#29 - Sleep Pt. 1: Why is sleep important?

HY3RID Podcast

This week's episode is part 1 of our new mini-series on Sleep. Part 1 today is focussed on why sleep is important and what the impact of lack of sleep can be, both short term and long term. The biggest take home from this week... Sleep deprivation seems to impact almost all aspects of health and life.

We spend >>36% asleep so we know its pretty important. That's the equivalent of 32 years if you live to the ripe old age of 90.

Listen to this episode if you want to get a better idea about:

- Which animal sleeps the most and least?

- Why we sleep

- What the short and long term consequences of deprivation are

- Which animal has the longest penis

Why we sleep?

So no-one really knows why we sleep or why every animal has developed the need to sleep but we do know there are a whole host of negative implications from not getting enough sleep.

Sleep is helps us rejuvenate. Some genes only switch on when we sleep. Sleep is responsible for replicating dna. Sleep also plays a role in destroying free radicals and combating oxidative stress. Sleep also helps us consolidate memories and learning.

SLEEP AND HEALTH

Short term deprivation studies show acute changes in mood, blood pressure, decreased ability to use glucose and increased inflammation.

Long term population studies show a relationship with many chronic diseases:

Obesity - 50% more likely to be obese <5hrs a day. This is likely due to changes in appetite due to increased ghrellin and decreased leptin which govern appetite.

Diabetes - >>3X More likely to develop Type 2 Diabetes <5hrs a day. Even short term studies show impaired ability to process glucose when sleep is cut from 8 to 4 hours.

Mental Health - Lack of sleep linked to almost all mental health disorders, and all mental health disorders include sleep disruption as a symptom.

Immune Function - People who <5hrs a day experience 3X as many colds

Death - All cause mortality >15% in people who <5hrs a day

SLEEP AND MENTAL PERFORMANCE

It's hard to measure, but we know sleep deprivation highly limits learning and skill acquisition. This is both because when we sleep we process and build memories, but also due to lack of concentration and ability to learn in a sleep deprived state.

Sleep also limits motor function and decreases reaction time, making accidents more likely. >30% of people will fall asleep at the wheel at some point and is overall responsible for roughly 6000 fatal car crashes.

So you could say sleep is kinda important.

A few resources we have used to help us put this together:

'Why do we sleep" by Russell Foster

Consequences of insufficient sleep - Harvard Education

"Sleep is your superpower." - Matt Walker

"Why We Sleep." Matt Walker - This book we would highly recommend.