Most people, at some point in their lives, have experienced sleep deprivation. Parents experience it to the extreme. I still remember the shock of just how taxing it was to be up literally almost all night every night with my girls. I’d feed them, lay them down, close my eyes, and my brain would just about drift off before it was jolted awake by a crying baby. The CIA actually uses sleep deprivation as a form of torture for interrogations, and we, as parents, often endure it for months on end!
But what most people don’t know is that even when our babies start to sleep, our sleep patterns stay disrupted long after the baby is born.
It’s true! Researchers showed that it takes 6 years for mothers and fathers to recover their sleep patterns after a baby is born!
Part of that is probably because, while baby sleep cycles do even out, they tend to have setbacks along the way. This, of course, disrupts our sleep as well. Not only that, but, even now that my girls are 4 and 7, I remain in a much lighter level of sleep than I ever used to, just because a part of me is always listening for a cry or, these days, a “Mamaaaa!”.
Even short periods of sleep deprivation can have substantial impacts on our thinking and our health. Research is just starting to uncover how important sleep is, and just how big of an impact sleep deprivation can have. But before we get into those effects…
What is our sleep supposed to look like?
Sleep is quite a complicated process, but in general, our sleep is categorized into four stages. Rapid-eye movement sleep or REM sleep is when your heart rate, breathing rate, and blood flow to your brain are slightly below what they would be when you’re awake. This is the stage when dreams happen. There are also three stages of non-REM sleep (1-4). The numbers correspond to how deep the sleep is, and 3-4 are considered “deep sleep”. The deeper the sleep, the lower the breathing and heart rates.
In a healthy sleep pattern, you’ll usually fall asleep and descend through the levels of non-REM sleep during the first few hours. These early hours are when you’ll get the most deep sleep. Then, as the hours progress, the stages of REM sleep get longer and the dips into deep sleep get shorter. These later hours are when most of your dreaming happens.
What do these stages of sleep do for your brain?
Sleep is extremely important to the health of your brain. Deep sleep seems to be particularly important. When your brain reaches deep sleep, many things happen:
1.The energy that your brain cells expended during the day is replenished.
If you think about it, your brain controls everything. All day it is sending signals to make you think about that task at work, to make decisions about what you should do next, and help you interpret this blog post. It tells you that you’re hungry or thirsty, tells your stomach to digest, and your muscles to move. All of that takes energy, and scientists have shown that when your brain reaches a state of deep sleep, genes that control energy replenishment are turned on in your brain.
2. Brain cells form connections that allow for memory formation and critical thinking.
They say that dreams are your brain’s way of figuring out the day’s problems. This may be true, but research suggests that it’s actually when your brain hits deep sleep that the real deep thoughts probably take place. They’ve actually observed activity of the brain that indicates complex thought during deep sleep.
3.Your brain constructs proteins that are critical for brain function.
Scientists have shown that genes responsible for building proteins are turned on when your brain hits deep sleep.
4.Your brain clears out toxins and other harmful substances.
This one is a big one. When your brain hits that deep, slow-wave sleep, a rush of fluid begins to flow through it. The fluid bathes the brain, and then empties into your spinal column. Check out the link below from an article published in Science to actually see a video of this happening!
What happens when you don’t have enough sleep?
- You experience memory loss. Yup! There was actually a physical reason that you couldn’t remember simple things after you were up all night with your newborn. Many studies in both humans and mice have shown that sleep deprivation can impair your ability to remember. Memory requires three steps: acquisition of the memory, consolidation, and recall. Consolidation is when the memory is stabilized in the brain, and that’s the part that we do during our deep sleep. They’ve even identified a physical reason for why sleep impairs your ability to do this. People who are sleep-deprived show changes in the activity of their hippocampus, the memory center of the brain.
- Your reaction time decreases. Whether this is because the brain doesn’t have the energy it needs, or whether it is unable to make connections between those brain cells as quickly isn’t known, but either way, you may not be able to think as quickly when someone asks you a question, or react as quickly to catch a ball that is thrown to you.
- You lose the ability to focus. It suddenly becomes really hard to pay attention to a babbling coworker, or stay on task throughout the day.
- Your brain experiences cellular stress. When your brain is active, it produces metabolic byproducts that are actually harmful to cells. This is why it is so important to clear out those byproducts and other toxins during deep sleep every night. When exposed to those toxins in the long-term, it can actually damage your brain cells and the connections between them. In fact, one study showed that constant sleep deprivation killed mice faster than starvation did!
- Your risk of depression increases. Scientists think that clinical depression may, in many cases, be caused by a dysregulation of the sleep cycle. Depressed patients often spend too much time in REM and not enough in deep sleep. Some anti-depressants on the market effectively treat depression by forcing the patient to spend less time in REM and more time in deep sleep. I knew someone who swore by Trazodone for exactly this dual effect. For this reason, sleep deprivation can cause depressive symptoms even in those without clinical depression. This is especially important for moms with postpartum depression. Sleep disturbances can prolong the duration of postpartum depression in moms of newborns.
- You increase your risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Now that’s a scary one. Patients with early signs of Alzheimer’s disease report frequent sleep disturbances, and in mouse models, sleep deprivation is enough to provoke the development of Alzheimer’s-like symptoms. Alzheimer’s disease is thought to be at least partially caused by a small molecule called amyloid β. When many of these congregate in the brain, they form plaques that may disrupt the parts of the brain that function in memory consolidation and recall. Researchers deprived mice of sleep and showed that even short-term deprivation was enough to increase levels of amyloid β in the blood. Chronic sleep deprivation led to the formation of amyloid-β plaques in their brains, just like they see in humans with Alzheimer’s disease!
- It can give you the munchies! Sleep deprivation makes you crave more sugary and fatty meals. Researchers asked one group of participants to sleep for 8 hours and another group for 4 hours. They then gave the participants access to a buffet, and monitored how much and what they ate. Those who slept for 4 hours chose foods that were higher in fat and sugar content, and the researchers found that these individuals had higher amounts of 2-oleoylglycerol in blood, a substance that triggers the same receptors as marijuana does!
Ok, so what now?
Well, if you’re a new parent, there’s no getting around it. You’re going to experience sleep disturbance. Along with that, you’ll probably get some of the less serious side effects like an inability to remember what you did 5 seconds ago, or the need to ask people to repeat things 16 times. Luckily, you’ll likely be sleeping for 5-6 hours by the time the baby is one month old, and through the night about 3 months after that. What is most concerning are the longer-term sleep disturbances. So what can we do to prevent those?
1.Make a sleep schedule and try hard to stick to it.
Your body has its own biological rhythm and it thrives on predictability (which is why Daylight Savings Time can be so disruptive!). The more you stick to that rhythm, the more likely your body will sleep as it’s supposed to. Go to sleep early and at the same time each night, and try not to sleep too late on weekends.
2. Having trouble getting to sleep? Make your bedroom a dark, cozy sleep nest.
Light, especially light on the blue end of the spectrum, can disrupt your ability to get to sleep. Get light-blocking curtains to make your bedroom feel like a quiet, hidden cave. Also make sure your bed is made and sheets are fresh. This has been shown to impact sleep quality.
3. Waking up in the early morning hours? Expose yourself to bright light before bedtime.
Yes, that seems completely wonky, because I just told you that light can disrupt your sleep patterns, but exposing yourself to the right kind of light at the right time can actually help you stay asleep for the night! This is because, in many individuals that wake up during the night, their body temperatures are rising too early and interfering with their normal circadian rhythms. You can train that rhythm by forcing your body temperature patterns into the right rhythms with bright light. The key here is to get at least 2h of light exposure at a brightness over 4000 lux (which is brighter than a normal office light) just before bed for 12 consecutive days. See below for an example of a light source that would work for this:
*Note that I’m an Amazon Associate and may stand to profit from any purchases made from this link.
4. Generate a before bedtime routine.
This can be different for everyone. Some people sleep better after exercising, while for others, exercise before bed makes it harder to sleep. Some like a nice warm bath or shower before bed, while others find this keeps them awake. Experiment and find what works best for you. Just be sure to keep it the same every night so you can train your rhythms.
5. Find your optimal temperature.
Some studies suggest that helping your body temperature to drop by wearing cooler (or even no) clothing can help your body ease into sleep. A 2018 study showed that cooling the back and the neck with a cooling mat or pillow during sleep effectively improved sleep quality for people with insomina. Cooling the neck and head alone with a cooling pillow did have some effects but including the back in the cooling process has the biggest effect. This mattress cooler along with a cooling pillow would be a great option:
*Note that I’m an Amazon Associate and may stand to profit from any purchases made from this link.
6. Eat a protein-rich snack before turning out the lights.
But be careful that your snack doesn’t have too much sugar! Sugary snacks can increase your heart rate and prevent you from falling asleep. Snacks rich in protein and fat (like nuts) are metabolized more slowly, and can help you stay satisfied, and asleep, longer.
7. Try a sound machine.
Many people find that they sleep especially well when it’s pouring or thunder storming outside. Well, there’s a reason for that! One study showed that the sound of ocean waves improved sleep quality and quantity in adults. White noise seems to be effective for helping newborns to sleep.
8. If all else fails, try a sleep aid*.
Melatonin is a supplement that has shown promising results in sleep studies. It is a hormone that is already produced by your body and promotes sleep naturally. Many studies have shown that melatonin supplementation is both effective for improving sleep and has few to no side effects! Watch out for sleep aids with anticholinergic ingredients like Paxil, Unisom, and Zantac, because frequent use of those has actually been linked to increased risk of dementia and Alzheimers.
*Before taking any supplements, I recommend consulting with your doctor to see whether there is an underlying medical condition and whether these sleep aids will interfere with anything else that you may be taking.
As parents, we will inevitably experience times when our sleep patterns aren’t the best. If it’s not a newborn waking us up, it’ll be a teenager keeping us up with worry. These things are natural. The key is to do your best to maintain good sleep practices, and if your sleep troubles are more long-term, talk to your doctor about a potential sleep aid.
I’d love to hear about what helps you to get a good night sleep in the comments section at the end of the page!
Additional contributing references
Gay, C. L., Lee, K. A., & Lee, S. Y. (2004). Sleep patterns and fatigue in new mothers and fathers. Biological research for nursing, 5(4), 311-318.
Medic, G., Wille, M., & Hemels, M. E. (2017). Short-and long-term health consequences of sleep disruption. Nature and science of sleep, 9, 151.
Colrain, I. M. (2011). Sleep and the brain. Neuropsychology review, 21(1), 1-4.
