A new study has just revealed why it is so important to give your body enough sleep. Sleep deprivation robs the neurons in the brain of the ability to function properly. And that could be detrimental to every aspect of life.
Previous studies have tied sleep deprivation to a heightened risk of depression, obesity, diabetes, heart attacks and stroke, as well as medical errors.
A new study is the first to reveal how sleep deprivation disrupts our brain cells’ ability to communicate with each other, leading to temporary mental lapses that affect memory and visual perception. “We discovered that starving the body of sleep also robs neurons of the ability to function properly,” said senior author Dr. Itzhak Fried, a professor of neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and Tel Aviv University. “This paves the way for cognitive lapses in how we perceive and react to the world around us.”
Fried led an international team in studying 12 UCLA epileptic patients who had electrodes implanted in their brains in order to pinpoint the origin of their seizures prior to surgery. Because lack of sleep can provoke seizures, these patients stay awake all night to speed the onset of an epileptic episode and shorten their hospital stay.
The team asked the patients to categorize a variety of images as fast as possible while their electrodes recorded the firing of nearly 1,500 single brain cells across the group in real time. The scientists zeroed in on the temporal lobe, which regulates visual perception and memory. –Medical Express
Performing simple tasks grew more challenging for people too as they experienced even less sleep. “We were fascinated to observe how sleep deprivation dampened brain cell activity,” said lead author Dr. Yuval Nir of Tel-Aviv University. “Unlike the usual rapid reaction, the neurons responded slowly, fired more weakly and their transmissions dragged on longer than usual.”
Researchers concluded that sleep is detrimental to healthy brain function. In a separate finding, the researchers discovered that slower brain waves accompanied sluggish cellular activity in the same regions of the patients’ brains.
“Slow sleep-like waves disrupted the patients’ brain activity and performance of tasks,” said Fried. “This phenomenon suggests that select regions of the patients‘ brains were dozing, causing mental lapses, while the rest of the brain was awake and running as usual,” said Fried.
“Inadequate sleep exerts a similar influence on our brain as drinking too much,” said Fried. “Yet no legal or medical standards exist for identifying over-tired drivers on the road the same way we target drunk drivers.”
Fried and his colleagues plan to dive more deeply into the benefits of sleep. Future studies aim to unravel the mechanism responsible for the cellular glitches that precede mental lapses. Get enough sleep and keep your brain sharp. You never know when you may need it.
I know I’m not worth a damn without a lot of sleep followed by a lot of coffee. Zzzzzzzzzzzzz…..
“Researchers concluded that sleep is detrimental to healthy brain function.”
uh… no… they did not..
I did 30 years of rotating shiftwork with plenty of overtime thrown in. It takes a physical toll on you.
I have sleep apnea, I can’t just tell the doctors and have them believe me. They insist I need a hospital stay to be observed. No thanks just give me the applicable natural treatment info. Also have ringing in my ears going way back, now I read the ringing is not in the ears, but in the brain.
Recently bought organic passionflower tea with chamomile added. It’s called Nighty Night from Traditional Medicinals. Haven’t tried it yet but can’t wait to try it out. I take zero medications so I don’t need to worry about any drug interactions and always avoid alcohol if I intend to drink tea at night. I have ringing too. Interesting that you read it’s in the brain and not the ears. I will have to look that up!
The machinery making you aware of what your senses perceive sits in your brain, always has been.
The nervous system, including the brain, is the interface between your conscious ‘I’ and your body.
If your passionflower tea doesn’t work well enough, try valerian. Read up on how to use it however, as its active ingredient is an alcaloid (like coffee, but the opposite way).
sleep apnea will eventually kill you. It killed my uncle and nearly killed my own DH. You should jump through the health hoops and get the CPAP.
Aljamo;
My ears don’t ring…..just sounds like a million
distant locusts. Sometimes it goes away.
I heard once it has to do with diet….but then,
what doesn’t?
Others say it is from loud noises or radio waves.
I once went to a theater concert where the speakers
were so loud that my ears hurt for 12 hours after.
If I had a woman who looked like the pic…. I really wouldn’t mind losing some neurons. The trick is simple – siesta/nap/mid-day shutdown. When you eat the mid-day meal, if at all possible, take a break. Won’t work if you punch the clock; but, hint to those who work for themselves… try it. 1/2 hour to an hour post-lunch and you’ll find you get the rest you need and can live without what folks say is the ‘necessary 6-8 hours’.
Sleep deprivation from gunfire , food shortages, bad water,. All reasons why aimed fire might become problematic? Get a semiauto shotgun. With lite loads. Have been experimenting with pistol shot capsules for the 44. Seems they will take 14 BBs. Think of yourself sick , tired, exhausted. Then try to hit the bullseye. And then it gets dark. The semiauto shotgun is a miracle weapon? Think someday you might be too weak to pump? Used win. 1400 s are cheap. Stogers also.
Old news. It’s been known for many years that sleep deprivation is not good for you.
I just saw an old NCIS episode where Tony wasn’t able to sleep for days and was having serious problems. At the end of the show, he went to sleep on top of his desk.
This is an incredible breakthrough!
Never in the history of humanity anyone ever noticed sleep is not good for you and you cannot function well without adequate sleep!
This is another tribute to the gigantic minds who have dedicated themselves to science!
Thankfully, the government workers I know will NEVER have a sleep deprived – or for that matter, vacation-deprived, sick-day deprived or pension-deprived existence. Most of them to, however, have a WORK deprived existence.
I can’t ever sleep more than 4-5 hours, even with a ton of alcohol. I feel tired all the time anymore adn I am only 46. I used to burn the candle at both ends and think nothing of only getting 4 hours sleep a day even when working 7×12’s. Now I would love to be able to sleep 8 hours but have no clue what that is like….very foreign to me 🙁
BJ, consider having your primary care doctor give you a script for a sleep study.
When you go to sleep, they hook you up with electrodes to measure what is happening or not happening in your brain. Then you meet with the sleep study doctor soon thereafter to learn how it can be corrected.
Good luck to you.
I was prescribed this back in 2015, but Cigna would only pay for a in home study where you hook yourself up…..not near as good or thorough. They gave me a C-pap and it would wake me in the middle of the night in a panic struggling to breathe. It was like too much air was being forced in too fast. I fought with Cigna to let me do the in hospital one where they could monitor me and get the settings right, to no avail. I finally gave the mask back and gave up. My dad died of an aneurysm and stroke at the same time at the age of 48……I worry 🙁