Sleep rhythms
13/05/14 05:30
Each year, at my annual physical, my doctor asks me about my sleep. The question is usually simple, “How are your sleeping?” Sometimes I am asked, “Do you get up in the night?” My answer is usually fairly light-hearted. “I’ve never been a particularly good sleeper,” is a typical and only partially-true answer. Actually, I was a better sleeper when I was younger. The time with the doctor is too short to discuss all of the details of my sleep patterns. I’m not much of a night owl. I tend to go to sleep earlier in the evening than many people and do not stay up late with social events very often.
On the other hand, I am an early riser and I start my day before most of my neighbors are stirring. And I do wake in the night. It is not uncommon for me to get out of bed and sit in another room reading for a while. I get more of my reading done that way, but it does have an effect on my sleeping. Sometimes I am tired during the day and I’ve been known to take a nap.
I don’t really experience my sleeping patterns as a problem, however. I am awake and alert for the things that matter. I drink a little coffee, but much less than I did when I was younger and much less than many other people. I don’t have trouble staying awake to drive or engage in other important activities.
Researchers tell us that many people in industrialized nations sleep significantly less than their forebears. Russell Foster, a professor at the University of Oxford in England, recently wrote that people are getting between one and two hours less sleep per night than was the case 60 years ago. He sees this as a society-wide problem. Some of his other words struck a chord in me: “We are the supremely arrogant species; we feel we can abandon four billion years of evolution and ignore the fact that we have evolved under a light-dark cycle. What we do as a species, perhaps uniquely, is override the clock. And long-term acting against the clock can lead to serious health problems.”
I know that it isn’t particularly scientific to comment on our arrogance, but I think that he has put his finger on the problem. We are arrogant.
The ten commandments, reported in Exodus 20, put it slightly different, with a very similar meaning: “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the sevent day is the sabbath day of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor try son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Some of the commandments are short sentences like, “thou shalt not kill.” But this one gets a paragraph. The reason for observing a day of rest is spelled out - and it is that even God rests.
It is certainly an act of supreme arrogance to think that we can put in more hours than God.
Of course the commandment refers to a day of rest each week, and not to the number of hours of work in a day. There was no particular need for such an admonition at the time of the commandment. In a pre-industrial society, there are very few options for artificial light. When it is night people sleep. The natural rhythm of sleep and waking. In the land where the people of Israel were wandering toward the promised land days and nights were roughly equal. Near the equator days and nights are nearly equal in length. Of course there was some sitting up around the campfire, times of telling stories and other activities after the sun had gone down, but there was less temptation to be awake and facing bright lights.
Researchers said that one of the factors contributing to the decrease in sleep is over exposure to light at the blue end of the spectrum. Energy efficient light bulbs tend to be more blue in color and electronic devices such as television sets and computer screens emit more shorter length light as well. Over exposure to light, especially short wavelength light, can contribute to disrupting circadian rhythms and postponing the release of melatonin, a sleep-producing hormone.
increasingly it is common for people to have television sets and computers in their bedrooms exposing themselves to the kind of light that makes sleep more difficult in the room that should be dedicated to sleeping.
Studies have demonstrated a link between decreased levels of sleep and increased occurrences of chronic illnesses.
We are an arrogant people, however. The threat of a chronic illness years in the future probably won’t deter people from their habits.
The problem is especially evident in youth during their teen years. The increased popularly and societal acceptance of energy drinks laced with caffeine allows teens to use chemicals to further alter their natural sleep cycles. They deprive themselves of sleep and the drink a few red bulls to increase their energy levels in the morning when their bodies are trying to signal the need for additional sleep.
We live in a 24/7 society. There is constant activity all hours of the day every day of the week. There is a temptation to believe that we can somehow overcome the natural rhythms of sleep and wakefulness. We have all kinds of devices to wake us in the morning, lots of options for chemicals to increase our alertness and even medicines that make us sleep when we want to.
It probably would make more sense to turn off the television and computer in the evening, find a good lamp with less blue light and read a book. Then, in the morning, it wouldn’t hurt to allow one’s body to sleep until waking naturally.
It sounds simple. But we are arrogant. Change will require effort.
On the other hand, I am an early riser and I start my day before most of my neighbors are stirring. And I do wake in the night. It is not uncommon for me to get out of bed and sit in another room reading for a while. I get more of my reading done that way, but it does have an effect on my sleeping. Sometimes I am tired during the day and I’ve been known to take a nap.
I don’t really experience my sleeping patterns as a problem, however. I am awake and alert for the things that matter. I drink a little coffee, but much less than I did when I was younger and much less than many other people. I don’t have trouble staying awake to drive or engage in other important activities.
Researchers tell us that many people in industrialized nations sleep significantly less than their forebears. Russell Foster, a professor at the University of Oxford in England, recently wrote that people are getting between one and two hours less sleep per night than was the case 60 years ago. He sees this as a society-wide problem. Some of his other words struck a chord in me: “We are the supremely arrogant species; we feel we can abandon four billion years of evolution and ignore the fact that we have evolved under a light-dark cycle. What we do as a species, perhaps uniquely, is override the clock. And long-term acting against the clock can lead to serious health problems.”
I know that it isn’t particularly scientific to comment on our arrogance, but I think that he has put his finger on the problem. We are arrogant.
The ten commandments, reported in Exodus 20, put it slightly different, with a very similar meaning: “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the sevent day is the sabbath day of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor try son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Some of the commandments are short sentences like, “thou shalt not kill.” But this one gets a paragraph. The reason for observing a day of rest is spelled out - and it is that even God rests.
It is certainly an act of supreme arrogance to think that we can put in more hours than God.
Of course the commandment refers to a day of rest each week, and not to the number of hours of work in a day. There was no particular need for such an admonition at the time of the commandment. In a pre-industrial society, there are very few options for artificial light. When it is night people sleep. The natural rhythm of sleep and waking. In the land where the people of Israel were wandering toward the promised land days and nights were roughly equal. Near the equator days and nights are nearly equal in length. Of course there was some sitting up around the campfire, times of telling stories and other activities after the sun had gone down, but there was less temptation to be awake and facing bright lights.
Researchers said that one of the factors contributing to the decrease in sleep is over exposure to light at the blue end of the spectrum. Energy efficient light bulbs tend to be more blue in color and electronic devices such as television sets and computer screens emit more shorter length light as well. Over exposure to light, especially short wavelength light, can contribute to disrupting circadian rhythms and postponing the release of melatonin, a sleep-producing hormone.
increasingly it is common for people to have television sets and computers in their bedrooms exposing themselves to the kind of light that makes sleep more difficult in the room that should be dedicated to sleeping.
Studies have demonstrated a link between decreased levels of sleep and increased occurrences of chronic illnesses.
We are an arrogant people, however. The threat of a chronic illness years in the future probably won’t deter people from their habits.
The problem is especially evident in youth during their teen years. The increased popularly and societal acceptance of energy drinks laced with caffeine allows teens to use chemicals to further alter their natural sleep cycles. They deprive themselves of sleep and the drink a few red bulls to increase their energy levels in the morning when their bodies are trying to signal the need for additional sleep.
We live in a 24/7 society. There is constant activity all hours of the day every day of the week. There is a temptation to believe that we can somehow overcome the natural rhythms of sleep and wakefulness. We have all kinds of devices to wake us in the morning, lots of options for chemicals to increase our alertness and even medicines that make us sleep when we want to.
It probably would make more sense to turn off the television and computer in the evening, find a good lamp with less blue light and read a book. Then, in the morning, it wouldn’t hurt to allow one’s body to sleep until waking naturally.
It sounds simple. But we are arrogant. Change will require effort.