While recently going through some of my seemingly endless stacks of papers, I came across an article I clipped out of Newsweek about a year ago. The subject is sleep and memory and it had some interesting information about how sleep affects our ability to remember things. Since the dominant theme of my posts for the past 6 weeks has been about sleep related issues it seemed like a good idea to share the highlights of this article with you as well.
According to this article, when you are asleep (the time your body is supposed to be resting and recovering), your brain (the organ that directs you to sleep in the first place) is extraordinarily active. And much of that activity helps the brain to learn, remember and forge new connections to enforce that learning and the formation of memory.
Apparently we all have several different types of memory –including declarative (retrievable, fact-based information), episodic (events from your life), and procedural (how to do something)– and researchers have designed ways to test each one of them. Experiences we have that become memories are laid down first in the hippocampus, obliterating whatever is underneath. If a memory is to be retained, it must be shipped from the hippocampus to a place where it will endure –the neocortex, the wrinkled outer layer of the brain where higher thinking takes place. Unlike the hippocampus, the neocortex is a master at weaving the old with the new. And partly because it keeps incoming information at bay, sleep is the best time for the “undistracted” hippocampus to shuttle memories to the neo cortex, and for the neocortex to link them to related memories.
You can think of it as your brain trying to squeeze in some extra practice time while you’re asleep –bringing some truth to the old adage “sleep on it.” It’s not just memory that’s improved by sleep. Recent studies indicate that sleep not only helps store facts, it also helps make connections between them. Some sleep researchers believe that for every 2 hours we’re awake, the brain needs an hour of sleep to figure out what all these experiences mean, and that sleep pays a crucial role in constructing the meaning our lives come to hold as a result.
Sleep deprivation experiments have shown that a tired brain has a difficult time capturing memories of all sorts. But the most interesting finding revealed in this article is that sleep deprivation is more likely to cause us to forget information associated with positive emotion than information linked to negative emotion! This could explain, at least in part, why sleep deprivation can trigger depression in some people: memories tainted with negative emotions are more likely than positive ones to “stick” in the sleep-deprived brain. All the more reason to get a good night’s rest!
As I mentioned in a previous blog post, the position you sleep in at night can have an effect on the overall quality of your sleep and more importantly, on how you feel when you wake up in the morning. Most of us probably aren’t even aware what position we spend the most time in when we’re asleep. I know I tend to favor sleeping on my stomach, which is the worst posture for your spine. Over the years I have trained myself to sleep on my side (better than sleeping on your belly but not as good as sleeping on your back without a pillow, which is the optimal sleep posture). And even though I’ve gotten pretty good at correcting my sleep posture before falling asleep and even during sleep, I still find myself going through phases where I just want to sleep on my stomach –neck be damned!
Let’s start by look at which 
Herbal sleep aids can come in the form of capsules, tinctures, tea bags or loose dried herb that can be used to make infusions – similar to, though slightly more potent than using tea bags. The most common ones used for relaxation and inducing sleep are Valerian Root, Passionflower, Skullcap, Chamomile, Lavender, Hops, and sometimes even Spearmint or Catnip. Rather than cause heavy sedation like Rx meds, most herbal remedies simply produce a calming effect that can assist in clearing the mind and reducing stress. They work fairly quickly, so you should know within 2-3 nights if the product you’ve chosen is the right one for you.
Most of us (75%) don’t consume enough daily amounts of this vital mineral. But You can address this problem by eating foods naturally high in magnesium like raw almonds and cashews, dates, brown rice, sardines, steamed shrimp, cheddar cheese, and roasted turkey. For a variety of reasons, including foods grown in mineral depleted soils, farming methods that don’t create nutrient-dense produce, and our consumption of processed foods, we simply don’t get enough magnesium in our diets, so taking it in supplement form can really help.
Extensive research on the use of massage therapy in the treatment of specific medical conditions by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Center for Complementary & Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) among others, has demonstrated a wide variety of benefits including: reduced swelling and pain, improved immune system function, better sleep patterns, lower levels of stress hormones, improved mobility and range of motion after injury, lower levels of depression, faster recovery from surgery, and in some cases lower blood pressure and blood glucose levels.
A lot of people think that meditation is hard to do and can’t imagine carving out a long stretch of time where they are doing basically nothing. But it’s in the “being” not the “doing” we can re-connect with ourselves and tap into our intuition. That’s where the answers within us lie, but before we can access them we have to quiet down and eliminate all the distracting noises in our heads. It’s also the best way to achieve the peace of mind that you need to get a restful sleep.
Close your eyes and imagine that inside the pit of your stomach there is a deflated rubber balloon. As you inhale slowly through your nose imagine the balloon starting to fill up with air and see it expanding inside your stomach as your belly expands. Then as you slowly exhale out of your mouth, imagine the balloon deflating as your belly contracts, until it’s back in a flaccid resting state. Now repeat. Each time you begin to inhale, imagine the balloon getting bigger as it fills with air, pushing out against the insides of your rib cage. As you get into a rhythm and find this easier to do imagine the balloon also getting taller and expanding upwards. Do this as many times as you can (at least 6 or 8 in a row to start).
