Sleep: The Forgotten Basic Need

“It’s bedtime! Shut off your lights and go to sleep already! I shouldn’t have to tell you twice!”

Ugh, the dreaded call of parents urging us to stop what we’re doing and just go to bed. They insist that sleep is important, and that if we don’t get more than seven hours of it, somebody is going to suffer the next day. Our parents, no matter how much we disagree with them, aren’t wrong per se.

We do need to sleep — but how much do we really need?

The studies our parents are usually referencing tell us something along these lines:

• School age children (ages 6–13) need 10 to 12 hours of sleep a night
• Teens need 8 to 10 hours of sleep
• And adults… they need 7 to 9 hours every night.

So according to these studies, if we wanted to wake up at 5:00 am, the latest time we should be going to sleep is around 9:00 pm. 9:00 pm. Who wants to go to sleep that early? Not only that, but homework and after school activities usually don’t leave us enough time to hit the sack this early in the evening. The same goes for adults in working jobs with long, tedious commutes: they have to get up early to avoid rush-hour traffic going in, and they get back home late in the evening. This isn’t even accounting for eating times.

Our society just isn’t structured for us to get the required number of z’s in the night — not only this, but many of us argue that we don’t need that much sleep. Recently, this statement is seeming closer and closer to the truth.

The Less-Sleep Gene

A scientist named Ying-Hui Fu had heard from many people about them not needing sleep. In fact, some of these people only slept 4–5 hours a night, still remaining very happy and successful. Fu decided to investigate.

Fu started studying this abnormality, and discovered a genetic mutation that caused less of a requirement for sleep.

It works something like this: during the process of sleeping, the brain has cerebrospinal fluids that wash through it and clear out different “waste products” that have accumulated over the day. Now, while this takes several hours for the normal person to complete, those in possession of the mutation have the same thing happen, but much faster.

(If you want to see the paper about it, click here: https://stm.sciencemag.org/content/11/514/eaax2014). However, this mutation is incredibly rare: only 1 in every 4,000,000 have this gene. This means that only around 1750 people on our planet have this mutation, so it’s pretty unlikely that any one of us are in possession of it.

So for our contemporary world, sleep is a valuable item, and it’s so hard for us to survive without it. That’s why going without it is considered an important skill, especially in the army.

Navy SEALs And Sleepless Nights

Like any other valuable resource (i.e. water, food, air, or shelter), training to go long periods of time without sleep does exist. For the Navy SEALs, this is called ‘Hell Week’. The fourth week of conditioning among several, Hell Week goes for five days and five nights.

During this time, the SEALs commit to many drills of carrying boats over their heads, timed exercises running through mud flats and sub-zero temperatures, and long waking periods with very few breaks to sleep in between. Due to the lack of sleep, the SEALs have around four hot meals a day, both to keep them awake psychologically and to substitute for their lack of heat in the sub-zero temperatures.

The most recruits drop out during Hell Week, more or less due to the intensity of it. That’s because our bodies need sleep to run, we need to have the waste products that accumulate in our brains cleared out. But what are the problems we face if this doesn’t happen?

What Are We Without Sleep?

Our parents are right when they say we need sleep, both in the long and short runs. Here’s what happens right away if we don’t get the required amount of sleep:

• Moodiness.
• Clumsiness.
• Forgetfulness and difficulty understanding new concepts.
• Increased appetite.
• Being unable to concentrate.

This list doesn’t even cover everything that occurs the next day after not getting enough sleep. A day in school can get pretty tedious if we don’t have enough sleep (I found this out the hard way the day after an all-nighter), but school the next day isn’t even taking into account how harmful lack of sleep can be on our bodies in the long run. It increases chances of:

• Obesity.
• Heart disease.
• High blood pressure.
• Diabetes.
• Anxiety.

Again, this points back to us really needing sleep. It’s part of what defines us as human, and part of what keeps us alive (even though it isn’t considered one of the main needs to survive). So now the real question is, what can you do to make sure you’ll get a good night’s sleep (and some tips on what to do it that falls through).

Making Sure You Have Enough Sleep

To make sure you have enough sleep, try the following:

1. Make a schedule for yourself. To prepare yourself to go to sleep, follow the same routine every night as a signal to your body that it’s around bedtime. For some, this might include reading a book or taking a hot shower.
2. Create a dark, quiet environment to sleep in. Often times, tossing and turning can be chalked up to environmental disturbances like lights turning on or loud noises. Sleeping with quiet music is okay, but try not to have something like upbeat rap that wakes your brain up. Additionally, some people like noise machines that allow them to block out random noises in the night (i.e. clicking radiators, house settling)
3. Don’t do work in your bed/bedroom. It’s for sleeping. Our brains can be location oriented, meaning that if we do most work in our bedrooms, subconsciously that room will be linked to a place where most work happens. A better alternative is to work in the kitchen or on a couch far from your bedroom, a place where it’s okay to have linked with doing work.
4. Go to sleep around the same time every night. Again, this ties into making a schedule where it’s easy to follow and (after going through it multiple times) will make it way easier to go to sleep. Don’t miss this time too many times in a row, or your schedule will disband. It doesn’t work if you don’t stick to it!
5. If you wake up and can’t go back to sleep, go to a different room. When you associate your bed with restlessness, you may become more prone to it. If you can’t sleep or keep tossing and turning at 2 am, go downstairs and crack down on a chore: do you have to fold the laundry? Try that for 20 minutes, maybe with a hot cup of chamomile tea. When you’re tired again, head back up to bed and go to sleep again.
6. If you can’t fall asleep, take melatonin. Melatonin is a natural chemical occurring in our bodies that helps us fall asleep. If you are melatonin deficient or suffer from insomnia, you can buy melatonin over-the-counter at a local drugstore.

But What If This Falls Through?

It isn’t easy to get the perfect amount of sleep every night, and after finishing a homework assignment for a project around 12 am when you’ve got to wake a few mere hours later, here’s what to do:

1. Stay away from the coffee! Coffee’s great. I get it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really help you stay awake aside from a quick rush. In fact, you’re better off with a cup of decaf or some tea instead, because these won’t cause you a caffeine addiction or a crash after a rush.
2. Hot beverages can keep you awake. So caffeine may be out of the question, but a nice steaming cup of tea can help you keep your head in the game throughout the day. Put some in a reusable water bottle, and carry it around school or work.
3. Take a cold shower. Cold showers are underrated in their ability to energize you, get blood pumping, and heal up sore muscles. So any morning you feel exhausted, hop in a nice, cold shower for a quick preparation for your day.
4. Do some exercise. As soon as you get out of bed, start some jumping jacks, push-ups, or burpees. Again, some quick exercise is great for getting the blood pumping and warming you up for the day.
5. Don’t hit snooze! Everyone likes the ability to have control over their alarm, and being able to smack it and roll back over in the bed, but sometimes this is actually counterproductive. If you really want to get a jumpstart on your day on less sleep, don’t hit snooze and go back to sleep. Jump up, accept it, and start your day!

A Quick Recap And Takeaways

• We do need sleep. As much as we hate admitting it sometimes, our parents are right.
• There is a mutation recently discovered that shows some people need less sleep. Of course, though, this is incredibly rare, so it’s probably pretty unlikely that you have it. However, do keep in mind that we all need different amounts of sleep, so you still might not need as much as the average for your age group.
• Sleep is difficult to thrive without, as demonstrated by the Navy SEALs. Hell Week is the most difficult for recruits to stay in, and rightfully so! We need sleep, and running for long periods of time without it is painful.
• There are many harmful effects of not having sufficient sleep both in the long and short runs. Watch out for not getting enough sleep, since losing it is like falling down the rabbit hole, and often leads to lacking sleep in the future.
• There’s a lot you can do to help yourself sleep. Check out the tips and tricks above!

As William Shakespeare once said,

“We are such stuff

As dreams are made on

And our little life

Is rounded with a sleep”

It’s true, sleep makes us what we are. It gives us success, and clear thoughts. But most importantly, it’s what powers us through, gives us drive, and keeps us going.

Thank you for reading my article! I hope you found it useful, and maybe found places to apply some of the tips. Happy sleeping! Also, please follow me on LinkedIn (here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amelia-settembre-4850aa194/) or subscribe to my monthly newsletter (coming soon ;))