On Thursday 26 January, the Perception Society had the pleasure of welcoming Professor Vincent Walsh, UCL. Review by Cyprien Roche (Year 12):
Leading Human Brain Researcher for the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at UCL, Professor Vincent Walsh is world-renowned for his work on a range of disciplines including enhancing sports performance, visual cognition and neural mechanisms of human attention and awareness. He was very warmly welcomed to Charterhouse by Dr Balasubramanian, Founder and Chair of Perception, one of the foremost academic societies at the School.
In a time-craved fast-paced society where we try to get the most out of every minute of our day, Professor Vincent Walsh reminded us of the importance of preserving our sleep during another brilliant talk for the Perception Society. As often when something is free we take it for granted. But Professor Walsh’s fascinating lecture has proven that this simple everyday business is actually at the core of our well-being and performance.
Sleep is a natural necessity in all animals. On average, humans spend 37% of their lives sleeping, which makes it the biggest of all our activities. But sleep is not as straightforward as it may seem. Though our bodies have been programmed to adjust to the sun cycle, sleeping patterns have evolved through time, especially after the Industrial Revolution which by inventing electricity killed off the habit of napping in the process! Dolphins and ducks seemed to have worked out a perfect solution as they can sleep with half a brain at a time – an ability that kept many overstretched Specialists dreaming…
Sleep is studied in terms of brain activity. A night’s sleep unfolds in 4 to 5 cycles of two different phases, non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and rapid eye movement (REM). During the REM phase, your eyes move quickly in different directions and this is when you typically dream. Why? For a simple and yet slightly frightening reason: your limbs are paralysed and only your brain is at work, hence the slightly ‘weird’ dreams that many of us often remember! Because you do not get any feedback from your body, you may imagine yourself doing extraordinary things like flying.
REM is the time when neurones can communicate between themselves, or ‘tea time’ as the lecturer casually put it. In this state of temporary stasis, your neurones are able to cross-talk and exchange information in sharp contrast to daytime, when your brain is active and the neurones are concentrated on one task therefore cannot converse.
‘No-one has ever had a great idea sitting at a desk’, Professor Walsh reasoned. ‘It is always when you are in the shower, driving, resting in the noon or reading…’ In short, when the brain is in a relaxed state to allow this all important cross-communication between the different regions of the brain.
The talk was very well received, and a pupil declared emphatically at the end of the talk: ‘I will try and apply what Professor Walsh suggested, especially concerning the use of screen light before sleep’.
Despite being at school, which does not make sleeping any easier, Mr Walsh suggested that we should have a regular rhythm; in that sense, our body is responding to a biological clock, to the pace of our watch and timetables. It adjusts itself to be hungry before lunch time, ready to learn before lessons and tired when bedtime approaches. In that respect, we should ‘listen to our body’ and stay in tune with our personal music to sound just as good as a Mozart sonata.
Enough sleep allows one to be concentrated, improve our ability to memorise and increase short term memory. Some schools now allow sixth formers a late start which a priori gave positive results. One question was: ‘Are there any disadvantages of having too much sleep?’ and reassuring as it may sound the answer was ‘no’.
The talk was an overwhelming success and such was the interest that the following Q&A session lasted around 30 minutes. An enormous thank you to Dr Balasubramanian for organizing the event which requires a lot of work and time.
You are welcomed to Perception anytime. We promise not to infringe on your sleeping time!