Right sleep | Part - II

Adv. Debashis Nandi

(The writer can be reached at Devn242@gmail.com)

(Continued from yesterday)

Sleep plays an important role in the physical health of people. Prolonged sleep deficiency is linked to an increased risk of heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and stroke. Sleep deficiency also increases the menace of obesity. One study of teenagers showed that with each hour of sleep lost, the chances of becoming obese went up. Sleep deficiency increases the risk of obesity in other age groups as well.

Sleep helps maintain a balance of the hormones that regulates appetite. Sleep also affects the hormone that controls the blood glucose level and its deficiency may increase the risk for diabetes.

Sleep also supports healthy growth and development. Deep sleep triggers the body to release the hormone that promotes normal growth in children and teens. This hormone also boosts muscle mass and helps repair cells and tissues in children, teens, and adults.

Prolonged sleep deficiency can change the way in which the immune system responds. Sleep disturbance can also be an indication of other underlying medical conditions or psychological disorder. It may, for instance, be a symptom of an Anxiety or Mood Disorder. Furthermore, sleep disturbance that is chronic can lead to death.

A small experiment was conducted by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Washington State University. Here the researchers began the experiment by gathering 48 healthy men and women who had been averaging seven to eight hours of sleep per night. Then, they split these subjects into four groups. The first group drew the short straw. They had to stay up for 3 days straight without sleeping. The second group slept for 4 hours per night. The third group slept for 6 hours per night. And the fourth group slept for 8 hours per night. In these final three groups — 4, 6, and 8 hours of sleep — the subjects were held to these sleep patterns for two weeks straight. Throughout the experiment the subjects were tested on their physical and mental performance.

Here's what happened…

The subjects who were allowed a full 8 hours of sleep displayed no cognitive decreases, attention lapses, or motor skill declines during the 14-day study. Meanwhile, the groups who received 4 hours and 6 hours of sleep steadily declined with each passing day. The four-hour group performed worst, but the six-hour group didn't fare much better. In particular, there were two notable findings.

First, sleep debt is a cumulative issue. In the words of the researchers, sleep debt "has a neurobiological cost which accumulates over time." After one week, 25 percent of the six-hour group was falling asleep at random times throughout the day. After two weeks, the six-hour group had performance deficits that were the same as if they had stayed up for two days straight. Let me repeat that: if you get 6 hours of sleep per night for two weeks straight, your mental and physical performance declines to the same level as if you had stayed awake for 48 hours straight.

Second, participants didn't notice their own performance declines. When participants graded themselves, they believed that their performance declined for a few days and then tapered off. In reality, they were continuing to get worse with each day. In other words, we are poor judges of our own performance that decreases even as we are going through them. In the real world, well-lit office spaces, social conversations, caffeine, and a variety of other factors can make you feel fully awake even though your actual performance is sub-optimal. You might think that your performance is staying the same even on low amounts of sleep, but it's not. And even if you are happy with your sleep-deprived performance levels, you're not performing optimally.

Effects related to sleep deprivation

The international classification of sleep disorders-2 (2005) (ICSD-2) classifies the sleep disorders in six major categories

ICSD-3 Major Diagnostic Sections *

Insomnia: Difficulty getting to sleep or staying asleep, with associated daytime consequences.

Sleep-related breathing disorders: Cessation of breathing due to upper airway obstruction, cessation of breathing due to absent respiratory effort, and shallow breathing due to a variety of medical conditions.

Central disorders of hypersomnolence: Excessive daytime sleepiness not due to other sleep disorders. These include narcolepsy, idiopathic hyper somnolence, and insufficient sleep syndrome.

Circadian rhythm sleep–wake disorders: Abnormalities of sleep wake time, delayed or advanced sleep phase, shift work disorder, and jet lag.

Parasomnias: Abnormal behaviours or events arising from sleep. These include sleepwalking, sleep terrors, and rapid eye-movement sleep behaviour disorder.

Sleep-related movement disorders: Abnormal, usually stereotyped, recurring movements in sleep. Restless legs syndrome, although a waking sensory disorder, is included, as well as periodic limb movement in sleep and leg cramps.

Other sleep disorders: Those sleep–wake disorders not classified elsewhere, most notably environmental sleep disorder.

As stated by Michael J. Sateia, MD.

We can overcome Sleep deprivation having such resolutions 1) Napping was found to be both physiologically and psychologically beneficial to sleep deficient people. Napping for 20 minutes can help refresh the mind, improve overall alertness, boost mood and increase produ ctivity. Napping may benefit the heart. A nap is a short period of sleep, typically taken during daylight hours as an adjunct to the usual nocturnal sleep period. Naps are most often taken as a response to drowsiness during waking hours.2) Take a deep sleep for at least eight hours for healing your body and mind. Consider moving yourself closer to the office area to reduce travel time. Flexi-timing is another option- going in early and leaving before rush hour can cut time and stress.3) If you're doing rotating shifts, schedule a clockwise rotation, so that the new shift will have a start time that is later than the previous shift. Also, stick to a particular shift for at least a week.4) Reduce exposure to sunlight by making the room dark and noise-free with heavy drapes to sleep soundly during the day.5) Emails, social networking, web browsing are addictive and also alert the mind. Avoid these just before sleeping hours.6) Don't sleep with the smart phone in your bed.7) Travelling across different time zones affect the circadian rhythm. It may take several days to readjust to the new time zone. Adapt to the new schedule on the flight; change your watch to the time zone of the destination; stay hydrated and active. Get sunlight exposure whenever possible—it is a powerful stimulant for regulating the biological clock.8) Late-night movies and partying, often at the cost of sleep, leaving us exhausted. Don't schedule late nights on weekdays. Plan them for days you have the option of sleeping in the next morning so you can get the sleep your body needs.9) Have a warm shower, listen to soothing music, meditate and visualize a happy memory, so that you go to bed feeling positive and calm which is good for sleep and for life itself.10) Start doing proper exercise, yoga and meditation to keep yourself mentally and physically fit.11) Stop using different addictions and start having healthy food and proper diet.

So in this pandemic situation, we should avail for right sleep, the deeper and longer we are able to sleep, the better. But I am telling you to sleep, not to keep lying on the bed! Lying down on your bed is not sleep!

Normally it is all right for everybody to wake up with the rising sun, because as the sun rises everyone's temperature starts rising. But this not a rule, there are some exceptions. For some people it may be necessary to sleep a little later than sunrise, because each individual's body temperature rises at a different time, at a different pace. Wake up when you feel it is healthy for you. Usually it happens along with the sunrise but it is possible that this does not happen to you. There is no need to be afraid or worried or to think that you are sinner and to be afraid of going to hell. Osho once said, "Many people who rise early in the morning go to hell and many people who get up late live in the heaven. None of this has any relation whatsoever to being spiritual or unspiritual. But right sleep certainly does have a relation with it.''

Three points have to be kept in mind: right diet, right labour and right sleep. If life proceeds rightly on these three points then there is more possibility of opening what I have called the navel centre, which is the door to spiritual life. If it opens, if we get close to that door, then a very unique thing happens........something of which we have no experiences in our ordinary life. ( Concluded)