Are you getting enough sleep?

We all know that we need sleep and we do know that lack of sleep and increased stress will interfere with our weight management.   I was reading a report on the BBC news web site which has told us even more reasons why getting a decent amount of sleep is imperative.

‘Deep sleep sounds restful, but during it our brains are actually working hard. One of the main things the brain is doing is moving memories from short-term storage into long-term storage, allowing us more short-term memory space for the next day. If you don't get adequate deep sleep then these memories will be lost.’

Memories need to be consolidated in 24 hours of being formed or they are lost (not great if you are revising for an exam!)

Deep sleep only lasts for a few hours, the brain goes through multiple phases of another kind of activity, called REM sleep.

"This is the phase when you are usually paralysed - so you can't move," Wulff explained in the article. But the eye muscles are not paralysed, and that's why it's called rapid eye movement sleep."

During REM sleep an extraordinary thing happens. One of the stress-related chemicals in the brain, noradrenalin, is switched off. It's the only time, day or night, this happens. It allows us to remain calm while our brains reprocess all the experiences of the day, helping us come to terms with particularly emotional events.

Drinking alcohol late at night is not a good idea as it reduces your REM sleep while it's being processed in your body.

Dr Simon Archer and his team at Surrey University were particularly interested in looking at the genes that were switched on or off  by changes in the amount of sleep that people in a controlled experiment had.  "We found that overall there were around 500 genes that were affected," Archer explained. "Some which were going up, and some which were going down."

What they discovered is that when the volunteers cut back from seven-and-a-half to six-and-a-half hours' sleep a night, genes that are associated with processes like inflammation, immune response and response to stress became more active. The team also saw increases in the activity of genes associated with diabetes and risk of cancer. The reverse happened when the volunteers added an hour of sleep.

Fascinating scientific evidence that sleep really is good for you