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FACTS ABOUT SLEEP YOU PROBABLY DIDN'T KNOW...
(OR WERE TOO TIRED TO THINK ABOUT)
-The
record for the longest period without sleep is 18 days, 21 hours,
40 minutes during a rocking chair marathon. The record holder reported
hallucinations, paranoia, blurred vision, slurred speech and memory
and concentration lapses.
- It's
impossible to tell if someone is really awake without close medical
supervision. People can take cat naps with their eyes open without
even being aware of it.
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Anything less than five minutes to fall asleep at night means you're
sleep deprived. The ideal is between 10 and 15 minutes, meaning
you're still tired enough to sleep deeply, but not so exhausted
you feel sleepy by day.
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A new baby typically results in 400-750 hours lost sleep for parents
in the first year
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One of the best predictors of insomnia later in life is the development
of bad habits from having sleep disturbed by young children.
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The continuous brain recordings that led to the discovery of REM
(rapid eye-movement) sleep were not done until 1953, partly because
the scientists involved were concerned about wasting paper.
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REM sleep occurs in bursts totalling about 2 hours a night, usually
beginning about 90 minutes after falling asleep.
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Dreams, once thought to occur only during REM sleep, also occur
(but to a lesser extent) in non-REM sleep phases. It's possible
there may not be a single moment of our sleep when we are actually
dreamless.
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REM dreams are characterised by bizarre plots, but non-REM dreams
are repetitive and thought-like, with little imagery - obsessively
returning to a suspicion you left your mobile phone somewhere, for
example.
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Certain types of eye movements during REM sleep correspond to specific
movements in dreams, suggesting at least part of the dreaming process
is analagous to watching a film
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No-one knows for sure if other species dream but some do have sleep
cycles similar to humans.
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Elephants sleep standing up during non-REM sleep, but lie down for
REM sleep.
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Some scientists believe we dream to fix experiences in long-term
memory, that is, we dream about things worth remembering. Others
reckon we dream about things worth forgetting - to eliminate overlapping
memories that would otherwise clog up our brains.
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Dreams may not serve any purpose at all but be merely a meaningless
byproduct of two evolutionary adaptations - sleep and consciousness.
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REM sleep may help developing brains mature. Premature babies have
75 per cent REM sleep, 10 per cent more than full-term bubs. Similarly,
a newborn kitten puppy rat or hampster experiences only REM sleep,
while a newborn guinea pig (which is much more developed at birth)
has almost no REM sleep at all.
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Scientists have not been able to explain a 1998 study showing a
bright light shone on the backs of human knees can reset the brain's
sleep-wake clock.
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British Ministry of Defence researchers have been able to reset
soldiers' body clocks so they can go without sleep for up to 36
hrs. Tiny optical fibres embedded in special spectacles project
a ring of bright white light (with a spectrum identical to a sunrise)
around the edge of soldiers' retinas, fooling them into thinking
they have just woken up. The system was first used on US pilots
during the bombing of Kosovo.
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Seventeen hours of sustained wakefulness leads to a decrease in
performance equivalent to a blood alcohol-level of 0.05%.
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The 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska, the Challenger space
shuttle disaster and the Chernobyl nuclear accident have all been
attributed to human errors in which sleep-deprivation played a role.
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The NRMA estimates fatigue is involved in one in 6 fatal road accidents.
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Exposure to noise at night can suppress immune function even if
the sleeper doesn�t wake. Unfamiliar noise, and noise during the
first and last two hours of sleep, has the greatest disruptive effect
on the sleep cycle.
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The "natural alarm clock" which enables some people to wake up more
or less when they want to is caused by a burst of the stress hormone
adrenocorticotropin. Researchers say this reflects an unconscious
anticipation of the stress of waking up.
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Some sleeping tablets, such as barbiturates suppress REM sleep,
which can be harmful over a long period.
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In insomnia following bereavement, sleeping pills can disrupt grieving.
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Tiny luminous rays from a digital alarm clock can be enough to disrupt
the sleep cycle even if you do not fully wake. The light turns off
a "neural switch" in the brain, causing levels of a key sleep chemical
to decline within minutes.
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To drop off we must cool off; body temperature and the brain's sleep-wake
cycle are closely linked. That's why hot summer nights can cause
a restless sleep. The blood flow mechanism that transfers core body
heat to the skin works best between 18 and 30 degrees. But later
in life, the comfort zone shrinks to between 23 and 25 degrees -
one reason why older people have more sleep disorders.
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A night on the grog will help you get to sleep but it will be a
light slumber and you won't dream much.
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After five nights of partial sleep deprivation, three drinks will
have the same effect on your body as six would when you've slept
enough.
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Humans sleep on average around three hours less than other primates
like chimps, rhesus monkeys, squirrel monkeys and baboons, all of
whom sleep for 10 hours.
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Ducks at risk of attack by predators are able to balance the need
for sleep and survival, keeping one half of the brain awake while
the other slips into sleep mode.
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Ten per cent of snorers have sleep apnoea, a disorder which causes
sufferers to stop breathing up to 300 times a night and significantly
increases the risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke.
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Snoring occurs only in non-REM sleep
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Teenagers need as much sleep as small children (about 10 hrs) while
those over 65 need the least of all (about six hours). For the average
adult aged 25-55, eight hours is considered optimal
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Some studies suggest women need up to an hour's extra sleep a night
compared to men, and not getting it may be one reason women are
much more susceptible to depression than men.
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Feeling tired can feel normal after a short time. Those deliberately
deprived of sleep for research initially noticed greatly the effects
on their alertness, mood and physical performance, but the awareness
dropped off after the first few days.
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Diaries from the pre-electric-light-globe Victorian era show adults
slept nine to 10 hours a night with periods of rest changing with
the seasons in line with sunrise and sunsets.
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Most of what we know about sleep we've learned in the past 25 years.
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As a group, 18 to 24 year-olds deprived of sleep suffer more from
impaired performance than older adults.
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Experts say one of the most alluring sleep distractions is the 24-hour
accessibility of the internet.
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The extra-hour of sleep received when clocks are put back at the
start of daylight in Canada has been found to coincide with a fall
in the number of road accidents. |
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