brain rules sleep & stress
TRANSCRIPT
Sleep
Sleep Well, Think Well
★ When we’re asleep, the brain is not resting at all.
★ It is almost unbelievably active!
★ It’s possible that the reason we need to sleep is so that we can learn.
Why Sleep? I’d Rather Stay Up All Night.
★ Sleep must be important because we spend 1/3 of our lives doing it!
★ Loss of sleep hurts attention, executive function, working memory, mood, quantitative skills, logical reasoning, and even motor dexterity.
★ We still don’t know how much we need! It changes with age, gender, pregnancy, puberty, and so much more.
Sleep Loss = Brain Drain
Sleep loss hurts attention, function, memory, mood,
quantitative skills, logic and general math knowledge,
etc, etc, etc….
There’s more…..
★ Healthy 30 year old sleep deprived bodies revert to that of a 60 year old!
★ Sleep deprivation causes the body to not fully utilize the food we eat by 1/3!
★ A healthy night’s sleep can boost learning significantly!
★ Sleep can be a great friend!
The Brain is Active while we Sleep
Neurons, hormones &other chemicals keep us up
Brain cells, hormones &various chemicals put us down
It's a battle where one eventually becomes exhausted & falls asleep.
Ahhh….the Joys of Napping!
★ Napping is normal. Ever feel tired in the afternoon? That’s because your brain really wants to take a nap.
★ Around 3 p.m., 12 hours after the midpoint of your sleep, all your brain wants to do is nap.
★ Taking a nap might make you more productive. In one study, a 26-minute nap improved NASA pilots’ performance by 34 percent.
★ Don’t schedule important meetings at 3 p.m. It just doesn’t make sense.
Lyndon Johnson, 36th US President regularly closed his
door mid-afternoon & put on his pajamas for a 30 min nap.
Bad Things Happen When we Don’t Nap!
Facts:
★ More traffic accidents happen during nap zone
★ Nappers saw a 16% improvement in reaction time
★ Naps boost cognitive performance
★ Napping 30 mins before pulling an all nighter keeps our minds sharp
Wake up Before your Alarm?
● An automatic device exists!
● The body has a series of internal clocks controlled by the brain.
● It's called the suprachiasmatic.
Stress
Stressed Brains Don’t Learn the Same Way
★ What is stress? It depends...
★ Certain types of stress HURT learning but some types BOOST learning!
★ Some types of stress are good for the brain -- you've heard those stories of grandma’s lifting up cars to rescue children.
★ Long-term stress is bad. The brain is designed to handle stress that lasts seconds, not years.
Learned Helplessness...
...happens when people or animals become conditioned to believe that a situation is unchangeable or inescapable.
Learned Helplessness
The Misconception:
If you are in a bad situation, you will do whatever you
can do to escape it.
The Truth:
If you feel like you aren’t in control of your destiny,
you will give up and accept whatever
situation you are in.
VS
All Three = Stress
#1 Measureable Physiological Response
#2 Desire to Avoid the Situation
#3 Loss of Control Researchers Jeansok Kim & David Diamond
There’s more…..★ Stress damages virtually every kind of cognition that exists
★ It damages memory & executive function
★ It can hurt your motor skills
★ Over a long period of time it disrupts your immune response
★ You get sicker more often
★ It disrupts your ability to sleep
★ You get depressed
Ahhh….the Stress of Work & Home!
★ The emotional stability of the home is the greatest predictor of academic success. If you want your kid to get into Harvard, go home and love your spouse.
★ You have one brain. The same brain you have at home is the same brain you have at work/school.
★ The stress you are experiencing at home will affect your performance at work.
According to Harvard Business Review Executives deal with stress in 4 ways:
★ Health (including exercise)★ Sleep★ Diet★ Removal
**Removal is anything that whisks you away from work’s struggles.
Renewal = Removal
References
About.com (2015). What is learned helplessness. Retrieved from http://psychology.about.com/od/lindex/f/earned-helplessness.htm
Harvard Business Review (October 29, 2014). Why leaders don’t brag about successfully managing stress. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2014/10/why-leaders-dont-brag-about-successfully-managing-stress/
Lyndon B. Johnson [image]. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/lyndon-b-johnson
Medina, J.(2014). Brain rules: 12 rules for surviving and thriving at work, home and school. Seattle, WA: Pear Press.
Stressed is Dessert [Image]. (2013). Retrieved from https://acuriouswanderer.wordpress.com/2013/04/21/grad-school-stress/
Sleeping Moon [image]. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://smudgem.blogspot.com/2014/03/koreas-war-on-sleep.html
Stressed Student [Image]. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://contextualfeed.com/stress-and-its-impact-on-ones-creativity-288.html
You Are Not So Smart (November 11, 2009). Learned Helplessness. Retrieved from http://youarenotsosmart.com/2009/11/11/learned-helplessness/