“Sleep heals everything” -Honey and Vanilla
Did you know that one of the most powerful detox pathways that impacts our health in our body is activated when we sleep? It’s called the glymphatic system and we are about to get real nerdy. I first discovered the glymphatic system while researching Alzheimer’s prevention. I was interested in knowing what top holistic tools were pertinent to implement for myself when it comes to Alzheimer’s prevention. Amongst many things such as cycling through fasting protocols and eating a whole food diet, sleep was at the top. I soon realized how much sleep is underrated when it comes to maintaining optimal health and keeping our brain sharp. Sleep is the most effective thing we can do to reset our brain and body each day.
“Alcohol is one of the most powerful suppressors of REM sleep that we know of and REM sleep recalibrate the emotional circuits in the brain so that we can think logically”
-Matthew Walker
Have you ever had a terrible night sleep and woke up feeling hungover, have brain fog or starving and just wanting to get the first possible refined carbohydrate into you? That feeling is most likely because you did not get QUALITY sleep- you did not cycle through all of your sleep stages and did not get a chance to activate your glymphatic system properly. According to Siim Land and Dr.Dinicolantonio’s book Immunity fix, sleep governs adaptive immunity (creates immunological memory), vaccine efficacy (so it’s not a good idea to get a vaccine at say, 3am), supports antioxidant defence, physical repair, immune response and how we recover from stress.
How does this above knowledge pertain to sleep and Alzheimer’s prevention? Well, in many ways but here is one, ok, maybe two. One- If our immune system is governed in part by our sleep cycles then our brains immune (glial cells) are affected as well. Less quality sleep gives room for amyloid plaque and Tau to be created. Two-I f our adaptive immune system which creates immunological memory is not robust enough due to lack of sleep, this can leave room for certain pathogens such as mold and viruses to go undetected therefore leaving room for toxic overload and creating Alzheimer’s.
So for all of you that do not think sleep impacts your immune system or brain function, please reconsider the power of sleep.
Sleep Cycles
Overnight we go through about four to five- 90 minute sleep cycles and within those cycles there are 2 stages- NREM and REM. These two stages synergistically compete throughout the night and they both have their purpose for keeping our brain sharp.
To put it in simple terms NREM (non rapid eye movement) starts the party off for the evening, within the NREM sleep there are four stages that I won’t get into for this article but fascinating stuff on it’s own. NREM helps consolidate memories by taking newly formed memories and putting them into your long term storage. It is when the glymphatic system (read below) is most active and it is where sleep spindles are most active, which help perform many tasks such as muffling out the outside noise so you won’t wake up. Apparently my sleep spindles are not very strong, I’m a light sleeper.
REM sleep (rapid eye movement) is where you dream, your eyes are rapidly moving, it is when your body is somewhat paralyzed in order to not physically act out your dreams. It is time for integration; interconnecting all of your experiences and putting them together to build a more accurate model. REM sleep regulates our emotional circuit, allowing us to make more intelligent decisions, and be cool headed so to speak.
So you see, quality sleep is sooooo important for brain health. It helps us remember, it keeps us focused, it cleans out toxins from our brain, it helps us stay emotionally stable and really, keeps us sane and functional. There is a reason why sleep deprivation is used to break a human down.
Oh Snap!
Lack of QUALITY sleep+high refined sugar diet=inflammation= atherosclerosis/cardiovascular disease.
Glymphatic System (brain detoxer)
The glymphatic system was discovered back in 2013 by Dr. Nedergaard and her team, it truly is an amazing pathway that our own bodies have created through evolution to clear out waste from our brain. Here’s how it works: while in NREM sleep, it uses pulsating rhythms to activate our glymphatic system which in turn begins the flow of our CSF (cerebrospinal fluid) to flush out toxins and other waste products that our hard working neurons create throughout the day. The waste products it eliminates include many but specifically for this article it eliminates amyloid plaque and tau; two proteins found in abundance in many Alzheimer’s patients. The glymphatic system also helps distribute glucose, lipids, amino acids and growth factors. The most amazing part of this system is that at night, when we fall asleep, our glial cells (immune brain cells) shrink by 60% to allow the CSF to flood our brain and clear out the accumulative waste.
Basically, your brain needs to “poop” eliminate its waste it has accumulated throughout the day, your glymphatic system is what accomplishes this.
Deep sleep (NREM) is critical for preventing Alzheimer’s, it is what consolidates our new memories and as you just read above, it is when the glymphatic system is at full power. According to Dr. Matthew Walker, amyloid plaque tends to accumulate in the frontal lobe of the brain, the same place where NREM sleep happens and not from the memory centre of the brain, the hippocampus. In fact, if you look at a brain with Alzheimer’s, most of the time their hippocampus is free of amyloid plaque. Interesting eh?
Oh Snap!
Lack of sleep= activates sympathetic nervous system (fighter flight)= inflammation=lower killer cell count= lowered immune system= chronic illness such as cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.
In summary
Routinely sleeping less than 6-7 hrs a night will,
Reduces your immune system's capacity to fight off viral and bacterial infection
Doubles your risk of cancer
Increases your risk of Alzheimer’s and heart disease
Increases cellular waste in your brain
Disrupts blood sugar levels and increases your risk of type 2 diabetes
Increases your hunger hormone leptin
What our brain does when we sleep
It enriches our ability to learn, memorize and make logical decisions and choices
It balances our emotional circuits
It replenishes our immune system
It fine tunes the insulin and blood sugar balance
It helps regulate our appetite helping control body weight
It helps maintain a healthy microbiome within our gut
It opens up our glymphatic system which helps detoxify our brains
So, with all of that said, how can you be sure that you are getting optimal sleep ?
1. Blue blocker glasses- Yes, I know, some of you may think this is ridiculous but the science is out, blue light from screens, lights in your house and phones at night, blocks melatonin production at night. It has shown that the right blue blocker glasses put on 1-3 hours before bed increases your own natural melatonin. I can attest to this, I have had blue blocker glasses for over 3 years now and I am sleepy after an hour of putting them on due to my natural melatonin being produced. Melatonin doesn’t just help you sleep, it is crucial for a robust immune system, helps regulate our circadian rhythm and prevents cellular death. See link below, I am not affiliated with this company, just sharing what I use.
2. Sleep in a cool dark room without any technology around you such as your phone, computer or internet modem.
3. Do not drink alcohol or eat three hours before bed. Many think that a little glass of wine helps them sleep but in actuality it inhibits your body from going into quality NREM sleep
4. Use essential oils like vetiver to help you get sleepy and keep you asleep. I started rubbing one drop of vetiver essential oil on the soles of my feet 30 minutes before bed and OMG, I’m not kidding.
5. Practice TRE- It has been shown to help balance your circadian rhythm therefore help keep your sleep cycle in check. Be aware that longer fasting protocols can disrupt your sleep for the short term.
6. Listen to theta binaural beats before sleep to encourage your brain to calm down for the night.
7. Get sunlight into your eyes first thing in the morning, this helps reset your circadian rhythm
8. If you wake up in the middle of the night and can’t go back to sleep, get out of bed, put on your blue blockers adn use a red light headlamp and go read in another room
9. Take 200 to 400 mg magnesium glycinate
Some of these hacks may not work for everyone (because we are biochemically different) and there are so many reasons why people may not be getting a good night's sleep, so I encourage you to try things for at least a week and don’t feel discouraged if it doesn’t work. Keep trying. If these simple holistic tools do not do the job, go deeper. Look into your thyroid health with a full panel, not just TSH. Consider your stress levels and get your morning cortisol checked, are your adrenals taxed? Are you dealing with mycotoxins from mold? Do you have sleep apnea? Does your partner snore and keep you awake? Ladies, check your hormones, perimeopause? Menopause?
“Taking pharmaceutical sleeping pills for a long period of time actually increases your chances of getting Alzheimer’s.” Dr. Matthew Walker
A note on Melatonin
Melatonin is created in your gut mostly and released by your pineal gland.Your SCN (suprachiasmatic nucleus) is your master clock for your circadian rhythm, it repeats it’s daily and nightly signal due to the hormone melatonin. As soon as dusk appears the SCN signals the pineal gland to release melatonin. Melatonin is the darkness messenger, it shouts, “its dark its dark, lets change crew members to night time duties and get busy sleeping.” It is a myth that melatonin generates sleep, instead it is the hormone that instructs the beginning of sleep, that is why blue blocker glasses are so helpful, they increase melatonin. That is also why blue light at night is so harmful as it suppresses melatonin.Throughout your night of sleep, melatonin slowly reduces in concentration and when the sun starts to rise your SCN puts the break on melatonin until later that evening. You see how we are natural solar panels? We are controlled by the light of the sun. We are conductive beings.
I hope this article helped you, please share and spread the word of optimal health, Alzheimer’s prevention and taking control of your own health destiny.
Links
Swanwick Blue blocker Glasses
Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker
References
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326664518_The_Glymphatic_System_A_Review
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468867319301609
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23635358/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glymphatic_system
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31959516/