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