sleep

Invite Health Podcast, Episode hosted by Jerry Hickey. Ph

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Sleep is important for memory, learning, detoxifying the brain, and maintaining and healing the brain. You even create new memory cells in the deepest stages of sleep. On today’s episode of the InVite Health Podcast, we’re going to discuss the various things that sleep does for your brain and supplements that can help improve sleep. 

Sleep and the hippocampus

Your hippocampus is your learning and memory inbox. If you look at the brain, the hippocampus is in the lower part of the brain in the middle. The hippocampus is very important for learning. When you learn something new that day, you keep it in your inbox, which is the hippocampus, but it’s vulnerable and it’s a short-term storage site. When you go into the deepest stages of sleep, you move that memory out of the hippocampus to a longer-term storage site. Otherwise, you do not remember what you learned that day. 

A second thing that can happen is that learning gets jammed up. A poor night of sleep is related to a 40% drop in the ability to form new memories the next day, so it blocks learning. In other words, if you don’t go to sleep, the hippocampus doesn’t unload and shift the memories to the long-term storage sites and basically new memories will just bounce off of it. It gets jammed up. 

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In your deepest sleep, there are these big, powerful brain waves that have these spectacular bursts of energy at the tip of them that are kind of like fireworks. It’s a very powerful electrical activity known as a sleep spindle. These energetic spindles transfer the memories from what was stored in the hippocampus that day to a more permanent, longer-term memory storage site that’s not as vulnerable, so it’s very important to get sleep.  

Learn more about how sleep impacts memory by tuning into the full podcast episode.            

How to boost memory

As you get older, it may become harder to fall into a deep sleep, which can also negatively impact your memory. There are some tricks to help boost your sleep, allowing you to detoxify your brain and protect your memory.

A very well-absorbed turmeric can help with the release of brain-derived neurotrophic factors. Normally it is used for back aches and shoulder pain, but if you get a really well-absorbed turmeric that’s rich in all of its powerful constituents, it will enter the brain and it’ll improve the release of brain-derived neurotrophic factors. There are five different human clinical trials showing that when you take turmeric during the daytime, it supports your memory for about six hours, but that night, you’re releasing more brain-derived neurotrophic factors and creating new memory cells, so you’re getting cognitive reserve. This can help you have good brain and memory function deep into old age. One way to get this turmeric is with Curcumin Complex, which is under our Dr. Pressman line, and then there’s bio-curcumin which is in our Bio-Curcumin 5-Loxin formula. It’s a great product for the brain.

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There are a lot of tricks for a better night’s sleep. Don’t look at blue light on your cell phone, computer or TV late into the night. Blue light inhibits the release of melatonin in the brain. If you take melatonin as a supplement about a half hour before bed, it really improves how deeply you sleep, how long you sleep and how quickly you fall asleep.

 Tune into the full podcast episode for more sleep-supporting tips.

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