A new study shows — for the first time — that sleepless nights may actually shrink parts of the brain used to make decisions. A study at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience found that people with chronic sleep problems had lower amounts of gray matter. Severe insomniacs showed the most brain loss.
"The findings predict that chronic insomnia sufferers may have compromised capacities to access stimuli," said Dr. Ellemarije Altena, who led the study and is now a research associate at the Cambridge University Department of Clinical Neurosciences in the U.K. "This could have consequences for other thought processes, notably decision-making," she told the Telegraph.
The study compared the brains of 24 older patients who had chronic insomnia to 13 normal sleepers. The patients ranged in age from 52 to 74 years of age. Researchers controlled for psychiatric and physical disorders that could also change brain density. They discovered that patients whose insomnia was the most severe also showed the most extensive loss of gray matter regardless of how long they had suffered with the problem.
Researchers don't know, however, if insomnia comes before brain loss or vice versa.
"We can't say what comes first: the lower gray matter density or the insomnia, but (the data) suggests that a low orbitofrontal gray matter density may be a risk factor to develop insomnia," said Altena. "We only investigated older people, so follow-up studies at different ages could hopefully in the future determine what comes first."
Sleep researchers have long realized that insomnia interferes with the way the brain functions, but this study begins to show why the malfunction occurs, and may lead to better treatments for insomnia.
"This article is fitting with a growing literature (showing that) bad sleep is bad for the brain at a neurological level, not just the psychiatric level as a nuisance," Ronald Kramer, a neurologist and director of the Sleep Disorders Center at the Colorado Neurology Institute, told Discovery News.
"This is the start of perhaps moving insomnia to a more medically based paradigm, which is when you have a problem, we get a test, we get a specific diagnosis and a treatment plan," Kramer said.
If you have trouble sleeping, try the following tips::
• Stick to a sleep schedule.
• Control your sleeping environment. Too much light or excess noise can interrupt your sleep, says HELPGUIDE.org. Make sure your room is quiet and dark.
• Exercise. Get at least 20 to 30 minutes of exercise each day at least five or six hours before bedtime, advises the Mayo Clinic.
• Limit naps or avoid them altogether. If you must nap, don't nap after 3 p.m.
• Use your bed for sleeping. Watch television, work, and eat in another room.
• Take herbal supplements. Chamomile, valerian, kava kava, and lemon balm are thought to help induce sleep.
• Try aromatherapy. Common essential oils including lavender, jasmine, and chamomile are believed to aid sleep.
• Check out food, drink, and medications. Too much caffeine, smoking, and alcohol can all interfere with a good night's sleep. In addition, some prescription medications can prompt sleepless nights.
• Manage stress and relax. Using visual imagery, such as imagining yourself in a calming, peaceful place, and relaxation techniques, such as deliberately relaxing your muscles from tip to toe can relax your body, ease your mind, and send you to a calm, restful sleep.
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