sleep deprivation – Margaret's Corner

I’ve been interested in this topic ever since, months ago, I watched an interview on CNN with the neuroscientist Matthew Walker. Eight hours of sleep, he says, is what we need. Eight hours of sleep in complete darkness (otherwise our brains won’t release melatonin, something I didn’t know…).

An important point (again, something I didn’t know!): taking naps to catch up on our sleep doesn’t count.

“Unfortunately, says Matthew Walker,” “sleep is not like the bank. You cannot accumulate a debt and then hope to pay it off at a later time.”

And, he added, “Human beings are the only species that deliberately deprive themselves of sleep.” Now I sort of envy my cats who sleep most of the day, as can be seen in these recent photos …zzzzz…!!!

Anyway, since that interview, I’ve come across other articles on the negative effects of not getting enough sleep, which a 2019 study has tied to increases in two Alzheimer’s proteins (http://bit.ly/33q1uJ9).

Yikes…!

A 2013 study (https://n.pr/316zAQT) showed that our brains need a certain amount of time to get rid of harmful proteins, and that time has to occur at night. The brain, says the main researcher, is like a dishwasher. I really like that simile…It helps us visualize how things work. I mean, if you turn off your dishwasher before it has finished its full cycle, you will end up with a bunch of dirty dishes, right? Same thing if you wake up before you SHOULD …Those dirty dishes can really clog your brain! 😉

I’m actually writing about this topic today because this morning I read about a NEW study showing that sleep deprivation shuts down the production of essential brain proteins: http://bit.ly/2nDzimP

Gee whiz!

Oh, and sleep deprivation has also been linked to cancer…quelle surprise…not!

This topic therefore isn’t entirely unconnected to myeloma. The main thing is that we need our sleep…all eight hours of it!

Oh, one last thing: since reading about the importance of sleeping in “total darkness,” I’ve begun wearing a mask at night, nothing fancy, just a plain black mask that covers my eyes. Oh boy, it does make a difference: I don’t wake up as much during the night…and even the cats don’t disturb my sleep (well, not as much as they did before!) when, e.g., they walk over my body or rub up against my face…Give it a try!

For some unknown reasonzzzzz, 😉 articles about sleep deprivation zzzzzz have been popping up on my screen lately. Indeed, I’ve been reading about some rather scary stuff, such as the fact that if you don’t get enough sleep your brain will start eating itself (nope, I’m not kidding!). How about that for the freaky fact of the day???

This morning I came across another sleep-related article, titled “What’s another hour of lost sleep? For some, a hazard,” which I found so riveting, in a good sense this time (no super scary stuff, I mean!), that I decided to post about it. It’s a Harvard Gazette interview with Jeanne Duffy, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a sleep researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Here’s the link: https://goo.gl/wMF3qY

Prof. Duffy gives us heaps of food for thought…or rather, one would hope, food for sleep! Hehe. 🙂 Here’s an excerpt, e.g.: “[…] getting inadequate sleep makes your immune system less efficient.” That sentence alone should make us want to visit the land of Nod… 🙂

Anyway, a highly recommended read, even for those who think they are getting enough sleep…