Brain Boosting Blog: The Brain and Poor Sleep

“Your brain needs plenty of rest to function at it's optimal level. Go to sleep!”

― Lalah Delia

Sleep is pivotal to promote brain health. Cellular function in the brain is substantially altered during sleep through the sleep wake cycle. The most common sleep disruption patterns are that you can’t fall asleep, can’t stay asleep, or you sleep but do not feel rested. Sleep dysfunction is associated with many neurotransmitters (NT) and the brain is in charge of making many of those NTs.

The Science of Sleep

Sleep science is very complex and always continually evolving. There are multiple layers of initiation control that involve groups of neurons in different physical places, aspects of the sleep systems, and the use of classical transmitters and also not so classical ones. The chemistry in the brain changes as we sleep. For example, when the onset of sleep first begins we have circulating glucose but within only a few hours that glucose drops. Well functioning brains will trigger the adrenals to produce cortisol to drive gluconeogenesis and glycogenolysis. This repeats every few hours until we wake.

Sleep Messengers from the Brain

Most NTs in the brain are made in a cluster of neurons located in regions of the brain stem. NTs are transported along neurological pathways. Melatonin, for example, is produced by the pineal gland from light to dark transitioning in the external environment. Low light conditions tell retinal cells to fire into the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) producing GABA. The SCN tells the pineal gland to make melatonin from serotonin. However, that melatonin production can be disrupted in 3 distinct ways:

 

1. High cortisol levels at night

2. Defects in serotonin conversion 

3. Defects in serotonin production

The brain should make most of its own NTs like glutamate, GABA, acetylcholines, and dopamine. With low serotonin, dopamine, or GABA can worsen your mood and impact behavior. Low acetylcholine can make you more forgetful. Having low catecholamines causes reduced focus and concentration. Many NTs have important roles and when lacking can lead to real problems.

Master Mind over Matter

As one can see, problems in the brain with NT function/dysfunction from poor sleep can easily cascade to many symptoms. They can even lead to blood sugar issues, methylation problems, inflammatory insults, and many other disease states. These all result  in more poor sleep and the vicious cycle continues. A healthy brain is a happy one and a happy brain needs sleep. Get better sleep today. If you are having a difficult time sleeping please don't be hesitant to reach out to strausmehthod@gmail.com.