13 min
Brain Fact Friday on ”Science-Based Tricks to Improve Productivity and Never Forget Anything” Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning
-
- How To
Did you know that “the shorter we sleep, the shorter our life will be?[i]” Professor Matthew Walker, The New Science of Sleep and Dreams
On this episode you will learn:
✔︎ A review of the importance of sleep on our physical and mental health.
✔︎ How lack of sleep attacks the memory centers of our brain.
✔︎ 2 science-based strategies to improve memory and never forget anything ever again.
✔︎ Tips for how to use these strategies in your life for improved results.
Have you ever said, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” or pushed through your work possibly doing an all-nighter, thinking that you’ll catch up over the weekend?
The most current research shows that this is a really bad idea, as Matthew Walker, the author of the book, Why We Sleep, tells us that “lack of sleep attacks the hippocampus (where memory and learning take place) and increases the risk for various forms of cancer.”[ii] We have covered the importance of sleep on this podcast in many different places, including a BONUS episode in December 2020 where we talked about sleep as one of The Top 5 Health Staples[iii] we should all pay attention to, but Professor Matthew Walker reminds us that “as we are getting older, our learning and memory abilities fade and decline...and that a physiological signature of aging is that our sleep gets worse” which contributes to cognitive or memory decline. I don’t know about you, but as I’m going through the next 50+ years of my life, I’d like to have a sharp memory, in addition to a healthy body that can help me to do the things I want to do with work and family and when I find something that’s NEW and INTERESTING, I will share it with you, wherever you might be listening to this podcast, so it can help you in your personal and professional life.
My hope is that today’s Brain Fact Friday makes us all think about how we can improve our sleep, memory and overall health as I share the most current research, and how I’m applying it for improved results and productivity. We are now nearing the end of Season 7 of the podcast on “Brain Health and Well-Being” and will begin Season 8 in June, on “Brain Health and Learning.” Having a theme for each season helps me to stay focused on the guests we bring on, as well as the questions I ask them. If there is a topic of interest to you, please send me a message[iv] and let me know.
Today we are going to take a deeper look at the importance of sleep on our learning, memory and overall health, as we prepare to speak with the world’s leading expert on sleep paralysis, Dr. Baland Jalal, from Harvard University, who will help us to connect the brain to some of our weirdest sleep experiences, with the hopes that this connection can help us to all learn something new, and perhaps use some new strategies to make sleep a priority that will in turn improve our memory and learning in our waking hours.
While researching for our next interview with Dr. Baland Jalal[v], I’ve been looking at what some of the leading experts have discovered about our dreams and sleep. I did explore what I was learning on EPISODE #211 on “The Neuroscience of Dreams: Expanding Our Self-Awareness”[vi] to open up the door for this interview and always want to remind everyone of EPISODE #104 with Antonio Zadra on “When Brains Dream”[vii] but today I want to highlight how our sleep is important for learning and memory consolidation, hoping the Dr. Jalal will deepen our understanding of our dream world, take some of the mystery out of what happens to our brain during sleep, and bring some strategies to the forefront that we can use to improve our productivity in the 16 hours of our waking day.
So Why is Sleep So Important and Critical to Look at For Our Health, Well-Being and Productivity?
Professor and Neuroscientist Matthew Walker, from the University of California, reveals a recent study with adults who got 6 hours of sleep vs 8 hours, and they noticed that in the
Did you know that “the shorter we sleep, the shorter our life will be?[i]” Professor Matthew Walker, The New Science of Sleep and Dreams
On this episode you will learn:
✔︎ A review of the importance of sleep on our physical and mental health.
✔︎ How lack of sleep attacks the memory centers of our brain.
✔︎ 2 science-based strategies to improve memory and never forget anything ever again.
✔︎ Tips for how to use these strategies in your life for improved results.
Have you ever said, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” or pushed through your work possibly doing an all-nighter, thinking that you’ll catch up over the weekend?
The most current research shows that this is a really bad idea, as Matthew Walker, the author of the book, Why We Sleep, tells us that “lack of sleep attacks the hippocampus (where memory and learning take place) and increases the risk for various forms of cancer.”[ii] We have covered the importance of sleep on this podcast in many different places, including a BONUS episode in December 2020 where we talked about sleep as one of The Top 5 Health Staples[iii] we should all pay attention to, but Professor Matthew Walker reminds us that “as we are getting older, our learning and memory abilities fade and decline...and that a physiological signature of aging is that our sleep gets worse” which contributes to cognitive or memory decline. I don’t know about you, but as I’m going through the next 50+ years of my life, I’d like to have a sharp memory, in addition to a healthy body that can help me to do the things I want to do with work and family and when I find something that’s NEW and INTERESTING, I will share it with you, wherever you might be listening to this podcast, so it can help you in your personal and professional life.
My hope is that today’s Brain Fact Friday makes us all think about how we can improve our sleep, memory and overall health as I share the most current research, and how I’m applying it for improved results and productivity. We are now nearing the end of Season 7 of the podcast on “Brain Health and Well-Being” and will begin Season 8 in June, on “Brain Health and Learning.” Having a theme for each season helps me to stay focused on the guests we bring on, as well as the questions I ask them. If there is a topic of interest to you, please send me a message[iv] and let me know.
Today we are going to take a deeper look at the importance of sleep on our learning, memory and overall health, as we prepare to speak with the world’s leading expert on sleep paralysis, Dr. Baland Jalal, from Harvard University, who will help us to connect the brain to some of our weirdest sleep experiences, with the hopes that this connection can help us to all learn something new, and perhaps use some new strategies to make sleep a priority that will in turn improve our memory and learning in our waking hours.
While researching for our next interview with Dr. Baland Jalal[v], I’ve been looking at what some of the leading experts have discovered about our dreams and sleep. I did explore what I was learning on EPISODE #211 on “The Neuroscience of Dreams: Expanding Our Self-Awareness”[vi] to open up the door for this interview and always want to remind everyone of EPISODE #104 with Antonio Zadra on “When Brains Dream”[vii] but today I want to highlight how our sleep is important for learning and memory consolidation, hoping the Dr. Jalal will deepen our understanding of our dream world, take some of the mystery out of what happens to our brain during sleep, and bring some strategies to the forefront that we can use to improve our productivity in the 16 hours of our waking day.
So Why is Sleep So Important and Critical to Look at For Our Health, Well-Being and Productivity?
Professor and Neuroscientist Matthew Walker, from the University of California, reveals a recent study with adults who got 6 hours of sleep vs 8 hours, and they noticed that in the
13 min