Northwestern Magazine:

Northwestern brings two research fields together to better understand how sleep improves health.

BY CLARE MILLIKEN

t’s so slight, you don’t even feel it coming. You might feel a bit fuzzy, weightless, buoyant. It’s subtle — in the initial stages, your heart rate dips and your muscles relax. Before your brain waves become even slower, your body temperature falls. Finally, brain activity speeds back up, but your limbs are temporarily paralyzed and your eyes begin to dart behind your eyelids. Over the next several hours, this cycle will repeat at relatively regular intervals.

Until your alarm blares from your nightstand.

We may regard sleep as a period of pure rest and rejuvenation, but it’s so much more. And while we often hear that we need seven to nine hours per night, there’s more to that story as well.

“Sleep health is multidimensional,” says Kristen Knutson, associate professor of neurology and preventive medicine at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine. “It’s sleep duration — are you getting enough sleep? But it’s also quality. It can also be timing. You could be getting what you think is a decent quality of sleep, and you might think that you’re getting enough sleep, but you don’t feel rested at the beginning of the day.”

The effects of insufficient or poor-quality sleep go far deeper than our energy level the next morning. As Northwestern researchers have shown, sleep is a key component of our cardiovascular, metabolic and cognitive health. In short, improving sleep can help us live longer, healthier lives.

Go to link