You may think that our body is "in neutral" when we are sleeping, yet science has demonstrated that, for the majority of the time that we are sleeping, that is not the case. In fact, the only time you can observe a real resting period for the brain is in the deepest parts of what is called non-REM sleep, which takes up only about 20% of the total sleep cycle. While your body may appear to be resting, the brain is not resting at all.
Now most people report that sleep is restorative, and note that if they don't get enough sleep, they don't think as well. In the mid-1960s, a high school student did a science-fair project involving his not sleeping for 11 straight days and observing what happened. To sum the experiment up, his brain began to malfunction - he became irritable, forgetful, nauseous, not surprisingly tired, and even suffered many symptoms similar to Alzheimer's disease. All because of lack of sleep.
One of the early discoveries in the area of sleep science was the fact that our bodies are locked in a daily warfare between the circadian arousal system (wakefulness) and the homeostatic sleep drive (you guessed it, sleepiness). Internal and external forces help regulate the conflict, defining both the amount of sleep we need and the amount of sleep we get. Scientific literature has labeled people with different sleep rhythms as larks (early risers who are most productive around noon), owls (those who are most alert around 6 p.m.), and hummingbirds (the other 70% of the population who vary between those time ranges). Though it is obvious that people's preferred sleep times can vary, just how much sleep an individual needs has not been concluded. Sleep schedules are quite dynamic - changing with age, with gender, with pregnancy and with puberty.
Most of us would agree that infants and young children need a nap to get them through the day, but science has found that short, regular naps can greatly benefit adults as well. President Lyndon Johnson routinely closed his office door and took a 30-minute nap, which he said gave him the stamina to meet the demands of his position. May seem odd to us, but consider that a "siesta" is part of many cultures. Whether you actively pursue a nap each day or not, numerous studies have demonstrated that even a brief nap can improve performance by at least 30%. Did you need a reason to take a break?
I think it's safe to say that most of us have heard the phrase "let's sleep on it." What's behind the concept? Can ordinary sleep benefit learning? Yes! Sleep has been shown to enhance tasks that involve visual texture discrimination, motor adaptations, and motor sequencing. The learning that appears to be most sensitive to sleep improvement is that which involves learning a procedure, but consolidation of all learning and experiences in the day takes place the night after they occurred.
Lack of sleep hurts learning. In fact, a highly successful student can be set up for an academic fall just by adjusting the number of hours he or she sleeps. Cumulative losses of sleep are difficult to make up, and the physiological effects are staggering. When sleep is restricted to 6 or less hours per night for just 5 nights, cognitive performance will match that of a person suffering from 48 hours of continual sleep deprivation. When people become sleep-deprived, their body's ability to utilize the food they are consuming falls by about one-third - causing the body to crave more food, and adding weight gain and accelerated aging to the effects.
Does this information validate some of your innate understanding of sleep, or have you encountered information that contradicts your expectations? Are you a parent like me whose "owl" child seems to function in another dimension from the rest of the family? How do you accommodate his individual rhythm and keep the whole family working together? I chose the route of compromise - planning the activities that we would do together for late morning or afternoon, and allowing my "owl" to focus on his independent school work in the evening when he was most alert. There were occasions where an external influence required him to be involved earlier than he preferred, but that was only when I had no control over the scheduling. It took some adjustment for all concerned, yet the outcome was beneficial.
One thing is for certain ... I now have a greater appreciation for the importance of sleep, both for myself and my family. I wish you pleasant dreams and effective learning!
Kelly
