"The best bridge between despair and hope is a good night's sleep." - E. Joseph Cossman
/Photo by Zohre Nemati on Unsplash
How important sleeping time for health? Especially for our brain health?
Sleep is not only a necessity because you are sleepy and need rest. There are health benefits for the brain when we are asleep. Apart from eating, a biological relationship, sleep is also a basic human need. Activities that can regenerate cells in the body and also brain health.
Modern ages today, the flow of information and technology with all its conveniences makes us more awake at night so that it scares our rest time. Watch movies from gadgets until late at night, scroll down social media, chat until morning, etc. Insufficient and poor quality sleep at night can trigger health problems, including those related to the brain.
Sleep activity functions as a brain cleanser from attached plaque, namely amyloid-beta protein that will appear and accumulate in the brain when we wake up from sleep. This protein if not removed can cause cognitive damage in the brain, such as dementia or Alzheimer's disease.
The way it works is that when we fall asleep, the brain will experience a "flood" of cleaning the impurities in it, including the amyloid-beta protein. This cleaning process is basically regulated by the glymphatic system which works to remove the liquid to bring the dirt out. When the cleaning process takes place, the cells in the brain will shrink and make the spaces in the brain widen. So that fluids from the glymphatic system will enter and carry waste and protein out of the central nervous system of the brain.
Poor sleep quality such as easy to wake up, not restful, sleeping in the morning, staying up too much, etc. make the glymphatic system work less efficiently. When there is a buildup of protein, it will cause inflammation and degeneration of neurons in the brain which over time will be fatal to the brain system such as Alzheimer's and dementia disease. If we sleep enough and with good quality, communication between nerve cells in the brain is also well maintained.
The ideal sleep time for any age is 7-8 hours per day on a regular basis, meaning that this time can not be divided as 5 hours at night and 3 hours during the day. 7-8 hours of sleep at night, this is a basic recommendation that must be adhered to so that the brain and body are healthy. Quality sleep is characterized by feeling refreshed in the morning when you wake up.
Some tips for maintaining quality sleep, including:
• Staying active during the day, one of which is our work activities during the day that make our bodies tired and need rest at night.
• Vitamin D from sunlight is useful for regulating the body's circadian rhythm so that it becomes more sleepy at night. So morning exercise outdoors and sun exposure is very good for our bodies.
• Create a consistent sleep schedule. This can help to stay disciplined and achieve quality sleep. So that the body gets used to sleeping at the beginning of the time according to schedule.
• Eliminate screen time or avoid playing gadgets an hour before bedtime, because the blue light that emits to the body can make the hormone melatonin or sleep hormone can be pressed back, making it difficult to close your eyes.
• Maintaining the cleanliness of the bed and bedroom is also an important factor that affects the quality of our sleep, pillows are not too hard and soft so that the head and neck can still feel comfortable.
• Use natural light as an alarm clock to wake up.
Good quality sleep and enough time will make the brain healthy so that it encourages us to stay productive, improves memory, helps us to focus and concentrate, and also prevents depression. Striving for peaceful nights and getting quality rest is among the best things to do for health and well-being. The point is that we cannot achieve optimal health and lead successful lives without maintaining sleep. Best night rest and peaceful 😴🌒