Too Ticked Off to Sleep?

Judging by the number of mattress and sleep-aid ads everywhere, I’d say sleep deprivation is one of modern society’s greatest problems. Back in 2016, the Rand Corporation did a report on the impact of insufficient sleep on American productivity. “Reduced productivity and an increased risk of death linked to lack of sleep among U.S. workers cost the nation’s economy as much as $411 billion a year. That’s more than 2 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), the report revealed.

“Lack of sleep leads to the loss of about 1.2 million working days a year in the United States. Sleep deprivation-related productivity losses are caused by employees missing work or working at less than ideal levels, said the study authors from the RAND Corp., a nonprofit research organization.

“Compared to someone who sleeps an average of seven to nine hours a night, the risk of death is 13 percent higher for those who sleep less than six hours a night, and 7 percent higher for those who sleep six to seven hours a night, the report said.” CBSNews.com, November 30, 2016.

Americans have a lot of things on their minds, and we are constantly interrupted by intrusions from the outside world. If you are a white-collar worker, try and tell your boss or your clients that you won’t be available online, by text or even “telephone” for more than a couple of hours. Even surgery isn’t an acceptable explanation, so wanting personal vacation or weekend time certainly is not enough of an explanation these days. Or is it?

For older children, those who have figured out how not to be hammered by homework, the ubiquitous lure of texting and social media often reaches into the wee hours. Face-to-face chats via smart phones add to the conundrum. As the above statistics suggest, there is a price to pay. Some eat more to keep going, and that just adds to the obesity epidemic that is already way out of control. Others use drugs to squeeze their brains to last a little longer when exhausted. Some use drugs to get to sleep; nothing else seems to work.

A study of 91,105 subjects by the prestigious British medical journal, The Lancet (Psychiatry, May 14^th), tells us that falling 20% or more below ideal sleep levels “was associated with increased risk of lifetime major depressive disorder… and lifetime bipolar disorder… as well as with greater mood instability... higher neuroticism scores… more subjective loneliness … lower happiness … lower health satisfaction…  and slower reaction times… These associations were independent of demographic, lifestyle, education, and overall activity confounders.”

Effectively, these intrusions into normal sleep patterns, an inability to bring the outside world to a full stop at the same time every night well before the time to shut off the lights and turn in, are disrupting our circadian rhythm, our body clock. It’s like injecting time-shifting jet travel to distant locations without moving an inch. Every day. All the time.

The BBC.com (May 16^th) looked at the Lancet study noting: “People in the study wore activity monitors for a week to see how disrupted their clocks were… Those who were highly active at night or inactive during the day were classed as being disrupted.

“And they were between 6% and 10% more likely to have been diagnosed with a mood disorder than people who had a more typical - active in the day, inactive at night - pattern… The body clock certainly exerts a powerful effect throughout the body… Mood, hormone levels, body temperature and metabolism all fluctuate in a daily rhythm… Even the risk of a heart attack soars every morning as the body gets the engine running to start a new day.

“[Prof Daniel Smith, one of the University of Glasgow researchers] said: ‘The study tells us the body clock is really important for mood disorders and should be given greater priority in research and in way we organise societies… It wouldn't be too controversial to say we need to reorganise the way we learn and work to be in tune with our natural rhythms.’… [But much of the data was generated from mid-and-older adults.] Dr Aiden Doherty, from the University of Oxford, said: ‘The study population is not ideal to examine the causes of mental health, given that 75% of disorders start before the age of 24 years.’” We need to learn so much more.

Irritable? Cranky too much? Dragging yourself through the day? Feeling overwhelmed with too much information, too much demand on your time? All of this impacting how much sleep you get and the quality of that sleep? I’d suggest that you better “wake up” to the permanent and long-term health risks well beyond the feeling of helplessness and loss of control that lead directly to depression. It’s time to draw lines in the sand to protect your own life. Today.

I’m Peter Dekom, and getting enough sleep is absolutely a life and death matter, one that impacts everyone around you as well.