Just as a start, for those that may not know; ‘bae’ is a colloquial expression used as an endearment towards someone/something that is loved or admired and is used commonly on social media, that is in the English language, whereas in Danish it refers to excretion!
Another day another bae
Some say they never get enough and some get a bit too much, whether it is the time of day to look forward to or the thing that some spend most of their lives doing, it is something that humans spend 1/3 of their lives doing, is essential and is something that everybody needs but with MS, as usual, there’s a slight twist. Deprivation of it would be worse than being deprived of food but I would be correct in stating it is enough to call it ‘bae’; sleep that is!
A literal night owl
Contrary to what one may assume; the brain is very active whilst we sleep, once the lights are out, our brains are purging toxins, storing memories and making connections, it uses this time to create and store those memories and flush out the ‘garbage’ that may be loitering around, it is why we may have interesting dreams whilst sleeping, that night shift work going on upstairs is pretty much the reason why we literally may feel like we’re flying whilst fast asleep! This, however,
weirdly explains why my tactic of summarising revision notes before bed the day before my exams ( wasn’t that long ago!) always helped! This whole process is the reason why we feel ‘fresh’ in the mornings and feel we have a ‘clear head’ after waking up and why the practice of ‘sleeping on it’ when needing to make big decisions, can possibly be one of the best things we can do!
Sleep and neurons
Using mice as test patients ( poor mice I know), researchers found that during sleep, oligodendrocytes ( the myelin generating cells) doubled in number and thus perhaps helping with the repair work of the damage in those with MS. Subsequently showing that sleep deprivation may aggravate symptoms of MS further. This is also an explanation to perhaps why during a relapse an MSer would sleep a lot more as their bodies would be trying to ‘fix things’.
The reality of beauty sleep!
On top of this, deep sleep coincides with the release of growth hormone in children and young adults ( they do say life starts at 40 so I guess we’re still young adults right?!). Many of the body’s cells also show increased production and reduced breakdown of proteins during deep sleep. Since proteins are the building blocks needed for cell growth and for repair of damage, new brain cells are also produced when sleeping and why deep sleep may truly be “beauty sleep!”
Too much sleep or too little with MS
But I can’t sleep!
There are many reasons why sleep deprivation may also be caused by the MS. Like mentioned in earlier posts, symptoms like muscle spasms, a constant need for the toilet, temperature control issues and damage to the part(s) of the brain that initiates and/ or controls the loss of consciousness for us to fall asleep can possibly cause issues falling and remaining asleep and can result in issues like insomnia or patterns of waking up mid-sleep.
So why do MSers sleep more, they don’t do anything?!
As much as it may seem that MSers don’t do anything but sleep a lot, due to the damaged nerve pathways, an MSers CNS ( central nervous system) literally has to work harder for basic human functions to work. Whether that be understanding everything that is happening, whether that be by sight, sound or even taste! This may be the reason for the most common symptom of fatigue but also to deal with many MS caused symptoms, the use of medication(s) that may result in side effects of the need for more sleep can also be a factor. All in all, with more work, you’d use more energy and when the energy levels are low, you take a nap or go to sleep, which is why we may need more of it and why, needless to say, sleep really is bae!
Me,myself and Multiple Sclerosis. 