EMOTIONS
The brain is a gift, take care of it.
James Smith
Sleep Coach
Factors of Emotion
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The human brain is an awesome complex organ that requires care and nutrition to maintain a high level of function. We now know that sleep is one of the main keys to brain health as well as, learning and quality of life. In addition to the general understanding of rest, sleep supports brain function in learning and memory.
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The REM and DEEP sleep stages perform both clearing and forming memories plus, a number of brain functions, including, nerve cells (neurons) and pathway transmissions and how they communicate with each other. Recent findings uncovered that your brain is continually active and, in some cases, more active while you are in REM sleep than when you're awake. Our brain and body are naturally in a state of repair and restoration and sleep is the major contributing factor for brain health.
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Life is also complex and full of experiences that often create emotional stress that puts pressure on our thoughts, feelings, and can have a negative impact on how we fall asleep and stay asleep. Understanding how to manage what we take in mentally as well as what we feed our minds is an important factor in ensuring that we sleep soundly and help our brain to work while we sleep. The focus of this section is the correlation between REM sleep and the brain.
Recently, Dr. Walker wrote the book “Why We Sleep”. Dr. Walker discovered a clear connection between sleep and learning. In that research, he also discovered that drug use including sleep aids, as well as alcohol disrupts and, in some cases, eliminates REM sleep. The concern is that people may be unaware of this and unknowingly damaging their sleep quality, therefore, making themselves more vulnerable to diseases and other conditions such as Alzheimer’s, diabetes, dementia, and some cancers. Walker found a direct connection to sleep deprivation and poor immune system.
REM is essential to Emotional and mental health.
The body and brain of a healthy human cycle between light sleep, deep sleep, and REM sleep 4-7 times each night. Disrupting these cycles can occur due to many factors, however, I want to explore a few causes that affect the brain. ​
It's not your commitment that counts,
it's your commitment to the commitment that matters.
Inconsistency
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Sleep must be the priority! Variability in sleep times is a major risk factor for poor health! In addition to lack of energy and physical recovery, sleep deprivation and sleep inconsistency can create more awake periods contributing to many negative health consequences.
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What to do: Simply make a commitment to maintaining consistent sleep times each night. This regular and reliable sleep pattern will have a dramatic impact on your physical and mental well-being. The list of advantages in this one sleep strategy alone will benefit you in weight management, alertness, immune function, strength, and your physical and mental health.
Mental & Emotional Stress
We often bring our state of stress to bed. One strategy is to find a few minutes before bedtime and Meditate, pray, and enter into positive thoughts.
In this effort, it may be productive to use Association and Dissociation NLP Techniques to push the negative or stressful thoughts away (disassociate) and concentrate or (associate) with the positive thoughts or outcomes you want.
Doing this before sleep can assist your brain process during REM sleep and access what you programmed into the mind before sleep. If you feel that you have more mental stress than you can handle, find a good therapist or NLP practitioner, and ease your stress with a professional.
Alcohol, Drugs, and Sleep Medications
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First, I don’t want to be a stick in the mud here, however, I’m just restating the facts so don’t shoot the messenger.
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Sleep is a choice and we "control" how well we sleep. The latest research has revealed that alcohol, drugs, caffeine, and sleeping pills can have a negative effect on deep sleep and REM sleep.
As previously discussed, normal REM sleep can be interrupted due to the consumption of alcohol and or marijuana before bedtime. They can severely reduce deep sleep and REM sleep or could possibly eliminate REM all together. REM sleep is critical to brain health and our cognitive well-being. As discovered by Dr. Walker's sleep research and expressed in his book “Why We Sleep”. The best thing to do is don’t use them.
