Sleep Debt
Sleeping, oh my God…I remembered when I was in school; People were seen sleeping in school, colleges and offices. After school even I was very notorious at my previous job for sleeping during working hours. Sleeping like Rip Van Winkle is the desire that many people have including me. The average sleep requirement for being healthy is eight hours, but the normal range is six to nine hours per night. But for the today’s world it has became a dream to sleep calmly even for continuous 4 hours. Because we ourselves are responsible for this modern lifestyle of Internet, Television, Fast Social indulgences, Intense Job Pressure are few of the factors that disturb our sleep orders.
Sleeping less or sleeping on wrong timings causes a Sleep Debt; remain accumulating till suffice hours are not slept. However ignoring this sleep debt; results in fatiguing mentally. This debt cost us Mental, physical and emotional fatigueness, Catabolic and metabolic disorders and several other health related issues. It is suggested by the leading related Journal ‘Sleep’ in its September 2004 issue that cumulative nocturnal sleep debt affects daytime sleepiness, particularly on the first, second, sixth, and seventh days of sleep restriction.
Sleep Debt, if accumulated in large amount can affect the human cognitive system. It has also a history to create even suicidal tendency. Irritation is another symptom, however clear reasons are yet unknown. It is focal subject of research in American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) that what is the exact limit of Sleep Debt that can a normal human tolerate without any Illness Effects. Is there some Benchmark for the same, are the research topics.
Scientific View of Sleep:
Generally our Sleep that seems simple phenomenon is not actually a simple process. Our Rapid Eye Movement (REM) and Non-Rapid Eye Movement (NREM or non-REM) sleep. NREM is classified as a dreamless sleep. During NREM sleep our Brain waves as recorded in EEG are typically slow and of high voltage, Breathing and Heart Rate are slow, Blood rate is slow and the sleeper is relatively still. NREM is again classified into four stages (N1, N2, N3; again N2) that lead to REM stage of sleep.
REM is the stage where dream occurs. There are about 3 to 4 cycles of REM per night. Their occurrence is varied and occurs 1 to 2 hours interval and it can last from 5 Minutes to may be one Hour. It is characterized by High & Low voltage brain waves, Heart Rate leads to little abnormality, Blood rate increases and Heart rate increases. About 80% of sleep is NREM sleep. If you sleep 7-8 hours a night, an hour and a half is spent in dreamless NREM sleep. It has been scientifically proved 7-8 hours is necessary for every day.
Effects of Sleep Debt :
As stated earlier Sleep debt if accumulated in large amount can lead to physical, mental and emotional fatigueness, various catabolic and metabolic disorders. It severely affects Immune System of the body. Sleep Debt hinders the somatic (cells) growth of the body and also growth hormone secretion is effected severely. Any types of anabolic hormones are affected seriously. Anabolic Hormone secretion is processed during sleep only. It sometimes lead to intense mental pressure leading to alcoholism, Smoking and ultimately suicidal tendency.
Some Tips for better Sleeping:
1. If you are snoozing your alarm clock in the morning then you are probably not having enough good sleep. An average human should have 7.5 to 8.5 hours of sleep though it varies man to man.
2. It is best to stay away from caffeine before sleeping. If you want to take drinks having caffeine; drink it in the morning. If you take it in evening, then it can give you a good sleep in the night, but there is a high probability that you will wake up in the middle of the night. Chocolates, Caffeine, Nicotine, and Alcohol etc are not very useful for having good sleep.
3. Go to bed at fixed time and try to maintain this time. Try to wake up in the morning at a fixed time. Waking up at fixed time is very important. It is important that you get bright sunlight.
4. Use your bed to sleep. Avoid Using laptops in bed and stop watching TV at late night.
5. Do workout before going to bed. At least 3 hours before you go to bed have a refreshing exercise.
6. Do not go to bed with empty stomach.
7. AVOID THE STRESS THAT YOU ARE NOT ABLE TO SLEEP. SLEEP WILL COME EVENTUALLY. IT WILL WORSEN THE SITUATION.
8. If possible take some herbal tea or a glass of milk before sleeping.
9. Avoid looking at clock if you wake up in the middle of the night. It will affect you. If you cannot sleep in 30 minutes, do something really boring like for some people reading book make them sleep. You will feel sleepy. Avoid doing something interesting.
9. Use a white noise generator if you are having a noisy environment.
10. And last, but not the least, pray to the Angel of Death, if they come, then pick you up calmly. Jokes apart…..
So my dear friends don’t go to learn the scientific flow of sleep. Sleeping with peace is a blessing of god. God has created us to do work but it is also necessary to sleep, that is to give a little peace and happiness to you body. Sleep with harmony and let sleep everyone without any disturbance. Try the above tips; I am sure it will help a lot. Happy Sleeping!
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