The First Night Effect


The Brain: the central control system of the entire body. Indeed, it is mesmerising to consider, while only weighing in at approximately 3Ibs, it controls all bodily functions and can process information at a peak of 120 m/s across the housed 100 billion neurones plus 1,000 trillion synaptic pathways! In order to sustain this metabolic activity, 20% of your body’s oxygen is consumed by the brain - provided in 100,000 miles of blood vessels to this one organ… truly mind blowing statistics.

Interestingly, the net rate of activity is heavily influenced by external stimuli - that is the surrounding environment. Many people have experienced the first night effect (FNE); when sleeping in an unfamiliar setting, it is likely to take longer to fall asleep. Characteristically in other organisms such as birds and marine animals, this is a permanent adaptation to stay alert for potential predators.

Although identified in the past, the reason behind the FNE has remained unclear. Recently however, experimental research has opened a new insight into the science behind this phenomenon. Researchers from Brown University in Rhode Island have used advanced neuroimaging to take snapshots of the brain’s activity in sleep during the first night at a new location. By taking readings at times of slow wave sleep (deep sleep), it showed that the two hemispheres (left and right side of the brain) were not asleep at corresponding degrees: the left side of the brain was less asleep than the right by a significant amount. A primary measure in this test was the time taken to fall asleep. This showed that a high asymmetry of sleep between the left and right side correlated with a longer time to fall asleep.

As identified, this asymmetry results from a sensed change in external stimuli. Thus, it has been suggested that an attempt to negate this change could help to minimise the overall asymmetry and so, the FNE. One option is to mimic a known environment, for example taking your personal pillow with you when spending nights somewhere new, creating the illusion of a familiar environment.
The study of the brain and sleep still holds numerous mysteries and these are what spur further research…

Thank you for reading this week’s blog and I hope that this blog has spurred your curiosity and driven you to research this field further.

Written by Gagandeep Sachdeva                                                               
Universal Medicine
References:

      http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/309375.php
http://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(16)30174-9
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-36105516
http://www.nursingassistantcentral.com/blog/2008/100-fascinating-facts-you-never-knew-about the-human-brain/
  www.themenopauseexpert.com (Image)

 

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