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For
all insomniacs
who have been struggling to get a good night sleep,
there is now quite literally a light at the end of the tunnel.
A
team of Swiss, German, and Canadian scientists have just discovered the circuit
in the brain that is responsible for sleep
and wakefulness.
And
more importantly, how to use a “flashlight” to get a full night sleep.
The
study was published it in the journal Nature
Neuroscience at
the end of 2015.
Insomniacs fail to get enough
deep sleep.
This is the sleep
phase during which your brain waves are at their slowest (less than four
hertz), and during which you do not dream.
It
is the best rest that humans can get.
The
neurons that control your brain waves to slow down so you sleep
are called GABA neurons. They are placed in your lateral hypothalamus.
If
you want to get a good night sleep,
you want the GABA neurons to be quiet, and if you want to wake up, you want
them to be active.
This
is precisely what the scientists did to the mice in their study, and what they
hope to be able to do to us some day.
They
used a new science called optogenetics to enable and disable these GABA neurons.
Optogenetics is like a flashlight that controls the behavior of neurons from
outside the skull. So no surgery, no invasion.
Other
areas where they have applied it shut down the neurons that cause epileptic
seizures and cause cocaine dependence, and to re-activate neurons that caused
deafness.
Unfortunately,
more research is needed for this treatment to be used for human beings.
Primarily because optogenetics requires that neurons are fed a light-sensitive
protein to make them sensitive to the lights used in the treatment.
But
imagine how cool it will be to lie in a hospital for a few minutes while a
doctor quiets down your GABA neurons with a flashlight so that you can get a
full night’s sleep?
But
you’ll probably not need that to get a good night sleep.
Why?
You
can’t taste, smell, or see it.
But
if you: live in a house painted before 1978, buy household objects painted in
countries with poor safety standards, live near a busy road, live in an area
with slightly older plumbing, use pewter kitchenware, eat canned, or live near
a mine or metal factory, you may be exposed to a metal that interferes with
your sleep.
Researchers
at the University of Pennsylvania published the results of an interesting study
in the December 2015 edition of the journal Sleep.
The study shows that lead exposure causes insomnia
in children up to 10 years after the initial exposure. It made them 2 to 3
times more likely than other children to suffer from insomnia
and use sleeping pills.
And
everything indicates lead affects adults in the same way.
To
reach this conclusion, they analyzed the level of lead in 665 Chinese
children’s blood in 2004 when they were around three to four years of age.
At
the follow-up investigations when the kids were between nine and eleven years
old, the researchers found that those who had the highest concentration of lead
in their blood were also the ones that have the most difficulty going to sleep
and staying asleep. Predictably, they were also found to suffer from the worst
daytime sleepiness.
The
concentration of lead in their blood was not even particularly high, with an
average of 6.26 mcg/dL (micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood). Those with
the concentration higher than 10 mcg/dL suffered the worst symptoms.
The
National Library of Medicine has compiled a long list of peer-reviewed medical
books that include insomnia as a symptom of lead poisoning, and most
organizations that lobby for lead-free environments claim it to be a symptom.
However, until now, no systematic studies with strong scientific controls have
been conducted.
The
new study is important because it sheds light on the conditions in which kids
in vulnerable communities in developing countries grow up. It also draws our
attention to the possibility that our insomniac kids may have been exposed to
lead.
It
is especially worthwhile to have a lead blood test performed if you live or
work:
–
In an old house with 1960s and 1970s lead paint
– near a busy road with masses of lead-fuel dust
– in an area with old lead-sealed plumbing
– near a mine
– as a firearms instructor or enthusiastic weapons collector
– in a battery factory
– near a busy road with masses of lead-fuel dust
– in an area with old lead-sealed plumbing
– near a mine
– as a firearms instructor or enthusiastic weapons collector
– in a battery factory
If
you think you may have been exposed to lead, there are natural ways to clear
your system. Chlorella, vitamin C, calcium, iron, iodine, selenium, and zinc
supplements, together with a high-protein/low-fat diet, are some useful natural
methods help prevent absorption so that your body can excrete the lead.
Want to Get a Good
Night Sleep? Can’t Sleep? Blame Your Parents
In
a recent study, researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University discovered that
your parents are partly responsible for your insomnia.
In
fact, you can possibly blame your parents for 50% of your insomnia suffering.
It
happens in a different way than you may think, though, and we don’t actually
want you to blame your parents. Because after all, it’s not their fault.
Insomnia
seems to be a complex problem with a variety of causes. A research team at
Virginia Commonwealth University has just added another one into the mix:
genetic inheritance.
Their
study is published in the September 2015 edition of the journal Sleep.
For
environmental and health details, they consulted the Virginia Adult Twin
Studies of Psychiatric and Substance Use Disorders, a database of 7,500 people,
all born as part of twins. They then tracked the twins down and asked them to
complete two surveys on insomnia symptoms over time.
With
all this information available, they could calculate the extent to which
genetics contributed to insomnia. After keeping environmental influences
constant, they estimated that the heritability of insomnia was around 59
percent for women and 38 percent for men.
In
other words, if you are an insomniac, the chance that you inherited your
insomnia symptoms from your parents is 59 percent if you are female and 38
percent if you are male. To look at this differently, the chance that you will
pass on your insomnia to your girl and boy children is 59 percent and 38
percent respectively.
If
you like positive thinking – and don’t we all – you can hold onto the 41 and 62
percent role that environmental factors play in producing insomnia. Even
better, the results of the study suggest you can change your inherited insomnia
by manipulating your environment.
Before
they put the raw data through a longitudinal model, which roughly involves
generalizing from the collected adulthood insomnia scores to probable childhood
insomnia scores, they found that insomnia was at most 25 percent inheritable,
and that there was almost no difference between men and women.
What
does this mean?
By
the time you are an adult, you can manipulate your environment so much that
there is only a 25 percent chance that you will struggle with inherited
insomnia symptoms.
It
also means that women are particularly brilliant at these environmental
manipulations, as there is a much bigger inheritance for them to wipe out by
the time they are adults.
This post is from The
Cure Insomnia and Stop Snoring Program offers a revolutionary new approach to
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