I Couldnt Sleep a Wink Last Night

I Couldn’t Sleep a Wink Last Night: Amene Saghzadeh Explains Reasons Behind The "First Night Effect"!

We have all experienced or heard about problems with sleeping on the first night in new places, the so-called "first-night effect”. Not only may the first night in a new home, friend’s home, or in a fully equipped hotel be NOT nice, but also turn into a living nightmare is you cannot sleep a wink in these apparently beautiful places. As schematically described in Figure 1, there are a few interesting, yet controversial, scientific explanations for this phenomenon. Luckily, we are here to break them down some into a few simple figures:

1. You cannot sleep well because of the feeling of "not sure"about safety of the new place that interferes with the interhemispheric balance  

Research has shown that our brain tends to be hasty in evoking responses to external stimuli we encountering the first night in the new place. This puts forward speculations weather the brain uses this as a strategic mechanism to ensure survival in a new environment. For this purpose, the left hemisphere will be set up as highly vigilant for any signs of unsafe environment, while, the right hemisphere is put asleep 1. Such an interhemispheric asymmetry may cause an unusual ‘‘entropy’’ within the brain, not allowing you to get bihemispheric deep sleep 2. The more the interhemispheric asymmetry, the longer it takes to fall asleep. 

2. You cannot sleep well because your default-mode network is preparing your tomorrow in the new place 

Neuroimaging study characterized a particular set of brain regions in the left hemisphere referred to as the default-mode network (DMN). They realized that during the first night in the new place, the DMN of individuals remained unusually active, taking a part in the interhemispheric asymmetry. DMN is a network known to undertake goal-irrelevant functions such as self-referential processing. An active DMN might imply that you are imagining yourself in a shopping mall in the new country or as a lecturer in tomorrow’s meeting. As if, imaginations that surround you in the first night in the new place set your DMN active and an overactive DMN would cause or aggravate interhemispheric asymmetry, not allowing you to sleep.        

You may ask: Ok I am convinced why I cannot sleep well first night in a new place, but why we can only sleep well at certain direction? 

My answer to this question is that do not worry! You are not thin-skinned…

3. There are tiny magnetic material in your brain that inspire the desire to sleep here but not there

It is already known to us that the human brain contains ferromagnetic crystals resembling those of magnetotactic bacteria. Ferromagnetic crystals are an important type of magnetic material that in the absence of an external magnetic field can create a magnetic field composed of different domains, of their own. One can introduce an external magnetic field in an efficient manner so to enhance the strength of the original magnetic field of the material, the so-called saturation effect, or to reverse its direction, called the hysteresis effect. The place as well as the attitude and direction of where you sleep in, can determine how magnetic domains in the brain are aligned in relation to the earth’s magnetic field direction and change the magnetic field of your brain causing insomnia. Next time, take care to put your pillow in the right direction!

4. After all, you might notice that sometimes everything is as usual and you want to sleep but cannot for an unspecified reason. 

This situation can be explained by exposure to airborne magnetite pollution nanoparticles that can enter the brain and influence its magnetic field 3. These nanoparticles might also contribute to the generation of reactive oxygen species, which are unwanted cell-damaging molecules that have been implicated in sleep disorders.

Another explanation for this situation is that changes in temperature can alter atomic vibration, which, in turn, would have the power to cause misalignment of magnetic domains in the brain 4. 

My final words to you is that if you still cannot sleep and 

-       the first night in the new place passed,

-       your pillow is in the right direction,

-       no change in temperature has recently occurred, and 

-       there is no new exposure to airborne pollution particles… 

it might be time to search for actual psychological factors and physical diseases that might affect sleep quantity and quality.  

By Amene Saghzadeh

Sources:

Tamaki M, Bang JW, Watanabe T, Sasaki Y. Night watch in one brain hemisphere during sleep associated with the first-night effect in humans. Current biology. 2016;26(9):1190-1194.

Burioka N, Miyata M, Cornélissen G, et al. Approximate entropy in the electroencephalogram during wake and sleep. Clinical EEG and neuroscience. 2005;36(1):21-24.

Maher BA, Ahmed IAM, Karloukovski V, et al. Magnetite pollution nanoparticles in the human brain. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2016;113(39):10797-10801.

Kirschvink JL, Kobayashi-Kirschvink A, Woodford BJ. Magnetite biomineralization in the human brain. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 1992;89(16):7683-7687.