How does sleep affect health, improve focus, and make you crave less?
The only time I struggled to sleep was after a difficult breakup. Nightmares woke me at 3am and left me in despair. The next day, I struggled to focus, and my cravings for junk food, cigarettes, and the lost relationship increased.
Dr. Mark Hyman recently posted an interview with Stanford University School of Medicine neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Huberman speaking to the importance of sleep.
“Most people don’t realize that sleep is a keystone of health. When we’re sleep-deprived, it’s really hard to eat well or to have the energy to exercise,” Dr. Hyman writes. “It’s hard to think straight. It’s even hard to stay in a good mood or have a positive outlook on life. Understanding the way the brain and our neurotransmitters work means we can hack our sleep to not just feel amazing but to level up our focus, skills, and knowledge.”
During the interview Huberman covered the body-brain connection, and how small actions can have huge payoffs for our brain health.
He also touched upon dopamine. He credits Stanford colleague Dr Anna Lembke, who has discovered that dopamine is not a pleasure sensation as is often assumed, but a sensation of craving for more.
Here’s a video of Dr. Lembke talking about the neuroscience of addiction.
As any addict in recovery can tell you, the states in the acronym HALT (Hungry, Angry, Lonely, and Tired.) can increase the odds of relapse.
So, if we avoid “tired”, we are more likely to avoid: hungry, angry, and lonely.