how our unconscious can contribute to conscious experiences.

Researchers introduced the idea of tasks associated with alertness and vigilance being primary functions that are impaired when someone is experiencing sleep deprivation. Guadagni et al. (2014) specified that most of the impairment was seen in tasks that involve the prefrontal cortex and its corresponding executive functions. To further the existing literature on sleep deprivation, they conducted a study and hypothesized that sleep deprivation also contributed to how well individuals can empathize with others. Their results confirmed their hypothesis and showed that individuals who got less sleep showed more signs corresponding with a lack of empathy emotion. From the previously discussed article, we know that our conscious routines have effects on our unconscious. This study, and supporting evidence from other studies on the same topic, show how our unconscious experiences that derive from sleep deprivation, or a temporary change in our circadian rhythm, contribute to our emotional states as well as our cognitive functions while we are conscious.

To go even further into the various effects our sleep has on our cognitive functions, during his lecture at Loyola University Chicago, Dr. Fred Turek from Northwestern University introduced physical elements to dysfunctional circadian rhythms. He noted that in individuals with altered circadian rhythms, their ability to metabolize and susceptibility to health defects was altered. In his textbook chapter, he notes that many of the bodily systems, namely the endocrine and gastrointestinal, rely on the hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nucleus to regulate the circadian rhythm. The lapse in function of the SCN contributes to the downfall of organ systems, which leads to bad health effects.

Despite us being detached from reality when asleep, all of these studies show how important sleep is to a variety of functions, and how our actions while awake contribute to our sleep. On one hand, we have an instance in which our daytime routine can carry over into dreams and manipulate the quality of sleep experienced. The following two studies show how irregular sleep/circadian rhythms have effects on our cognitive, emotional, and physical states while conscious. Based on this, maybe the best lesson adolescents can learn early is the importance of sleep, after all, it isn’t just an excuse for parents to go to sleep at an adequate time, but is also crucial for success in everyday tasks.




References

Guadagni, Veronica, et al. “The effects of sleep deprivation on emotional empathy.” Journal of Sleep Research, vol. 23, no. 6, 13 Aug. 2014, pp. 657–663, https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.12192.

Summa, K. C., & Turek, F. W. (2014). Circadian desynchrony and health. Atlas of Clinical Sleep Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-323-65403-6.00029-9

Wickelgren, Ingrid. “Stimulating the Sleeping Brain Could Help Heal Memory Loss or Mental Health Problems.” Scientific American, 27 Feb. 2024, www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-sleep-engineering-could-help-heal-the-brain/.