Chandler Ross

The neurons (nerve cells) that communicate with one another need to have sleep to function. Surprisingly, the brain and body remain incredibly active during your sleep. Sleep is like a housekeeper that eliminates the toxins in the brain that tend to build up during your waking hours. So, when you do get a good night’s sleep and feel refreshed, you know that your sleep did its housecleaning job.

People have thought that sleep is just our lives’ passive part until the 50s. Over the last almost seventy years, it’s been discovered that the brain is extremely active while we sleep. Additionally, our daily functions and mental health are affected by sleep, or the lack of it and understanding the effects are just being understood. (American Sleep Association, 2018)

The computer of our body, the brain, has a structure called the hypothalamus that is the size of a peanut embedded well into the brain. It contains nerve cells that operate as control centers that affect sleep and awakening. Groups of thousands of cells known as the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) are found

within the hypothalamus and receive the information about exposure to light directly from the eyes and how your behavior rhythm is controlled. (National Institute of Health, 2018)

The very basic reason we need sleep is that we won’t survive without it. It is the way our body and mind refreshes and recharges. If a human stays awake for 11 consecutive days, it will cause death. Even sleep that is irregular becomes an issue. A really good night’s sleep can relieve being sleepy and being deprived of that sleep which leaves us with an out of sync, groggy feeling. (Tomorrow Team, 2018)

Research has found that sleep appears to be largely targeted to the brain. Even though the immune system and hormone levels are affected by sleep deprivation, the impact that is most consistent in animal studies is in the brain

It has been shown that sleep is when neurons join together in networks. Neuron networks that have been grown in labs show stages that are similar to sleeping and waking. It could mean that sleep naturally results when neurons start to work jointly.

Another essential role that sleep plays is to consolidate memories. During our waking hours, our brains absorb an amazing amount of information. This information is not recorded and logged directly, but the experiences and facts that we have been exposed to have to first be stored and processed; much of this occurs when we sleep. During sleep, the process of consolidation takes place and transfers the information received over the course of the day from the short-term memory to the more durable long-term memory. People retain information and execute memory tasks better after a night’s sleep

Our sleep can be affected by a number of things. A welcoming bed, lights turned off, and quiet surroundings all help our brain to calm down, the body to relax, and finally, the ability to drift off into the blissfulness of sleep.

However, there are other things that affect our sleep. They can disturb and interrupt our ability to achieve what is supposed to be the natural process of falling asleep. We’ll explore what these disturbances are and what can be done to eliminate them to get a good night’s sleep.

What we eat and drink, if we exercise too close to our bedtime, work past what would be our normal business hours, the external noises of traffic, sirens, garbage trucks, and people chatter all play a part in what can affect our sleep, and not necessarily for the better.