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Sleep Your Brain Clean

22 October 2013

Allison watched a five-minute Fox News segment with Charlottesville neurologist and sleep specialist, Dr. William (Chris) Winter, and learned about another good medical reason to make sleep a priority.

Tags: allison watched, balance, chris winter, sleep

This morning I taught an Effective Communication Skills class in Chillicothe, OH and ended the session as I often do by encouraging the physician leaders I was teaching to get enough sleep each night so that they feel rested during the day. You might be wondering how sleep makes it into a communication class. The reason is that all of the leadership skills I teach are next to impossible to implement when you’re tired and stressed. “Enough” sleep is a different amount for all of us, but it usually isn’t the six to six and a half hours I find a lot of people I talk to are trying to get by on these days.

Last year, I wrote about some new research linking sleep deprivation and stroke risk. The year before that I featured Dr. Charles A. Czeisler's groundbreaking research and article in the Harvard Business Review, Sleep Deficit: The Performance Killer. Yesterday, I was glad to see yet another new study about the importance of sleep. My friend and local neurologist and sleep specialist, Dr. William Winter, was interviewed for a national Fox News segment about how a good night’s sleep activates your glymphatic system which allows your brain to flush toxic waste including the protein amyloid beta that accumulates in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. The link between a good night’s rest and preventing Alzheimer’s and other serious health conditions is still not fully understood, but watch this segment and I think you’ll agree that all signs point to an increasing possibility that getting a good night’s sleep is worth the effort for many health reasons not the least of which is that you’ll feel better and get more done each day.

When it comes to getting more sleep, the key word above is often effort. You may be trying to eat right or get more exerice, but my guess is that you don't do as much as you could in the way of making an effort to improve your sleep. Last month I wrote about the importance of good sleep hygiene since I had a lot of clients telling me they want to get the sleep they need, but are struggling to fall and stay asleep. In that post you’ll find many things you could be doing to improve your sleep habits. If you try these tips and still aren’t able to get enough sleep, I encourage you to give your family physician, Dr. Winter, or another sleep specialist a call.

p.s. If you’re looking for more reasons to make sleep a priority as well as many helpful tips, check out Dr. Winter’s Huffington Post blog about sleep. Last week I wrote about Arianna Huffington’s visit to UVA and her efforts to advance The Third Metric. Ms. Huffington is a great advocate of sleep and the importance of giving up the erroneous belief that sleep deprivation is somehow a badge of honor. I was not at all surprised to learn today that The Huffington Post is relying on an expert in my backyard. (Charlottesville is kind of cool like that).

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