Have you ever wondered why humans spend 6-8 hours sleeping every day? Humans need to devote nearly one-third of their daily time to sleep. After a long period of evolution, this mechanism still exists, which means that sleep must have its irreplaceable significance. After long-term research by scientists, it has been proved that many important processes of the body are carried out during deep sleep. Among them, sleep has three main important functions for the human body, which are called the super powers of sleep:
1. Deep sleep "clears brain waste"
During daytime work, the brain needs to operate and think, which will produce metabolic waste under high energy consumption. However, in order to have peak performance during the day, the human body can only clear the metabolic waste by sleeping at night, which is one of the reasons why the brain must sleep.
So how do we know whether the brain waste has been cleared? In fact, it depends on whether you feel "full of sleep". If you feel refreshed when you wake up early in the morning, it means that the waste has been successfully cleared, and the key to knowing whether it is clean is actually the "deep sleep period".
When we fall asleep, we will go from the sleep stage > light sleep stage > deep sleep stage > rapid eye movement (REM) stage. A good night's sleep has about 4-6 cycles, and one cycle is about 60-90 minutes. The deep sleep stage has a decisive influence on the overall sleep quality, but it is definitely not the case that the longer you sleep, the longer your sleep will be. During the deep sleep stage, the brain will have "slow wave synchronous resonance" to clear metabolic waste. If you do not enter the deep sleep stage properly, long-term waste accumulation may cause neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.
2. Sleeping strengthens immune memory
Immune regulation is to help the body do deep cleansing and strengthen our immune memory. What is "immune memory"? It means that when the immune system encounters a pathogen, it will leave a long-term memory. The next time it encounters the same pathogen, the body can immediately detect the enemy. In addition to clearing old cells and protein waste in the brain, the immune system will also remember and activate during the deep sleep stage. Take the COVID-19 vaccine as an example. After the vaccine is given during the day, the body will send the message to the T cells in the immune system for identification, and then the B cells will produce antibodies. After the cells have strengthened their memory, they can more keenly identify who the invader is when there is a virus invasion. This is why it is often said that you should sleep well and rest after the vaccine, because our immune system can work to its maximum effect.
3. Dreaming is the brain processing memory and emotions
When sleep enters the rapid eye movement (REM) period, which is the dreaming period, the brain will process the emotions of the day. Dreaming is like replaying the unpleasantness and diluting the memory of negative emotions. When you wake up the next day after a good sleep and think about things, you don’t seem to be so angry or sad, which means that you have undergone an "emotional reset". In addition, the rapid eye movement period helps to organize memories and transform them into consolidated long-term memories. If you lack sleep, you are prone to memory decline.
The role of sleep in the human body is like having superpowers. In addition to the functions of sleep mentioned above, having good sleep quality can also repair body functions, promote human growth, enhance immunity, etc., which is crucial to physical and mental health. As for how to improve good sleep? It is recommended that you grasp two major principles:
• Remove interference factors: avoid using your phone before going to bed, avoid drinking coffee in the evening, do not take a long lunch break (try to avoid taking a lunch break after 3 pm, and sleep for no more than 30 minutes), avoid drinking too much alcohol, which can easily affect sleep structure, etc.
• Increase favorable factors: develop a good sleep schedule, take natural sleep-inducing foods (such as nuts, milk, green vegetables, etc.), exercise moderately, improve the sleeping environment (suitable bedding, appropriate temperature, reduce excessive light and sound), etc.
From now on, try to put everything down before going to bed, let yourself have a good sleep, restart a beautiful day the next day, and keep your body in a healthy state.
