Get to Know Your Sleep Mechanism
Sleep is essential for our wellness. Its benefits for the brain and body are phenomenal such as learning new skills, memory formation, muscle growth, energy restoration… However, sleep is a consequence of a hidden system working in the background; In fact, there is an arrangement in our body responsible for regulating our sleep cycle.
In the following article, we will address the mechanism behind the sleep-wake cycle, the hormone involved in this cycle, and how to boost it naturally to sleep soundly.
In the span of 24 hours, our body goes through several physical, mental, and behavioral patterns. These changes happen out of constant communication between each organ and cell with its respective biological clock. This clock is called the circadian rhythm and is responsible for regulating the organs functions during the 24-hour cycle. Among these functions, we find the sleep-wake pattern.
And similar to any clock, our circadian rhythm needs correction to be balanced. And that Role is held by the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). It’s the master clock that coordinates between all the biological clocks, keeping them in sync.
The SCN is located in the hypothalamus- an organ of the brain- and is regulated by light and darkness. It receives information about the light found in the environment directly from the eyes –mainly through the retina- and uses that data, to maintain balanced circadian rhythms in the body.
In connection with the sleep-wake cycle and depending on the lightness or darkness of the environment; the SCN signals another organ in the hypothalamus, called the pineal gland- a small pea-shaped endocrine gland in the brain- It is in charge of secreting the sleep hormone Melatonin in the bloodstream.
In this respect, the sleep hormone is stimulated by darkness and turned off by light. In addition to its circadian rhythm, melatonin levels also have a seasonal (or circannual) rhythm, with higher levels in the autumn and winter, when nights are longer and lower levels in the spring and summer.
Disturbance in circadian rhythms such as traveling across time zones, partying all night, working Night-shift, or pulling a sleepless night, can lead to hormone imbalance, and you might end up with sleep problems in your routine. Nevertheless, there are solutions and ways to boost your melatonin to maintain a good sleep pattern and an overall balanced circadian rhythm.
Because the sleep hormone is inhibited by light, it is recommended to start your night routine by staying away from the blue light -that comes from smartphones screens, TV and computer screen, because that light can lessen the level of melatonin in your bloodstream, making it harder to sleep at night.
However, you don’t want to secrete too much melatonin, thus, you want to stabilize its production, by getting exposed to sunlight during the day; this will not only turn off your melatonin release and keep it stored to its appropriate time at night. But also you will get your vitamin D which will help you sleep better as well.
To recapitulate the important points discussed in this article:
- Sleep is crucial for a healthy body and mind.
- Sleep has an entire mechanism supporting its function.
- Light and darkness play major roles in balancing your sleep cycle.
- Melatonin is released in the darkness.
- Stay away from blue lights at night.
- Get some Sun time during the day to balance your melatonin levels.
We hope that this article will help you improve your sleep and allow you to sleep soundly. In the next article, we will talk about how food can help you improve the quality of sleep and boost melatonin.
Note: we are not advocating taking melatonin as a supplement or any other vitamin or mineral supplements. Instead, we encourage you to adopt a better lifestyle through a healthy diet and better daily choices to increase your natural melatonin production.
Some of the information used in this article was inspired by the following resources :
https://stke.sciencemag.org/content/8/388/ec213
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/163169#1
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5713303/
Article written by : Adnane Mansour & Maha Saied
