Oh, Sweet Slow Waves of Deep Sleep! A Deep Dive into Dreamland
By Tara Tranguch, ND
activities, mood, and mental acuity. It’s no surprise that Americans are feeling sleepy. The average length of sleep per night is less than six hours, which is far from the recommended 7–9 hours. How many hours of sleep do you average per night?
F The CDC found that Connecticuters who average fewer than
seven hours of sleep a night are more likely to be obese and to suffer from heart attacks, strokes, asthma, arthritis, depression, and diabetes. Yes, there is a correlation between decreased sleep and chronic disease. Sleep is an essential building block in our founda- tion for good health.
What Happens When We Sleep?
Truthfully, we still don’t understand why humans—or any animal, for that matter—sleeps. While we sleep, we are defenseless and vulnerable for an extended period of time. Wouldn’t evolution favor creatures that didn’t need to sleep? Yet the human need for sleep has not changed in millennia. Theories about why we need sleep include full body restoration and memory consolidation.
Body and brain restoration: Growth hormone secretion peaks during sleep, contributing to muscle growth and cell regeneration throughout the body. This is especially important for an athlete’s recovery time. Brain restoration occurs during deep sleep as
eeling tired today? According to the National Sleep Founda- tion’s 2020 poll, the average American feels sleepy three days a week, and close to half said this sleepiness impacts their daily
well—this is the only time that neurotoxic waste is cleared out of the brain. If deep sleep is not adequate, the brain’s glymphatic sys- tem is disrupted and can contribute to neurodegenerative diseases.
Memory consolidation: While we sleep, the brain consoli- dates memories, promotes synapse formation to consolidate learn- ings, and maintains cognitive function and memory.
Sleep and Our Life Cycle
Sleep changes over the course of our lifetime. Babies aged 0–3 months old start their sleep cycle directly in the REM phase, before they have developed their circadian rhythm. Teenagers have a higher percentage of deep sleep. Our sleep architecture begins to change in middle age. As we age, our circadian rhythms of tem- perature, melatonin, and cortisol diminish and as a result, our per- centage of deep sleep diminishes, our REM stage decreases, and our percentage of light sleep increases. Our circadian regulation of sleep and wakefulness weaken, and we experience increased involuntary wakening. As a result, reduced growth hormone and dopamine levels occur, even with healthy aging.
The incidence of sleep disorders increases both with normal ag-
ing and even further with neurodegenerative disease, including de- mentia, Parkinson’s disease, Lewy body dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease. Those with mild cognitive impairment have more notice- able changes in deep slow wave sleep, circadian rhythm disruption, and REM sleep. Parkinson’s dementia with Lewy bodies is preceded
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