Saturday, November 10, 2007
Tired = "Crazy"?
Recently, as I've returned to school, its open schedule, indiscriminate workload, and opportunities for socialization with a whole new peer group, I've returned to a life where sleep deprivation is a way of life. I tend to laugh off the cloudiness and substandard cognitive function of my weekdays as "a natural high," despite having read countless studies about the importance of regular amounts of sleep for physical and mental health. I don't usually do the "topical blog," but this last study I read really makes me reconsider living in sleep debt.
Consider this article outlining research published last month in Current Biology: subjects who'd pulled an "all-nighter" had 40-80% more activity in the brain's emotional centers when shown disturbing images than a control group. The researchers drew on other studies of the brain to theorize that this activity effectively shuts down the prefrontal cortex (i.e. logical reasoning) and activates the release of noradrenaline/norepinephrine, a neurotransmitter that triggers "fight or flight" responses and affects mood disorders. These brain patterns are similar to those of clinical depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Obviously future research is needed (for example, if a gradually accumulated sleep debt has the same effect), but the findings of this study have significance for our chronically sleep-deprived populace. I don't have any hard statistics, but I know that many people close to me suffer from what have been categorized as "mood disorders"; if getting more sleep every night will help the brain regulate itself, I feel that sleep therapy needs to be at the center of the mental health profession. Also, I would hope that establishing a connection between sleep deprivation and irrational behavior will help reform the shifts held by hospital staff and military personnel; individuals without adequate sleep may simply be unable to make the life and death decisions required by these professions.
I have trouble "sleeping in" myself, so it makes me wonder how much sleep I really need -- WebMd.com has an interesting self-test to determine whether you actually need eight hours. I might try it out this week -- if I can finish my work before 11.
[Postscript (11/18) -- if you have 15 minutes and are interested in reading more about sleep, "The Sleep-Industrial Complex" in today's International Herald-Tribune is a pretty interesting article (if you can get through all of the mattress talk with which the author begins). It suggests that in pre-industrial societies, most people sleep in two 4 hour shifts, waking up for an hour or two in the middle of the night. I know my folks can relate.]
Consider this article outlining research published last month in Current Biology: subjects who'd pulled an "all-nighter" had 40-80% more activity in the brain's emotional centers when shown disturbing images than a control group. The researchers drew on other studies of the brain to theorize that this activity effectively shuts down the prefrontal cortex (i.e. logical reasoning) and activates the release of noradrenaline/norepinephrine, a neurotransmitter that triggers "fight or flight" responses and affects mood disorders. These brain patterns are similar to those of clinical depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Obviously future research is needed (for example, if a gradually accumulated sleep debt has the same effect), but the findings of this study have significance for our chronically sleep-deprived populace. I don't have any hard statistics, but I know that many people close to me suffer from what have been categorized as "mood disorders"; if getting more sleep every night will help the brain regulate itself, I feel that sleep therapy needs to be at the center of the mental health profession. Also, I would hope that establishing a connection between sleep deprivation and irrational behavior will help reform the shifts held by hospital staff and military personnel; individuals without adequate sleep may simply be unable to make the life and death decisions required by these professions.
I have trouble "sleeping in" myself, so it makes me wonder how much sleep I really need -- WebMd.com has an interesting self-test to determine whether you actually need eight hours. I might try it out this week -- if I can finish my work before 11.
[Postscript (11/18) -- if you have 15 minutes and are interested in reading more about sleep, "The Sleep-Industrial Complex" in today's International Herald-Tribune is a pretty interesting article (if you can get through all of the mattress talk with which the author begins). It suggests that in pre-industrial societies, most people sleep in two 4 hour shifts, waking up for an hour or two in the middle of the night. I know my folks can relate.]
