cbsnews.com— Human beings spend on average one third of their lives asleep. We know we need to sleep but most of us have never really given a whole lot of thought to why.
Mar 18, 2008View in Crawl 4
There is a competing theory that belittles the importance of sleep, considering it just an evolutionary leftover from the time where hiding away from all the dangers of the day was paramount. Or a biological quirk that was installed around the time when there was little food.I do think we sleep for far too long. We could reduce our need to a four hour average, but the learning curve is a steep one and most would fall foul of some somnambulistic side effect, like dying whilst traveling to the office, for instance.
It has to be related to individual neuron function. A neuron is an electrical device and it has a discharge/recharge rate. If you get behind the curve the function can be dimished or stopped. THink of using your iPod all the time and only plugging it in for a few minutes every once in a while. After a short period it dies. Muscle cells "leak" calcium when they fire and the result is loss of strength and that pain "burn" we feel, along with the "crustiness" the next day. Neurons have to undergo a similar process. The key is in the fact that the deprived rats actually DIED and not simply experienced diminished capacity. Death from failure of base metabolic functions, regulated by the brain, seems likely. I think neurons need to recharge. All this stuff about memories and things are side effects of under-performing neurons. If we look at individual neurons and how they change chemically/electrically during the day/night I bet we find a change in overall charge and calcium or some other molecule content and distribution.You heard it here first.
I watched the video of them performing these studies to determine the effects on the body from sleep deprivation.... and while they introduced many facts that are well known to many sleep physicians across the country (i.e. sleep deprivation leading to diabetes, lowering the immune system, etc.), they studies they are running are crap.I run sleep studies on a nightly basis for a living, and their explanation for what's happening on the screen at the time proves that they don't know what the hell they're talking about. They aren't using correct terminology according to American Academy of Sleep Medicine standards, and what they are calling "deep sleep" on the screen is, in fact, stage 2 sleep; which is the "nothing" part of your sleep. It seems to me that this is someone who doesn't know much about actual sleep medicine, perhaps never studying anything other than maybe WebMD to learn about sleep cycles.Buried for technical inaccuracies.
Closed AccountMar 19, 2008
If you don't sleep you feel s**tty the next day, who cares why.
sydneyhopperMar 19, 2008
There is a competing theory that belittles the importance of sleep, considering it just an evolutionary leftover from the time where hiding away from all the dangers of the day was paramount. Or a biological quirk that was installed around the time when there was little food.I do think we sleep for far too long. We could reduce our need to a four hour average, but the learning curve is a steep one and most would fall foul of some somnambulistic side effect, like dying whilst traveling to the office, for instance.
bcm79Mar 19, 2008
I'll just tell myself I'm in California, then. I'll get to bed at eight every night.
marssentinelMar 19, 2008
It has to be related to individual neuron function. A neuron is an electrical device and it has a discharge/recharge rate. If you get behind the curve the function can be dimished or stopped. THink of using your iPod all the time and only plugging it in for a few minutes every once in a while. After a short period it dies. Muscle cells "leak" calcium when they fire and the result is loss of strength and that pain "burn" we feel, along with the "crustiness" the next day. Neurons have to undergo a similar process. The key is in the fact that the deprived rats actually DIED and not simply experienced diminished capacity. Death from failure of base metabolic functions, regulated by the brain, seems likely. I think neurons need to recharge. All this stuff about memories and things are side effects of under-performing neurons. If we look at individual neurons and how they change chemically/electrically during the day/night I bet we find a change in overall charge and calcium or some other molecule content and distribution.You heard it here first.
brokenbrickMar 19, 2008
Furthermore, what the hell are dreams?
sleeptech81Mar 21, 2008
I watched the video of them performing these studies to determine the effects on the body from sleep deprivation.... and while they introduced many facts that are well known to many sleep physicians across the country (i.e. sleep deprivation leading to diabetes, lowering the immune system, etc.), they studies they are running are crap.I run sleep studies on a nightly basis for a living, and their explanation for what's happening on the screen at the time proves that they don't know what the hell they're talking about. They aren't using correct terminology according to American Academy of Sleep Medicine standards, and what they are calling "deep sleep" on the screen is, in fact, stage 2 sleep; which is the "nothing" part of your sleep. It seems to me that this is someone who doesn't know much about actual sleep medicine, perhaps never studying anything other than maybe WebMD to learn about sleep cycles.Buried for technical inaccuracies.