How Sleep Can Heal Your Kidneys: Essential Tips For CKD Patients

In American hospitals, patients are often woken up every four to six hours at night for vital checks like blood pressure, pulse, and temperature. However, I give special orders for my patients to ensure they are not disturbed at night unless there's an emergency. Why do I prioritize sleep so highly, especially for patients who are in the process of healing? How does sleep help the entire body, especially the kidneys, to heal? These are the topics we'll discuss in today's video.

Introduction

Hello, I'm Dr. Azka from the Expert Cancer Clinic in Lahore. I've recently returned home, and this recording is happening from my home studio. Sleep is a biological necessity—we can't live without it. Science doesn't yet fully understand where sleep comes from or how humans began to sleep, but we do know that it's essential for all living things. As we conduct more and more research, the importance of sleep, particularly in the body's restoration, healing, and recovery processes, becomes clearer.

The Stages and Cycles of Sleep

Recent research reveals that sleep has many stages and cycles. While we won't go into all the details today, it's crucial to remember that most of the research on sleep focuses on the brain. As a result, much of the data available online is about the brain benefits associated with sleep. However, in today's video, we'll explore whether the brain benefits also apply to other parts of the body.

What we currently know is that our sleep has evolved over millennia in sync with the circadian rhythm—our internal body clock that aligns with the day and night cycle. When the sun rises, light enters our eyes and travels to the hypothalamus, where a special "master clock," called the suprachiasmatic nucleus, activates the brain and body for daytime activities. This process increases heart rate, breathing rate, metabolism, and blood pressure, preparing us for the day's activities. In addition to these basic changes, numerous hormonal changes also occur, which we'll discuss later.

The Role of Light and Darkness in Sleep Regulation

As evening and night approach and light levels decrease, this same "master clock" triggers the release of a hormone called melatonin, which promotes sleep. Our heart rate and blood pressure decrease, and bowel activity slows down, preparing us for sleep. This process continued for centuries until the advent of electric light bulbs and electricity during the Industrial Revolution, which has since disrupted our natural sleep process.

In recent times, screens that emit light constantly are an additional challenge to our sleep patterns. This has led to increased sleep deprivation in the 21st century. Alongside this sleep deprivation, a new trend, particularly in third-world countries, is staying awake at night and sleeping during the day. Both my personal opinion and research indicate that sleeping during the day cannot replace the benefits of sleeping at night. In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared that night shift work is associated with a carcinogenic risk, meaning it can increase cancer risk.

The Impact of Sleep Deprivation

Why is this the case? We'll discuss the reasons further as we proceed. The benefits of sleep and the harms of sleep deprivation will be discussed system by system, starting with the brain. This is particularly relevant because patients with kidney disease are often emotionally disturbed, and we begin by understanding how sleep is crucial for maintaining our emotions.

Sleep and Emotional Regulation

Scientists conducted a study in which they deprived some patients of sleep and then conducted brain scans, including MRIs. They found that the part of the brain responsible for controlling emotions, called the amygdala, was highly unstable—its activity levels fluctuated wildly. However, when these same patients were allowed sufficient sleep, their amygdala signals became much more stable.

They also examined the prefrontal cortex of the same patients. The prefrontal cortex is the most evolved part of the brain, known as the "executive center" or the "CEO" of the brain because it manages other brain activities. In patients with sleep deprivation, the prefrontal cortex was not as active, meaning it did not effectively control the amygdala compared to patients who were well-rested.

This indicates that one of the first issues caused by sleep deprivation is a disruption in emotional regulation. When sleep is insufficient, our emotions and feelings become unstable.

Sleep and Memory

The second major problem caused by sleep deprivation in the brain is memory loss. Our learning capacity and memory are affected. In patients with sleep deprivation, the hippocampus, a brain region essential for memory, can shrink. Research has shown that even a few nights of reduced sleep (as little as four hours per night) can decrease memory capacity by nearly 40%.

Sleep as a Cleansing Process for the Brain

Finally, sleep has been confirmed by science as a crucial cleansing process. During sleep, active neurons slow down, while the lymphatic system and other supporting cells become more active, helping to clean the brain. The brain shrinks, and the cerebrospinal fluid flow increases, washing away toxins and aiding in brain healing. Without adequate sleep, these waste materials accumulate, leading to long-term brain damage.

The process of aging also involves reduced memory, poor emotional regulation, and structural changes in the brain—all of which are accelerated by sleep deprivation. By depriving ourselves of sleep, we are effectively aging our brains prematurely.

Conclusion

Stretching this mechanism slightly and extrapolating, I believe this healing process occurs in other parts of the body as well, particularly the kidneys. The brain and kidneys have a special relationship; they are two organs that require a substantial blood supply because they are heavily involved in filtration processes. Therefore, just as the brain requires significant healing, so do the kidney tissues.

Moving forward, let's discuss the impact of sleep on the cardiovascular system. The effects of sleep on the heart and blood vessels are so profound that the American Heart Association has now classified sleep deprivation as a cardiac risk factor, just like smoking, diabetes, and high blood pressure are risk factors for heart disease. The reason behind this significant decision is the metabolic changes that we will discuss in the next section.

For now, remember that sleep deprivation greatly increases the chances of heart attacks and other types of heart disease. This is best illustrated by research conducted during daylight saving time in Western countries. Scientists found that in the spring, when an hour of sleep is lost due to daylight saving time, the chances of a heart attack increase by 24%. Conversely, in the fall, when the clock moves back an hour and people get an extra hour of sleep, heart attack rates decrease by 24%.