Your brain needs rest. Here are 5 ways to achieve this

(CNN) — In modern life, full of entertainment and stimulation, it is difficult to completely switch off and relax. But this is something that our brain needs to repair and restore.

The only (almost) safe place where our brain can relax is sleep. This is why it is very important to get enough sleep.

“Simply put, what happens in the brain when we sleep is that it has the ability to not consciously switch between tasks during the day,” said Victoria Garfield, a senior fellow in the Division of Health and Lifelong Health. life of the Medical Research Council. Aging and professor at University College London to CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

“As a result, our cognitive functions will improve. And the next day you will feel better because our brain cells have had the opportunity to rest, recover and replenish their reserves,” he said.

Garfield has been studying sleep for ten years. “One of my main interests over the last 10 years has been understanding why we need adequate sleep, why sleep is so important for the brain and the body, especially as we age,” he said.

Decades of evidence support the idea that too little or too much sleep is associated with an increased risk of diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart attack, dementia, a diagnosis of sleep apnea, anxiety and depression, he added.

Garfield’s team recently found that regular naps are associated with an increase in overall brain volume. The study, published in the journal Sleep Health in June, analyzed data, including MRI scans, from more than 35,000 adults from the UK Biobank.

How much more? According to Garfield, about 15 cubic centimeters, which his team calculates is equivalent to 2.5 to 6.5 years of aging. “This is very important in terms of brain age. And we think this is really important because smaller overall brain volume is associated with certain diseases, earlier mortality and higher levels of stress,” he said.

What can you do to keep your brain well-rested? Garfield has five tips.

Get enough sleep

I apologize to anyone who thinks they can get by with 4 or 5 hours of sleep a night, but the truth is that you need to spend a lot more time face-to-face with your pillow: ideally for adults, 7 to 9 hours a night. “Depending on age,” Garfield explains.

“People don’t usually think about it, and they’re very surprised when I say, ‘Well, if you don’t sleep well, all these bad things will happen,'” he explains.

“The emphasis is on diet, healthy weight, exercise, diabetes prevention, all of that,” he explains. “People say, ‘Oh yeah, but I can sleep 4 hours a night and I’m fine,’ and they don’t realize that actually the cumulative effect over time is really not good.”

Set a consistent sleep schedule

Go to bed and wake up at the same time seven days a week, even if it’s hard, says Garfield. This is important because it prepares you for the required 7-9 hours of sleep. “Many of us don’t.”

Take a short nap

There’s no shame in taking a nap. “For us, the most obvious thing is to take a nap,” Garfield says. “Maybe even 30 minutes because we know it’s very good for the brain. So we literally took a break and tried to sleep for a while.”

While his team found positive effects on the brain from short naps during the day, other studies have found that the nap is associated with negative outcomes, such as an increased risk of high blood pressure and stroke, as well as a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.

exercise a little

Sleep and naps aren’t the only ways to give your brain a break. Moving is also important.

“There’s a lot of evidence that getting outside and walking is really beneficial, especially turning off your devices and connecting with nature,” Garfield says.

But exercise doesn’t have to be a walk in nature. The main thing is to disconnect from work and other activities that require a lot of attention.

Do something that doesn’t make you think

“I think recommending things like meditation and mindfulness is very obvious. But the reality is that a lot of people, including myself, find it very difficult,” Garfield says, noting that she can’t just turn off her brain.

Garfield recommends other activities that require less brain energy: watching TV (but nothing work-related, Garfield emphasizes) or even shopping. (Just don’t use electronic devices an hour before bed in the evening.

“It’s really important to re-emphasize that these things are really individual and dependent on each individual,” he said.

CNN Audio’s Madeline Thompson contributed to this report.