What started off as a pure
coincidence, turned into a pretty effective experiment that gave life to the
following article. All of us have certain weak points in our immune system that
manifest negatively in times of high stress and are especially triggered off
when the body is not well rested. Many of us suffer from bad migraines,
digestive disorders, skin rashes, obesity and the list goes on. As strange as
it sounds, the only time in the day when all of these problems are put to rest
is during our hours of sleep. Our body actually needs those hours of sleep to
restore and reboot the central nervous system, ready to kick off the next day.
Although your body is resting, your brain is actually at work during these
hours of sleep, it is committing new information to memory through a process
called memory consolidation. In children the growth hormone is secreted during
slow wave sleep. If you do not allow your brain to clean and feed you during
the night, you wake up only half ready for the next day.
Coming back to my accidental
experiment. I went through a week where without realising I was on a mere 6
hours or less of sleep per night. The first night this happened, I had been a
victim of raping the World Wide Web. One bookmark leads to another and suddenly
you are surfing the intricate corners of the world at your fingertips. I am not
the first victim on this addiction, so I’m sure many of you can identify with
the game.
In a couple of days I had noticed
the subtle yet dangerous effects of not sleeping so much. Heavy eyelids and two
cups of coffee later I was mostly running on sunshine and pure adrenalin till
about two pm. My body was pleading for a nap by Wednesday, yet the stubborn
witch inside me would see no mercy. As a sports fanatic, this lack of rest only
added hurdles to my performance at the gym and even in what should be a
“relaxing” yoga class, turned into an hour of treacherous agonizing stretching.
I could not even see the signs, well ironically I was defocussed and simply
walking a path of disaster.
By Thursday I had not only
introduced bad carbs in between meals, I was also irritable with my kids and a
slight whine of my daughter seemed like the roar of a lion to my ears. I admit
I was not a pleasant human being to be around. On Friday I had my first wake up
call as “sleepzilla”. I experienced road rage for the first time in many years,
and in all honesty it was not even the other persons fault as much as it was
mine. My inner conscience woke me up and reminded me this was not a good sign.
I promised myself I would take a short nap that afternoon and try to make the
rest of the day a better one. As it turns out the nap never took place, I found
replacement chore to occupy my half hour of grace. By this point my week was in
the blood red zone of -7 hours of sleep. That is what most people sleep every
night and I had managed to slowly eliminate these hours out of my only 4 day
week so far. Friday was coming to an end and the carbs continued to pile. I was
aware of the bloated feel, I was aware of my mood swings, I was aware of my
fatigue and I was also aware of my borderline delirious crazed state of mind. I
simply felt the need to numb all these feelings and forget everything. One
would think sleep seemed the most coherent solution to all this, and yet it was
six pm and I could not afford to get into bed yet, so I opted for possibly the
worst remedy – a glass of wine. Yes, I resorted to alcohol and looking back I
don’t think it was a crime to have a drink at that time of the day, but what
was not clear was the reasoning behind that glass of wine. It was the decision
of a cloudy and sluggish state of mind. I remember sipping the wine and not
even enjoying it so much, I simply waited for the light-headed numbness to
settle in and calm my palpitations down. Mission accomplished indeed! In all
the fuzziness I actually forgot to finish certain very important errands like
picking up medication for a family member. The latter was the icing on the
cake, as forgetfulness is a clear sign of lack of rest. I was now the perfect
candidate who was starved and sleep deprived.
That night was when my body actually
gave up and I found myself looking in the mirror and saw a face that was
switched off, dull, blotchy and not to mention the dark circles which I had so
cleverly concealed all week thanks to some fabulous makeup. I unmasked the
woman who had been fighting to stay awake all week, at the cost of her most
precious possession: her health. I had been a speeding convoy all week and it
took me 4 nights and 5 days to ultimately become a train wreck. My stubborn
self had prioritised incoherently my regular shuteye only to find myself in bed
and fast asleep at nine pm on Friday night. Phew!
The effects of sound uninterrupted
sleep are simply orgasmic and I don’t think can be compared to any artificial
stimulant or drugs of the like. I am not a coffee addict or an alcoholic or
even an unhealthy eater, but one just needs to be in that vulnerable state of
mind to feel the attraction towards such stimulants. Your body calls for help
and I have said this time and time again, please listen to it by feeding it
simple rest and not pumping it up with temporary solutions to then run on low
battery.
Waking up the next day after a solid
11 hours of sleep was a new me. I was a vivacious, energetic and full of pep
woman! It was such a surreal feeling after being so cloudy and opaque all week.
Yes it was a rather simple solution and I should have adopted it much earlier.
However, in hindsight I can say I
have been on the dark side and know the deleterious effects of little sleep. I
could call myself an accidental experiment as I mentioned at the beginning of
this article. The scientific data only proves my experience:
There are too many scary effects of the too little sleep and a recent
study in the U.K. showed that sleep deprivation actually messes with over 700
genes in your body. This can somewhat explain the serious consequences that
have linked short sleep to problems such as obesity, heart disease and
diabetes. "Clearly sleep is critical
to rebuilding the body and maintaining a functional state, all kinds of damage
appear to occur,” Colin Smith, Ph.D., a professor at the University of
Surrey, told the BBC. "If we can't
actually replenish and replace new cells, then that's going to lead to
degenerative diseases."
Sometimes we cannot help but be on
little sleep, due to late working hours or having a young baby. In my case I
had no excuse and I was just stupid and reckless. As Ernest Hemingway said “I love sleep. My life has
the tendency to fall apart when I'm awake, you know?" This is pretty much
what happened to me during that week. I wish not to go back if I can help it.
“Here
hold my hand so you can get up from the couch.” Are you kidding me? My death
stares delivered my replies to him. Turn over slowly, hold onto the armrest of
the sofa and slowly lift yourself up. I began to verse these set of instructions
to myself and did feel almost like teaching a baby how to take his first steps.
Except, I was no baby, a full grown adult who for some reason had managed to
lock herself into her own hip. The initial discomfort soon turned into a
beastly nightmare that invaded my sleeping positions. A certain turn on the bed
truly bit me in the ass one day and that was when I realised the need for
painkillers was rather necessary.
