Why Bother Sleeping?

Do we really need to sleep so much? Wouldn’t life be better if we just drank more caffeine and kept going? Well, when you’re standing at the coffee stand and trying to decide between one more latte and going to sleep…consider the facts:

In a recent article published in Time magazine, David Dinges, a sleep expert from the University Of Pennsylvania describes just how fundamental sleep is to normal daily functioning. Dinges compares a persons’ reaction time after not sleeping for 20 hours to someone who has a blood alcohol level of 0.08 – a level of intoxication that is high enough to get you arrested in 49 of the 50 United States. This is serious!

The Time article describes that after about 18 hours without sleep, we start to experience spells of “microsleep” where we zone out for anywhere from two to 20 seconds. Scary isn’t it? It is when you’re supposed to be awake—like when you’re driving, for example.

You might have experienced the “nods”, perhaps as a tired student, a bored audience member or an employee, or simply when you’ve subjected yourself to a not-so-enthralling performance. Remember how you zone out-- when your neck muscles give out and your head droops suddenly forward. The sudden jolt shocks you into staying awake for a few more minutes until you do it again, and again, until the intervals become so rapid that you decide to just let you eyes stay closed for a few minutes longer… What you’re seeking is the restorative power of sleep.

There’s wisdom in seeking sleep. There’s an ancient Ayurvedic saying, “Sleep is the nurse of all living things”. But, it seems that thousands of years later, scientists still can’t agree on the single purpose of sleep. One theory is that sleep allows the brain to review and consolidate the streams of information gathered while we were awake.

But while scientists continue to probe the biochemical and neuro-physiological benefits of sleep, most of us know we just want to get some! After all, women throughout history haven’t been insisting on getting their “beauty sleep” for nothing.

And it’s not just humans that seek the refreshing benefit of sleep. You don’t have to look far in the animal kingdom to find each species seeking sleep whether they live in the ocean or the forest.

We’re not the only ones overcome by this powerful phenomenon we call sleep. From a kitty-cat nap to a seriously slumbering lioness, all creatures heed this call of nature in their own, sometimes very curious way. Did you know that dolphins sleep while swimming, resting half of their brain at a time? While dolphins sleep on the fly (or on the swim should we say) the lion sleeps an average of 12 hours per night—no need for the king of the jungle to be a light sleeper, it seems.

Just imagine…if humans slept half of the day!

Milly is author of Beyond Words: A Guide to Drawing Out Ideas. She is co-author with Thomas Sechehaye of just-released Design Yourself and SOS: Stress Options and Solutions available at http://www.better-stress-advice.com

Milly and Thomas translate field-tested methods, from 17 years at Hands•On Graphics corporate trainings, to practical tools to help you reduce stress today!

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http://www.better-stress-advice.com