Sleep Rest and Good Thinking

In Living Well chapter 7, I wrote about the importance of finding rest. Rest is more than sleep, but sleep is clearly a part of feeling well-rested and new research links sleep to brain processes important to thinking.


According to the National Sleep Foundation, recommendations for sleep vary with age. For example, teens need 8-10 hours and older adults need 7-8 hours. But, not all sleep is quality sleep.

A research summary in Scientific American led me to the 11 October 2019 article in Science by Cirelli and Tononi. Here's a quote:

Sleep is essential for the brain: Learning and memory benefit from sleep, whereas sleep loss causes cognitive impairment that can only be reversed by sleep (1, 2). The pressure for sleep increases with time spent awake, and sleep need also depends on the richness of the waking experience and the amount of learning (1, 3).

 As Emily Willingham summarized in the Scientific American article, the link between sleep and brain functioning occurs at the synapses. You can read her summary for more details.

Sleeping may not make us any more intelligent, but sleep is essential to brain health. And the lack of adequate sleep interferes with our capacity for clear thinking.

Read more about rest and other essentials of wellbeing in Living Well-- available in digital and paperback versions on AMAZON