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Daily sleep habits impact your creativity for next two weeks, says study
We often tell ourselves that sleeping a few extra hours on the weekends can compensate for the lost sleep during the week. While this could help us feel well-rested, its impact can be felt several days later.
Adequate sleep, physical activity, and a healthy lifestyle are crucial for our mental health. A new study sheds light on the wiring of the human brain, which is affected by factors beyond environment and experiences.
Effects of sleep on the brain for an extended period
Not only is 7 to 9 hours of sleep essential to prevent illnesses like Alzheimer’s disease, but your sleeping habit also determines the brain’s response in the following days.
Researchers at Aalto University wanted to understand how daily sleep, workout, mood, and heart rate affected brain functions over an extended period, and the findings of the study establish an interesting link between brain functional connectivity and environmental, physiological, and behavioral changes.
It was found that our brains do not respond to daily life in immediate, isolated outbursts. Whereas, the effects of sleep and workout from the present day linger in the brain for the next two weeks.
The study monitored one person’s brain and behavioral activity for five months using brain scans and data from wearable devices and smartphones.
The findings further establish that the body’s relaxation response such as stress management techniques could shape the brain’s wiring even when we aren’t actively focusing on the task.
Working out today impacts your creativity in the following weeks
Aside from keeping you in shape and contributing to better health, daily workout has an extended effect on the brain – it’s shown to impact your creativity in the following days and weeks.
Even subtle changes in your mood and heart rate reportedly left “lasting imprints for up to fifteen days.” This means, that even if the body recovers from a sleepless night, it can still influence interaction in brain regions, thus impacting memory and the ability to think and make decisions.
The researchers noticed two response patterns – a short-term wave that lasts less than a week and a long-term wave of up to fifteen days.
While you can quickly recover from short-term effects such as lack of focus, the long-term effects linked to attention and memory are gradual and last for a while.
