The Importance of Sleep

Written the old-fashioned way by your host, Gabby, never AI

I've decided the first entry on this blog should be one that is near and dear to my heart. I have been terrorized by my neighbor that shares my bedroom wall for the last 10 months. This person whom I have never faced (for the fear I will lose my shit on them) bangs on the wall, slams the doors, and does god knows what else at random times throughout the deep night. The "witching hour" has now become my bitching hour! The instability of sleep has had a profound effect on my life this past year. While I've done my darndest to relay the hell in which this neighbor has been causing me to my apartment complex management, they've done nothing and the horrors persist. I see this now as an opportunity to expand and make some art by way of a blog post for Happy House. In some classes I use the theme, "turn inconveniences into opportunities", and here I am taking my own advice. Way to go Gabby!

Ever since I was young, I've had sleep as a top priority. My dad would emphasize the importance of sleep whenever discussion ensued. We all grew up using portable air cleaners at night to not only do the job of filtering out my childhood air of White Lake, Michigan, but to have that steady stream of white noise in the background to drift off into. It was so soothing, to have a bedtime routine. The repetition is something your body and nervous system craves. Back in the early 2000's we didn't have cellphone screens to burn our eyes out of our heads when the sun went down. We barely had a family desktop computer, so the only real source of "screen time" was our big ass tv that probably weighed a thousand pounds. We were not heartbroken to take the clicker, switch the tv off and head to bed. I remember once in high school, puberty rearranging my body and hormones being spawned seemingly from hell, I couldn't sleep for almost an entire week. I was so beyond worried about all the things my body and brain were missing out on! Afterall, I was enlightened to the importance of sleep by Dad Nielsen since I could remember. All the toxins that were unable to flush from my head, all the muscles that were unable to heal themselves (marching band can really mess you up, man), I was surely going to die! (teenage dramatics) One thing I was unequipped with at the time was a way to soothe my worried soul. I was spiraling with no end in sight like Alice in Wonderland, falling further away from a calm, cool, and collected baseline. Enter xanax from doctor (ew), marijuana from friends (cool), and the advice from parents "it'll all work itself out, quit worry'in!" Boy, a yoga and meditation practice would have come in clutch at that point! I found that later on in the year 2011 when my sweet angel directly from heaven/ first cat Chloe passed. A friend took me along to a yoga class at a popular big name gym and I found solace there on the mat for the first time. What happens next deserves more than a blog post (book coming soon) but here is where I can leave off the backstory in good faith and dive deeper into the science, the magic, and the mystery of mimis.

Why do we sleep?

Short answer, to reset. The rest is just as if not more important than the work! Systems like, the Nervous, Endocrine, Immune, Circadian, Cardiovascular, Metabolic, and Musculoskeletal all get to work while we are unconscious.

The Nervous system/ Sleep stages

The Nervous system (brain is included here) engages your meat computer and eyeballs in NREM and REM sleep cycles which are important for their own special reasons. Hopkins online says "The first part of the cycle is non-REM sleep, which is composed of four stages. The first stage comes between being awake and falling asleep. The second is light sleep, when heart rate and breathing regulate and body temperature drops. The third and fourth stages are deep sleep. As you cycle into REM sleep, the eyes move rapidly behind closed lids, and brain waves are similar to those during wakefulness. Breath rate increases and the body becomes temporarily paralyzed as we dream. The cycle then repeats itself, but with each cycle you spend less time in the deeper stages three and four of sleep and more time in REM sleep. On a typical night, you’ll cycle through four or five times."

***These cycles can vary depending on if you're an infant or an elderly person. If you're an infant reading this blog, you are one cool baby btw.

In stage 1, our brain wave activity moves from Alpha waves (deeply relaxed) to Theta waves (even deeply-er relaxed). As we drift, the breath and body adjust accordingly- breathing slows and muscles unclench. Think of the integration period of your yoga class- it's chill, designed to make an entry way to deeper healing coming next.

Stage 2 is a continuation of Theta waves in the brain, but "spindles" happen here- activity between your thalamus and cortex linked via a circuit. Sleep spindles enhance memory improvement. Also in stage 2, are our " guard dogs" so to speak. K-complexes, which are high-amplitude waves that can occur spontaneously or be evoked by an external stimulus, that help both maintain sleep and monitor the environment. K complexes keep you asleep if there is a noise that you have perceived in your waking life- think mom snoring, cat playing with fuzzy ball toys, boyfriend farting etc.. But when the external stimuli is so startling, so foreign and perceived as a threat to you- this is when the k complex "simply doesn't get paid enough for this shit". Taken from NeuroLaunch almost exactly 2 years ago today might I add-"A K-complex is a normal, protective brainwave during sleep, but it won’t block out loud, persistent noise. Loud sounds can still trigger arousal, stress responses, and micro-wakings, which is why noise control (earplugs, white noise, soundproofing) is needed to protect sleep quality." This means my neighbor's noise is SO LOUD and startling, my k complex cannot compete...damn dude...

Stage 3 is that good good, deep sleep. Heart rate and breathing slow dramatically here. This stage is critical for clearing neurotoxic proteins, such as beta-amyloid and tau, which accumulate during the day. Beta Amyloid is a fragment of a protein said to be linked to Alzheimer's if there is overproduction or poor waste management. Tau is a brain specific protein that helps maintain neuronal structure. Basically, these two fuck a bunch of shit up if they are not properly functioning and maybe lead to Alzheimer's Disease if they don't get booted in stage 3 sleep.

Stage 4 transitions our brain waves into a deep delta wave pattern. Heart rate and respiration slow down even further during this phase. Physical development and repair happen here with the help of the big push of Growth Hormone in the first initial hours of sleep. GH supports tissue repair, muscle growth, and cellular regeneration. Poor deep sleep reduces GH production, impairing recovery and long-term health. Deep, uninterrupted Stage 4 sleep is crucial for actually feeling rested and waking up feeling refreshed. Interesting to note, Stage 4 dominates the first half of the night. Across the 90-minute cycles after that, you spend more and more time in Stages 1 and 2. AND as you get older, stage 4 starts to decline. Yikes. Makes sense though; as a baby/adolescent, we need more of the growth hormone to (duh) grow.....

Stage 5, REM, is the "paradoxical sleep"; we appear sleeping but brain activity is more similar to when we are awake. Our heart rates and body temps rise. We are technically paralyzed to inhibit movement from when we have crazy ass dreams at this time of night. It is said that these crazy ass dreams allow us to digest emotions from the day in a different, sometimes VERY SILLY way. There is a stress molecule for the brain, noradrenaline, which is almost completely absent in REM which may be why emotional memories can be activated and reprocessed without the physiological stress response that originally accompanied them. We can re-write the response to whatever here.....You can also use this technique in meditation btw....

Endocrine System

Time for a joke break?

How do you make a hormone?

You forget to pay her....

:/

Cortisol follows a daily rhythm, some say that goes along with sunlight- high in the morning and fades at night. Too much cortisol at inappropriate times (like nighttime when you're laying in bed) increases stress and inflammation in the body. It is said screen time fucks with our circadian rhythm- blue lights mimic daytime lights. The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) in the hypothalamus works with the light signals through your eyes to make the distinction between a.m. light and p.m. light therefore is deemed like the body's timekeeper. It also stimulates cortisol in the morning and tells the pineal gland to release melatonin at night. Our sex hormones, estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone are regulated by the very cool hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. Without consistent sleep, we compromise healthy reproductive and metabolic functions. Hormones Leptin and Ghrelin (Hunger Hormones) get sent off the rails when our sleep is inconsistent and adequate, increasing appetite and therefore increasing calorie intake.

Immune System

Immune cells migrate into tissues during the day to fight infections. At night, they circulate around the body, stopping at lymph nodes to process antigens and “remember” pathogens. This nightly circulation helps the immune system fine‑tune responses and prepare for future encounters. During the early hours of nighttime sleep, the body increases production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, signaling molecules that coordinate the immune response. It also boosts production of a cytokine called interleukin-12, which helps antigen-presenting cells communicate with T helper cells. This chain of events supports the creation of targeted killer T cells and prompts B cells to start producing antibodies. I know, a lot of code words which might have your head spinning. That's ok. All you need to remember is your badass gang is reviewing their notes and updating missions in your sleep. You have badass-ary inside you, tap into it..

Cardiovascular System

Your heart/blood vessels get a chance to chill when you sleep. If you read the stages of sleep above, every stage slows the heart and breathing down more and more as we go into autopilot. The circulatory system also removes metabolic waste products like carbon dioxide and cellular byproducts from tissues and transports them to organs for elimination. Alongside classic moving of oxygen around the bloodstream, sleep really gives our highways a chance to repair relax.

*** Side note, legs up the wall before bed ( 5mins to start and work up to 30 mins) is a wonderful pose to reverse blood flow which is a big thank you note to the heart. With your legs elevated, your nervous system shifts toward a parasympathetic state, which encourages relaxation, lowers anxiety. This is a nice segue to the autonomic nervous system... The autonomic a branch of the central nervous system (it's opposite is the somatic nervous system) governs the stuff we don't think about- chewing, breathing, moving limbs etc.

Another layer down this rabbit hole to really get your mind work'in is that the autonomic nervous system gets broken down into 2 groups; sympathetic (fight or flight) and parasympathetic (rest and digest)... We shift into said parasympathetic in rest.

Metabolic System

The what? Yeah you know when people are super skinny and they say "I just have a super high metabolism" what does that even mean? Metabolism is the complex process by which the body converts food into the energy needed for all bodily functions. You may have also heard of the basal metabolic rate (BMR), which is the energy required to maintain basic functions at rest. BMR drops by approximately 10%-15% during sleep. Your muscles are inactive when you sleep and your brain isn't demanding you to move, therefore you don't need fuel for a machine that isn't working. This reduction in BMR is an energy-saving mechanism that supports the body’s restorative processes. Your body also conserves energy while sleeping, dropping core body temperature as bedtime approaches and continues to fall throughout the night. This temperature reduction also helps conserve energy so that as you sleep, your body can sort out how and where to send the "food" (glucose) to where and when, for tomorrow.

I'll let scienceinsights do some educating, "As the body enters sleep, it shifts its fuel preference, transitioning into an overnight fasting mode. Initially, the body uses available glucose, but as liver glycogen stores deplete, metabolism shifts toward fat oxidation. This reliance on stored fats, known as beta-oxidation, becomes the primary energy source for maintenance functions during the period without food intake. This shift is observable through a lower respiratory quotient during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, representing a higher level of lipid burning. While the body manages its energy supply, glucose handling also changes during the night. Insulin sensitivity, the body’s responsiveness to insulin, naturally decreases during sleeping hours. In the early morning hours, just before awakening, the liver increases its output of glucose to provide fuel for upcoming activity. This regulated increase in hepatic glucose output, coupled with decreased insulin sensitivity, contributes to a temporary rise in blood sugar known as the “dawn phenomenon.” This metabolic preparation ensures the brain and muscles have an immediate fuel source for the transition to wakefulness." In short, when we disrupt our sleep we are disrupted on a cellular level.

Musculoskeletal System

For us yogis/athletes this system might be the most affect by poor sleep. The Musculoskeletal system aka the "locomotor system" is the framework for our bodies. Controlled by the nervous system (why isn't nervous spelled like nervis?) it is comprised of bones, muscles, joints, and connective tissues. It gives your body shape so we aren't like a literal bag of bones! It protects vital organs from impact and damage, it stores essential minerals like calcium and phosphorus (for bone and cell maintenance) it literally produces red and white blood cells via bone marrow and makes breathing happen via muscle contractions. During rest, especially in slow-wave sleep (SWS), the body releases growth hormone (GH), which promotes tissue regeneration, muscle repair, and bone strengthening. (we already learned this in the paragraph about sleep stages btw) GH and other hormones stimulate protein synthesis, helping muscles recover from fatigue and injury. Sleeping well also maintains flexibility and reduces inflammation in connective tissues. Shitty sleep = longer recovery times. Sleep supports bone mineralization and strength, reducing fracture risk. Maybe that's why in older age as stage 4 decreases in sleep, people have a harder time recovering from injury? Sleep helps regulate pain perception; poor sleep can lower pain thresholds and increase sensitivity.

How to sleep "better"

Did you know we roughly sleep for about 26 years of our life? You'd better be investing in that bed!!! Having a night time wind down routine can significantly increase your odds for a successful slumber. Here are some tips straight from the dome that have helped me greatly to establish some consistency amidst the chaos (crazy neighbor)

• Stop drinking caffeine by 12pm

• Omit screen time (no doom scrolling) at least an hour before bed

• LEGS UP THE WALL 5mins-30mins

• Read a chapter or 5 in your current "for fun" book (nothing super heady)

• Write down all the bullshit you're stressing about in your journal. Don't have a journal? (why?) Use a piece of scrap paper

• You can also write everything you need to do tomorrow, need to remember for tomorrow

• Crank that white noise machine up

• Get cozy in some sheets you love

Closing Thoughts

Wow that was a lot of info! I hope you learned something. I also hope you have new, deep appreciation for the absolute mind-blowing operation that happens while we sleep. When we take care of ourselves, we are unstoppable. Step 1 in taking care of you, is sleeping well.

I feel very sad that my neighbor has not been honoring this sacred time (night time). I wonder if they do sleep? When would they? Do they feel rested? How could they possibly...Their lives are undoubtedly affected by the direct result of bad sleep habits.....Maybe their performance at their job doesn't affect their pay and that's why they can continue to live/torture me? I will never know, and that's okay with me because I will be out of here soon. As I write this, I'm not sure where I will be living at the end of this month when my lease is up. But I do know that if I'm ever in this situation again, a polite knock on the door of the perpetrator after the first time and a calm conversation about how uncool sleep deprivation is will be had. If the convo doesn't do it, then stay tuned for an entry on how to fight your neighbor.

Sleep well,

xoxo Gabby