understand how poor sleep affects us

A typical brain study involves taking many participants and analyzing some aspect of their brain activity at a specific point in time, or perhaps before and after treatment. However, there are scientists who are trying to turn this idea around by exhaustively studying a single participant.

133 days. The last example also has an interesting addition: the participant was also a member of the team of researchers from Aalto University in Finland responsible for the study. Ana Triana, an expert in the Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, underwent a rigorous monitoring experiment for 133 days.

The research gives us insight into how our brains respond over the medium term to certain external stimuli, such as exercise and sleep. This means, for example, that the effects of losing sleep one night can last into the next day and affect us days or even weeks later.

This methodology has its advantages, but also its limitations: the human brain is very diverse, and what is true for one person is not always true for others, so the results are difficult to extrapolate.

A brain that does not exist in isolation. The human brain does not function independently of context. With this experiment, the team wanted to find out how certain external stimuli affect the functioning of the brain itself.

To do this, Triana and her team not only studied the brains of the participant and the researcher, but also extensively controlled these external stimuli, such as sleep, relaxation, exercise, etc.

In the short and long term. Triana and his team were able to identify two patterns of response to stimuli. The first occurred in a short-term wave lasting about seven days; while the second wave lasted longer, up to 15 days.

According to the team, the former affects rapid adaptation, and they cite as an example how poor sleep over a relatively short period affects our ability to concentrate. However, the long wave is “more gradual” and has a long-lasting effect, “especially in areas associated with attention and memory.”

Monitoring technology. Advances in health monitoring technology made the design of this experiment much easier. “Use of technology wearable “This was extremely important,” Triana explained in a press release. In addition to traditional brain scanning technology, the experiment used wearable devices to monitor external variables that may affect brain function.

Details of the study can be read in the article published in the journal. PLOS Biology.

Advantages and disadvantages. The methodology the team follows has its advantages and disadvantages. If most research is carried out in a “static” way, it is because of the advantages that numbers provide. It is based on a certain number of participants that we can begin to draw statistical conclusions from the study. We may also link results to personal variables such as age, gender, health conditions or genetic characteristics.

However, only longitudinal research allows us to understand the dynamic element of the brain and its behavior when faced with certain stimuli. It is not impossible to combine the advantages of both types of studies: it is simply necessary to expand the sample. As new technologies facilitate this work, it is expected that future studies will be able to expand this sample.

Perhaps, even without resorting to self-experimentation, the tool is not free from problems associated with it.

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Image | Enrico Glerean / Matti Ahlgren / Aalto University