If I didn't have to sleep, I wouldn't. I loathe it for the time it takes away from my day; those precious six or seven hours that steal valuable time to do homework, read, knit a scarf, or change the world. However, I am well acquainted, as most people are, with the rigor of sleep deprivation, and it is known that a third of our lives are spent sleeping, so if someone lives to 90, about 32 years of their life was spent curled up in a pile of blankets. While the idea of “wasting” thirty two years of my life oblivious to the world makes me despair, there must be a reason why sleep deprivation hits everyone so hard and why we spend so much of our lives doing it. So why do we sleep, how can we get more of it, and what happens when we don't get enough?
Shakespeare was a big fan of sleep, often addressing it in his works such as when he said, "Enjoy the honey-heavy dew of slumber." or, “O sleep, O gentle sleep, nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee?" During Shakespeare's time sleep was obviously revered and appreciated, but today there is a stigma against it. Students, including myself, love to boast “I've only gotten four hours of sleep, and I wrote a whole paper and woke up early to work out and watch the sun rise.” There is a sick one-upmanship amongst people to see who got the least sleep and therefore got the most done because of it. In this way, not excluding myself, we gauge who gets the most out of their day and who can run the longest aided by bursts of caffeine and stimulants. However, this attitude is extremely detrimental and damaging to our health. In a TED talk by Russel Foster he claimed, “If you sleep around about five hours or less every night, then you have a 50 percent likelihood of being obese.” This is because sleep loss prompts a release of a hormone that called ghrlelin that makes your body crave carbohydrates making you more apt to reach for glucose ridden foods rather than a carrot stick when tired and stressed. Speaking of stress, if you're sleep deprived, you are more at risk to be perpetually stressed which causes glucose to be released in the system and heightened adrenaline hormones causing your immune system to be suppressed, which will cause you to be more susceptible to sickness. Since sleep deprived people are the the people who probably have a lot to get done, sickness is not something that is healthy or can be afforded.
Also, lack of sleep is linked to memory loss, lack or creativity, irritability and damages ability to think critically. In America, 100,000 car crashes a year are related to sleep deprivation and it is estimated that at least thirty one percent of Americans will experience sleeping at the wheel once in their lives. It is scary to think that when we deny our body sleep it will do our best to override us no matter where we are. If sleep is this important to our body why do we need it? There are many theories such as energy conservation, but that is not held in much favor as tests have shown that the body only conserves about 110 calories when sleeping as compared to a relaxed state when awake, so from an a evolutionary standpoint sleep does not hold too much significance. A more favored theory for why we sleep, and one that I am more inclined to believe based on research, is memory consolidation in which Foster in his TED talk claimed, “What's turned out to be really exciting is that our ability to come up with novel solutions to complex problems is hugely enhanced by a night of sleep. In fact, it's been estimated to give us a threefold advantage.” I have noted that if I am dealing with a problem that I am having troubling thinking through, a night's sleep gives me amazing clarity into how to solve that problem, and there have been times when I have woken up and had the solution to something that stumped me. According to research, your thinking abilities are nothing without a good night's sleep to back it, so cramming for a test or staying up late to finish a reading for class is counterproductive as your brain will retain little to none of what you are trying to force feed it and you will lose sleep that will fuel a more productive next day.
To be the most rested and bright eyed and bushy tailed you there are a few measures you must take. First, and the most grievous error that people make, (especially students) is consuming caffeine later in the day. Ideally, caffeine should not be consumed after lunch, but let's face it, that's hard. So use caution and don't be the dimwit who drinks caffeine at 9 p.m. to power through homework but then can't fall asleep till 3 a.m. because of it....you know better. Also, try to keep away form bright lights at least a half an hour before your bedtime. That means no Netflix, not updating your Twitter status about how tired you are, and it also means that you should try to keep off the bathroom light when performing you nighttime regime. It also helps to keep your bedroom dark and slightly cool for ideal sleeping conditions and to keep away from exercising right before bed as it will just rev you up making you feel more awake.
On the first tier of Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of human needs, sleep is included next to things such as food, breathing, and water, so begrudgingly I will admit that it is unavoidable and undeniably important. Think of all the brilliant ideas that are locked away in groggy minds, all of the misconstrued and misunderstood conversations you've had because you have been too tired to properly comprehend or articulate them, and think about all the undue stress you are placing on your body because of lack of sleep. Evolution is no dummy, so listen to you body, and do yourself a favor by getting a proper amount of sleep whenever possible.
