SLEEP, MEDITATION, AND THE BRAIN

What two simple things can you do to boost learning, recall, attention, and overall cognitive performance? 
1.) Get more sleep.  
2.) Develop a daily self-hypnosis routine.

The neuroscience is clear on the sleep issue.  But we’re only just beginning to understand what is happening in the brain when we sleep.  Studies have shown that we are organizing information, rehearsing learned patterns, and cross-referencing data to discover new patterns.  The brain is essentially holding a conversation with itself. Albert Einstein famously napped during the afternoons and claimed that he dreamed the solutions to his most difficult problems.  In fact, many of the world’s greatest scientists admitted to arriving at stunning conclusions upon awakening from sleep or rising from a meditative state.  But it’s very likely that we ALL do that.  The evidence shows that neurons firing in the brain during sleep are running new patterns and making connections with existing patterns as well, thus accounting for “intuitive leaps” in learning.  Relatively recent neuroimaging techniques have shown neurons and synapses rewiring themselves and creating new neural networks during sleep.  So we shouldn’t be surprised that among students attempting to master a new math process, 20% of those who simply took a 12-hour break between trials intuited a shortcut method of solving the problem.  Ordinarily, we’d simply call them “gifted” in math.  But for those who were permitted to sleep 8 hours in between trials, a full 60% gained that same insight without being told that there might be a simpler method of solving the problem.[1] 

The truth is that no one really knows how much sleep any individual needs.  While most people do seem to fall into a notable sleep deficit on less than 7 or 8 hours a night, there is a relatively tiny population that functions normally on as little as 4.  But overall, the studies are clear and consistent; sleep makes a big difference in cognitive functioning.  What’s less well-known is that daily meditation (which is a form of self-hypnosis) has much the same effect as sleep.  In fact, those who meditate daily report a reduction in sleep with no corresponding loss of cognitive function in the lab.  In fact, we don’t really know why that is.  What we DO know is that daily meditators show reduced cortisol levels.  This may lead to a reduced level of systemic inflammation, and a corresponding reduction in the amount of sleep time needed to repair damaged tissues, creating a more efficient focus on brain function during sleep.  It’s also believed that daily meditators produce larger quantities of melatonin, which promotes healthy sleep, as well as higher serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin levels.  All of these factors may play critical roles in regulating the amount of sleep a person needs in order to function well both mentally and physically. 

While no one is suggesting that meditation can or should replace adequate REM sleep, there have been studies proving that meditation may increase short-term performance in certain tasks while sleep actually erodes it.[2]  The bottom line is that we simply don’t know enough about these various states of consciousness and how they impact the body’s processes.  But what we do know suggests strongly that 7-8 hours of sleep a night AND a 15-20 minute meditation break during the day can produce much more efficient cognitive processing, creative problem-solving, and improve response time on both physical and mental skills. 

This is why Hypnosis Frederick offers every client a variety of self-hypnosis tapes to use independently.  Our hypnotic inductions are designed to produce deep states of meditation, with or without post-hypnotic suggestion, generally in just 15-20 minutes a day.  We know that many people find it difficult to just take their brain off the hook, so we make it EASY for you.