Welcome To Healthysport!

Review of Fast Asleep by Dr. Michael Mosley

Details

Written by: Healthysport

Created: 25 August 2024

Last Updated: 25 August 2024

Hits: 443

Insomnia is one problem that many seniors face. As we get old, we rarely experience prolonged deep sleep. Some of us frequently wake up at night due to medical conditions that trigger a visit to the bathroom. Some are kept awake by medications. We resort to sleep aids: sleeping pills, melatonin, some resort to alcohol, or worse, illicit drugs. But is this an inevitability, something we could not control or correct? Fast Asleep says we can improve our sleep at any age.  

Sleep involves three distinct states, light sleep, deep sleep, and REM sleep. We sleep in roughly 90-minute cycles throughout the night flipping between one state and another. Light sleep is the preparatory phase, deep sleep is what we want. It is the phase of brain cleanup through a network of channels in the brain known as the glymphatic system that opens up and pumps cerebrospinal fluid through it. Sadly, a synthetic version of this system is not useful here, it cannot pass through the blood-brain barrier.

Deep sleep is similar to the management of memory in a modern computer. Your brain can store an extraordinary amount of data in this memory. A recent estimate puts its storage capacity at about 1000 TB which is 1,000,000,000 MB.  A computer with that capacity could store around 2 billion books or 500 films. Deep sleep is a sorting out of good from the bad memories. It keeps the good ones, throws out the bad. 

The third phase of sleep is REM (rapid eye movements) sleep which deals mostly with our emotions.  REM sleep is when we have our most vivid dreams, and it is these dreams that help us process and deal with bad emotions and experiences, all of which explain another very odd finding: During REM sleep most of our muscles are paralyzed. 

There is now a lot more evidence that people with incomplete sleep most nights are far more likely to become overweight or obese and develop type two diabetes than those who sleep normally. Sleep deprivation alters our appetite and hormones, making us in constant hunger. Sleep deprived people often crave sweet foods which could explain the unusual weight gain. Also, the deprivation produces more stress hormone cortisol, and that can influence your glucose level. A sleep deprivation experiment was also done with children who consumed 21% more calories than usual including 25% of more sugary snacks. Reverting to normal sleeping habits reversed the trend. 

In other words, lack of sleep makes one person fat, but piling on extra fat also means you sleep worse and this becomes a vicious cycle. The other important aspect of life is sex drive which is reduced with sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation leads to obesity, type two diabetes, dementia, high blood pressure and low mood. 

Some people make the mistake of assuming that staying in bed is close to resting and sleeping. What really matters is how long you spend on bed sleeping rather than being alert and tossing and turning. You need to have at least 85% of your normal sleep to make it of good quality. 

The two main driving forces of your awake-sleep cycle are adenosine, a chemical that puts you to sleep and your circadian rhythm, the circadian clock in your head following a roughly 24-hour day. There are two types of people with different circadian rhythms. Those who sleep early and wake up early (larks) and those who sleep late and wake up late (owls). The circadian clock is reset every day by bright morning light. But this can be altered easily especially among teenagers who used to be larks until they grow and become more involved with ‘life’, they start sleeping late and waking up late. Obesity can also alter the circadian clock due to snoring and worse, apnea. Too much fat around the neck leads to this. It is said that a neck size greater than 17 among men and 16 among women can easily cause snoring. 

A study carried out in Finland with overweight or obese patients diagnosed with mild apnea found that putting them on the rapid weight loss diet of 800 calories a day for up to 12 weeks cured more than half of them. They lost an average of 23.6 pounds which dramatically improved their sleep, as well as their hypertension, high cholesterol, and raised blood sugar levels.

Recommended hours of sleep--

 

1 to 12 months: 14 to 15 hours. 

One to 2-3 years: 12 to 14 hours 

3 to 6 years: 10 to 12 hours 

7 to 12 years: 10 to 11 hours 

12 to 18 years: 8 to 9 hours 

18 to 65 years: 7-9 hours

65+ years: 7 to 8 hours. 

Who are the most sleep deprived people?  These are mostly parents with children, older people, teenagers and menopausal women. Certain jobs, especially the ones with night shifts can easily cause sleep deprivation.  

How long can one go without any sleep?

The amount of sleep you need varies usually depending on your genes and your age. Some adults can get on for less than five hours a night, but most of us cannot.  The most reliable way to tell if you are getting enough sleep is to lay down in a quiet room in the afternoon and see how quickly you will fall asleep. If you fall asleep within 10 minutes of closing your eyes, it suggests that you are seriously sleep deprived.  In addition to the long-term impact of sleep deprivation on your brain and body, one of the biggest risks you face after even a single bad night's sleep is having a car crash. Your judgment and reaction time is impaired without you noticing. That is why a lot of car accidents occur during Daylight Saving Time’s week.

If you want to improve your sleep, you must first create a sleep window: The time at which you plan to go to bed and get up each morning and stick to this window as much as you can. 

Improve your sleep hygiene by fostering good bedtime habits, limiting caffeine and alcohol.

Clearing electronic gadgets from your bedroom and ensuring it is cool, dark and quiet. 

Sleeping pill melatonin seems to improve sleep quality without causing addiction. There’s limited evidence for the effectiveness of magnesium,  lavender, or other over-the-counter remedies. 

Breathing exercises,and in my case, meditation and journaling, are an excellent way of slowing your heart and distracting your thoughts. If you wake up in the morning at night and find it hard to get back to sleep, get out of bed and do not return until you feel sleepy. If you want to take a nap, make sure you do not do so no later than 2 PM and for no longer than 20 minutes.

Alcohol is a mixed blessing. It seems like one glass of red wine is the most effective helper for sleeping. Anything more than that is not worth it. Having  a warm bath can also help.

Based on the author’s study and experience, the Mediterranean diet is probably the best diet that helps a person to sleep.  This  diet includes olive oil,  fish,  legumes and vegetables. They contain anti-inflammatory compounds such as oleic and omega-3 fatty acids and polyphenols. Other types of foods can be inflammatory which can lead  to arthritis and other painful conditions that may deprive a person of  sleep. This inflammation isn't limited only to the joints,  muscles and other organs. It can affect the brain called neural inflammation which gets worse with aging and contributes to poor sleep and dementia.

The other benefit of the Mediterranean diet is how it boosts the level of good bacteria in your gut. These bacteria  can produce powerful anti-inflammatory agents as well as feel good chemicals that reduce anxiety since one of the main reasons people stay awake at night is because they are creating imaginary monsters and sad scenarios in their brains. Reducing anxiety by getting in a better mood helps us sleep. The Mediterranean diet is proving to be helpful in that category. 

Your gut Microbiome consists mostly of bacteria, but there are also fungi,  viruses and simple primitive organisms mixed in. Most of us have at least 1000 different species of microbes in our guts, fighting, reproducing and competing together. They form a wonderfully complicated ecosystem that the author likes to call his gut garden or internal rainforest.

Microbiome helps in the following way. 

--It influences our body weight by shaping our appetite and cravings and deciding how much energy our body extracts from the food we eat. 

--It teaches our immune system how to behave if you don’t have the right sort of microbes in your gut. 

--You are at much greater risk of a range of allergic and autoimmune diseases from asthma to multiple sclerosis. 

--It has a big impact on our mood.

A study conducted by Nova Southeastern  in Florida analyzing the microbiome of men in relation to their sleep  confirmed the importance of gut microbiome diversity. The  researchers identified a number of God species that were present in higher numbers and the man who slept well this included Bacteroidetes which would use GABA a neurotransmitter that promotes sleep and Corynebacterium which makes another neurotransmitter serotonin which again has been known to promote sleep.  Also they found that greater gut diversity produces higher levels in the blood of interleukin 6 which is an important part in regulating the immune system and influences both sleep and memory.

Prebiotics and probiotics. 

A prebiotic is a type of non-digestible plant fiber that acts like a stimulant to the growth of good bacteria in the gut. However, not all fiber rich vegetables are created equal. Some don’t boost your gut microbiome. The ones that do are  beans, lentils, onions, leeks, garlic, endive, radicchio, Jerusalem artichokes, whole grains, oats, barley, flaxseeds, fruit, seaweed, and cocoa.

Probiotics include yogurt that contains lactobacillus cheese, fermented foods, like sauerkraut and kimchi you can also take probiotic capsules.