Sleep: Why You Should Care

In this episode of the podcast/newsletter, we take on the topic of sleep. As Jason states in our podcast, this is a topic that can tend to be very boring and difficult at times to care about. We hope to make the case, based on a pretty large body of evidence, that sleep is something that you should take seriously. As we discuss in the podcast, failure to get enough sleep can produce some pretty nasty effects. On the flip side, getting good sufficient sleep is probably one of the cheapest and most simple things one can do to de-risk just about every major disease.

We begin by breaking down the human sleep cycle. We have 2 stages of sleep, Non-REM and REM (Rapid Eye Movement). Non-REM has 4 stages to it (simply named 1,2,3, and 4). Basically we have a roughly 90 minute sleep cycle where every 90 minutes your brain cycles between non-REM and REM sleep. In the first half of the night the majority of the sleep cycle is deep non-REM. In the second half of the night, the majority of the sleep cycle is REM. Therefore, if you get 6 hours of sleep instead of 8, you may only be losing 25% of overall sleep, but you could be losing up to 70% of REM sleep.

We then discuss what is known as the glymphatic system in the brain. This functions as a kind of sewage system that kicks in when we are in deep sleep and it clears metabolic debris from the brain. Certain cells in the brain will shrink in size significantly in order to make room for fluid to fill the brain and wash out this debris. Two things this system will flush out are Beta-Amyloid protein and Tau protein. A study linked below shows these proteins will increase significantly if you take away deep sleep for a single night.

We spend the rest of the episode just going over the various studies on sleep. Studies have shown:

-Injury risk goes up with inadequate sleep

-Muscle force production goes down with inadequate sleep

-It is harder to get glucose into muscle with inadequate sleep

-It takes more insulin to get glucose uptake with inadequate sleep

-Coronary artery calcification goes up with inadequate sleep

-Risk of colon, prostate, and breast cancer goes up with poor sleep

And much more.

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Simplified Takeaways…

1. Cutting the last hour or two of sleep really cuts down your REM sleep at night.

2. Getting inadequate sleep decreases your glymphatic system which flushes metabolic debris from your brain.

3. Poor sleep affects many things, from coronary artery calcification, to cancer risk, to various metabolic effects.

4. Adults should shoot for 8 hours of sleep each night.

Further Reading…

1.  Study showing an increase in Beta-Amyloid and Tau proteins

2.   Study showing increased coronary artery calcification

3.   Study showing poor fat loss with poor sleep

Disclaimer: This newsletter is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing, or other professional healthcare services, including the giving of medical advise. No doctor/patient relationship is formed. The use of information on this newsletter or materials linked from this newsletter is at the user’s own risk. The content of this newsletter is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advise, diagnosis, or treatment. Users should not disregard, or delay in obtaining, medical advise for any medical condition they may have, and should seek the assistance of their health care professionals for any such conditions.