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You probably have enough to hear political leaders and businessmen talking all the time that they sleep very little. The problem is that it is not an admirable feature: lack of sleep is very detrimental to our body and our brain.
Matthew Walker, a professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of Berkeley in the United States, explains why you should stop admiring people who sleep little. Walker is the author of Why We Sleep a book with the potential to change (and extend) one's life.
Here, he explains everything you need to know about sleep and how to develop lifestyle
Why sleep is important
The findings of science indicate that less time sleep is long, the shorter the life. So, if you want to age in good health, you should have a good night's sleep.
In fact, sleep is so beneficial that Walker began to pressure doctors to prescribe it to their patients. this induction of sleep must naturally occur. Many studies report sleeping pills at an increased risk of cancer, infection and mortality.
What happens to our body and mind if we do not sleep?
Many of the diseases we suffer have a significant link to lack of sleep – for example, Alzheimer's disease, cancer, cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, depression, anxiety and even suicidal tendencies. of all the important physiological systems of our body and every network or operation of the mind. If you do not sleep enough, this criticism is impaired and your body will be affected.
After 50 years of scientific research, the question in the minds of scientists is more than "what does sleep do for us?
How many hours does it take to sleep to feel good?
You should be sleeping at least seven to nine hours a day. If you sleep less than seven hours, your immune system and your cognitive performance will begin to be affected.
After being awake for 20 hours at a time, you will feel as helpless as if you were drunk – to the point that one of the problems of sleep deprivation
is like if a drunk driver in a bar took the keys of the car and said, "I'm fine, I can drive. But everyone knows that he is unable to take the direction of a vehicle.
We sleep less and less each time. (19659002)
If we sleep less, it is more difficult to enter the REM phase (fast motion).
If we badyze the data of the industrialized nations, we notice a clear trend: for a hundred years, sleep has been decreasing. eyes, in the acronym in English), the cycle in which we dream. And any interference in the REM phase is very damaging because it is crucial for our creativity and mental health.
According to Walker, there are several reasons why people sleep less and less:
1 – Lack of knowledge: The scientific community knows how important it is to sleep well, but until now, able to effectively communicate this to the general public. Most people do not understand why sleep is important.
2 – Rhythm of Life: In general, we work longer and we spend more time going back and forth from work. We left home very early and returned late at night, and of course we did not want to miss spending time with family and friends. Being with the family, hanging out with friends, watching TV … Finally, we sacrifice hours of sleep
3 – Attitudes and beliefs: Sleep is not well seen by the society. If you tell someone who sleeps nine, they'll think you're lazy. So we stigmatize sleep, and many people brag about how little they sleep each night. This was not always the case. No one will call a sleeping baby because we know that sleep is essential for its development. But this notion changes when we reach adulthood. Not only do we abandon the idea that sleep is necessary, but we also punish people who sleep when they need it.
4 – Lack of natural light: We do not like to run out of light when it's dark. But darkness is needed to release an essential hormone that helps us sleep, called melatonin. Unfortunately, one of the side effects of modernity and its technological advances is that we are constantly under artificial light. 5 – Temperature: Another unexpected side effect of modernity is that we no longer know the natural flow of melatonin. cold and heat during the 24 hour period. We all want warm homes, but we also need fresh air to sleep well. Our brain and our body need to reduce this base temperature, about 1 ° C less, so that we can relax naturally. Most of us put heating at a very high level: if you want to sleep well, program your thermostat at 18ºC at night
Why do not we recover the hours of sleep lost
that the damage can be reversed?
One of the big lies is that if you have not slept well, you can "go back to sleep". You can not. Sleep is not like a bank, in which one can accumulate a debt and then pay it.
But that is what many people do: they sleep a little during the week and want to recover during the weekend. This is what is called the jet lag social or even sleepy bulimia. What you can do, in fact, is to change your habits.
Studies show that people who have slept poorly but have changed routine and started sleeping longer avoid degenerative degeneration and Alzheimer's disease for more than ten years. in comparison with people who have maintained an insufficient sleep rhythm.
Imagine how wonderful it would be if we could store hours of sleep and use them the way we wanted.
There is a precedent in biology called the fat cell. The evolution has given us this cell, thanks to which we can store energy in periods of abundance that allows us to survive in times of hunger.
So why do not we develop a similar system to store sleep? a species deliberately depriving itself of sleep for no apparent reason.
That's why even a single night of bad sleep can affect our body and our brain.
BBC News – All rights reserved for reproduction without the written permission of the BBC
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