Why Do We Need To Sleep?
Everyone needs to sleep. Some people need at least 8 hours of sleep per day, while others may be satisfied with 4 or 5 hours. Either way, what is certain is that no one can live without sleep. It is one of the basic human needs, and for this reason, sleep deprivation can have very harmful effects on our body, even leading to death.
After a few days without having slept even for an hour, our body is very affected. Even just sleeping for a few hours has negative effects on us. This can lead to emotional, physical and cognitive problems. In addition, the hours of sleep that are lost cannot be recovered; if one day you slept only three hours, even if you took a nap, the effects of sleep deprivation will remain active, and the nap may even intensify them further.
It is absolutely necessary to sleep, of course, but… why? What Happens In Our Brain When We Sleep? What would happen if we stopped sleeping? Science has tried to answer all of these questions by attempting to replicate natural sleep conditions in different laboratories. Even if there is still much to uncover, discoveries have been made in this area.
Before having the results of studies that shed light on our knowledge on this subject, we tended to believe that during rest hours, our brain “disconnects” giving rise to a kind of rest where activity neuronal shutdown almost completely. However, it has been shown that this is not so, and that some parts of the brain remain active overnight.
During the different phases of sleep, brain activity changes. The REM phase is the one that records the greatest activity, activity that is measured through the observation of brain waves, based on a diagram with parallelisms to the oscillations that are detected when analyzing the activity. brain of an awake person. On the other hand, during the phase of slow sleep, we could detect the simultaneous activation of groups of neurons every 4 seconds, which is why the brain remains active.
Recently, it was discovered that one of the most important functions of sleep is to fix assimilated learning. The information that we learn during the day is processed during the night, when we sleep. All unnecessary and considered irrelevant information is eliminated, reinforcing and classifying all that important information.
Rare are the people who have not suffered, either occasionally or more frequently, from insomnia. When we cannot get to sleep at night, the next day, we are beset by a large number of symptoms, both psychic and physical, which make the day a constant exercise in survival. The main issues are:
- Irritability
- Tiredness
- Lack of concentration
- Bad mood
- Headaches
- Memory lapses
Some can be the side effects of a night we couldn’t sleep. But, how long can you go without sleeping? When can sleep deprivation become dangerous? The record is held by Randy Gardner, who voluntarily submitted to an experience where all he had to do was stay awake; it held 264 hours (11 days).
From the first hours, he started to be in a bad mood and to have trouble concentrating. After 4 days of experience, the first visual hallucinations arose, and Randy even came to believe that he was a famous footballer. According to data collected from the experiment in rats and humans with fatal familial insomnia, the limit is up to 3 and 4 weeks without sleep.
It is a potentially dangerous autosomal dominant genetic disease. In this disease, which is hereditary and due to a mutation in chromosome 20, the production and accumulation of a particular prion in the brain is excessive. This abnormal accumulation produces brain degeneration which particularly affects the thalamus.
The brain degeneration caused by this pathology produces persistent insomnia, deterioration of memory, difficulty moving, myoclonus, and weight loss, among other symptoms. This inability to sleep can last from several days to several weeks. These patients stay awake for long periods of time before entering a coma.
The disease worsens to the point of plunging the person affected by this pathology into a coma. The degeneration of the thalamus leads her to remain always alert and awake, rendering any typical treatment for insomnia unnecessary for this type of patient. Although it is a rare disease, the cases are multiple, and for the moment, there is no treatment which can be effective.
The expert are recommended to sleep 7 to 8 hours a day, even if the amount of dormies hours may vary according to age or health status. For example, young children need more sleep, since it is a critical time for their cognitive development and for the integration and assimilation of new learning. Pregnant women also need to sleep longer.
Not only is sleep important, but sleep is restorative. This is why it is essential that phase 4 and REM sleep are adequate. It has been found that during phase 4, metabolism and blood flow to the brain are reduced by 75% compared to the waking phase. We know that the purpose of this alteration is the elimination of free radicals that can affect the brain.
Slow sleep is credited with functions such as energy conservation, physical and neurological repair, and protection. On the other hand, REM sleep is associated with memory consolidation. As we can see, its functions are diverse and all of them vitally important, so sleeping well not only can make us feel better, but is also a need that updates our body clock.
