“I’ll sleep when I’m dead”. Or, “I’m too busy, no time for sleep”. How often have you heard that? How often have you said that? It cannot be overstated how foolhardy that statement is and how counterproductive and even dangerous that statement is to live by. Sleep is not something to bypass to have more life.
Sleep is something that creates and enhances life.
“It is mortally unwise advice…
You will be dead sooner and the quality of that now shorter life will be significantly worse.”
Not only is “sleep the greatest legal performance enhancing drug that most people are neglecting”, on the other end the cumulative buildup of chronic under-sleeping over years and decades is scientifically shown to be the top determinant in likelihood of dementia and Alzheimer’s. So, please, no more sleep when I’m dead stuff. Listen to the sleep guy’s take on that saying.
Matthew Walker (aka the sleep guy) is a neuroscientist, professor and a man on a crusade to combat the chronic sleep deprivation epidemic. Listening to a podcast he did powerfully impacted my relationship with sleep. I never saw it as arbitrary but I also never understood the depth of its indispensability.
Sleep is nonnegotiable to health and wellbeing.
Sleeping less is once again a consequence of living in opposition to natural wisdom. “Human beings are the only species that deliberately deprives themselves of sleep for no apparent reason.” We believe ourselves to be smarter than nature, that we can think our way beyond it. Well, with regard to sleep that cleverness is literally killing us. Over decades of under sleeping, if the horrors of dementia or Alzheimer’s haven’t already set in, one is 12% more likely to die prematurely. From what? Cancer for one. Professor Walker stated clearly there is inarguable evidence that insufficient sleep is linked to bowl, prostate and breast cancer.
The reason being – sleep is the body’s healing time. A host of hormonal systems kick into gear during slumber with the function of repairing and riding the body of damage. The very existence of wakefulness actually creates low-grade brain damage as well as continuous creation of cancer producing cells. During sleep, the protein residue of the day before is cleaned (preventing dementia/Alzheimer’s) and carcinogenic cells are collected for excretion.
On average, half of adults are not sleeping sufficiently for baseline health. A third are on six hours or fewer. That number has ballooned with the solidification of modernity. In 1942, the average adult slept 7.9 hours a night. The figure is now 6.5. And remember that is an average, meaning as stated before a huge swatch are on 6 or below. That’s an 18% drop. Which in sleep terms is from enough to danger.
Why else should everyone prioritize sleep? Well, if you’re a man, to age normally. Men sleeping between 5 and 6 hours a night have the testosterone levels of someone 10 years their senior. That leads to the plethora of low testosterone problems – erectile dysfunction, infertility, hair loss, reduced muscle mass, reduce bone mass, decrease in energy, increase in body fat and mood issues including depression. Returning to both male and female, sleep deprivation (whether a single night or chronically) leads to mental and physical performance problems via an increase in stress and inflammation and a decrease in immunity.
Mentally, there is a reduction in memory consolidation and retrieval, learning difficult, over-emotional responses and general lessening in mental health. So, if you are trying to get that promotion at work or if you are a manager keeping your people in late night after night, a lack of sleep is counterproductive for both of you. Under-slept employees are less productive, less effective, less rational, less logical, over emotional as well as take on less challenging work, put in less effort and are less creative. And for the under-slept bossman or bosswoman, your employees will view you having less charisma and authority. Pulling another all-nighter? No judgment, but after 20 hours of being awake you are now equally cognitively impaired as if you were legally drunk.
On the other side of the coin, a good night’s sleep literally leads to mastery. “Practice does not make perfect, practice with a night of sleep makes perfect.” Following a day of practicing at some skill or studying or trying to solve a problem, the well-rested mind will perform 20-30% superior.
Physically, same same but different. Habitually sleep deprived people are more likely to be obese and have diabetes. This occurs due to creating hormonal hell within the body. An under-slept body produces more ghrelin, the hormone that says I’M HUNGRY and produces less leptin, the hormone that says I’M GOOD. That results in the obvious – you eat more. People sleeping less than 6 hours a day are usually eating 200 to 300 extra calories a day translating to 4.5 to 7 kilograms a year of additional body fat. And the deck is further stacked against you because studies show that a under-slept person not only wants to eat more they want to eat more at the wrong times and eat the wrong food (aka heavy artificial carbs and simple sugars).
And if you’re trying to train hard? Forget about it. Lung capacity drops by expelling less carbon-dioxide and absorbing less oxygen, lactic acid builds up faster and is cleared slower, the small but numerous stability muscles weaken leading to a 60% greater risk of injury and on the day after a night of minus 6 hours sleep the body’s time to physical exhaustion drops by 30%.
Nah, you say, I don’t need much sleep. I’m good on 5 hours. Okay, there is a small genetic anomaly chance that’s true. There is a microscopic slice of human beings with a genetic mutation that allows them to sleep below the recommended amount and live healthy. But the chance of you having that is smaller than the chance you will be struck by lightening.
“The number of people who can survive on six hours of sleep or less
without showing any impairment
rounded to a whole number and expressed as a percent of a population is
zero.”
That’s all the scary stuff out the way. A lot, I know. The great news is sleep is something most of us have direct control over. So what is the recommended amount?
Adults must sleep between 7 and 9 hours a night.
[It’s more for children and teenagers]
Remember, oversleeping is not good either in normal circumstances. And also, not only is the amount important, so is the quality. This is critical. Quality is equally important as quantity.
There are a host of simple and effective strategies to improve both one’s quantity and quality of sleep. All of which revolve around temperature, movement and light.
So please, no more “sleep machismo”.
Make time for sleep. Prioritize it.
To heal, to recover, to improve, to perform there is no substitute for sleep.
Matthew Walker is a neuroscientist, professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at University of California at Berkley and director of the Center for Human Sleep Science. Information above is drawn from episode #1109 of the Joe Rogan Experience published on April, 25, 2018. This is a must listen for anyone now inspired to sleep more and better. For those that like the written word, check out Matthew Walker’s book “Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams”.
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Disclaimer:
Remember dear reader, I am neither a doctor nor any sort of medical physician in any capacity. None of the information presented above can be construed as any sort of medical advice in any sort of manner. You as the reader is solely responsible for creating and implementing your own physical, mental and emotional well-being, decisions, choices and actions. As such, the reader agrees that the author is not and will not be liable or responsible for any actions or inaction taken by the reader or for any direct or indirect results. This information is simply presented and whatever you decide to do with it is your choice and your responsibility.
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