Sleep: The Art Of Doing Nothing

We all do it. Some of us crave it, others fight it. Sleep is that vital process we spend a third of our lives doing and is both essential and still somewhat of a mystery. It seems odd that we lose 8 hours a day to something we don’t know all that much about, even with the, what is it now, 200,000 years we’ve been around? We’d much rather be doing something more exciting—like rewatching Lost on Netflix. But sleep is one of those annoyingly essential activities, like going back to your car to make sure you locked it after walking half the parking lot.

This week’s edition is here to help you understand why sleep is so important and how you can get more of it.

Definition of Sleep (sort of)

This is a relatively ambiguous question that does not have a concrete and specific answer. And before you think the opposite, try and define sleep yourself. It's sort of fun and maddening right? The funny thing is we all have the habit of sleeping once a day, so we seem to get the gist of what it is, yet we aren’t able to actually define it. So why is it so hard to define? Well let's go through some of the classic characteristics of being asleep:

Relaxed muscles (yet your muscles can be relaxed without sleeping.)
Greatly reduced consciousness of our surroundings (this could be a good way to define it, however some people would argue that being highly concentrated does the same thing… and they’re right!)
Laying down (humans generally sleep horizontally, unless of course you had way too much fun at last year's fourth of July party and ended up sleeping upright.)
…

You get the picture. Although these criteria come together during sleep, they do not always apply so the definition of sleep remains somewhat wishy-washy.

Sleep, What Gives?

As advanced as science seems to be in this day and age, we still lack a fundamental understanding of why we need sleep. But here are the top four candidates for why we need to sleep.

Inactivity Theory: Once upon a time humans lacked any suitable way to protect themselves, so sleep may have evolved as nature's “safe mode”. Back then, nighttime was filled with predators, so the best way to avoid becoming a midnight snack was to lie still and avoid detection.
Energy Conservation Theory: Building off of the first theory, unless you were a predator, hunting in the dark was impractical, so conserving energy by doing absolutely nothing was a better survival tactic. This theory is backed up scientifically due to the fact that our metabolism decreases 10% while we sleep. Score one for laziness!
The Restorative Theory: When we sleep we regenerate and repair at a much faster rate than when we are awake. Thus, it is not hard to conceive that sleep would be a pivotal part of healing the damage that we acquire throughout the day.
Brain Plasticity Theory: When we sleep we experience a high level of neuronal restructuring that is fundamental to encoding information and connecting bits of data. More on this later.

Unfortunately, if you were looking for a concrete and specific definition or utility for sleep, there isn’t one. But you can safely bet that when science is able to determine it, you could see a combination of the aforementioned theories at play. Nevertheless, we do know that sleep-deprived humans quickly transform into irritable zombies. Sleep fixes that.

The (5) Sleep Phases

There’s five stages of sleep, but let’s ignore the first, “wake”, because, well, we’re experts on that.

Stage 1 NREM (1-5% of total Sleep): This encompasses the change from being awake to being asleep. You’ve just laid down, your heartbeat slows, your muscles relax, and your brain says, “Hey, we’re doing this!” This stage lasts several minutes, and you could say that it’s preparing your body for what’s to come.
Stage 2 NREM (45% of Total Sleep): Deeper Sleep. Our heart rate, body temperature, breathing rate and brain waves slow down even more. However there are large spurts of electrical activity in the brain that are called K Complexes and Sleep Spindles. These two mechanisms are thought to be key to brain rewiring or plasticity and memory encoding (a game of ‘this or that’ with memories).
Stage 3 NREM (25%): This is the deepest stage of sleep, the one where it is the hardest to wake somebody. We believe this is the ideal sleeping beauty stage of sleep, so take notes! But beware prince charmings, this is also the stage where if you are awakened you experience a strong mental fogginess called sleep inertia, a cognitive impairment that can last from 30 minutes to an hour. In this stage our bodies physically repair tissues, cells and fortify our immune systems.
Stage 4 REM Sleep (25%): Amazingly enough our brain activity is very similar to when we are awake and although our muscles remain relaxed our eyes and diaphragm experience increased activity. This is also where you dream, possibly about your boss giving you an extra week of vacation by accident, or that lovely dream we’ve all somehow had of your teeth falling out.

Sleep Makes Us Smart

Memories are encoded during the day into sequences of neuronal networks. Think of these as drafts. When we sleep, memory consolidation comes into play and decides which drafts go on to be final versions. Let’s explain how this works:

Our hippocampus (which holds short-term memories) communicates with our neocortex (where we store long term memories). Through a process called neuronal pruning, our brains can strengthen certain useful neuronal pathways and get rid of those that we don’t need. Although common sense would tell you that the more connections the better, it actually makes the brain much more inefficient than it would be otherwise. So no, more isn’t always better.

Why Are We Sleeping Worse?

You already know the answer, don’t you? It’s screens. The now famous ‘doom scrolling’ is the fruit of flooding your brain with a persistent flow of dopamine, keeping your eyes glued to videos you forget within the minute. A decision that you will ultimately regret the next morning, but hey, that’s tomorrow’s problem.

If this wasn’t bad enough, screens emit blue light, which tricks your brain into thinking it’s daytime. This alters melatonin production, making it harder for you to sleep even after you’ve put your phone down. Experts suggest 40 screen-free minutes before bed to let your brain catch up.

And of course, there’s stress. Life is moving faster than ever, and our stress levels are skyrocketing. 56% of the world now lives in cities, where noise, light, and that constant hustle all contribute to a restless mind.

How to Sleep Better (And Stop Screwing It Up)

Good news! Better sleep is within reach, and it’s not rocket science. Here are a few tips:

Put down the screens: Yes, TikTok will still be there tomorrow.
Wind down before sleep: Take 30 minutes before bed to do something relaxing. Walk the dog, read a book, shower, or have a nice conversation with a friend/family member. These tasks get rid of some of the excess adrenaline and cortisol that we accumulate throughout the day.
GABA: To all you Stars Wars fans, sorry to disappoint, we’re not talking about Jabba. GABA or Gamma-aminobutyric acid is a neurotransmitter that tells your body, “let's take a break”, and also helps reduce cortisol (the stress hormone). Magnesium is intimately related with the production and release of this neurotransmitter by helping the enzymes that create GABA work effectively. As you may already know, roughly 50% of Americans don’t have enough magnesium in their diets. This means that their GABA production can be affected to a degree. Simply by making sure that you have enough of this important mineral you will make sure that, on a biological level you will be doing your part to give your body the tools that it needs to induce good sleep. That is of course if you don’t mess it up by playing SIMS all night long.

If you’ve read all the way down here, and you happened to miss our special email last Thursday, you’re in luck! Interested in getting 100% of your daily magnesium intake, from a highly-absorbable and ocean-sourced product all in one teaspoon? Check out our OmniBlue Original!

Final Thoughts

So, we’re all clear that screens before bedtime is a no go right? That, and the importance of magnesium. So while you’re at it, check out our instagram for some mocktail and smoothie recipes you can add our minerals to! And don’t worry, our OmniBlue recipe-book is soon to come!

Have a wonderful week 8%er!