General Medicine

Sleep is necessary for optimal function of the human body. You have probably heard the recommendations about how much sleep is necessary. They say that seven to eight hours of sleep each night is best for adults.

Yet, the time for sleep can be a challenge in an industrialized society. With duties that include employment from early morning to late afternoon and raising families during the remaining hours, some people don't get enough sleep. Furthermore, they attribute this problem to their busy lives and may not consider sleep as important as making money. Of course, I'm not suggesting that one should quit his or her job to sleep more, but the need for sleep should not be ignored.

First off, sleep deprivation leads to interruptions in concentration, which is dangerous for driving or other tasks that require alertness for safety. However, there may more to sleep deprivation than just daytime drowsiness. Sometime back, I saw an episode of the news program 60 Minutes where healthy volunteers were forcefully deprived of sleep. One of them had elevated blood sugar, a finding that suggests the possibility of sleep deprivation leading to diabetes. Then there are things people do to fight sleep, such as drinking coffee. While caffeine acts as a stimulant, it is no substitute for rest. Plus, coffee may have their own long-term health effects, like contributing to obesity.

This may be a good time to stop and ask ourselves this question: is sleep such a bad thing that we must have as little of it as possible? Rather than go against nature, it may be best to accept how we function. If we need eight hours of sleep each night to be healthy, then we need to schedule that into our lives.

Sleep does not hinder life. Rather, it's the reverse.