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Insights on the Power of Sleep

Sleep is something may of us know we should do, and most don't...especially those in school mugging for their papers or employee trying to complete the job-tasks. We all know that if we do not sleep enough,  it affects performance but we "fix" this by coffee. But how does this affect us in the long run?


A good friend passed his copy of "Why we Sleep" to me...he told me "this is good". The book is written by Dr. Matthew Walker, who was thinking of spending just 1-3 years on the research but ended up spending 20+ years. Here are some key takeaways (yes, the book is good):

  • Melatonin works as a sleep aid. It works by and once it encounters light (in the morning), the body adjusts itself and the melatonin wears off. Best time to take it is around 8pm to allow the melatonin to peak around 4am and allow you to sleep through the night...well, it fies vary by individuals depending on how much coffee one takes. 
  • Coffee (or the chemical caffeine) works blocking the sleepiness signals caused by adenosine. The reason why the effects persist is that there is a half-life of about 5-6 hours in which the concentration will reduce by half. Thus, if you wish sleep by say 10pm, the last cup of coffee should be by 4pm. Of course, this varies for various people.  And yes, there is such a thing as caffeine crash - once the caffeine wears off, the adenosine that is still there will cause the body to shut down.
  • The ideal type of sleep is byphasic sleep (versus monophasic where we sleep just once thru the night), based on studies by traditional hunter-gatherers and folks unaffected by modern conveniences (those staying in villages). This means we take a short nap of 15-60 minutes in the afternoon and then sleeping at night. There is a study conducted in Greece that a change in this pattern, from nap + sleep to just sleeping at night, will result with an increase of cardiovascular issues in adults. 
  • It is a myth that older adults require less sleep. What is true is upon reaching the 40s, most are less able to get the necessary sleep due to circumstances such as stress, age-related ailments and work. And studies have shown a correlation between the amount of sleep and health.
  • Sleep is actually a miracle drug, supported by evidence of 17,000 studies and yet, it is free. Here are some of its proven benefits (at any age):
    • Make you live longer
    • Enhances memory
    • Makes you more creative
    • Makes you look more attractive
    • Makes you slim 
    • Lowers food cravings
    • Reduced risks of injury and improves recovery (for athletes)
    • Protects against cancer and dementia
    • Wards off colds and the flu
    • Lowers risks of heart attack, stroke and diabetes 
    • Makes you happier, less depressed and less anxious
  • Ideal amount of sleep for memory is 6 hours or more. Anything less than 6 hours is shortchanging the brain of a normal learning restoration benefit.
  • Muscle memory, or more accurately brain memory enhanced by muscles, is best done with sleep in between. In a study of physical activity, the author found that physical training that has a sleep episode in between showed an 20% jump in performance speed and up to 35% jump in accuracy. What is also interesting is that most of the physical development occurs in the last 2 hours of the recommended 8-hour sleep. In contrary to general wisdom, if you DON'T snooze,  you lose. 
  • The waking hours for a normal  person is 16 hours. After that, the brain starts deteriorating. To maintain performance,  we need 7 hours each night. If we got less than 7 hours for 10 consecutive days, the effects is similar to being awake for 24 hours. 3 full nights of insufficient sleep is not enough to recover back to normal levels.
  • Getting too little sleep across our adult life span (less than 7 hours) will significantly increase the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. While it is not the magic bullet that scientists have been looking for to "cure" dementia, having sufficient sleep will decrease the risk.
  • Another reason for sleeping: cancer. Sleep disruption may cause increase the risk of cancer development and, if established,  favors its rapid and more rampant growth. 

Question: if sleep is that important, will one die due to sleep deprivation (like food and water)? 


A group of researchers from the University of Chicago ran some experiments and found that the answer is yes. They tried it on rats and all lasted an average of 18 days before they die. Apparently, the duration is the same being deprived of food. The problem however is why, which is not as obvious as starvation. All the rats lost weight even though they ate more. The rats were unable to regulate the body temperature and many developed sores on the skin. But none actually caused death. They found out (years amd more experiments later) that the reason is that death was caused by gut bacteria. Under normal circumstances with ample sleep, the gut bacterial can be brought under control.  Take away sleep and the bacteria ravaged the body until death...not a fun away to die. 

So, what are some of the best practices? 

Here are 12 that are mentioned in the book.

  1. Stick to a schedule to sleep and wake up the same time every day,  and yes, this means on weekends as well.
  2. Exercise, and do this at least 30 minutes each day but no later than 2-3 hours before bedtime
  3. Avoid caffeine and nicotine
  4. Avoid alcohol before bed
  5. Avoid large meals and beverages late at night
  6. If possible,  avoid medication that delay or disruption sleep
  7. No naps after 3pm
  8. Relax before bed, i.e., reading or listening to music
  9. Take a hot bath before bed 
  10. Make your bedroom dark, cool and free of gadgets (that distracts from sleep)
  11. Have the right sunlight exposure, at least 30mins or up to an hour of morning sunlight 
  12. Don't lie in bed awake, if you wake up in the middle of night and unable to fall asleep, do a relaxing activity until you feel sleepy again.

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