Sleep Debt

***The Promise of Sleep, pp. 65-67***************************

Perhaps the sleep-deprived people who say sleepiness isn’t a problem actually feel sleepy, but don’t think it’s a big deal. Certainly many people think it’s “normal” to feel sleepy during the day. Our automatic reactions to sleepiness is to fight it by seeking out stimulation–driving to the store, working harder, or taking a stretch. Many of us habitually make ourselves do something more active when we start to feel sleepy, which masks our underlying sleep debt. This stimulation can take us from moment to moment through the day because we live in perpetual motion, moving from one task to the next, pushing ourselves to accomplish what we must. Only when we can’t find something stimulating are we forced to confront our hidden sleep tendency. At these times the sleep debt that has been kept at bay comes flooding back through the body and mind.

DRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF SLEEP DEBT

People *must* learn to pay attention to their own sleep debt and how it is affecting them. Not doing so, and misunderstanding the rules of sleep debt and arousal, can be extremely dangerous. A friend of mine, also a Stanford professor, once participated in a bicycle race that lasted several days and included a number of laps around Lake Tahoe. He got very little sleep at night during the period of the race, but then he slept about nine hours a night for the two nights he stayed at the lake after the race. He woke up on Sunday morning feeling rested, ready to pack up and drive home. But as he was coming down the winding mountain road, he began to yawn and his eyelids felt heavy. He told me that he was a little surprised because he thought he had gotten plenty of sleep. If someone had been with him, he probably would have traded places, but it did not occur to him to pull over and take a nap. As he drove on, it became harder and harder to keep his eyes open, and he began to be concerned. At that moment he saw a sign for a restaurant only several miles farther down the road. “Good,” he thought, “I’ll be able to get some coffee.” Right after that he fell asleep, just for a moment, and awoke with a terrible start to find that he had drifted into the oncoming lane. He jerked the wheel to the right, but the road curved to the left, and the car went over a 30-foot ledge. The next thing he knew he was upside down, suspended by his seat belt, the car impaled on a jagged rock that had sliced through the roof and into the empty passenger seat next to him. He sustained serious cuts and bruises, and his right arm was complete paralyzed, but miraculously, he was alive.

When he told me the story later, he still didn’t understand how he could have been so sleepy. “But Bill, I got two full nights of sleep before I left Tahoe.” Not knowing about sleep debt, he could not know that a few hours of extra sleep does not alleviate the sleep debt accumulated over the preceding nights or weeks. He was driving alone without the stimulation of conversation, along a route he knew fairly well. In short, there was little to act as a dike against a sea of sleep debt that he had built up. Ironically, his awareness of how terribly drowsy he was feeling may have forestalled sleep in the minutes before the crash. When he saw the sign for the restaurant up ahead and knew that he would get coffee, he relaxed and let the worry go. A few moments later he was hurtling off the mountain road. If the idea that drowsiness is supremely dangerous had been burned into his brain, he would have stopped driving no matter how difficult or inconvenient.

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Sleep researchers say it’s not just safety that is affected by sleep, but happiness too. The wisdom is that you don’t know how great you can feel unless you make sleep a priority. So remember, your sleep is more important than whatever interesting thing you just found on the Internet.

Andy Rooney is reported to have said, “Whatever you’re staying up for it’s not worth it.” He’s right, but it’s hard to convince ourselves of that when we’re so constantly busy! Take heed, and please pass along the word. Now, I’ll take my own advice and go to bed! Sleep tight!

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