[tt] NS: Time to wake up to the facts about sleep

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Time to wake up to the facts about sleep
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20026781.600-time-to-wake-up-to-the-facts-about-sleep.html?full=true
16 October 2008 by Jim Horne

ASK people whether they would like more sleep, and most will say
yes. Does that mean they are not sleeping enough? The apparent
desire for more shut-eye, together with oft-repeated assertions that
our grandparents slept longer, all too easily leads to the
conclusion that we in the west are chronically sleep-deprived.
Adding to these concerns are recent claims that inadequate sleep
causes obesity and related disorders, such as diabetes.

Plus ça change. Claims of widespread sleep deprivation in western
society are nothing new--in 1894, the British Medical Journal ran
an editorial warning that the "hurry and excitement" of modern life
was leading to an epidemic of insomnia.

Even then it probably wasn't true. The fact is that most adults get
enough sleep, and our collective sleep debt, if it exists at all,
has not worsened in recent times. Moreover, claims that sleep
deprivation is contributing to obesity and diabetes have been
overblown. My assertion is that the vast majority of people sleep
perfectly adequately. That's not to say that sleep deprivation
doesn't exist. But in general we've never had it so good.

Over the past 40 years, there have been several large studies of how
much sleep people actually get, and the findings have consistently
shown that healthy adults sleep 7 to 7½ hours a night.

The well-known "fact" that people used to sleep around 9 hours a
night is a myth. The figure originates from a 1913 study by
researchers at Stanford University in California, which did find
that average daily sleep was 9 hours--though this applied to
children aged 8 to 17, not adults. Even today, children continue to
average this amount.

More support for today's epidemic of sleep debt supposedly comes
from laboratory studies using very sensitive tests of sleepiness,
such as the multiple sleep latency test, in which participants are
sent to a quiet, dimly lit bedroom and instructed to "relax, close
your eyes and try to go to sleep". These tests claim to reveal high
levels of sleepiness in the general population, but as they are
performed under relaxing conditions they are able to eke out the
very last quantum of sleepiness which, under everyday conditions, is
largely unnoticeable.

Another line of evidence trotted out for chronic sleep deprivation
is that we typically sleep longer on vacation and at weekends, often
up to 9 or 10 hours a night. It is often assumed that we do this to
pay off a sleep debt built up during the week.

However, just because we can easily sleep beyond our usual daily
norm--the Saturday morning lie-in, the Sunday afternoon snooze--it
doesn't necessarily follow that we really need the extra sleep. Why
shouldn't we be able to sleep to excess, for indulgence? After all,
we enthusiastically eat and drink well beyond our biological needs.
Why shouldn't it be the same with sleep?

Most mammals will sleep for longer than normal if overfed, caged or
bored. The three-toed sloth is a good example. Sloths kept in zoos
sleep around 16 hours a day--yet in their natural, wild state they
sleep less than 10. Niels Rattenborg and colleagues at the Max
Planck Institute for Ornithology in Starnberg, Germany, recently
found this out by using miniature EEG recorders attached to the
heads of sloths in Panama, the first such experiment on a
free-ranging wild animal. Why this difference in its sleep? The most
likely explanation is that sloths simply sleep to excess when caged
(Biology Letters, vol 4, p 402). This is seen in domestic animals
too. Sheep in pens, horses in stables and cows in barns sleep much
more than when in open fields, and pet cats sleep extensively
compared with feral cats.

Until recently, people living above the Arctic circle slept much
longer in winter than in summer. There are reports from the 1950s of
Inuit sleeping up to 14 hours a day during the darkest months
compared with only 6 in the summertime. Given the opportunity, we
can all learn to significantly increase daily sleep on a more or
less permanent basis. When it is cut back to normal we are sleepy
for a few days, and then the sleepiness disappears.

Far from our being chronically sleep-deprived, things have never
been better. Compare today's sleeping conditions with those of a
typical worker of 150 years ago, who toiled for 14 hours a day, six
days a week, then went home to an impoverished, cold, damp, noisy
house and shared a bed not only with the rest of the family but with
bedbugs and fleas.

What of the risk of a sleep shortage causing obesity? Several
studies have found a link, including the Nurses' Health Study, which
tracked 68,000 women for 16 years (American Journal of Epidemiology,
vol 164, p 947).

The hazard, though real, is hardly anything to worry about. It only
becomes apparent when habitual sleep is below 5 hours a day, which
applies to only 5 per cent of the population, and even then the
problem is minimal. Somebody sleeping 5 hours every night would only
gain a kilogram or so of fat per year. To put it in perspective, you
could lose weight at the same rate by reducing your food intake by
about 30 calories per day, equivalent to about one bite of a muffin,
or by exercising gently for 30 minutes a week.

In truth, few obese adults are short-sleepers, and few
short-sleeping adults are obese. The Nurses' Health Study also
revealed that people sleeping more than 9 hours a night are just as
likely as short-sleepers to be fat.

The link between sleep shortage and obesity has also been found in
children, though again the findings have been overstated. In one
classic study of 5-year-olds, children who slept under 10 hours a
night were more than twice as likely to be obese as those who slept
for more, which sounds worrying (International Journal of Obesity,
vol 16, p 721). But the actual numbers are small--7.7 per cent
versus 3.6 per cent. Similarly, while obese children sleep less on
average than children of normal weight, the difference is very 
small--around 14 minutes.

The link between short sleep and diabetes has also been overcooked.
It's true that lean, healthy young adults who are restricted to 4
hours' sleep a night for several nights show the beginnings of
glucose intolerance and metabolic syndrome, which can be a precursor
to type 2 diabetes (Journal of Applied Physiology, vol 99, p 2008).
However, that doesn't mean it happens in the real world.

For one thing, the effect quickly reverses after one night of
recovery sleep. Moreover, 4 hours' sleep is highly artificial and
the vast majority of people cannot sustain it for more than a few
days. Our very lowest natural limit seems to be 5 hours, yet the
researchers did not test the effect of 5 hours' sleep on metabolism,
and many have just assumed that what is found with 4 hours' sleep
applies to short sleep in general.

Not only have chronic sleep deprivation and its consequences been
overstated, I also believe that our apparent desire for more sleep
isn't all it seems. Do we really mean it when we say "yes" to the
question, "Would you like more sleep?" It's a leading question that
invites a positive response, in the same way as asking whether you
would like more money, a bigger house or more holiday. Who, in all
honesty, would say no?

The acid test of inadequate sleep is excessive daytime sleepiness.
Another way to expose the truth is to gauge to what extent those who
say they want more sleep would actually sacrifice other desirable
activities.

My team recently investigated these questions by giving around
11,000 adults a questionnaire asking indirectly about perceived
sleep shortfall. We did this by asking when they usually went to
sleep and at what time they woke up, followed by, "How much sleep do
you feel you need each night?" The difference between the two gave
an estimate of the shortfall. They also completed a standard
questionnaire to assess daytime sleepiness (Sleep Medicine, vol 9, p
184).

Half the respondents turned out to have a sleep shortfall, averaging
25 minutes a night, and around 20 per cent had excessive daytime
sleepiness. However, the people with a sleep deficit were no more
likely to experience daytime sleepiness than those without.

To gauge the respondents' determination to make up their perceived
sleep debt, we then asked, "If you had an extra hour a day, how
would you prefer to spend it?" The alternatives were playing sport
or exercising, socialising, reading or relaxing, watching TV or
listening to the radio, working, sleeping, and "other".

Only a handful of people opted to use their extra hour for sleep. It
seems that wanting more sleep is not necessarily synonymous with
needing more sleep, and that given a choice, people will happily
forego extra sleep in favour of other leisure activities.
Given a choice, people will happily forego extra sleep in favour of
other leisure activities

Does any of this matter? I believe it does. Propagating the myth of
a chronically sleep-deprived society is not only intellectually
lazy, but further adds to the anxieties of people who believe they
are not getting enough, creating unfounded health concerns and a
greater demand for sleeping pills. Instead of worrying that we're
not getting enough sleep, we should acknowledge that we're probably
sleeping better than ever before--and rather than trying to
increase our sleep, maybe spend those "extra" hours of wakefulness
doing something more productive.

Jim Horne runs the Sleep Research Centre at the University of
Loughborough, UK. His latest book is Sleepfaring: a journey through
the science of sleep (Oxford University Press)

COMMENTS

Sleep
Thu Oct 16 11:02:23 BST 2008 by Armanian
Well... I know that for me it takes about 10 hours of sleep for a
good day... Anything below and i feel like C**P and anything above
makes me feel the same unless I've gone a few days without it. I
wonder if that just makes me lazy... But i would prefer more sleep
if i didnt have to get up and go university.

Sleep
Thu Oct 16 11:53:34 BST 2008 by Nertcha's Nittles
"Compare today's sleeping conditions with those of a typical worker
of 150 years ago, who toiled for 14 hours a day, six days a week,
then went home to an impoverished, cold, damp, noisy house and
shared a bed not only with the rest of the family but with bedbugs
and fleas." Yes, I suppose that's about right for a modern uni
student too.

Sleep
Fri Oct 17 00:36:33 BST 2008 by Nico
Indeed a time there was less chemical water polution, no ozonhole,
clean air. It must have been terrible. Dough they had fire and could
warm their homes. And probaply we where then less alergic since we
had only nature surounding us. (our body is adapted too live in
nature, not in houses/industries/cars/airplaines etc..)
And most likely they would less care about time, and working hours.
They just killed cows for food and took some fruits, right from
nature (not from wallmart).

Sleep
Fri Oct 17 12:58:29 BST 2008 by Pieter
You don't have dinosaurs in wallmart either.

Sleep
Thu Oct 16 11:56:08 BST 2008 by Steve
You're a student, you need 10 hrs sleep just to sober up.

Sleep
Thu Oct 16 18:27:19 BST 2008 by Mefisno
Hmm well I am a student an my sleeping patterns are bizare.
Sometimes I sleep from 3.30 am--7.40 am and other times I sleep
from 11pm till 2 pm.
So sleep debt makes sense to me but it is true also alot off the
time is dedicated to sobering up ha ha ha.

Sleep
Thu Oct 16 17:02:42 BST 2008 by Dag
Whew ~ I'm not the only one who feels the need for well over "7
hours" of sleep!
I cannot function at all if I go a few days of less than 8 hrs of
sleep.

Sleep
Thu Oct 16 19:24:09 BST 2008 by Mylefthand
Thank goodness im a university student too, i take two or three
30-45 min naps a day on top of 7-8 hours of sleep. Im just less
aware and alert if i dont take a nap right before class. And almost
non of this has to do with sobering up

Sleep
Thu Oct 16 12:12:39 BST 2008 by Nick
The problem is not a short of sleep but more the urge to be 100%
active from the moment a person wakes up. We expect to be fresh and
shining when we are starting with work why can't we just give
ourselves a break? :S

Sleep
Thu Oct 16 12:32:03 BST 2008 by Passie
Better 8h work then no sleep at all I always say

Sleep Paralysis
Thu Oct 16 13:19:40 BST 2008 by Craig
I often wake up paralysed, unable to move or scream, which is what
you want to do because it is so terrifying!
I often find it happens at weekends where my body chooses to wake as
opposed to in the week when I use an alarm clock and probably sleep
between 6.5 to 7.5 hours. So I think it is much better to get less
sleep. TBH, I have more energy when I sleep 6.5--6 hrs yet I try to
get 7.5--8 lol.

Sleep Paralysis
Thu Oct 16 14:16:21 BST 2008 by Glenn
It's called sleep paralysis. It's neither very uncommon or
dangerous.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis

What Myth?
Thu Oct 16 13:56:43 BST 2008 by Et
I've always read that 7-8 hours is the required sleep. So I was
surprised to find out here the the "myth" is 9 hours. Does this
article try to debunk a myth that doesn't exist, or do most people
really think that 9 hours is what's needed?

Yawn
Thu Oct 16 14:34:50 BST 2008 by Chris Wininger
This is making me sleepy. I think Ill take a nap at my desk.

Sleepy
Thu Oct 16 15:06:55 BST 2008 by Steve
I only got 7 hrs sleep last night and now I feel knackered. We're
all different, I know when I've not had enough sleep, I need 8 hrs
or I feel like **** the next afternoon.

Sleepy
Thu Oct 16 15:47:55 BST 2008 by Liza
I used to feel the same way about needing my 8 hrs, until I got two
children and was unable to get 8 or even 7 hrs a night during
several years. Now I am perfectly happy with 7 hrs and actually feel
bad when sleeping too long (more than 8 hrs). Makes me feel unable
to wake up.

Quality Of Sleep
Thu Oct 16 16:43:37 BST 2008 by Jim
This article and the comments are all about the length of sleep, not
the quality of sleep. Surely this has a bigger impact on how a
person feels in the morning.
For example: there are many people in the world (including myself)
who get up, travel to work by car, sit at a desk, travel home by
car, eat dinner, sit around watching TV then go to bed. They may not
exercise regulary, but are not obese. This I feel leads to an
average quality nights sleep; even though 7-8 hours sleep may be
achieved morning groginess and daytime drowsiness still occurs. If
however, I labour in the garden all day and eat meals as usual, come
the evening i'm tired. Then I find that have a very good quality of
sleep over the same duration (7-8 hours) but feel much fresher the
next day. I think peoples life styles have a big impact on the
quality of sleep and how they feel, in this respect, day after day.
Although I don't have a reference, small qunatities alcohol are know
to disrupt sleep patterns. So perhaps people should alter their
lifestyle slightly if they're unhappy how they perform during the
day (due to drowsiness) rather than trying to get more sleep, or
complaining about a lack of...

Sleep
Thu Oct 16 17:51:00 BST 2008 by Mike
Ever since I was a child, I've suffered from mild insomnia (my mind
refuses to shut down at night) & in the last 30+ years, I've
normally only slept for about 4-5 hours a night & I haven't found
that this has affected me at all. It seems that's all the sleep my
body needs.

Blue Light And Sleep And Fluorescents
Thu Oct 16 17:53:26 BST 2008 by Hank Roberts
Y'all at New Scientist should be warning people that as
incandescents phase out, sleep will be delayed.
(long URL--click here)
Or else invest in sleeping pill companies ...

Sleep Proverbs
Thu Oct 16 20:12:57 BST 2008 by Pedant
The 'myth' of 9 hours' sleep?
The Penguin Dictionary of Proverbs
Five hours sleeps a traveller, seven a scholar, eight a merchant,
and eleven every knave.
Nature requires five, custom takes seven, idleness takes nine, and
wickedness eleven.
Six hours' sleep for a man, seven for a woman, and eight for a fool.
Seven hours' sleep will make a clown forget his design.
I assume these are all English proverbs--what do other nations say?

Pseudoscience Of Sleep
Thu Oct 16 21:12:05 BST 2008 by Smack Macdougal
Many studies from Academe amount to nothing more than pseudoscience.
Daily Sleep Count is but one factor in the degree of wellness in a
man.
Sleep is complex, involving both time and brain action (resonant
frequencies).
Setting aside the complexity of sleep, declaring a causal
relationship between facts, sleep and obesity amounts to junk
science.
The body is too complex for such simpleton linearity.
Many Awake Factors come into play dietary intake,
sufficiency of metabolic enzymes, sufficiency of cumulative oxygen,
depth of circulatory strengh, degree of muscle mass.
Smarter sleep research focuses upon the ratio of the Degree of
Fitness to Amount of Sleep.
When Sleep Researchers awaken to this truth, they shall come to see
that less fit, more unwell folks sleep more as their bodies need
more rest to cling on to any degree of life.
Outside of the growth phase of new life, most likely, the Degree of
Unfitness is the key driver for the need to sleep more.
Living in unfit ways (gluttony, sloth) most likely is the causal
agent in obesity.

Sleeping Patterns
Thu Oct 16 22:30:24 BST 2008 by Kael
One question I have is whether the regularity of sleep affect how we
feel? Would our bodies adjust bewtter if our daily rhythms were more
constant (sleeping and waking up at the smae time everyday rather
than sleeping 12-7 during the week and 2 or 3-12 on weekends), even
though we had less sleep? Are there any studies on this?

Sleep--Restfull / Deprived
Fri Oct 17 17:12:51 BST 2008 by Kent Bradbury
I am one of those people who can fall asleeep at the drop of a hat.
My problem is staying asleep. I wake frequently, every hour and a
half or so it seems, to change position then wham, back to sleep. I
don't consider this to be a restfull healthy sleep. Would I be
correct in assuming that to some degree I am s "rest" deprived?

Sleep Deprivation
Sat Oct 18 03:20:37 BST 2008 by Danny Talbert
I personally feel that we are sleep deprived in many respects. 10-14
hours of sleep is what we should get. I base this on something I
call the wake up energy. The wake up energy is the energy
you get that is inescapable after the adequate amount of sleep is
reached, basically when you wake up after a certain amount of sleep
and can't go back to sleep anymore nor want to return to sleep any
more you've attained wake up energy. Sleep deprivation is something
that's handled good by some, OK by some, and awful by others. There
are many contributing factors to sleep deprivation and those factors
vary person to person and include overactive brain function(Neuro)
Biological rhythm dysfunction(Biological) and Chronic fatigue
syndrome(Physical) just to name a few. To this very day there are
people working 16 hour days only to leave work to spend desired time
with their families as well as needed alone time with no work
involved that leaves very little time to sleep. OK so you sleep 6
hours get up tired but drink your caffeine to do it all over again
all the while burning yourself out. Your adrenal glands which sit a
top your kidneys get over worked due to excessive caffeine which
then encourages the production of stress hormones like cortisol and
adrenaline to be released which contribute to fat gain but more
importantly overwork of your kidneys, and there goes you energy.
Even more important to us is a compound called Adenosine
Triphosphate or ATP -It is our cells energy currency and with
minimal amount we're in an energy deficit. While there are
supplements that you can take to restore this compound it is not
widely known of, and would not necessarily be needed because our
bodies re-generate this compound. Only to inadequate amounts if
sleep is at or around 6 to 8 hours. I've personally never seen a
child sleep to nine hours they usually wake up after 6 hours without
regard for fatigue due to anxiousness. Like children we like to
forgo sleep in favour of leisure activites however unlike children
we do this because we have so little leisure time. As stated in the
above article but a litte different and equally as true needing more
sleep is not necessarily synonymous with wanting more sleep. Overall
however while we may forego sleep for activities of leisure we don't
want to forego sleep for the pressures of our everyday existance as
the stresses of life are ever increasing- money, politics, budget,
and unforgettably the people the ones who are responsible for making
everything so much harder and so much more stressful than it needs
to be.

Prolonged Broken Sleep
Sat Oct 18 12:08:09 BST 2008 by Julie
When my son was a baby, getting up every night for months on end
every 2-3 hours and being awake for 4 hours at a time trying to get
him to sleep was horrendous. No weekend sleep catch ups either. I
definitely felt very sleep deprived and wasn't able to function
properly during the day. I now appreciate being able to have a full
night of unbroken sleep most of the time!

Not Sleeping
Sat Oct 18 21:12:47 BST 2008 by Azam
Hi.wanthing more sleep is normal but if someone want not to sleep
what happen. IN other word what shoud we do if we do not want to
sleep.
Thank you.

Sleep
Tue Oct 21 23:35:27 BST 2008 by Keith Thomas
Rather than recommending hours of sleep per 24-hour day, I know I
get enough sleep because I go to sleep within half an hour of
feeling drowsy, I wake up refreshed (have not used an alarm for 5
years and never "slept in") and I am never tired during the day. I
need 5--6 hours sleep per 24. From this position, I would never
want more sleep--so much fun being awake!

Sleep Apnea
Thu Oct 23 02:26:10 BST 2008 by Russell Garman
Your article made no reference to sleep apnea, which is increasingly
being "treated" in the US.

Nah
Thu Oct 23 19:48:33 BST 2008 by Denitsa
People simply don't understand sleep and dreams well enough. It's
not about how much you sleep, but what kind of sleep you have. For
example, pills induced sleep doesn't give me the same satisfaction
as normal sleep. And also, I'm from the people who do have a norm
and if I don't sleep enough, the feeling when I manage to get those
needed sleep hours is very different from ordinary bored sleep.
http://Http://tothefuturewithlove.blogspot.com

Osa (obstructive Sleep Apnea)
Fri Oct 24 02:59:02 BST 2008 by Jim Isaacs
I lived for many years, going slowly down hill, and not knowing why,
till I was diagnosed with OSA. I was told that a significant portion
of the population suffer from undiagnosed OSA. With OSA, one can get
LOTS of sleep, yet get little to no real rest.
There's a saying, "Not everyone who snores has OSA, but everyone who
has OSA snores."
Point is, it's not just the quantity of sleep one gets that matters;
the quality of that sleep is very important too.
If you snore, and feel sleepy during the day, even though you think
you get plenty of sleep, go see a sleep doctor. It could improve
your life, and maybe even save it.

Sleeping Pills
Wed Oct 29 11:12:43 GMT 2008 by Sfr Daniel
I would like to see disclosures on these studies of how damaging it
is that we are all supposedly sleep deprived. It is beginning to
sound like a campaign to get us all so nervous about it that we
start spending, and keep on spending, on prescription drugs

Local Sleep Lab
Sat Dec 06 15:47:21 GMT 2008 by Christie Enevoldsen
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