Why Sleep Matters – with Brainwave Optimization Calgary

There’s an old saying in neuroscience: neurons that fire together wire together. This means that the more you run a neuro-circuit in your brain, the stronger that circuit becomes. This is why, to quote another old saying, practice makes perfect. The more you practice piano or try to speak a new language, the stronger those […] The post Why Sleep Matters – with Brainwave Optimization appeared first on Brain Awakening.

There’s an old saying in neuroscience: neurons that fire together wire together. This means that the more you run a neuro-circuit in your brain, the stronger that circuit becomes. This is why, to quote another old saying, practice makes perfect. The more you practice piano or try to speak a new language, the stronger those circuits get.
The ability to learn is about more than just building and strengthening neural connections. Even more important is our ability to break down the old ones. It is called “synaptic pruning.”

Here’s how it works. 

Imagine that your brain is a garden, except instead of growing flowers, fruits, and vegetables, you grow synaptic connections between neurons.

“Glial cells” are the gardeners of your brain—they act to speed up signals between certain neurons. But other glial cells are the waste removers, pulling up weeds, killing pests, raking up dead leaves. Your brain’s pruning gardeners are called “microglial cells.” They prune your synaptic connections.
Have you ever felt like your brain is full? Maybe you’ve felt this way when starting a new job, or when deep in a project.

When you learn lots of new things, your brain builds connections, but they are inefficient, ad hoc connections. Your brain needs to prune a lot of those connections away and build more streamlined, efficient pathways. Your brain does that when you sleep.

When you get into the deep restorative sleep, your brain turns into an office administrator. It sifts and sorts, deleting any clutter and filing important memories for future use.

When you wake up from a good night’s rest and are able to think clearly and quickly, it is because all the pruning and pathway-efficiency that took place overnight has left you with lots of room to take in and synthesize new information—in other words, to learn.

Thinking with a sleep-deprived brain is like hacking your way through a dense jungle with a machete. The jungle is overgrown, and the trek slow going and exhausting.

Even more important, you actually have some control over what your brain decides to delete while you sleep. It’s the synaptic connections you don’t use that get marked for recycling. The ones you do use are the ones that get watered and oxygenated. So be mindful of what you’re thinking about.

If you spend too much time reading theories about the end of Game of Thrones and very little on your job, guess which synapses are going to get marked for recycling?

If you’re in a fight with someone at work and devote your time to thinking about how to get even with them, and not about that big project, you’re going to wind up a synaptic superstar at revenge plots, but a poor innovator.
To take advantage of your brain’s natural gardening system, simply think about the things that are important to you. Before you go to sleep at night, make an effort to intentionally remind your brain of what is important to you.

In Calgary at Brain Awakening, over 90% of my clients report improvement in sleep after their Brainwave Optimization Sessions. 

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