Lack Of Sleep Impairs Brain Function Sleep deprivation is really bad for brain function.

Many studies show that sleep loss impairs various cognitive functions and behavior, including arousal, attention, cognitive speed, memory, emotional intelligence, and decision making. Using brain imaging technology, like functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), scientists compared the brain of someone who was sleep-deprived to the brain of someone who had slept normally. They found reduced metabolism and blood flow in multiple brain regions which indicated impaired cognitive function and behavior. Several nights of poor sleep or one night of no sleep will start to disrupt your hormonal balance. According to a study from Stanford University, your body's ghrelin levels, which stimulate feelings of hunger, can jump nearly 15 percent. It also lowers your levels of leptin, a hormone that regulates energy balance, which explains why you tend to feel sluggish when you are sleep-deprived. Your brain also struggles to curate and sort new memories. You are able to absorb new information but your brain has problems accessing that information and putting it to good use. You may feel distracted, while your reaction time plummets. This makes tasks like driving more difficult and dangerous. A CDC survey shows that half of Americans (48%) do not get enough sleep. So if you want your brain to stay at tip-top shape, you need to place sleep high on your priority list. In the event that you just cannot get enough nocturnal sleep, a 30-minute nap at lunch time is still helpful although it cannot fully eliminate the negative consequences of sleep deprivation.

Vitamin D May Save Your Brain Much has been learned about the Nooflex health benefits of vitamin D over the past decade. While it has long been recognized that vitamin D supports strong and healthy bones, its role in brain-related disorders is becoming increasingly evident. A new study that collaborated multiple highly respected institutions around the world found a profound correlation of low vitamin D level and increased risk of developing dementia. Even having a moderate deficiency of vitamin D was associated with a 53% increased risk of dementia. Those who were severely deficient had a 122% increased risk! Many people are not aware that vitamin D deficiency is associated with increased inflammation. There are about 30,000 genes in the body, and vitamin D affects nearly 3,000 of them. Your brain has vitamin D receptors too. Therefore, unless you get 20 minutes of sun exposure daily (without using sunscreen on face, arms, and legs), you may want to consider supplementation. Most people need around 5,000 I.U. a day to reach the optimal level of 50-70 ng/ml as determined by a blood test. If you supplement, opt for vitamin D3, which is the natural form, and take it with vitamin K2, with at least 100 mcg of menaquinone-7 (MK-7). The combination of D3 and K2 will make sure that calcium is deposited in the bones instead of the arteries. 6. Think Positive And Stimulate Your Brain Stress and anxiety kill existing brain neurons and stop new neurons from being created. Research has shown that positive thinking speeds up the formation of cells and dramatically reduces stress and anxiety. Hence, catch yourself when your negative thoughts surface, discard them, and replace them with positive ones. 

When you learn or do new things, new neural pathways are developed. As a result, you want to stimulate your brain on a continuous basis. Remember the phrase - use it or lose it? According to the neurobiologist P. Murali Doraiswamy, if you look after your brain you can add ten years to its life. What follows are ten easy to implement ideas to ensure your brain is well looked after. 1 Drink moderate amounts of alcohol Excessive drinking long term can lead to the development of alcohol-related brain impairment (ARBI). With this a person will struggle with thinking, memory and coordination. Too much alcohol is not good for the central nervous system, of which the brain is a part. Also the brain needs thiamine (vitamin B1) a deficiency often found in alcoholics. It is possible to develop Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome, a brain disorder through a B1 deficiency. Furthermore, excessive consumption of alcohol can cause liver damage, which can also have a negative effect on the brain. 2 Meditate If you include meditation in your daily routine, your brain will change for the better. Meditation thickens the cerebral cortex - including the right anterior insula (responsible for monitoring bodily functions) and the prefrontal cortex (responsible for attention and sensory processing). It also offers protection from thinning that normally occurs with ageing. 

This evidence comes from Lazar et al at Massachusetts General Hospital who analysed brain scans of people who meditated for around 40 minutes every day. Furthermore, the longer the person had been meditating for, the greater the benefits. 3 Go to a yoga class Given the benefits that meditation can offer the brain, it is perhaps not surprising to learn that yoga is also beneficial. Researchers at Boston Medical Centre note that yoga can benefit people with depression, anxiety, chronic pain, epilepsy and stress-related conditions. They hypothesise that people with these disorders have low activity of gamma amino-butyric acid (GABA) in the brain and yoga increases GABA activity. 4 Get psychotherapy for depression When a person is depressed, different parts of the brain are affected. A review by Kumari (2006) published in the journal Acta Neuropsychiatrica found therapy for depression has been shown to change the brain. Brain imaging has found decreased activity in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and increased activity in the cingulate, frontal lobe and hippocampus. All these areas of the brain have a role to play in our emotional responses and motivation. 5 Have self belief Do you hold negative stereotypes of yourself? Perhaps saying I am no good at x, y, z because I am a certain way? A study by Aronson and Steele in 1995 found that the brain did not perform as well as it should when confronted with stereotypes. African Americans dropped 6 points on their IQ test when were confronted with the stereotype that African Americans are not intelligent. The lesson for you is to ignore any negative assumptions you or others may have about your abilities and go for it. 

Oh and remember practice really does make perfect. 6 Effectively manage stress People who do not respond well to stress and tend to worry or get depressed when faced with life's difficulties can end up with memory problems. Research by Wilson of Rush University Medical Centre in Chicago indicates that people prone to worry and depression were 40 times more likely to develop mild cognitive impairment. Mild cognitive impairment is characterised by memory loss and is a brain change that is associated with Alzheimer's disease. One easy way to reduce stress (and prevent depression) is to exercise. This in itself brings brain benefits. Most of the tips in this article have stress relieving properties as you are making time for yourself and looking after your health. 7 Accomplish goals There's a chemical reason why achieving a goal makes you feel good. It produces endorphins, which increase mood and wellbeing. So to get a regular release of endorphins, make sure your goals are not so huge it takes months or years to achieve them. If necessary, break big goals down into smaller goals that you achieve sooner. Even better set daily and weekly goals that you know you can achieve. Of course the endorphin release you get from reaching a goal will act as an incentive to accomplish even more. This means more endorphins and more achieved! 8 Maintain a healthy weight If you can keep your weight in the healthy range your brain will thank you. Excess body fat can cause a decline in cognitive abilities. A Korean study of 250 people between 60 and 70 years indicated that those people with a high body mass index (BMI) and large waistlines did worse on cognitive tests than those with normal BMIs and smaller waistlines. 9 Learn a new language Learning anything new does your brain good. However, you may get greater benefits if you choose to learn a second language. 

A University of Toronto study in 2007 found older people who knew two languages were less likely to have dementia than those who could only speak one. Speaking a second language requires exercising your attention and your memory. In 2012, Northwestern University researchers analysed the brainwave patterns of bilingual and unilingual participants. The bilingual group were superior in both their response to and attention to sounds and were better at ignoring background noise. All this showed up in their brainwave patterns. 10 Get your sleep in Your brain will appreciate a good night's sleep on a number of levels. Not only will it ensure you remember all those interesting facts you came across during the day, but it will also help you learn the next day. The theory is that sleep deprivation prevents information from being shifted from the hippocampus to long term storage. So the next day our hippocampus is still full, making it harder for us to learn new things. You or some-one you care about has been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). I hope you have heard by now that BPD is highly treatable! Now you can finally get on with living a good life! I can tell you from my experience, that once you get over the initial shock of finding out that you have a brain disorder, things start to get better as you realize how nice the treatment is and how we finally have a place you belong! I was thinking, when I was diagnosed, that having a mental illness confirmed what I had already suspected, that the culmination of all my pain and suffering would be my becoming a homeless person that no one cared about or wanted to be with.

I felt REALLY sorry for myself, and yes, I believe, I was entitled to be able to wallow in some self pity for a bit. But quickly I found out that FINALLY I had an answer, a treatment and a cure! Hurray! So, here is where I suggest you start: find out good sources of information, number one, and then with that information, find good treatment options and good support. First, begin with research. Now, this is the first thing I'm going to tell you about research: beware of what you read on the web! There are some There are a lot of angry people out there whose approach, in my opinion, is not helpful to any of us. We are in this together, and there is a lot of empirical evidence and compassionate advice that is beneficial to concentrate on for our healing. If you are a reader, my favorite books are: New Hope for People with Borderline Personality Disorder by Dr. Neil R. Bockian and BPD Demystified by Dr. Robert Friedel. These books offer multiple treatment options, including traditional and alternative treatments, as well as useful information on self-help and the family perspective. Dr. Friedel, while professional and clinical in his approach, has a section on his relationship with his sister, Denise, who had BPD, and it helps me feel validated to know his passion for his work is fueled by his emotions towards his sister.