The best thing we can do for our health is to get a good night’s sleep. Sleep costs nothing and feels good. At night, your brain provides a “dream lineup” of free streaming content tailored specifically to your most persistent fears and weirdest fantasies. You never get bored, gain weight or spend money while you sleep. It’s the ultimate no-lose proposition.
So what causes us to watch one more show before bed? Why do we blindly scroll social media to see more of the same dumb videos and half-baked conspiracies we watched all day? How do our perceived slights and missteps keep us from enjoying the one sure thing that would make us feel better?
Indeed, what are we so afraid of when it comes time to snooze?
Death, I suppose. No living behavior brings us close to non-living behavior than sleep.
We close our eyes. We lose control. Our body paralyzes itself so we don’t run out the front door while dreaming. The experience resembles being a tranquilized bug in a spider web, except without the final part where the spider eats us. Don’t worry, the spider won’t eat you. I promise. But you will die eventually, and it will probably feel a lot like going to sleep. (Unless you are eaten by a giant spider, in which case forget I said any of this).
Sleep is like a conduit between life and death. I’m not the first to make this comparison. Legions of egghead philosophers and theologians over many millennia beat me to it. They’re all “sleeping” now. You’d have to consult their dissertations to ascertain where their wisdom ended up. I like to think it’s in a library just around the corner. I don’t have to go there now, but I will eventually. That’s death. And that’s sleep, too.
The other unsettling aspect of sleep is the acknowledgment that biology houses our “self” — our mind, memories and soul — in a sophisticated super computer made of fat, protein, salt and water. Brains are remarkable, but bear striking chemical resemblance to a bag of pork rinds.
While slumbering, our brains shut down to run a cleaning protocol not unlike a dishwasher. Fluid flushes away cellular waste from the brain, disposing of it through the bloodstream. “Brain garbage” that isn’t washed away calcifies on the brain tissue, affecting how our mind operates.
That’s why, when suddenly shaken awake by small children, it’s so hard answer to answer seemingly simple questions like “can dogs fly?” or “how many sausages fit in the toaster?” We’ve still got brain soap in our squishy thinkums.
New scientific research suggest just how important this process is to our long term health. This was highlighted in a July 15 New York Times story by Dana G. Smith. Among the waste particles removed by our brains at night is a protein called amyloid, which is associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Less sleep correlates with more amyloid deposits on our brain tissue.
Many factors appear to cause dementia and specific disorders like Alzheimer’s. Obesity, diet, exercise, and genetic history are all very important, but adequate sleep appears to be one of the most direct ways to reduce the risks as we age.
At the same time, Smith’s story details how too much sleep — more than nine hours a day — also raises dementia risk.
It’s a tricky balance between waking and sleeping, life and death — the very consciousness we too often numb with substances and screens.
Sleep soothes even my most fitful moods. I might go to bed in a tizzy and wake up in a state but, during sleep, a tiny janitor runs a tiny mop along the bumpy edges of my medulla oblongata. For that short time, I am free from worry.
This is what awaits us during our next slumber, and the big sleep beyond. Sleep well.
Aaron J. Brown is an author and college instructor from northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. He writes the blog MinnesotaBrown.com and co-hosts the podcast “Power in the Wilderness” on Northern Community Radio. This piece first appeared in the Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024 edition of the Mesabi Tribune.
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