To some people, sleep is a waste of time. Preferring a very busy daily schedule of business and social engagements, they only surrender to sleep when extremely tired. In contrast, others, enduring night after night of tossing and turning until the early hours of the morning, would give anything for a good night’s sleep.
Why do some find it so hard to sleep, while others are desperate to stay awake? Should we view sleep as a luxury or a necessity? To answer these questions, we need to understand what is going on while we are asleep
Exactly what makes a person lose consciousness and fall asleep remains a mystery. Researchers, however, have established that sleep is a complex process regulated by the brain and that it obeys a 24-hour biological clock.
As we get older, our sleeping habits change. A newborn sleeps for frequent short periods that total about 18 hours a day. According to sleep specialists, although some adults appear to need only three hours of sleep a day, others need up to ten hours.
Recent research has shown that variations in our biological clock also explain why some teenagers struggle to get out of bed in the morning. The biological clock seems to shift forward during puberty, making youngsters want to go to sleep later and wake up later. This sleep delay is common and tends to disappear in the mid-to-late teens.
Our biological clock is regulated by chemical substances, many of which have already been identified. One of them is melatonin, a hormone thought to trigger sleepiness. Melatonin is produced in the brain, and some scientists believe that it is responsible for the slowdown of the body’s metabolism that occurs prior to falling asleep.
As melatonin is released, body temperature and blood flow to the brain are reduced, and our muscles gradually lose their tone and become flaccid. What happens next as the person descends into the mysterious world of sleep?
Approximately two hours after we fall asleep, our eyes begin to quiver quickly back and forth. The observation of this phenomenon led scientists to divide sleep into two basic phases: REM (rapid eye movement) sleep and non-REM sleep.
Non-REM sleep can be subdivided into four stages of progressively deeper sleep. During a healthy night’s sleep, REM sleep occurs several times, alternating with non-REM sleep.
Most dreaming occurs during REM sleep. The body also experiences maximum muscle relaxation, which allows the sleeper to wake up feeling physically refreshed. In addition, some researchers believe that newly acquired information is consolidated as part of our long-term memory during this sleep stage.
During deep sleep (non-REM sleep stages 3 and 4), our blood pressure and heart rate reach lower ranges, providing rest for the circulatory system and helping to ward off cardiovascular disease. In addition, the production of growth hormone peaks during non-REM sleep, with some teenagers producing as much as 50 times more growth hormone at night than during the day.
Sleep also seems to affect our appetite. Scientists have discovered that sleep really is, to quote Shakespeare, “chief nourisher in life’s feast.” Our brain interprets a lack of sleep as a lack of food. While we sleep, our organism secretes leptin, the hormone that normally lets our body know that we have eaten enough.
When we stay awake longer than we should, our body produces less leptin, and we feel a craving for more carbohydrates. So sleep deprivation can lead to increased carbohydrate consumption, which in turn can lead to obesity.
Sleep is Vital for Health
Doctors, police officers, fire fighters, truck drivers, workers on rotating shifts, mothers with young children, and many others are among those who are vulnerable to being robbed of the sleep their bodies need. The millions of people who experience the frustrations associated with lack of sleep are keenly interested in knowing how to get sound, refreshing sleep.
But that is not all. Sleep makes it easier for our body to metabolize free radicals—molecules that are said to affect the aging of cells and even cause cancer. Sleep, or at least a period of rest, seems to be universal among living creatures. I
f you have had pets such as cats, dogs, or birds, you have no doubt observed that cats and dogs regularly curl up and drop off to sleep and that birds become quiet and go to sleep when darkness comes. Just about all animals, birds, and insects have a need for sleep, or at least periods of reduced activity. For humans, sleep is an absolute must.
The Role of Sleep
Without a doubt, sleep is vital for a healthy body and mind. Some people think sleep is simply a period of rest. But it is more than that. Sleep is actually a complicated process of muscles tensing and relaxing, pulse and blood pressure rising and falling and the mind churning out its own home movies. When a person falls asleep, all activity decreases and the muscles relax. The heartbeat and breathing rate slow down.
Although scientists, doctors, and researchers have studied sleep for many decades, basic mysteries remain about its vital role. These investigators have not even discovered what sleep actually is or why we sleep. Says Dr. Eliot Phillipson of the sleep research laboratory at Toronto’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital: “We don’t know the critical biological events that occur in sleep that restore us.”
During sleep, changes occur in the body that affect our immune system. Body parts relax and get rest, counteracting the wear and tear of the day’s activity. The general clean-up work carried on through the bloodstream operates efficiently, and the chemical balance is restored. So sleep may be compared to a night crew that comes in to get things repaired and cleaned up for the next day.
One of the most important functions of sleep is to allow the nervous system to recuperate from its use during the day.
How Much Sleep?
Most adults need seven or eight hours of sleep every night. Some require less, others more. There are some who say that they do reasonably well on four or five hours, though some of them may take naps during the day. Infants need much more sleep than adults.
Particularly when people get older, they may find that they awaken several times during the night. Some may feel that this is a sign of the onset of serious sleep problems. However, while older people may not have the same quality of sleep that they did when they were younger, experiments have shown that waking up a few times during the night is not a cause for alarm. Usually, the waking time for most who do this is brief, perhaps only a few minutes, before they fall asleep again.
No matter what one’s age is, though, one should not expect to have the same soundness of sleep all night. Sleep works in cycles of deeper sleep alternating with lighter sleep. In the course of a night, a person may have a number of these cycles.
Dangers From Lack of Sleep
Researchers are becoming increasingly concerned about the number of people who get far too little sleep. Chronic lack of sleep, they warn, can have dire consequences both for ourselves and the people around us,
People deprived of sleep lose energy and become quick-tempered. After two days without sleep, a person finds that lengthy concentration becomes difficult. Many mistakes are made, especially in routine tasks, and attention slips at times.
People who go without sleep for more than three days have great difficulty thinking, seeing, and hearing clearly. Some have periods of hallucinations during which they see things that do not really exist.
Tests have found that after four days of sleeplessness, a test subject could perform only a few routine tasks. Those tasks requiring attention or even minimum mental agility became unbearable. Loss of concentration and mental agility were not the worst factors. After four and a half days, there were signs of delirium, and the person’s visual world became quite grotesque.
Lack of sleep can lead to major problems. More than one sleepy person has fallen asleep at the wheel while driving a car and has become involved in a fatal accident. Sleeplessness can also lead to family and marriage problems, since persistent lack of sleep makes one more irritable and harder to get along with. Getting a good night’s sleep is more important than some may realize.
The effect of sleep deprivation are:
Short term effects
1. Drowsiness
2. Sudden mood swings
3. Loss of short-term memory
4. Loss of capacity to create, plan, and carry out activities
5. Loss of concentration
Long term effects
1. Obesity
2. Premature aging
3. Fatigue
4. Increased risk of infections, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and gastrointestinal disease
5. Chronic memory loss
Getting a Good Night’s Sleep
Sleep in secure, quiet, dark surroundings and on a comfortable bed. Do not nap late in the day, even if you slept poorly the night before; try to stay awake and to go to bed at your usual time.
Avoid caffeine before bedtime. Do not use the bed for reading or watching TV. Avoid heavy exercise and large meals just before bedtime. Maintain regular sleeping hours, as this will help the body acquire a constant sleep-wake rhythm.
Get into the routine of winding down before you go to bed. Avoid doing things that may tend to get you wound up and wider awake. For instance, avoid exciting movies, TV programs, or reading material. Having stimulating discussions just before going to bed may also tend to keep you awake.
For some, taking a warm (not hot) bath or reading light material that is not stimulating is helpful. So may be sleep-inducing helps, such as warm milk, buttermilk, a little wine, or herb teas of hops, mint, or chamomile—but not teas with caffeine.
It is generally agreed, however, that just winding down before going to bed may not be enough in itself. A sound, balanced life with regular exercise and that is free from the anxieties and frustrations caused by greed, jealousy, hostility, and ambition contributes to the ability to get a good night’s sleep. So does a life free from overindulgence in food and drink and a life free from the unhappiness caused by immorality.
Satisfying our spiritual need can play an important role in getting sound, restful sleep. It will help us to understand the complex world in which we live and to pursue a balanced, satisfying way of life.
Conclusively, a relaxed, peaceful sleep is as important to your health and productivity as food.
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