Comments on: The Science Of Sleep
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- I very much appreciate the depth to which you covered this!!! I am a person who suffers from mental illness and have gotten worse and worse because I am constantly robbed of sleep. My city (Merced) doesn''t adhere to the Noise Abatement laws and have had to fight for years trying to get the police to enforce the law, with little success. I have people driving throughout the neighborhood multiple times a night, honking their horns repeatedly, to wake up immigrant workers. About 10 more times a night waken up by people driving around with stereos at extreme volumes during the night and all hours of the day.
I have tried time and again to move and the same problems. My health has gotten so bad that I am shoved into depressions that last for months now. It has literally been years since I have gotten anything close to a good nights sleep. For me, my art when I can still focus is my only happiness and I tire of endlessly having to fight for my home.
I mean, I can''t even hardly fill out the registration here - and I used to own a computer shop!!! Endless frustration... (sorry). - Reply to this comment
- To the poster who wondered why a longer experimental period was not used: I would assume that the researchers chose a span of only a few days to do their work because of a fear of what health problems could result from lack of sleep over time. And although your experiment is interesting, I don''t think it would be practical for students/workers to get away with napping during the day, even if it proved to be beneficial.
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- Leslie,
I''ve been a nurse for 28 years- It is the only profession I know of that forces a nurse to the bottom of the senority ladder anytime she changes here job to a new hospital or a new department. The night shift is where she must start-whether she has 1 month or 30 years of experience. Or even worse, a nurse is required to ROTATE shifts. Can you imagine having to start over again at 30, 49 50 years of age? It''s no wonder that we have a nursing shortage. Not to mention that most patient deaths occur during the night- when there is the least number of staff per patient and exhausted nurses. As a nurse of 28 years- I will never work in a hospital again at the age of 54-(a seasoned nurse!)
Lack of sleep had a huge negative effect on my life since I COULD NOT SLEEP more than a few hours, even with the windows blacked out and medication.
It''s no wonder that there is a shortage of nurses. This shortage will continue as each group of newer nurses understamd how distructive this profession can be. Falling asleep driving home and poor health plague many nurses who work shifts that their bodies cannot adjust to. Our hospital system is horrible. Patients and their loved ones should be AFRAID. VERY AFRAID! - Reply to this comment
- It seems to me, listening to the researchers speak, that they set up their study to confirm what they believe, not to find the facts. For example, it was a very short test period. Would their findings have been born out if the experiment had run long enough for the subjects to adapt to the shortened sleep periods? While I do agree that 4 hours of sleep between waking periods of 20 hours is insufficient, I would contend that it is the length of the period of wakefulness, not the length of the sleep period that matters. I.e. shorter waking periods are more important than longer sleep periods. To test that theory, when I was in college, back in 1949, several friends and I set up a program by which we slept for 15 minutes every 2 hours. We intended to do this for a month. However, we found that, first, it took us, variously, from 2 weeks to a month to adapt to the schedule. Second, we found that once we got good at dropping off for 15 minutes every 2 hours, we found ourselves so energized feeling so good that none of us wanted to quit. We all stayed on our schedule for the entire summer semester. Most of us had to quit when the fall semester began, due to problems with class and work scedules. However, 2 who were graduate students and could better control their scedules continued the experiment until the following June with great success. If your researchers really want to learn something about sleep, they should set up a similar program.
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- I watched the "Science of Sleep" and "And The Happiest Place On Earth Is...". One question was unanswered: How much sleep do the Danes get?
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- You should really test a group of full-time Firefighters and Paramedics. The results would very enlightening to the public and myself being a firefighter. Im sure people dont really realize some of the sacrifices made by your public servants out their. I know I come and have to take a nap sometimes after a really busy night.
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- I watched the "Science of Sleep" and "And The Happiest Place On Earth Is...". One question was unanswered: How much sleep do the Danes get?
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- Thank you for the presentation on sleep deprivation. Sleep apnea is a significant cause of sleep deprivation in adults (5%) and children (2%).
The consequences of the sleep deprivation can not be understated. It is a matter of life and death.
Sleep apnea is easily diagnosed and easily treated... for more information visit www.sleepapnea.org. - Reply to this comment
- In the summer of 1952 I did Summer School at the U of Illinois Champaign, taking two hard lab courses so that I would be able to finish my BS in Chemistry in 3 years. For 6 weeks I spent all of most nights in a laboratory. I gave myself only one night a week of full sleep. I probably followed my normal practice of relaxing rather than studying before Finals. I got A''s in both courses, and did graduate as planned. I went on to study at MIT where I got a PHD in Chemistry. It was a tough time but I survived it with no long term ill effects. All that being said, I agree that many people do not get enough sleep
Robert B. Garland - Reply to this comment
- Hello,
When I was in law school, I learned to study well for exams (but not too late the night before), get a good night''s sleep and then not do any last-minute reviewing before the next day''s exam.
I had been told (don''t ask by whom or what because I don''t remember) that while one sleeps, all learned material (i.e., "learned" or "understood" information, not merely "read") is properly stored into various compartments of the brain. If you get a good sleep, you can easily recall the learned info. If, however, you do last-minute review of this and that, your brain scrambles the stored info, making it difficult to recall. Any basis in fact for this? This was over 30 years ago.
I did find that I did better on exams than I think I''d have done if I''d stayed up most of the night or done last-minute review. And, I do know that classmates, who were flipping pages outside the exam room, did not do as well as they expected to do!
K. - Reply to this comment
