We struggle to think straight after a poor night’s sleep. Feel tired and exhausted and failing to perform at our usual standard at school, university or work.
If you pay attention you will notice tthat you’re unable to concentrate, or that your memory doesn’t seem up to scratch. However if bad sleeping routine is followed for several years it may potentially lead to cognitive decline.
Just like sleeping is good for our cognitive functions, so is other entertainments. If you love sports and love to bet on sports then we will recommend you GambleUsa which is a hub for online casinos, sports betting and much more. Bad sleep also affects people’s mood and behaviour, whether they are young infants or older adults.
The question is that how much sleep does our brain need to operate properly in the long term? Our new research study, published in Nature Aging, provides an answer.
Sleep is an important component of maintaining normal brain functioning. The brain reorganises and recharges itself during sleep. An optimal quantity and quality of sleep enables us to have more energy and better wellbeing. It also allows us to develop our creativity and thinking.
When looking at babies three to 12 months of age, researchers have noted that better sleep is associated with better behavioural outcomes in the first year of life, such as being able to adapt to new situations or regulating emotions efficiently.
These are important early building blocks for cognition, including ‘cognitive flexibility’ (our ability to shift perspective easily), and are linked to wellbeing in later life.
Sleep regularity seems to be linked to the brain’s ‘default mode network’ (DMN), which involves regions that are active when we are awake but not engaged in a specific task, such as resting while our mind wanders.
This network includes areas that are important for cognitive function, such as the posterior cingulate cortex (which deactivates during cognitive tasks), parietal lobes (which process sensory information) and the frontal cortex (involved in planning and complex cognition).
There are signs that, in adolescents and young adults, poor sleep may be associated with changes in connectivity within this network. This is important as our brains are still in development into late adolescence and early young adulthood.
We all respond slightly differently to a lack of sleep. The relationship between sleep duration, cognition and mental health was mediated by genetics and brain structure.
Researches showed thatthe brain regions that are the most affected by sleep deprivation include the hippocampus, well known for it’s role in learning and memory, and areas of the frontal cortex, involved in top-down control of emotion.
While seven hours of sleep is optimal for protecting against dementia, our study suggests that getting enough sleep can also help alleviate the symptoms of dementia by protecting memory. visit here
So what can we do to improve our sleep for optimal cognition and wellbeing in our daily lives?
