For many if not most perhaps, the moment we close our eyes at night is the starting point in a journey of peace where the trail may lead to pleasant dreams and weird connections, in moving from a room out into the wash of a gentle sea. At times, it’s a face not seen since for decades or it’s running the flank in your favourite team’s shirt, until the alarm clock butts in. Yet, still for others it’s a menace of the mind with neural paths winding like shadows that are cast, long and foreboding in a narrative of doom. Either way, the hours we spend in the currency of brain waves, shape us innately throughout the next day.

We’ve all been there it seems in one way or another. A late night out into the wee small hours or the last minute sprint on a critical project, and we’re gasping for seconds like oxygen from a tank and it matters where time and timing are everything. Well, some debts are payable in increments while others tempt a heavy knock at the door. Yet, that imagery works for sleep debt, too, when it’s not only hard to recover the loss in terms of scheduling and life, but the body also struggles to compensate for this systemic dysregulation.

In 2015, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine published a report in the similarly titled: ‘Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine’ regarding consensus, on the perfect number of hours to sleep.

‘A panel of 15 experts in sleep medicine and sleep research used a modified RAND Appropriateness Method to develop an evidence-based recommendation statement regarding the sleep duration that promotes optimal health in adults aged 18 to 60 years. Sleep duration is the subject of the recommendation statement, but other sleep measures also impact health. Sleep timing, self-reported sleep quality, day-to-day variability in sleep duration, napping and sleep disorders all influence health outcomes in cross-sectional and or longitudinal studies.’

Of course, some are made of sterner stuff and there are those amongst us who can operate easily, on quite limited sleep. Famously, Margaret Thatcher the former British Prime Minister was a ‘short sleeper’ as was former President Barak Obama, but if they managed to run entire countries on shorter charging: what excuses are left for the rest of us? Thankfully, genes come into play and more than one has been identified as being responsible for these ‘super sleepers’. The rest of us, meanwhile, should simply heed the advice of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine:

‘In general, there was consensus that 6 hours of sleep or less was inappropriate to support optimal health in adults. There was also consensus that 7-9 hours of sleep were appropriate to support optimal health in adults. There was consensus that the appropriateness of 9 or more hours of sleep on optimal adult health could not be ascertained with certainty.’

Naturally, a question follows with: how does sleep debt affect mental health but in truth, the answer is clear to anyone who’s been sleep deprived. As the above studies show: losing enough shut-eye can derail the mind and body to catastrophic effect which will certainly affect our emotional regulation. So, even without mental-health factors, the wrong decision or a bona fide fit of temper can cause untold damage with legal ramifications, in the aftermath of a tragedy.

In the journal, Psychological Bulletin, the American Psychological Association published a study, in 2023, which had spent time looking at 154 studies involving nearly 6,000 people, across 50 years. The lead author, Cara Palmer, PhD, had this to say:

‘In our largely sleep-deprived society, quantifying the effects of sleep loss on emotion is critical for promoting psychological health. This study represents the most comprehensive synthesis of experimental sleep and emotion research to date, and provides strong evidence that periods of extended wakefulness, shortened sleep duration and night-time awakenings, adversely influence human emotional functioning.’

‘Research has found that more than 30% of adults and 90% of teens don’t get enough sleep.’

Virtually, every species on the planet makes time to replenish itself, and the figure for teenagers is frightening but hardly surprising in today’s tech-driven world. In fact, a great deal of research now shows increased links between technological consumption and poorer sleep habits, in young people. The knock-on effect with mental health seems obvious and has been duly noted, by the Yale School of Medicine. Meanwhile, people of a certain age have been heard to thank their lucky stars for being teenagers in the 80s and at a stretch the 90s, too. Times during which more sleep was probably gained but then, not by very much.

In returning briefly, to the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine report:

‘The direction of sleep duration-mental health relationships is not entirely clear. Experimental and longitudinal observational studies suggest short sleep duration can lead to depression and other mental health symptoms … Insomnia symptoms typically improve when depression is treated, even when the treatment does not specifically target sleep.’

Getting enough of anything can be a difficult thing but compromising on rest, is a matter of prioritisation.

‘Sleep is not like a credit system or the bank. The brain can never recover all the sleep it has been deprived of. We cannot accumulate a debt without a penalty, nor can we repay that sleep debt in full at a later time.’

Matthew Walker, Why We Sleep, Penguin publishers

So, in the end, we all make choices about what really matters but the human way is the short-term way in our thinking, actions and strategies, too. Equally, towards the end of 2016, the research institute, RAND, released a report that was picked up widely the following year. ‘Why Sleep Matters – The Economic Costs of Insufficient Sleep’, looked at the impact of poor sleeping habits in six member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD, and revealed a costly problem.

The United States, for instance, lost approximately 2.28% of GDP through $411-billion-a-year, while Japan lost 2.92% of GDP through $138-billion-a-year. In turn, the UK lost 1.86% and $50 billion, respectively, and Germany lost 1.56% through $60 billion. Canada incurred the lowest losses with 1.35% of GDP against $21.4 billion. Beyond these incredible figures, lost sleep accounts for higher rates of mortality, too, with less than 6 hours of sleep-a-night accounting for a 13% risk factor above those sleeping between seven and nine.

The reasons are many and varied as our modern world unleashes a torrent of information at untameable frequencies and with mental health, on a downward trajectory. It’s always about the cost-benefit, though, and maybe running your own study on the hours you keep, can help to improve your numbers.

‘As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings a happy death.’

Leonardo Da Vinci

A good point well made it seems, so why invite ‘the big sleep’ sooner rather than later?

Copyright © 2024 | recoveryourwellbeing.com | All Rights Reserved

Images:

Sleeping, by Pisauikan, Pixabay – Main Image
Sleepy Student, by Kha Nixur, Pexels
Rhesus Macaque, by Pxel Photographer, Pixabay

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