Sleep is very unique habits that we possess. We know it is important, however, while sleeping, we don't make anything, we are not working on anything, we are not reproducing and we are not consuming. Of all the important features that we have, sleep is the most unproductive habit and yet it is important enough that we cannot survive without it.
Affect of Sleeping 6 Hours or Less
Here are some interesting data for when you short cut your sleep.
Almost 1 out of 2 adults are sleep deprive, which means not getting 7-9 hours of sleep. 1 in 3 adults are trying to survive with 6 hours of sleep.
Probability of having no health issues with less than 6 hours of sleep is 0. Health issues is including diabetes, obesity, depression, Alzheimer, cancer, Parkinson, infertility, chronic inflammation and so on.
Men who sleeps 4-5 hours a night may lead to having testosterones level equivalent to those who are 10 year senior to them. Female reproductive hormones can also have similar affect.
Everyday we produce cancer cells. With this anti cancer immune cells we are able to prevent from having cancers. There was a study done with group of people and gave 4 hours of sleep for one night. What they saw was 70% drop in anti cancer fighting immune cells.
Cardiovascular system can also get affected by 1 hour of sleep deprive. In the spring when we lose an hour of sleep there is a 24% increase in heart attack next day. In the fall, when we gain hour, there is a 21% decrease in heart attack on following day.
Science have found a strong connection with Alzheimer's disease related to sleep deprivation.
Sleep deprivation, from cognitive prospective, is characterized by reduced alertness, lack of ability to concentrate, difficulties with learning and memory, and difficulties with behavioral problem. If you asked pediatricians with these characteristic, they will diagnose this disorder as ADHD.
Sleep Deprivation and Metabolism
For weight perspective, those who sleep 6 hours or less has tendency to eat about 200 calories more, which adds up to 20lb increase per year. Reason why this happens is there are two hormones that control hunger. Leptin and ghrelin.
Leptin is responsible for signaling feeling of full or satiation. Ghrelin is a hunger hormone. When sleep is deprived, leptin response nosedive and ghrelin response skyrockets. In other words, you will be hungry more often and not able to stop eating even if you are eating more than you need because there is no signal. Worst part is of all the excess calories that we consume because of sleep deprivation, we tend to choose heavy carbohydrate and simple sugar rather than healthy food choices like protein, leafy greens, nuts and so on.
When sleeping 6 hours or less, 70% of the weight loss is coming from lean muscle mass instead of fat mass, which is terrible for our metabolism. Throughout the evolution only time we were sleep deprived was when we were in starvation. This can be observed in animal behavior where they wake up when hungry and sleep when they are satiated. Sleep deprivation for us, our body cling on to our fat thinking we are in starvation.
Sleep alone is not the cause of obesity and other metabolic issues. Sedentary lifestyle, consumption of overly processed food, frequent food consumption are without a doubt plays a huge role in this pandemic in this country. However, those alone does not make things clear about what health issues we are witnessing today. Sleep seems to be one of the missing pieces and need to be considered in part of our healthy lifestyle.
5 Tips for Better Sleeping
Regularity
Keeping the sleeping schedule as much as possible is one of the key factor in improving both quality and quantity of sleep. Make sure to schedule your both sleeping and wake up time and stick with it. Initially you may not be able to fall a sleep but you can still get into bed at the time you have scheduled.
Darkness
We are living in darkness deprived society, which is affecting on melatonin or sleepiness hormone secretion. Even at home, there is TV, Laptop, iPad, Cellphone, and even room lights can be brighter than it needs to be. Start turning off some lights in your house 2 hours before your scheduled bed time. This will signal the melatonin to start kicking in and help you get drowsy.
Temperature
It takes about 2-3 degrees Fahrenheit drop in core temperature for our brain to start sleep cycle. Therefore, cooler the room temperature is, easier it will be to fall a sleep. Ideal temperature for sleeping is 65 degrees Fahrenheit. Even taking hot shower before bed time can help. You may think taking hot shower is warming the body but it actually is opposite. When body gets warm, body will then work on cooling off. Because of this cooling off mechanism, the body slows down and become drowsy.
Use of Melatonin
Melatonin is hormone secreted by pineal gland in your brain signaling when darkness sets in to alert the brain that it is time to sleep. As we get older, it is possible that melatonin secretion become weaker, which is why older population has difficulty of sleeping.
Another incident may happen is when you travel into different time zone, where we experience jet lag. Jet lag is happening because the circadian rhythm is set in your primary location. Therefore, our melatonin signaling can be still set at our local time and not at our new destination time.
For these two instances, melatonin supplement can be helpful.
Minimize Stimulants Usage
Caffeine is one of the chemical that we often use to keep ourselves awake and alert, however, it does affect our sleep. Even if you can sleep after drinking cup of coffee, the chemical is still there and can disrupt the sleep cycles. Caffeine has half-life affect of 6 hours and quarter-life of 12 hours. Which means if you drink caffeinated beverages at 12pm, caffeine will still in your system at 12am. I personally finish my caffeine intake by 8am because I need to get to bed by 9p to wake up at 4:30a (7.5hrs sleep).
Alcohol and marijuana are often used as sleep aid but there has been studies showing otherwise. Alcohol is sedative and not sleep aid. What alcohol does to our sleep is to disrupt with REM (rapid eye movement) cycle or dream cycle. There has been a study done with alcoholics where after they come out of alcoholism, because their REM cycle has been disrupted for long time that REM cycle start kicking in to make up for REM sleep that has been lost while the participants are awake, which is also known as delirium tremens.
Marijuana said to have more natural affect on sleep and help provide more deeper sleep. However, both REM cycle and non-REM cycle are both has it's function and we know that they are both important. Think about it. If brain goes extra work to get the REM cycle going even while we are awake, like how alcoholics experience, it is evident that it is that important.
I always thought exercise and nutrition were the two pillars that dictates better health, physique, and physical performance. But know I believe that those two pillars need to have proper foundation called sleep. Sleeping for 7-9 hours is 1/3 of our life. However, how efficiently will we live remainder of 2/3 of life is deeply correlated to that 1/3.
Reference:
Walker, M. P. (2018). Why we sleep: Unlocking the power of sleep and dreams. New York, NY: Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.
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