![]() But based on the existing evidence, the technology has already made its way into a handful of consumer devices, mostly in the form of headbands to be worn overnight. Most of the studies attempting to boost slow-wave sleep have been conducted on small groups of young, healthy participants, so to be certain of the benefits of boosting slow-wave sleep, we would need to see larger trials on more diverse groups. “We can’t really be sure, but so far there are no obvious side effects,” says Born. In the trials to date, participants haven’t yet reported unwanted responses to the technique. It also altered their hormonal balance – reducing their cortisol levels – and led to an improved immune response. Participants wearing the headset performed better on memory tests, showing increased recall for material they had learnt the day before. The sounds are quiet enough to avoid waking the participant, but loud enough to be registered, unconsciously, by the brain.īorn has led much of the experimental work, finding that this gentle auditory stimulation is just enough to reinforce the right brain rhythms, deepening the slow-wave sleep compared with people receiving sham stimulation. The device then plays short pulses of gentle sound, beginning in sync with the brain’s natural slow waves, at regular intervals over the night. Experimental participants wear a headset that records their brain activity and notes when they have started to make those slow waves. One of the most promising techniques to do so works a bit like a metronome counting the brain into the correct rhythms. ![]() ![]() Such results led scientists including Born to wonder whether we might therefore be able to enhance the benefits of sleep and improve our daytime functioning by boosting the production of those slow waves. They also lead to dips in the stress hormone cortisol and help to rejuvenate the immune system so that it is readier to fight incoming infections. The slow waves may also trigger the flow of blood and cerebrospinal fluid through the brain, flushing out potentially harmful debris that could cause neural damage. “The slow waves facilitate the transmission of information,” says Jan Born, director of the Department of Medical Psychology and Behavioural Neurobiology at the University of Tübingen, Germany. It allows the necessary brain regions to pass our memories from short-term to long-term storage – so that we don’t forget what we have learnt. Research since the 1980s has shown that slow-wave sleep is essential for the brain’s maintenance. (It’s a bit like a crowd chanting or beating a drum in unison). On a regular night, the brain cycles through many different stages of sleep, each with a characteristic pattern of ‘brain waves’, in which neurons in different regions of the brain fire together, in synchrony, at a particular rhythm. Various experiments across the world have shown that it is possible to boost the efficiency of the brain’s night-time activity – speeding up the descent into deep sleep and enhancing our rest once we get there. This possibility may be closer than it sounds, thanks to new ‘sleep optimisation’ techniques. ![]() When our immediate demands exceed the hours in the day, sleep is still our top sacrifice.īut what if we were able to simply optimise the sleep experience so that we enjoyed most of the benefits of deep sleep, in less time? The consequences – including impaired memory and decision making, and increased risk of infection and obesity – are well known, but easy to ignore. Many of us are following suit: according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than one third of US adults fail to get enough sleep on a regular basis. Thomas Edison, Margaret Thatcher, Martha Stewart and Donald Trump have all famously claimed to get by on just four or five hours’ sleep a night – much less than the seven-to-nine hours recommended to most adults. We often wear our sleeplessness as a badge of pride – a measure of our impossibly hectic schedules. ![]()
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