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We spend one third of our life sleeping. Hence, there must be a good reason why nature makes us sleep for this long. Large number of studies all over the world has shown the beneficial effects of good sleep.
Sleep deprivation, on the other hand, results in impairment of judgement, depression, heart problems, obesity and drastic reduction in general well-being of an individual. In an extreme case, sleep deprivation has also resulted in death through heart failure. In fact, the first sign of sickness is fretful sleep.
How lack of sleep produces ill health has remained a mystery. Now, slowly, scientific investigations are solving this puzzle.
This World Sleep Day, let’s find out what’s the link between sleep and health.
One of the accepted theories so far has been that sleep helps in both consolidation and removal of memories. We perceive the world during the day through our senses and it results in memory formation both shallow and deep. Sleep, it seems, helps in consolidating and removing some of these memories uncluttering the brain.
Another recent, but fascinating, theory (backed with experiments) has shown that sleep helps in flushing out toxic protein waste and biological debris from the brain, formed during waking hours. It seems that during sleep the relaxation of brain helps in opening up the channels through which the debris flows into the blood streams and is removed from it.
Thus good sleep is extremely essential for a healthy brain and body.
The build-up of toxins in the brain due to inadequate sleepalso affects the body. Though there is very little understanding of how thishappens, a probable cause is the passage of this information by the vagus nerveto different parts of the body.
As the brain starts getting affected by the debris build-up,the message via vagus nerve to various organs might be to slow them down, resulting in their lethargic action.
Just like deep sleep, meditation also enables dissolution ofmemories. In fact, deep sleep and meditation have similar characteristics andit is quite possible that during meditation the flushing of toxins from thebrain may also take place.
A possible mechanism could be that since meditation resultsin the relaxation of brain, it may help in opening up the channels for flushingoff the chemical debris.
In deep meditation (where the focus is on a single though for a long time, also called Sanyam) new neural pathways are formed and the old ones get dissolved. This dissolution may have a chemical signature thereby producing toxic debris which needs to be flushed out.
Generally when the body is healthy and the person follows a good exercise regime, then this helps to produce deep sleep. Production of deep sleep can also be helped by meditation. Studies world over have shown that long term practice of meditation helps in toning both the mind and body.
(Anil K. Rajvanshi is the director of Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute in Phaltan, Maharashtra. This article has been published in special arrangement with IANS)
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Published: 08 Apr 2016,06:22 PM IST