-
In 1965, 17-year-old high school student,
Randy Gardner
-
stayed award for 264 hours.
-
That's 11 days to see how
he'd cope without sleep.
-
On the second day,
his eyes stopped focusing.
-
Next, he lost the ability
to identify objects by touch.
-
By day three, Gardner was moody
and uncoordinated.
-
At the end of the experiment,
he was struggling to concentrate,
-
had trouble with short-term memory,
-
became paranoid,
-
and started hallucinating.
-
Although Gardner recovered without
long-term psychological
-
or physical damage,
-
for others, losing shuteye can result
in hormonal imbalance,
-
illness,
-
and in extreme cases, death.
-
We're only beginning to understand
why we sleep to begin with,
-
but we do know it's essential.
-
Adults need seven to eight hours
of sleep a night,
-
and adolescents need about ten.
-
We grow sleepy due to signals
from our body
-
telling our brain we are tired,
-
and signals from the environment
telling us it's dark outside.
-
The rise in sleep-inducing chemicals,
-
like adenosine and melatonin,
-
send us into a light doze
that grows deeper,
-
making our breathing
and heart rate slow down
-
and our muscles relax.
-
This non-REM sleep is when DNA is repaired
-
and our bodies replenish themselves
for the day ahead.
-
In the United States,
-
it's estimated that 30% of adults
and 66% of adolescents
-
are regularly sleep-deprived.
-
This isn't just a minor inconvenience.
-
Staying awake can cause
serious bodily harm.
-
When we lose sleep,
-
learning,
-
memory,
-
mood,
-
and reaction time are affected.
-
Sleeplessness may also cause inflammation,
-
halluciations,
-
high blood pressure,
-
and it's even been linked
to diabetes and obesity.
-
In 2014, a devoted soccer fan died
-
after staying awake for 48 hours
to watch the World Cup.
-
While his untimely death
was due to a stroke,
-
studies show that chronically sleeping
fewer than six hours a night
-
increases stroke risk
by four and half times
-
compared to those getting a consistent
seven to eight hours of shuteye.
-
For a handful of people on the planet who
carry a rare inherited genetic mutation,
-
sleeplessness is a daily reality.
-
This condition,
known as Fatal Familial Insomnia,
-
places the body in a nightmarish
state of wakefulness,
-
forbidding it from entering
the sanctuary of sleep.
-
Within months or years,
-
this progressively worsening condition
leads to dementia and death.
-
How can sleep deprivation
cause such immense suffering?
-
Scientists think the answer lies
with the accumulation of waste prducts
-
in the brain.
-
During our waking hours,
-
our cells are busy using up
our day's energy sources,
-
which get broken down
into various byproducts,
-
including adenosine.
-
As adenosine builds up,
-
it increases the urge to sleep,
also known as sleep pressure.
-
In fact, caffeine works by blocking
adenosine's receptor pathways.
-
Other waste products
also build up in the brain,
-
and if they're not cleared away,
they collectively overload the brain,
-
and our thought to lead to the many
negative symptoms of sleep deprivation.
-
So, what's happening in our brain
when we sleep to prevent this?
-
Scientists found something called
the glymphatic system,
-
a clean-up mechanism
that removes this build up
-
and is much more active when we're asleep.
-
It works by using cerebrospinal fluid
to flush away toxic byproducts
-
that accumulate between cells.
-
Lymphatic vessels,
which serve as pathways for immune cells,
-
have recently been discovered
in the brain,
-
and they may also play a role in clearing
out the brain's daily waste products.
-
While scientists continue exploring
the restorative mechanisms behind sleep,
-
we can be sure that slipping
into slumber is a necessity
-
if we want to maintain our health
and our sanity.
Bruce Brewer
Is there a place where I can see the sources used for the statistics in this video? I'm specifically interested in the one about 66% of teens being sleep deprived and the one about teens needing about 10 hours of sleep each night.