KEIKO Beauty column by Keiko Iwanaga, a beautician with over 40 years of experience. Collaboration with Dr.Oike opens a new frontier of beauty.

1‐24. The most powerful panacea!?（日本語）

In this article, I will tell you about the effects of lack of sleep on gene activity.

A short sleep can cause changes in gene activity.
In a study, the activity of genes was measured when the amount of sleep was limited to 6 hours a day for a week, and when the amount of sleep was 8 hours.

As a result, the activity of 711 genes was disrupted when the amount of sleep was reduced.
As the amount of sleep decreased, the number of genes associated with immunity decreased.

On the other hand,
Genes associated with tumor development,
Genes related to chronic inflammation in a body,
Genes associated with stress,
These genes activity increase.

In short, less sleep means less immune activity. And genes associated with tumors, inflammation and stress become active.

So how can we get a good sleep at night?
Well, of course, cutting caffeine is one of solutions, but…

Dr. Matt advises as follows,

– Regular life
Waking up at the same time regularly and going to bed at the same time in a weekday and a weekend, and it stabilizes our sleep and increases the quantity and quality of your sleep.

– Lower room temperature
Sleeping better in a cooler room than in a hotter room.

Sleep is like our life support system.
And sleep is the most powerful panacea, Dr. Matt said.

However, many of us are so busy that it is absolutely impossible to maintain 8 hours of sleep every day.
I myself have lived on average 3 hours of sleep for nearly 40 years.
Too much work on a daily basis, and I don’t want to waste my time for sleeping seriously!
But the data shows that getting plenty of sleep will enhance your daytime activities indeed.

8 hours of sleep seems like too long for the time of day, but it increases performance of the remaining 16 hours activity and slows down the aging process.
If our immune system is also activated, the result indicates that we can stay healthy and young long time. It may mean a long time for a lifetime of activity.
Plus, this most powerful panacea is all free!

Also, according to the Dr. Matt, “sleeping time deposit” can not compensate for lack of sleep on a daily basis.

Lastly, Dr. Matt gave some advice to those who sleep less or have a night shift job.
In the long history, humans have never been chronically lack of sleep, so even If lack of sleep continues, the body has no safety net to defend against the bad effect.
So if the chronically lack of sleep continues, our brain and body will rapidly collapse.
It means it’s very important to make sleep a priority anyway.

And if we can’t sleep, we should go to another room instead of staying in a bedroom, Dr. Matt advised.
Because if we spend all the time awake in the bedroom, our brain will perceive the bedroom as a place to stay awake.
Making our bedroom a place just for sleeping, then it will make it easier for you to sleep.

We are busy with our daily tasks, but we may need to do many things to ensure a good sleep.

****************************************************

Various body changes caused by lack of sleep
The Superpower of Sleep.　
　Dr. Matt Walker.

****************************************************