Sleep Science

Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulator. ☕️
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It prolongs sleep latency (i.e. the time it takes you to fall asleep), reduces total sleep time and sleep efficiency, and worsens perceived sleep quality. Slow-wave sleep is typically reduced, whereas wakefulness, transitional stage of sleep (N1 and N2 sleep) and arousals are increased. 😴
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Sleep as the next feminist issue: women are more likely than men to suffer from poor sleep and insomnia😴. This is down to a number of reasons including hormones, stress and social responsibilities which often see women shouldering a greater share of the childrearing and household jobs🤱🏠.

Some women may also feel the need to prove themselves in the workplace👩‍💻: working long days and only getting 5-6h of sleep to prove they are as tough as the men in their office (although the men should also be getting more sleep👀). But, as Arianna Huffington and Cindi Leive also said "We've already broken glass ceilings in Congress, space travel, sports, business and the media -- just imagine what we can do when we're fully awake."

Did you know your gut and your sleep are besties? 🌙🦠 Scientists are still uncovering exactly how this relationship works but here are some of the proposed mechanisms behind the sleep-gut relationship.

It seems like the more we learn about the gut, the more crucial it is to our overall health 🦠 Turns out our gut even impacts our sleep with lower gut microbiome diversity being correlated with more fragmented sleep and more time spent awake during the night 😴.

On the other hand, poor quality, disturbed or mistimed sleep (sleeping out of sync with your body’s natural rhythms and the light-dark cycle) seem to result in poorer gut health with less diversity and an over abundance of certain bacterial strains👀.

So looking after your gut is key if you want to optimise your sleep, and your life.

It seems like the more we learn about the gut, the more crucial it is to our overall health. Turns out our gut even impacts our sleep with lower gut microbiome diversity being correlated with more fragmented sleep and more time spent awake during the night.

On the other hand, poor quality, disturbed or mistimed sleep (sleeping out of sync with your body’s natural rhythms and the light-dark cycle) seem to result in poorer gut health with less diversity and an over abundance of certain bacterial strains.

So looking after your gut is key if you want to optimise your sleep, and your life.

Just like humans, every living creature (from insects to blue whales) have to have a period of rest or sleep every 24h 🐜🐟🦭

We are quite surprised by the elephant and giraffe? 🐘🦒 are you?

Sleep is a universal phenomenon, yet its expression in the animal kingdom is remarkably diverse.

From bees taking short breaks to dolphins engaging in unihemispheric sleep and bears undergoing long bouts of hibernation, each species has adapted its sleep behavior to suit its unique lifestyle and survival needs. 🦁🐸🐥🐍🐬🦍🐄🦮

It's the last week of August, which is women's month, so this week let's focus on the sleep of the lovely women in our lives.

Hormones have a substantial impact on sleep. 😣

Women undergo hormonal fluctuations throughout their lives, all of which can influence sleep patterns and are the primary reason why sleep might differ significantly between men and women. 👩🏽‍🤝‍👨🏾

It is important to note that while sleep quality may differ between sexes, men and women still have the same nightly sleep duration needs!

An immune response, like that initiated by a viral infection or illness, can affect sleep. At the same time, consistent sleep strengthens the immune system, allowing for balanced and effective immune function. 🦠💤

Image adapted from: Zager, Adriano & Palermo-Neto, João. (2016). Chapter 3
Neuroimmune Aspects of Sleep and Wakefulness. Doi: 10.1201/9781315366340-4.

🌝 During the daytime, your immune system is busy protecting you against inhaled, ingested or absorbed pathogens or germs (what we call innate immunity)

🌚 When we sleep, the immune system changes function to adaptive immunity and it removes damaged and mutated cells as well as makes the antibodies to the viruses and germs to which you were exposed to during the day.