Tag Archives: sleep

Inducing sleep in two minutes or less!

Posted on November 11, 2019 by | 4 comments

Sleep deprivation is no fun and many individuals have experienced a sleepless night at some point in their life. Whether it’s from the stress of an upcoming exam or assignment, being sleep deprived is detrimental for one to be able to perform at their best.

In the majority of cases, having an instance of sleep deprivation does not come with serious consequences. Performing poorly on an exam or not being able to be at your best at work are situations one can always recover from in one way or another.

However, in the case of a US Navy pilot, having optimal sleep is absolutely essential as it very well could mean life or death.

Hence, the US Navy invented a method to essentially force your body to sleep in two minutes or less. This method has proven to be 96% successful after six weeks of practice.

So if you are feeling sleepless and have a crucial day tomorrow, try this method out and you just might be able to get a full night’s rest! Don’t worry if it doesn’t work right away. Try again and focus on relaxing your body.

U.S. Navy’s method to forcefully induce sleep

  1. Lie face up in your bed and make sure you are in a comfortable position. If you feel more comfortable on your side, you can do so as well. Close your eyes and relax your facial muscles, tongue, and jaw. Any tension you may have, mentally release it. You can do so by imagining any tension or tightness you have near an area by literally unraveling that knot.
  2. Drop your shoulders as low as possible, allowing them to be in a comfortable position that also releases any tension you have on your neck. Work from your shoulders down to each arm and then to the fingertips, mentally releasing any tension you may have. Remember, it sounds extremely awkward to be mentally releasing any physical stress, but the purpose is to trick your body into thinking it is ready to sleep.
  3. Take a deep breath and breath in and out. As you breathe out, release any tension in your chest. Likewise, work from the top of your shoulders to your lower back, pretend as you work your way down each spinal column is being massaged and relaxed.
  4. Lastly, work from your upper legs to the bottom of your feet. Including your toes and ankles, mentally massage your way down and turn off and active muscles.
  5. Finally, remove any mental thoughts that may be causing you not to be able to sleep. Don’t think about your exam tomorrow, don’t think about that upcoming presentation. Imagine yourself in a calm and peaceful place. For instance, pretend you’re on the beach and all you hear is the waves crashing against the shore. Focus on that or whatever finds you peace and comfort.
  6. If done correctly, you should be asleep by now! Of course, this is difficult to do if you haven’t done something like this before. However, with practice you will see an increasingly higher success rate every time you do it.

Of course, reading about this method does not do it justice, you can watch this video to follow a step by step guide on how to do so.

YouTube Preview Image

Some additional things to watch out for:

  1. Whatever you do, don’t think about whatever it is stressing you out. This may seem difficult to do, but it is probably the main reason why you cannot sleep because your brain is actively stimulated by it.
  2. Don’t think about how late it is and how you need to sleep as soon as possible. Thinking about this only adds further stress and makes you more awake.
  3. Don’t move. Once you find your comfortable position, fight any urge you have to move or readjust. Your leg is itchy? Fight that urge to itch it. By doing so you are actively tricking your body that you are ready to sleep.

Sleep deprivation is rampant among University students, if you are ever feeling sleepless and desperate to fall asleep, please try this out!

Written by Jason Duong

4 Comments

Posted in Biological Sciences, Science in the News, Statistics

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The Science Behind The Polyphasic Sleep Schedule

Most people are monophasic sleepers, meaning we get our sleep all in one large chunk of the day. While there are some cultures that set time during the day for sleep , such as a siesta in Mediterranean cultures, most people (try to) get 6-8 hours of sleep at night, to stay alert during the day. To adapt to the busy schedule of school or work, polyphasic sleep schedules have become more and more popular with whole communities dedicated to the odd sleeping pattern.

Polyphasic sleep refers to any sleep schedule where you get more than 2 phases of sleep in a day.

Different types of sleep schedules

Source: http://polyphasicandexercise.blogspot.com/2012/06/polyphasic-sleep.html

By segmenting sleeping phases, polyphasic sleepers are able to sleep for much less in total, sometimes only 3 hours a day. This leaves more time to be productive during the day. There is a transition period from monophasic to polyphasic that takes a lot of dedication to change, and most say their alertness drops significantly during this time. Those who have successfully transitioned say that in general, they are just as alert as they were with a monophasic schedule, and they no longer need to sleep for more than 6 hours a day. Despite the anecdotal benefits, most people fail to transition, or return back to a monophasic sleep schedule shortly after a successful transition.

Most people will find it hard to transition and stay in a polyphasic sleep schedule, simply because their work and social culture doesn’t allow it. With everyone else being monophasic sleepers, it gets difficult to stay connected to others. It also gets difficult to find a place at work to nap during the day.

Aside from the mental difficulties people face with a polyphasic sleep schedule, sleep professionals find it difficult to recommend polyphasic sleep to people. As Dr. Avidan, director of the Sleep Disorder Center at UCLA, says, “There is very little data—none whatsoever in the medical literature—of carefully designed clinical studies demonstrating that polyphasic sleep has any advantage in human sleep medicine.”

Sleep is not like a bank account, it takes a full night of sleep to recover from just 1 hour of lost sleep. By shifting sleep schedules, you also end up shifting a lot of physiological functions that can cause adverse consequences for your endocrine and metabolic systems.

-Grant Li

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Posted on November 4, 2019 by in Biological Sciences

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Missing Your Bed Time May be the Reason Behind the Extra Pounds

Posted on September 29, 2019 by | 1 comment

Image from MedicalNewsToday of a sleep deprived man

Almost everyone is guilty of saying that I’ll sleep early tonight, only for it to be midnight and having the regret of not coming to bed earlier. This bad habit may be the reason you gain weight according to many studies.

Sleep deprivation takes many tolls on the human body, including messing with hormone levels. In scientific terms, lack of sleep causes a decrease in leptin and an increase in ghrelin. Leptin works to supress your appetite and ghrelin stimulates your appetite. A study found that sleep deprived individuals had 16% less leptin and 15% more ghrelin compared to a well rested person. This is a recipe for disaster because a decrease in leptin means more eating and an increase in ghrelin means even more eating!

Image of excess body fat from MedicalNewsToday

Not only does sleep deprivation mess with hormones, the tiredness also plays a role in weight gain. As a result of being tired, individuals are more inclined to skip the gym, ditch the kitchen and buy fast food, and finally, and are more prone to indulge in sugary and fatty foods. When the brain is low on sleep, impulsive decisions are made, and the cravings are given in to. A study showed that people who had less sleep were eating 10 more grams of sugar compared to someone who had a full night of sleep! Fat and carbohydrate consumption also increased in the sleep deprived group. The longer you are out of bed, the more time you have to eat unnecessarily.

Stock photo of a sleeping man from shutter stock

Getting your sleep is very important as the frequency of diabetes, which is very closely linked to obesity, is directly related to a lack of sleep. Since individuals  with less shut-eye consumed more sugar, they were more prone to diabetes, and as a result of that, they put themselves on the path to obesity! Changes in metabolism, increased appetite and a decreased energy expenditure all directly relate to weight gain, and that can lead to more long term health problems.

Staying awake longer leads to a decline in physical activity due to being tired. More importantly, an increase in food consumption to provide more energy to stay awake longer. Sleep deprivation may be what you need to focus on in order to lose unwanted weight and get back into shape.

By Pawandeep Uppal

 

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Posted in Biological Sciences

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Sleep Mysteries: The Ideal Sleep Threshold, Short Sleepers, and Early Risers

Posted on September 23, 2019 by | 1 comment

How much sleep do you get on a nightly basis? With all of the commitments that a student must subject to, one can expect that number to be quite low. Much of Western society has been raised on the knowledge that 7+ hours of sleep is the most ideal for an adult. But what happens to us if we don’t reach this threshold of “enough” sleep? How do some people seem to get by comfortably on much less? And how are individuals able to wake up easily in the morning while others have to hit snooze quite frequently? The answer to the latter 2 questions can be attributed to none other than our own genes. 

An image of a baby sleeping.
Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/photos/baby-sleeping-sleep-childish-cute-1941745/

It is common knowledge that reduced amounts of sleep leads to a variety of negative effects. Growth hormones are released during this time, which is why many adults blame lack of growth to not getting enough sleep. You may have also heard about how sleep affects your rate of metabolism, and that sleeping increases weight loss. This is due to the fact that while asleep, your body secretes appetite-reducing chemicals, which are meant to decrease the chances of hunger interfering with your rest. Studies have shown that our body’s DNA repair mechanisms are heightened when we’re asleep, because this is the time in which we undergo the least amount of chemical and mechanical stress from outside forces.

A graph of the sleep cycle, showing the stages of sleep corresponding to time. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/37583694@N04/3457948158

For a subset of the population, a shorter average sleep cycle is actually enough to carry on their daily lives feeling energized. Each gene in our DNA is converted into one protein through intricate biological processes. A study by Ying-Hui Fu’s lab focused on the DEC2 gene, which codes for a certain protein that is an important regulator for the protein orexin. The diagram below explains the the DEC2 mechanism in detail. The study also uncovered that short sleepers (those with the DEC2 gene mutation) had 6.25 hours of sleep while others (those without the DEC2 gene mutation) had 8.06. This shows the natural difference in the amount of sleep that short sleepers felt was necessary to feel refreshed.

DEC2 mechanism in a graphic representation. Image source: Francine Flores, made with Canva

Another mystery in the sleep world pertains to “night owls” vs. “early birds”. A study by Samuel Jones’ lab has found that variation at 351 locations in the genome affects the waking patterns within different people, termed as one’s chronotype. The fluctuation in expression of these genes has shown a 25 minute difference in the waking times of the most extreme early risers and the most extreme late risers.

An image of DNA. Retrieved from https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=31530&picture=structure-of-dna

There are many questions up in the air concerning sleep and sleep patterns. With our knowledge of the reasons behind occurrences such as short sleepers and waking tendencies, we can further our understanding of why we need sleep and how much sleep is enough to sustain our day-to-day systems. Using the information from current and future studies, we can address issues that individuals have regarding sleep and take a step toward solving more of our sleep mysteries. 

Written by Francine Flores

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Posted in Biological Sciences, Uncategorized

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