Why we need sleep, and the science behind not sleeping.
One of the natural functions of us as humans, which has puzzled scientists for thousands of years, is why do we sleep? Sleep is an incredibly important part of our biology, and its function is beginning to be revealed by neuroscientists fundamentally, in the past, there are 3 different consensus regarding why we sleep and its function, these are.
: This is the idea that we have to restore our energy back to levels which will enable us to function mentally. Recent discoveries are shown this hypothesis to have some validity, in as much as, there are certain genes within the brain that switch on and off neural pathways, when we are asleep. This idea is nothing new in fact it was quoted by Greek philosopher Aristotle.
Sleep helps us conserve energy: the idea that we need to recharge our batteries so that we can work the next day. This is doubtful, as there is no real evidence to say that we are saving energy when we are sleeping. In fact, we save about a hundred calories when we are asleep. So there is very little evidence to support this hypothesis.
Sleep helps mental health: this hypothesis says that we need to sleep to help us process memories, and makes sense of our world as a whole. There is some validity in this hypothesis. As certain areas of the brain are switched on only during sleep. There is an exciting by-product of this brain activity, in that after a good night’s sleep, we are able to think more creatively. Neuroscientists have found that we have a threefold advantage in thinking creatively, about a problem, when compared to broken or no sleep.
Sleep is an incredibly important function for us as human beings, and its importance is only now being recognised. The idea that sleep is for wimps, as Margaret Thatcher once quoted, is now itself, to be scoffed at.
In the nineteen fifties the average person got, on average, 8 hours sleep a night. Today, this is now greatly reduced with the average being one half to 2 hours sleep less. The typical teenager needs around 9 hours sleep a night, unfortunately this demographic falls into one of the worst offenders, for lack of sleep, with the average teenager getting around 5 hours a night, that’s 4 hours less sleep than they need.
Shift workers, are on average, the most sleep deprived people, as when they feel tired, after working a night shift their clock body wants them to wake up. Therefore, the quality of sleep they get is generally very poor.
The effects of lack of sleep have been well documented, particularly in the US, where it is well documented that on average hundred thousand people, each year fall asleep that the wheel of their car.
One of the contributing factors in two of the worst accidents in human history, the challenger space shuttle and the nuclear reactor incident at Chernobyl was sleep deprived shift workers, making catastrophic mistakes.
Physical effects of sleep deprivation; how lack of sleep can really affect your health.
From above information we can work out that most people do not get enough sleep. One of the ways that we keep ourselves awake, when we should be sleeping is by using stimulants, the most common being caffeine. Often caffeine is added to with another stimulant nicotine. After staying up all night, it’s then hard to get to sleep because the caffeine in our system is making us stay awake, often people will resort to a sedative the most common being alcohol. This is okay short-term but long-term it can have devastating effects. Unfortunately, alcohol only mimics sleep by sedating the user, it actually harms some of the neuro processing which happens during sleep.
Another factor for loss of sleep is weight gain, if you sleep 5 hours a night, then you have a 50% likelihood that you would become obese. One of the side effects of sleep loss is the increase in the hormone, leptin ghrelin: the hormone that makes you hungry, or increases appetite, this hormone actually seeks out carbohydrates in the form of sugars, so thus increases your likelihood of eating sweet.
Another factor, from lack of sleep, is stress, and with it loss of memory, also suppressed immunity due to your body being stressed.
Another factor for sleeplessness is increase glucose in your blood, after a time you could become glucose intolerant, and thus there is a propensity for diabetes.
There are certainly some studies that show that nightshift workers have an increased cancer risk, due to suppressed immune systems.
Another by-product of sleeplessness is stress on your cardiovascular system, thus increasing your chances of cardiovascular problems.
Overall, poor sleep is bad for you, not only short-term but long-term. What some people don’t realise is it’s not just impaired memory and functioning, but long-term health problems, such as mentioned above.
Can birth order dictate your chances in life?
The idea of, your place in your family dictating your chances in life, re-emerge with several new studies, looking into the effects of birth order, in families.
Family order nature or nurture?
Francis Galton, a half cousin of Charles Darwin, first coined the phrase “nature or nurture”. Galton, in 1874 suggested that it was only the firstborn sons that would exclusively, become England’s finest scientists. This may well in the case in Galton’s time. Indeed, firstborn sons would always be the air to any title, money or land in the 1800s. Indeed, if one had been born a first son one may have been raised with a sense of entitlement, to such things, not so today?
Family order dictates your mental health?
One such study looking at the effects of birth order looked at survival rates; one only has to look at the animal kingdom to see that birth order can often have life or death consequences. A study carried out in Norway, which looked at 600,000 people, discovered that the oldest sibling is a greater risk of committing suicide than his or her sibling, with the likelihood of suicide greater in men than in women.
A further study carried out of 250,000 Norwegian army conscripts, found that the eldest brother in a sibling group has a 2.3 higher average IQ, compared to his younger siblings. An interesting caveat to this study, is the research carried out by Petter Khristiansen, at the University of Oslo. He looked at males whose older brother had died. He found that this affects the IQ ranking of the surviving, next in line sibling; the study’s results suggested that when one moves in sibling ranking, ones IQ rises. Khristiansen, suggests in his study, that this is something to do with University places.
Family order even makes a difference in your Immune system!
Furthermore, a study carried out by Matthew Perzannowski at the University of Columbia in New York, found that children, aged between four and five, with older siblings, are less likely to go to the emergency room due to an asthma attack, it is thought that a principle called hygiene hypothesis occurs, in effect being exposed to viruses, bacteria and fungus in early childhood may increase the immune system, effectively younger siblings more exposed to pathogens, brought into the home by older brothers or sisters, thus less prone to allergies than their older family member.
Queue rage: a 21st-century anger problem?
Have you been in a queue of traffic, you read the signs, you get the right lane, but then there’s always somebody cutting into the lane at the last minute. Does it annoy you? You’re not alone. When you start feeling your temper becoming frayed because of someone pushing in line, this is an example of a primary instinct one of suspicion.
So what’s going on when I get angry?
Fundamentally, it taps into, what is often called the 3Rs (resources, relationships and residency) the three primary reasons for the feelings of anger, and often rage in people.
Had does someone jumping queues affect me?
Primarily, jumping queue, is seen as an assault on our resources; basically the road is our resource. This gives birth to what is often called “queue rage”. Dr Richard Larson has spent two decades studying the psychology of people waiting in a queue. Furthermore, he, and his colleagues have found that people don’t mind waiting even for prolonged times, as long as the queue is perceived as fair; first-come first-served. Feeling angry about this goes way back to childhood, remember that kid who was always jumping the queue in front of you and the teacher would not see it and the dinner lady would certainly not.
Road rage can sometimes get out of hand!
Incidences such as, waiting in a traffic queue can often cause road rage incidences, unfortunately people have died in such rages, when things become out of hand.
The feeling of mistrust, is an automatic brain response to unfamiliar people; such is the guy who’s just jumped in front of you, after you’ve waited 20 minutes in line. The survival mechanism of the brain, the limbic system, produces feelings that have evolved over millions of years and are unlikely to go away soon. Although we like to think our brains, as modern, they’re not, they have simply not evolved to trust people, instantaneously. All you have to think about is your front door bell ringing late at night and somebody making a collection for a not-for-profit group, your response might be is this a scam. We as humans are very adept looking at faces and deciding if we can trust the person wearing the face, although trusted is often felt as instantaneous, it is generated through a complex process that links the feeling part of the brain to the thinking part, of the brain (the limbic system to the prefrontal cortex).
Is getting angry really worth it?
So next time you’re in a queue don’t let your limbic system hijack your feelings. Patients, certainly will win out at the end of the day.
A BBC News article, revealed that there has been an increase in the number of young boys admitted to hospital for self harm.
The article went on to say that these figures could be much worse because the secret nature of self harm has, and that young boys are less likely to come forward with issues of self harm due to them seeing self harm as a predominantly female issue. A spokesman for UK website SELF harm got.co.uk suggested the children were likely to be influenced by what they saw on the Internet.
The World Health Organization is due to release a report in 2015 which is expected to show an increase in the number of teenagers who are self harming; experts expect this level to have tripled over the last decade in England.
In the autumn statement, this month, the coalition government announced it would in investment £100 million in mental health care for young people, over the next five years. The government intent is to make it easier for young people to access specialist help in their community.
One of the suggestions in the report of the schools must do more, to help students, which is self harming. 6,000 teenagers, with some as young as 11 were included in the Health Behaviour in School Aged children report. Which cited that 22% of the 15-year-old sampled said that they hurt themselves on purpose. With 43% said saying a self harmed once a month.