“The average human will spend 1/3 or their life sleeping, which equates to about 20 – 25 years over 75 Year life span”
-ABC National Sleep Project
Something that has only been brought to my attention recently – I suffer from a rare sleep disorder (parasomnia) called catathrenia. In my case this manifests as (sometimes loud) moaning in my sleep that sound almost sexual in nature. I actually wish it WAS down to naughty dreams that I could remember because from the way it has been described to me by my poor sleep-deprived partner my moaning is quite…enthusiastic! However I am completely unaware of it when it happens so all the disturbance falls on my partner, and probably the embarrassment too since I have no shame! All this plus loud snoring, and yet we’re the ones complaining about the noise from our neighbours, go figure!
Although this seems to occur comorbidly with obstructive sleep apnoea (periods of not breathing during sleep due to obstruction of the airways) there is by no means a fixed relationship. The groans, which in one study were shown to last between 1/2 and 21 seconds long) can occur at either REM or NREM stages of sleep, although it is thought they are concentrated on the REM stages. There are claims that catathrenia can be treated by CPAP, which Wikipedia usefully explains as:
” Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is the use of continuous positive pressure to maintain a continuous level of positive airway pressure.”
Thanks wiki, very useful! Luckily the NHLBI provide a better explanation:
“CPAP, or continuous positive airway pressure, is a treatment that uses mild air pressure to keep the airways open.”
However, having looked into it, I can’t see myself sleeping at night with a mask on my face attached to a motor device!
In a lecture today we learned that there is is actually no proof that sleep deprivation can cause death, or that it causes psychosis in everyone (although it certainly can in some). I know I function very poorly myself when I start losing sleep, with my attention, concentration, mood, and motivation rapidly deteriorating. I wonder if I could push past that and function on no sleep at all? It would be GREAT to have the extra hours in my day to get everyone everything done! Although I suspect my end of year exam grades might reflect poor learning functions! Maybe I could learn to sleep like ducks, who apparently can sleep with one hemisphere of their brain at a time!
“The record for the longest period without sleep is 18 days, 21 hours, 40 minutes during a rocking chair marathon. The record holder reported hallucinations, paranoia, blurred vision, slurred speech and memory and concentration lapses.”
-ABC National Sleep Project
So why do we sleep? Well one common theory is that we sleep to “recharge” or to restore an internal imbalance. However despite the commonness of this theory, there is no evidence to support it at all – no proof of an imbalance, and no “recouperation” process observed during sleep. Despite this you can find plenty of magazines writing about how sleep is critical to restore your internal balance! (another myth is that all animals sleep – in fact reptiles, amphibians, fish, and insects have cycles of inactivity but do not sleep as we know it).
An alternative hypothesis is that we evolved sleep as an adaptation to the day / night, light / dark cycle around us. This is the Circadian Rhythms hypothesis, and there is a body of evidence supporting this theory, including neurological studies.
There are five stages of sleep, which we cycle through during the night. We start awake, then progress from stage 1 through 4 spending very roughly half an hour at each stage, before moving back up to stage 1 which is now REM sleep. After half an hour here the cycle begins again, but eventually we start going through fewer of the stages, until we finally wake.
Looking at overall brain activity, stage 1 consists of alpha waves which are irregular, low intensity and high frequency waves. Stage 2 consists of theta waves which are slower than the alpha waves. Also at this stage there are the occasional K Complex or sleep spindles – bursts of high intensity activity lasting for a second or two. Stages 3 and 4 are collectively called Slow Wave Sleep (SWS), and it is this that we commonly call “deep sleep”. During these phases the brain – which consumes more energy than any other organ in the body, reduces its energy consumption by 75%. Once we have moved back up to REM sleep in stage 1 the energy consumption is almost back to normal waking levels. It is during REM sleep that most of our dreaming occurs.
If you didn’t need sleep at all, what would you do with the extra hours?
This post is dedicated to my very forgiving partner, in apology for all the sleepless nights my pseudo-eroticism moaning has caused.
This weekend the realisation hit me just how much of a departure Personalisation is from the values of free and equal health care for all. Personalisation, or whatever it is being called today, is a scheme designed to put individuals more in control on their social care by allocating them a virtual pot of money from which they can “purchase” services like access to day centres, things like custom-built shelving for people with obsessive hording issues, day trips, and so on. Things like day centres have never really been “free”, however the costs have been transparent to the service users because the bill has been footed by the councils and other statutory organisations. The new scheme puts choice, and cost, up front and center. 
And as a student I have to admit that, being paid work, the money is certainly welcome!
