14 DAY TRIAL // Throughout their lives, humans sleep for the equivalent of one third of their lifespan. This is probably why the topic of sleep has always been and continues to be one of great interest for researchers. For instance, in the '50s, American researchers discovered, by measuring EEGs (electroencephalograms), the existence of a complex 90-minute cycle of sleep. The first phase of this cycle, the falling asleep part, is usually followed by a light sleep, a sleep when our brain waves become slower and then a more profound sleep. These four stages conclude with another phase, when the heartbeat and breathing accelerate, only to come to an almost complete halt immediately after - the muscles, deprived of tonus, relax completely. This final stage of the sleep cycle is as close as we humans get to death without actually experiencing it.
However, despite this state of almost total paralysis that sets in during the final phase of sleep, EEGs have revealed that the brain is extremely active - another aspect worth mentioning at this point is also the rapid eye movement that takes place. If one were to wake a person up when they're in the REM phase of sleep, they will undoubtedly be able to recount all that they have dreamed until that particular moment. On average, a regular night includes 4 or (in ideal or to be desired cases) all 5 successive cycles. The last stage is also known as the "paradoxical sleep" phase.
Why do we sleep? During the night, many organs, and especially the brain, re-fuel - in the case of the brain, with glucose. During sleep, many substances reach the peak of their secretion. The growth hormone (somatotrope) kicks in only during the night, determining the maturation of the young ones. Only during sleep do the tissues assimilate proteins and fat. Prolactin, the hormone that stimulates milk production, also reaches its peak during the first stages of sleep. On the other hand, the sex hormones (progesterone for females, testosterone for males) reach their peak during the "paradoxical sleep" phase; the same holds true for the parathormone, that regulates the bony tissue. Also during sleep, the nervous synapses are remade, and the long-term memories are now strengthened.
Another aspect on which researchers concentrated heavily was that of dreams. Thus, they have discovered that not only do all mammals dream (except for the platypus and cetaceans), but they also dream in images, just like us humans do.
Sleep deprivation
The experiments investigating sleep deprivation found that, during the first 48 hours, the subjects resist relatively well to the lack of sleep and their performances remain good, but that only depends on how much they enjoy their jobs and/or various tasks that are assigned to them. However, after 48 hours of complete sleep deprivation, it is practically impossible to keep any subject awake, as they begin to function more like automatons than anything else - the brain is constantly dozing off, while the rest of their body remains extremely energetic.
After 60 to 100 hours of sleep deprivation, hallucinations begin to appear - in some cases, they are nothing more but dream fragments that cross into the awake stage. After the 100 hours mark is surpassed, a state of paranoia delirium sets in. Paradoxically, when each experiment ended, researchers were amazed to see how little time it took the subjects to make up for the sleep they had lost - just 24 hours of dreamless sleep was more than enough to get them back right where they had started.
As a side note, the record for the longest period of time spent awake is currently held by a student from California, who made it through 11 days and nights without getting a shuteye.
How much should we sleep?
The answer to the above question is as simple as it gets, and definitely not something you have not heard before: we would be better off with an average of 8 hours of sleep per night. Although it has been scientifically proven that sleep is induced by peptides secreted in the brain, professionals warn us that each person has a personalized system regulating sleep, scheduled in their brains, that sets the necessary number of hours for sleep. This has absolutely nothing to do with habits or a person's lifestyle - this is all about genetic particularities.
Researchers have discovered that body temperature is an indicator of the "inner body clock" of every organism, regulated by the circadian rhythm. The temperature reaches a maximum in the morning in the case of the "larks" (people with early circadian cycle), when they experience their peak of physical and psychical faculties. At the opposite pole are the "owls" (those with late cycle), with their peak being reached in the evening. Nevertheless, for both types, body temperature is at the lowest in the first phase of sleep, the light one.
Insomnia
Not respecting these individual rhythm differences leads to an unexplainable state of tiredness and sleep impairment. This, in turn, can trigger one uncontrollable phenomenon that has taken modern society by storm: insomnia. For instance, just in France, 5 million people take sleeping pills periodically, while 1.5 million of them are dependent on them, resorting to them every night before bedtime. Annually, drug stores sell over 100 million flasks of these drugs.
In Florida and California, 35% of the inhabitants suffer from insomnia, while the same percentage is of 15% in the entire US. In such cases, auto-medication reaches a level of 20% in all patients, insomnia being among the first affections in which the sufferer begins to take drugs without asking for a physician's advice.
Amongst the main causes that lead to insomnia, smoking, alcohol, stress, depression and urbanization are the most poignant. However, the affection is also present in rural areas of developed countries, which is a clear indication that it's not the "crazy city life" alone that does it.
There are various types of insomnia. Among them, and probably the least severe of them all is occasional insomnia, which sets in at the beginning of the night and is linked to a specific event: an unusual noise, an obsessive thought about a task left incomplete, or a difficult digestion; taking drugs to treat it is useless, as sleep eventually occurs. Chronic insomnia is what the sufferer experiences throughout the entire night for several nights in a row - it is the main concern of researchers when it comes to documenting and treating insomnia. This type is generally triggered by an obsession, depression or intense pain caused by another disease. The common treatment is hypnosis.
Researchers have also detected "pretext insomnia", or false insomnia, which is the most widespread type today. In this case, the lack of sleep occurs as a result of a wrong appreciation of sleep. The self-titled insomniac actually sleeps well or at least enough in terms of quantity, as EEGs have shown it. Despite this, the subject is not aware of all the above or they can't remember. Their sincere and not feigned complaints clearly indicate that sleep was not as good as expected and that, consequently, they have felt tired all day long.
In this case, Diazepam administering should be ceased altogether and a professional should convince the "sufferers" that there is nothing wrong with the quality and/or quantity of their sleep. Drugs are never a solution in such instances, as they lead to addiction - a situation that is many times more critical when it affects children.