Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, there,
Speaker 1: brain stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum. Here, chances are you know at
Speaker 1: least a few people who rely on the whirr of
Speaker 1: a fan to get a good night's rest. You might
Speaker 1: be one of them yourself. And if you look closely
Speaker 1: the next time you're checking into a hotel or waiting
Speaker 1: to board a cruise, you may spy travelers touting their
Speaker 1: own The effect that a fan provides during sleeping is
Speaker 1: similar to white noise. We spoke with Kelsey Allen, a
Speaker 1: sleep expert with mattress manufacturers sleep Train, in an email interview.
Speaker 1: They said people who sleep with a fan are capitalizing
Speaker 1: on what we call white noise. Just like white light,
Speaker 1: which encompasses all the colors on the spectrum, white noise
Speaker 1: encompasses all sound frequencies within typical human hearing. Technically true,
Speaker 1: white noise is generated only electronically, but ambient noises like fans,
Speaker 1: distant cicadas, or gentle rain can produce a similar effect.
Speaker 1: So what's going on in the brains of folks who
Speaker 1: need fans that makes them different from others? The answer
Speaker 1: likely lies and how our brains are fired sleep spindles
Speaker 1: in particular, seem to be the key. These are spikes
Speaker 1: of neural activity that can be seen on electron cephalogram
Speaker 1: tests a K A e G S and present as
Speaker 1: short brain wave bursts that cause a spike or spindle
Speaker 1: to form on the e G. Reading. Research indicates that
Speaker 1: people who experience sleep spindles more often have a better
Speaker 1: defense against outside noise than those who don't experience frequent
Speaker 1: sleep spindles. And spindles don't come and go based on
Speaker 1: what you eat for dinner or whether you're anxious about
Speaker 1: something happening tomorrow. A person sleep spindle production is likely
Speaker 1: to be static across time. How to sleep spindles accomplish
Speaker 1: this enviable feat of blocking noise. These spindles are produced
Speaker 1: in the portion of the brain called the thalamus, which
Speaker 1: is the area that all sound and sensory information must
Speaker 1: visit before being farmed out. Researchers think these spindles, these
Speaker 1: spikes of neural activity actually run into the sounds and
Speaker 1: block them from waking a person up. Since sleep spindles
Speaker 1: are more common during R E M sleep, they're most
Speaker 1: successful at completing this task during such phases. One study
Speaker 1: out of Korea used optogenetics, that's control of both light
Speaker 1: and gene expression to influence sleep spindle production in mice.
Speaker 1: The scientists found that an increase in sleep spindles was
Speaker 1: correlated with an increase in n R E M sleep
Speaker 1: a k A deep sleep. Thus, they concluded that effective
Speaker 1: modulation of sleep spindles could actually hold the key for
Speaker 1: curing patients with sleep issues, though further research is required.
Speaker 1: No one knows for sure why some people have rock
Speaker 1: star sleep spindles while others suffer through the curse of
Speaker 1: light sleeping. But it is often the change in sound
Speaker 1: rather the sound itself that wakes up the brain. And
Speaker 1: although you can get a white noise effect from a
Speaker 1: sound machine or even a m radio static a fan
Speaker 1: has the extra advantage of cooling you down. Notes Dr
Speaker 1: Kevin Gaffney, a neurologist and sleep medical director at the
Speaker 1: Emissioner Neuroscience Center. He told us your normal body temperature
Speaker 1: of point eight degrees not nine point six, drops by
Speaker 1: one to two degrees at night. If you have to
Speaker 1: struggle to lower your body temperature, this can decrease your
Speaker 1: sleep quality. Yeah. Today's episode was written by Alia Hot
Speaker 1: and produced by Tristan McNeil. For more on this and
Speaker 1: lots of other brainy topics, visit our home planet, how
Speaker 1: stuff Works dot com