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Thanks for reading The Abstract. This month’s edition is
1,305 words, about a
5-minute read.
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March is National Sleep Awareness Month, so we’re taking the opportunity to explore the latest sleep research you can use to support your longevity goals. In this month’s
Abstract, we cover the impact of midlife sleep disruption on cognition (and what you can do about it), how sleep stimulates immune function, a relaxing yoga nidra practice that improves sleep and cognition, how exercise can help you recover after sleep deprivation, and the pros and cons of auditory stimulation during sleep.
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Disrupted Sleep in Midlife May Lead to Cognitive Problems Later
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Katherine Streeter for NPR
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Sleep disruptions and deprivation are linked to a spectrum of sub-par health outcomes, from feelings of withdrawal and loneliness to an increased risk of all-cause mortality. A new study adds another dimension to our understanding of the impact of sleep disruption on health. Researchers found that people in their 30s and 40s with more fragmented sleep were more likely to have poor cognitive performance 11 years later. Cognition was measured in terms of executive function, fluency, and global cognition.
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The Expert’s Take:
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“There is evidence that ‘poor sleep’ in your middle years is a risk factor for dementia in later years of life. One proposed mechanism is the important role that non-REM sleep plays in clearing toxins and compounds such as beta-amyloid from the brain. Beta-amyloid, has been implicated in Alzheimer's disease and dementia, and ill-defined ‘poor sleep’ has been linked to an increase in the level of beta-amyloid in the brain. As a result, understanding the nature of ‘poor sleep’ in mid-life becomes an important issue.
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In the current study, a range of metrics were used to study sleep and cognition in a total of 526 individuals. Those who showed the worst levels of sleep fragmentation (a measure of repeated short interruptions of sleep) had more than twice the risk of poor cognition when compared to individuals with low levels of sleep fragmentation. Significantly, sleep duration was not associated with worse cognition. Overall the data suggest that it is sleep quality, rather than quantity, that is the most important risk factor for cognitive health in middle age.
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The data emerging suggests that targeting high levels of sleep fragmentation during mid-life may be an important strategy in reducing the risk of cognitive decline in later years. In terms of understanding mechanisms, future studies should compare levels of sleep fragmentation with levels of non-REM sleep disruption, along with beta-amyloid deposition in the brain.”
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Russell Foster, Ph.D.
Professor of Circadian Neuroscience and Head of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Oxford, and Elysium Scientific Advisory Board Member
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Lynn McClure,
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Basis user since 2015
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“My energy level has stayed where it was. And a lot of my friends don’t seem to feel that way anymore.”
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Lynn McClure,
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Basis user since 2015
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Basis is clinically proven to increase your NAD+ levels by 40% to support
energy production and
reduce tiredness and fatigue. Use the code LONGEVITY at checkout for 25% off your first month of Basis.*
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THIS MONTH
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What We’re Reading
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These are third-party articles about science that we find interesting but have no relationship to Elysium or any of our products. Elysium’s products are not intended to screen, diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
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Good Sleep Stimulates the Immune System
We know that sound sleep is important for immune function, but why? A new study by researchers at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München explains the underlying biology. Sleep appears to increase the migratory potential of immune cells toward lymph nodes, where they are trained to recognize pathogens (for example, after vaccination). The researchers found elevated levels of growth hormone and prolactin in the blood plasma of sleeping participants that mediated this migration behavior. These results also help explain why vaccines are often less effective in older people, who typically display reduced levels of these hormones during sleep.
(Brain, Behavior, and Immunity)
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Yoga Nidra Improves Sleep and Memory
Better sleep and cognition in as little as 20 minutes per day? Sounds too good to be true, but it’s just good science. A new study found that daily practice of yoga nidra for two weeks improved memory, learning, and deep sleep in young healthy men. Yoga nidra, yogic sleep, or non-sleep deep rest, is a guided meditation done while lying down. In the study, 41 participants were guided through daytime yoga nidra sessions for two weeks. The practice consisted of seven steps: preparation, samkalpa (resolution), body part awareness, breath awareness, feeling and sensation, visualization, and ending of practice. Based on cognitive tests and measurements, researchers found that the sessions improved the participants’ slow-wave sleep, also known as deep sleep, which improves attention, learning, memory, and other cognitive tasks. The benefits likely resulted from a reduction in sympathetic nervous system activity (“fight or flight”) and an increase in parasympathetic nervous system activity (“rest and digest”).
The guided yoga nidra audio is available here. (Nature India)
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Bad Night’s Sleep? Boost Your Brain With 20 Minutes of Exercise
There’s a lot of doom and gloom about missing sleep, including the impact of poor sleep on cognition. Here’s some good news: A new study led by researchers at the University of Portsmouth found that 20 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise (cycling) improved cognitive performance after sleep deprivation. Researchers performed two experiments. In the first, participants experienced partial sleep deprivation—five hours of sleep on three consecutive nights—followed by seven cognitive tasks at rest and then while cycling. In the other experiment, participants went a whole night without sleep and then were put in a hypoxic (low levels of oxygen) environment for their tasks and exercise. In both cases, cognition improved with exercise. Researchers suggested that the improvement could be related to hormonal changes and psychophysiological factors such as cerebral blood flow, arousal, and motivation. (Physiology and Behavior)
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Sound While You Sleep—the Pros and Cons
Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is essential for memory, emotion, and cognition—and researchers have begun looking at the impact of auditory stimulation on some of these processes. In this study, researchers investigated the impact of auditory stimulation during REM on sleep structure and memory consolidation. They found that a particular auditory stimulation in REM—acoustic stimulation locked to eye movements—decreased rapid eye movements and improved one memory task (visual discrimination) while being detrimental to another (mirror tracing). Because commercial devices are now available that aim to boost cognitive function during sleep using external stimuli, researchers caution that they may have downsides as well as benefits. (Communications Biology)
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TERM OF THE MONTH
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Sleep
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/ sliːp /
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Sleep is a period of rest and recovery experienced in some fashion by all living organisms, from hydra to humans. In humans, sleep consists of four repeating stages: three non-rapid eye movement stages (NREM) followed by rapid eye movement sleep (REM). Until the 1950s, most people believed sleep was a passive activity. We now know that during this period of deep rest, much is happening, including memory consolidation, processing information, clearing toxins, regulating endocrine and metabolic pathways, and healing and repairing. Sleep is primarily regulated by our circadian rhythms and their interaction with external cues (mainly light and dark), as well as by homeostatic sleep drive, which builds the longer we’re awake.
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AGING 101
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New Aging 101: Can You Oversleep?
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In short, yes: It is possible to oversleep. Sleeping more than 9 or 10 hours per night makes you a “long sleeper” and is correlated with an increased risk in cognitive impairment, heart disease, exhaustion, and other unwanted outcomes. Follow the link to learn more, including tips for how you can bring more consistency to your sleep. (Read More)
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