Through years of evolution, mother nature has endowed us with the gift of sleep. We are the only mammals on this planet that sleep the most in our nascent years as we have bigger brains that makes us the apex of the Darwinian model. The irony to this evolutionary gift is that we use the very brains of ours to undermine sleep.
It is generally seen that society respects those who boast that they sleep less to work on their business or pull all-nighters to ace an exam. The outcome may prove beneficial on the work/education front, but your body and brain will bear the brunt of this exercise.
Let me run through some numbers to paint a realistic picture of this global pandemic at hand. The pandemic that I am talking about is the “loss of sleep” that every person is bearing in the name of social media, binge watching and work.
- People who sleep less than 6 hours a night for 10 days straight, have their blood lactic acid levels so elevated that passes off as high as a blood alcohol concentration that can render one illegal to drive.
- For people who force themselves to work through the night and fight the seduction of slumber, often end up drinking caffeinated drinks. This very caffeine kick elevates the heart rate, increases alertness, and causes the SNS (Sympathetic Nervous System) to rev up your heart rate even when at rest. This in turn increases cortisol levels which furthers muscle loss and bone loss. This elevated blood cortisol puts the person in a state of constant flight or fight response, which has shown to increase the chances of stroke, atherosclerosis, and much worse, cardiac arrest.
- People who sleep less than 6 hours have 400-500% more chances of having a cardiac arrest in their lifetime. A young person might say that it would not happen to me, to which I offer a rebuttal, check your blood pressure first thing in the morning having slept less and you will understand why sleep is the most important medicine. This elevated blood pressure might eventually catch up, I am sure no one will want to run this race to find out.
- A lack of sleep or sleeping 6 hours and less makes the person more capricious as their amygdala and striatum become inflamed. These inflamed sites are the very parts of your brain that bring out insecurity and excitement in a person’s behaviour, respectively. An overtly inflamed amygdala will make one moodier and more morose whereas a hypersensitive striatum will make one more impulsive and over-excited. If this condition is left untreated, the person might eventually succumb to “manic depression” also known as “bipolar disorder”.
- When a healthy individual is subjected to less sleep than 6 hours a night for a week straight, their insulin sensitivity drops by 40% which makes them more susceptible to gaining fat and increasing the serum LDL concentrations in the long run.
- For those who argue that they are staying awake, hence they are burning more calories in doing so, the numbers say otherwise. A person staying awake burns only an extra 147 calories a night at the cost of increased blood pressure, increased LDL, increased cortisol, increased resting heart rate and losing more muscle mass (up to 70%) when staying awake in the name of education, socializing, or working towards a new business.
- For the pseudo macho men, these numbers might hit the point home. Sleeping 5 hours a night drops the sperm count by 29% as well the overall size of the testes. On the opposite gender aisle, the numbers are not any better. Women sleeping the same hours have 33% higher chances of developing menstrual disorders and a whopping 80% higher chances of having fertility issues.
To summarize this slumber issue, I can say with utmost temerity that “Sleep” is the most under prescribed medicine in the world. It is the only medicine that has shown that it has a host of health inducing benefits ranging from increased longevity, increased memory reactivation, increased testosterone, increased recovery from workouts and increased brain function that goes a long way in making one concentrate in his/her education or work.
Having the best medicine ingrained in our very DNA yet compromising it in the name of hustle culture and waking extra hours at night is an exercise in futility that only a human brain can justify.
As a closing remark, I can only hope that you understand the gravity of this situation and start taking control of your life back. The ⅓ life that you spend sleeping is equally important if not more than the one you spend waking up.
Sleep well my friends.
Goodnight and Godspeed.
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