New research lead by Dr. Daniel Cohen of Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital shows that that the deprivation of chronic sleep loss may not be corrected by just a weekend of rest. This means that people who do not get enough sleep during the week and try to make up for it on the weekend will not get the benefits of restorative sleep. The study also indicates that the longer the sleep deprivation occurs, the harder it is to recover from the effects of sleep loss.
In a society that works and plays 24 hours a day, sleep loss is all too common. Many people do not get enough sleep to restore the body and mind to peak functions. The effects of sleep deprivation are more than being a little sleepy. Sleep deprived people may be too fatigued to function at the optimal level than they could, meaning that as people stay awake to get more done they are actually less efficient.
According to the study information, about one in six Americans get less than six hours of sleep a night. People in jobs that require shift work, such as physicians in hospitals, nurses. and anyone shows job has variable hours are at particular risk for sleep deprivation.
People who typically work under deadlines, such as students or traveling business people may stay awake past their usual bedtime to get their work or study done. Pulling an occasional 'all-nigher' may not be a big cause for concern but if one is always playing catch-up eventually the deficient is too big to be repaid.
Sleep deprivation is a health and safety concern. Sleep deprived drivers, machinery operators and medical personnel may be more prone to' making mistakes that can be disastrous,' according to Dr. Daniel Cohen of Boston Brigham and Women's Hospital, a Teaching Affiliate of Harvard University, in a press release.
"We know that staying awake 24 hours in a row impairs performance to a level comparable to a blood-alcohol content beyond the legal limit to drive," said lead researcher Dr. Daniel Cohen of Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital.
When people who are chronically sleep deprived pull an all nighter, Dr. Cohen said that “the deterioration is increased tenfold.' Dr. Cohen studied how acute and chronic sleep loss interacted the the bodies circadian rhythms. The volunteers were tested ever few waking hours, measuring motor and cognitive skills.
Circadian rhythms are the body's 24 hour biological clock. In the study he interfered with the sleep patterns of nine healthy volunteers for three weeks. The volunteers stayed up for 33 hour stretches and got 10 hours of sleep at a stretch. The long schedule gave Dr. Cohen the chance to study the value of catch-up sleep.
The study indicated that the effects of sleep deprivation were progressive. Volunteers could function fairly well after getting 10 hours of sleep after a long period of wakefulness. However as the study progressed over a three week period,researchers found that the participants could not recover for the sleep loss as well and had slower reaction times and functioning.
Acute sleep deprivation would be the effect of a long time lack of sleep, such as in going a night without sleep. Chronic sleep deprivation is the more gradual deprivation that comes from consistently shorting the amount of nightly sleep, such as sleeping six hours a night instead of eight.
According the National Institute of Health (NIH), the amount of sleep each person needs depends upon a number of factors. An infant typically needs about 16 hours of sleep a day. Teenagers need about nine hours of sleep daily, on average. Most adults needs seven to eight hours of sleep a night. Some adults may get by on five hours of sleep nightly, while others may need 10 hours.
If someone gets six hours of sleep a night when their body need eight, they are building up a daily 'sleep debt' of two hours. Eventually the body will demand that the sleep debt be repaid. The health consequences of sleep deprivation can include heart conditions. mental disorders such as depression and a variety of physical ailments. Fatigue is just one of the consequences of lack of sleep.
The study indicates that people may not recover from lack of sleep as well as they think they do. The ability to recover from sleep loss appears to be impaired as the sleep loss becomes a longer term situation.
Written by Christine Nyholm
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