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Wisdom Wednesdays: Fascinating new research on what happens to your sleep-deprived brain · Hardiness with Dr Paul Taylor

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  Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, welcome to another edition of Wisdom Wednesdays. Today
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  Speaker 1: we are going to talk about sleep and a particularly
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  Speaker 1: interesting study that's come out of the Massachusetts Institute of
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  Speaker 1: Technology MIT, one of the top universities in the world,
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  Speaker 1: and it sheds a light on exactly what happens in
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  Speaker 1: our brains when we skip sleep and why.
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  Speaker 2: Our attention feels when we're exhausted. So let's start off
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  Speaker 2: by talking about what the researchers did. They got twenty
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  Speaker 2: six healthy adult volunteers. Each spread was between nineteen and
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  Speaker 2: forty and what they did is they got these guys
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  Speaker 2: to participate in one of two conditions. One was they
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  Speaker 2: had a normal night's sleep, and then another time after
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  Speaker 2: staying awake all night pulling an all night. And then
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  Speaker 2: after both sessions sleep or non sleep, participants performed simple
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  Speaker 2: attention tasks, for example watching a cross on the screen
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  Speaker 2: that changes in their square or hearing a beep and
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  Speaker 2: impressing a button when you hear the beat. These are
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  Speaker 2: classic tests of cognitive function, particularly attention, and they recorded
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  Speaker 2: at the same time their eg they're brain waves and
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  Speaker 2: they had fast MRI so blood flow and fluid measurements,
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  Speaker 2: as well as eye tracking, including their pupil size. They
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  Speaker 2: looked at their heart rate and their breathing, so they
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  Speaker 2: got this really comprehensive, full body brand picture of what
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  Speaker 2: is happening versus with rested versus when you're sleep deprived.
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  Speaker 2: And nobody's ever done something like this before, and what
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  Speaker 2: they found was pretty bloody striking. When people were sleep deprived,
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  Speaker 2: the reaction time slowed. You won't be surprised at that,
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  Speaker 2: they missed more signals, but crucially, their brain and their
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  Speaker 2: body began to behave as though they were partially sleeping
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  Speaker 2: even though they were technically awake. And one of the
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  Speaker 2: big discoveries was about cerebral spinal fluid.
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  Speaker 3: So that's the fluid that flows.
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  Speaker 2: Around in your brain and in your obviously your spinal
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  Speaker 2: column and normally during sleep, particularly in deep sleep. And
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  Speaker 2: I've talked about this before, this CSF, cerebral spinal fluid.
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  Speaker 2: It flows in these large slow waves around the brain
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  Speaker 2: and spinal cord, and that's actually driven by our glial
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  Speaker 2: cells vibrating at a certain frequency. And what those waves
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  Speaker 2: do is they helped to clear out the metabolic waste
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  Speaker 2: products and toxins and other byproducts of our neural activity,
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  Speaker 2: and this is our glymphatic system with the g it's
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  Speaker 2: the brains equivalent of the lymphatic system in the body
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  Speaker 2: that gets rid of all of our waste products. But
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  Speaker 2: in a sleep deprived brain. The researcher saw that when
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  Speaker 2: people were awake and these CSF waves start to appear.
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  Speaker 2: In other words, the brain appears to initiate its cleaning
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  Speaker 2: or housekeeping process, which usually occurs in deep sleep, even
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  Speaker 2: though the person is still supposed to be.
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  Speaker 3: Alert and awake. And here's the kicker.
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  Speaker 2: Those moments when the CSF waves surged were exactly the
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  Speaker 2: same moments when at tension feeled reaction time, slow errors happened,
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  Speaker 2: and at the same moment the CFS pulse outward occurred.
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  Speaker 2: And this suggests that the brain may be trading off
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  Speaker 2: its external attention so it can perform critical cleaning tasks
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  Speaker 2: that missed when you didn't sleep or you lost some sleep.
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  Speaker 2: Think of it like driving along the road and your
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  Speaker 2: car going into maintenance mode temporarily while you're still trying
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  Speaker 2: to drive.
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  Speaker 3: This is what's going on.
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  Speaker 2: And the researchers were able to time things very precisely,
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  Speaker 2: and here's what they found. It happened about ten to
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  Speaker 2: twelve seconds before the attention lapse and the CSF wave,
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  Speaker 2: people's pupils began to constrict. This is a signal of
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  Speaker 2: lowered arousal. And around the same time heart rate and
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  Speaker 2: breathing slowed slightly, indicating that the body was entering a
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  Speaker 2: lower arousal or a more RESTful state. And then the
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  Speaker 2: eg slow wave of activity that actually increased, so there
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  Speaker 2: was an increase in the slow way of activity during
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  Speaker 2: wakefulness when people were sleep deprived. These are patterns more
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  Speaker 2: typically seen in light sleep. And then lastly, the brains hemodynamics,
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  Speaker 2: the blood flow and CFAF flow OH showed larger low
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  Speaker 2: frequency waves during wakefulness after sleep deprivation. Again this is
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  Speaker 2: resembling sleep states, and I think this is why when
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  Speaker 2: other research are shown that when people are sleep deprived
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  Speaker 2: they perform really badly on tests of attention and cognitive
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  Speaker 2: function and even driving motor skills. And I remember the
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  Speaker 2: research showing that people who had six are sleep performed
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  Speaker 2: about the same as people who had seven are sleep
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  Speaker 2: but were given enough alcohol to blow.
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  Speaker 3: Point zero five.
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  Speaker 2: But the people who had five are sleep performed about
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  Speaker 2: the same as people who were leally drunk. They blew
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  Speaker 2: point one and when they asked them how they think
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  Speaker 2: they went, the pissed people actually had the self awareness
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  Speaker 2: to realize they probably screwed up, but the sleep deprived
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  Speaker 2: people thought they did really well. And maybe it's because
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  Speaker 2: the brain is just going into this little lapse of
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  Speaker 2: attention that you're actually not aware of. This is what
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  Speaker 2: this research is potentially suggesting. So when you're sleep deprived,
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  Speaker 2: your brain and your body start slipping into these micro
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  Speaker 2: sleep like states, the fluid, the flow waves, the reduced
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  Speaker 2: to arousal, the slower brain waves while you're trying to
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  Speaker 2: remain a week and those micro states coincide with moments
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  Speaker 2: when you lose focus, you drop the ball, or you
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  Speaker 2: miss something important and you may not be a word
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  Speaker 2: that you've done it. Now there's a pretty big player
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  Speaker 2: in this, and it's nora adrenaline. This is one of
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  Speaker 2: our stress hormones. We have adrenaline. We have nora adrenaline.
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  Speaker 2: I think of nora adrenaline simplistically like the sister chemical
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  Speaker 2: of adrenaline in the brain. It's released from the look
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  Speaker 2: of surelius. But it's also called no epinefron in the
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  Speaker 2: United States, and it's a key, and not only is
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  Speaker 2: it as a hormone, but it's a chemical messenger in
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  Speaker 2: the brain, and it regulates arousal, alertness and attention.
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  Speaker 3: Right.
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  Speaker 2: And the brain's principal source of the no adrenaline is
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  Speaker 2: the locus corellius as I said, that's in the brain
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  Speaker 2: stem and in normal wakefulness, this locus corellius no adrenaline
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  Speaker 2: system helps to keep us alert, responsive, and ready to
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  Speaker 2: engage in the world. It also helps to modulate our
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  Speaker 2: blood flow, our vascular tone, and other global brain states.
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  Speaker 2: And when you're sleep deprived, this system is weakened or disruptive.
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  Speaker 2: And in the current study, the investigators link the timing
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  Speaker 2: of the CSF and these other waves to a neuromodulatory shift.
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  Speaker 3: What that hell does that mean?
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  Speaker 2: That means changes in the no adrenaline arousal system appear
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  Speaker 2: to set the stage for these micro sleep state intrusions.
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  Speaker 2: So it seems to be that the body activating these
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  Speaker 2: things triggers the brain to fall or lose focus.
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  Speaker 3: Right. So, in symbol terms, you're in your noah.
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  Speaker 2: Adrenaline system drops or shift, you become less alert, your
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  Speaker 2: pupils constrict the arousal dips, and the brain triggers a
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  Speaker 2: cleaning wave of CSF and you lose a moment of attention.
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  Speaker 3: That's the trade off.
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  Speaker 2: So no adrenaline is a link between your state of
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  Speaker 2: alertness and the brain's fluid flow maintenance system. So let's
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  Speaker 2: talk about the real war implications of this. So attention
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  Speaker 2: lapses aren't just fatigue when you've missed sleep and in
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  Speaker 2: zoom your focus zooms off.
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  Speaker 3: It's not just because you're tired.
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  Speaker 2: Your brain is actively switching into a mode of cleaning
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  Speaker 2: and maintenance, which comes at the cost of attention. Basically,
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  Speaker 2: you just have this little lapse where your brain is
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  Speaker 2: shutting down effectively. Now there's big implications here for safety
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  Speaker 2: risk and professions are tasked where attention is critical, anything
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  Speaker 2: to do with driving, medicine, aviation, those sorts of things.
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  Speaker 2: These micro intrusions could have big, big consequence that single
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  Speaker 2: moment of distraction might result in a major error, and
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  Speaker 2: the study authors highlight that these micropauses are structured, they're
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  Speaker 2: not just random. And then bringing health long term, this
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  Speaker 2: fluid flow that actually clears our toxins like beta amyloid
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  Speaker 2: that are linked to Alzheimer's and that happens when we're sleep,
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  Speaker 2: and if you're depriving yourself as sleep repeatedly, your brain
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  Speaker 2: may be trying to catch up while awake, but doing
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  Speaker 2: so less efficiently. And this is where we see that
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  Speaker 2: people who have regularly bad sleep they accumulate much more
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  Speaker 2: beta amyloid plaques and toxins, and that contributes to the
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  Speaker 2: risk of developing Alzheimer's disease in other forms of dementia.
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  Speaker 3: And another take on with this is sleep is maintenance.
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  Speaker 2: This research reinforces the idea that sleep is not optional downtime.
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  Speaker 2: It is essential housekeeping for your brain, and when you
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  Speaker 2: skip it, it forces the brain to multitask maintenance and
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  Speaker 2: wakefulness and there is a trade off in terms of performance.
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  Speaker 2: And then there's potential detecting tools that could be used here,
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  Speaker 2: particularly in things work safety is really really important. Given
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  Speaker 2: these measurable signals pupil constrictions, subtle heart respiration changes, and
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  Speaker 2: fluid pulses. Future technologies can detect when your brain is
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  Speaker 2: entering one of these micro states and actually alert you,
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  Speaker 2: for instance, where you're driving, flying a plane, whatever it
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  Speaker 2: may be. And the authors actually mention diagnostics for neurodegenerative
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  Speaker 2: risk or scheduling in high risk jobs. Now the other
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  Speaker 2: thing I was thinking about so clearly it's important that
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  Speaker 2: we sleep well, that we have good sleep hygiene, but
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  Speaker 2: for me this becomes really important that when you know
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  Speaker 2: you have been sleep deprived, you haven't slept well.
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  Speaker 3: A couple of things.
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  Speaker 2: Number one is taken creating, because we know that retain
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  Speaker 2: can minimize the declining cognitive function because it's giving energy
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  Speaker 2: for the brain. It's not a long term strategy that
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  Speaker 2: means you can sacrifice your sleep, but it can certainly
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  Speaker 2: help if you need to focus.
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  Speaker 3: And then the other thing I was thinking is nora adrenaline.
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  Speaker 2: You want a no adrenaline boost whenever you've been sleep deprived,
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  Speaker 2: and that's where number one, cold water immersion or getting
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  Speaker 2: in a cold shower that gives you a massive spike
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  Speaker 2: of nora adrenaline that will wake your ass right up.
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  Speaker 2: Or the other thing that gives you a massive spike
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  Speaker 2: of nora adrenaline is TUMO breathing. Anybody who's familiar with
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  Speaker 2: vim Hoff, it's that controlled hyperventilation, and I often talk
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  Speaker 2: about workshops that if you get that afternoon slump doing
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  Speaker 2: thirty to fifty controlled hyperventilations where you basically breathe fully
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  Speaker 2: in and then you just let go.
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  Speaker 3: So it's like, just try doing fifty of those well,
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  Speaker 3: and you're.
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  Speaker 2: Seated by the way, and you'll wake your ass right up,
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  Speaker 2: So you'll give yourself a spike and no adrenaline that
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  Speaker 2: could offset temporarily a bit of that sleep deprivation and
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  Speaker 2: just wake you up if you're doing an important task
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  Speaker 2: or you're driving of these sorts of things actually you
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  Speaker 2: probably shouldn't do.
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  Speaker 3: When you're driving, pull over, do fifty fifty.
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  Speaker 2: Breaths and then start driving again, and you will find
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  Speaker 2: it you're.
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  Speaker 3: A bit more awake. So that's it for this week, folks.
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  Speaker 2: I think that's just another bit of research that shows
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  Speaker 2: how critical sleep is and that we really need to
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  Speaker 2: get serious around our sleep hyging.
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  Speaker 3: Catch you next time.