Aging, Stress, and Sleep

I completed a basic neuroscience course a few years ago that concentrated on the brain and behavior. I was especially interested in improving the quality of my sleep because I was already in my early 50s and had faced numerous post-menopausal difficulties.

For context, even as a teenager, I never truly needed eight hours of sleep. I was always craving reading, traveling, and engaging in intriguing activities, and I felt that getting six to seven hours of sleep every night—as long as it was deep and restful—was more than sufficient to replenish my energy. That continued for many years. I could even work five hours a night when I was working on something thrilling.

However, I went through menopause. In addition to worried about my career and my teenage son, there was a lot of stress in my life before the pandemic. I became aware that my sleep was disrupted and restless. My mind was so full of ideas, plans, concerns, and never-ending unfinished duties that I would wake up in the middle of the night and be unable to go back to sleep. Even severe panic attacks may occur.

I can still clearly recall the first time I felt my brain physically eliminating poisons without having to wait for me to go to sleep. The brain naturally purges itself of the toxins it has accumulated throughout the day during this phase of the sleep cycle. This crucial brain activity typically occurs unintentionally during the deep phases of sleep. I literally bolted in bed the first time I felt it, terrified that there was a significant problem with me. I had the impression that a strong, scorching wave of water had swept over my head.

Next day, I spoke to my neuroscience colleague about that and he said that what I described was the toxins purge and while it is very rare that people can physically feel it, it did happen to some. He also told me that I should try and sleep better.

Easier said then done. In addition to menopausal changes in my body, I did live under high stress levels. Some friends suggested getting testing and diagnostics to see if I had serious hormonal and metabolic imbalances, or thyroid dysfunction. I hate going to the doctors and rarely get sick, and my body was not failing me, so I didn't feel it was necessary.

Also, from my neuroscience class I learned that as we age, we get less sleep and it loses its quality naturally. Sleep science experiments show that the elderly have a lot less (almost by a third) of REM (deep restorative sleep phase) than younger people and in general sleep less and feel more tired. That's why they need naps in the middle of the day to get re-energized.

I'm not there yet. But at the time I no longer felt that my sleep was good enough to keep me going so I decided to try other things first, before going to the doctors.

The first thing I did was not using any screen devices at least 30 min before the bed time. Instead, I read a paper book. If it still could not help me get to the sleepy stage, I would put on "deep sleep" music on my iphone but keep it at least two feet away from me. The book still works most of the times, and deep sleep music is useful on occasion.

I also tried melatonin-containing sleep aids and CBD gummies (I wrote a story about that experience here on Vocal), which had variable to scary results.

I did notice that I started to sleep much better after I got tenured as a huge job-related stresser was gone, but I still occasionally experience insomnia. I reflected on why that happens and concluded it's mostly because my mind is still working hard on what needs to be done, and Scarlett O'Hara's mantra "I'll think about it tomorrow" is not always convincing for it to calm down.

About two months ago, I came across a SM post by my former student and now a women's health consultant which sounded interesting to me:

I recommend externalizing thoughts - writing down plans, tasks, and ideas, and avoiding work-related cognitive stimulation late in the evening. This small habit alone has already helped many people restore their sleep.

And importantly, this approach is not just intuitive, it is supported by research. A controlled study using polysomnography (the gold standard for sleep measurement) found that participants who spent just five minutes writing a specific to-do list before bed fell asleep significantly faster than those who did not.

The mechanism behind this is known as cognitive offloading - transferring mental load from the brain onto an external medium. This reduces pre-sleep cognitive arousal, which is one of the key drivers of insomnia.

Additional research in behavioral sleep medicine also shows that structured “worry processing” or writing down concerns earlier in the evening can decrease mental activation and improve sleep onset.

In simple terms: your brain doesn’t need to keep looping thoughts if it knows they are safely stored and will be addressed tomorrow.

I tried it and it actually works! I now recommend it to anyone who has a hyperactive mind and has difficulty falling asleep because their brain is still processing tasks. You should try it as well, as this might be also a good writing exercise.