Right sleep | Part - I

Adv. Debashis Nandi

(The writer can be reached at Devn242@gmail.com)

PART-I

Food has become disorganised, labour has become disorganised and sleep has been totally murdered! The thing which has been harmed the most in the development of the human civilization is sleep. From the very day man discovered artificial light, his sleep has been into trouble. And as more and more gadgets started falling into man's hands, people felt that sleep is an unnecessary thing, too much time is wasted in it. It does not occur to people that sleep has any kind of contribution to the deeper processes of life. We think that the time spent sleeping is the time gone to waste, so the less we sleep is the better; the more quickly we reduce the amount of sleep, the better. Nowadays people who calculate everything, make statistics about everything, are really strange. In calculative manner if a person sleeps for eight hours, one-third of his day goes into sleeping. Lifespan of a person on an average is sixty years out of which twenty years have gone to waste. That means forty years is only available for use. And even if we calculate more, the time utilised to eat food, to wear clothes, to shave, to bathe, and so on after subtraction goes to waste and nothing remains in life.

Have we ever thought that when a child in the mother's womb sleeps for twenty- four hours. The child sleeps because all his tissues are developing. He needs complete sleep; his body will develop only if he keeps sleeping for twenty-four hours. It is possible that children who are born lame or crippled or blind woke up during the nine months in their mother's womb. Perhaps someday science may be able to understand that the children who somehow wake up in the mother's womb are born crippled, or with parts of their bodies under developed. A very deep sleep is necessary, only then can all the activities of the body takes place.

When a child is born, he sleeps for at least twenty-four hours. His body is still growing. Then he sleeps for eighteen hours, then fourteen hours, slowly, as his body matures, his sleep also gets less and less. In the end, it settles at a time between six to eight hours. The sleep of an old man gets less; it becomes five hours, four hours and even three hours too. It is because the growth of the body of an old man has stopped. If an old man sleeps as much as a child sleeps then he cannot die, death will be difficult. That is why an old man starts sleeping less and less but a child sleeps more.

In ancient times, Hitler in Germany and Stalin in Russia have utilized the sleep effectively as the most popular method for torturing the prisoners. Even now in Russia, the most popular method of torturing prisoners was prevention to sleep. They would make the man stand in the cell which was so small that he could not move at all, could neither sit or lie down. Then they used to drip water from above which used to fall on the head of the prisoners, drop by drop. After a maximum of twelve or sixteen or eighteen hours the prisoners would start shouting and screaming to disclose the concealing facts.

In this modern era inadequate or unsatisfactory sleep is becoming a serious health issue of the modern living. We have the rush to meet new targets in the work, nuclear family, urban lifestyle, frequent travel to different time zones, shift work, long distance of journey between home and work place etc., are all contributing havoc to the health and becoming a slow killer. We don't remember that sleep is one of the basic necessities for a healthy living. Good and adequate sleep improves the quality of life. In fact sleep helps the brain to work properly, improve memory and provide longevity. The ability to function and feel well while you're awake depends on whether you're getting an adequate amount of sleep or not. It also depends on whether you're sleeping at a time when the body demands to sleep. While sleeping, the brain is preparing for the next day by forming new pathways to help learning and remembering information.

In the present scenario of lockdown, sleep deficiency may be due to varied causes. Young generations are engaged in playing online games such as Pubg, ludo and many more related games till late night, some are engaged in social sites such as facebook, whatsapp, instagram etc. Also many of them have the habit of watching movies in Netflix, surfing youtube and also other related aspects. Generally, people who are not working from home have no such certain obligations in lockdown phase but the way of living has changed a lot in relation to going to bed and waking up. Some people also have the tendency to study or work late night which creates a loss of health in day-to-day life. Later, they cannot have proper sleep due to the surrounding problems such as excessive noise or too much light. Physical factors such as diet or exercise, stressors and emotional events could also cause sleep disturbances and sleep deprivation. Shortage of sleep is a common problem with women given birth to a baby recently. College students are particularly prone to sleep scarcity for a variety of reasons. Adjusting to college life, ongoing online academic and social demands may be very stressful to the new entrants. These may have an impact on the student's ability to sleep properly. For students who share room together, differences in night routines of the partner can cause sleep disturbance. Interpersonal frictions and tensions among colleagues, meeting online academic deadlines and erratic schedules are other factors that interfere with normal sleep patterns. The use of alcohol, cannabis and caffeine that are becoming a part of the lifestyle are common causes of sleep disruption in both college students as well as executives. Some college students are at risk for sleep disturbance primarily because they don't recognize the importance of sleep. Some view the sleeping time as wasted time and consciously disregard the need for sleep. However, the fact is that sleep is essential for optimal functioning of the body and ignoring the need for sleep has many negative consequences, including irritability, exhaustion, lack of concentration, and impaired judgment.

Like good eating, drinking and breathing habits; good sleeping habit and adequate duration of sleep are key factors of a healthy lifestyle. According to the National Sleep Foundation, US, everyone, with few exceptions, needs seven to nine hours of sleep a night for the body and mind to function optimally. Inadequate sleep can lead to physical and mental health problems such as injuries, loss of productivity and even a risk of death due to diseases like high blood pressure. Premature ageing, diabetes, anxiety disorders are also some other problems associated with less sleep. Studies shows that people who get less than six hours a night sleep develop higher blood levels of inflammatory proteins than those who get more sleep.

Sleep deprivation is the condition of not having enough sleep; it can be either chronic or acute. A chronic sleep-restricted state can cause fatigue, daytime sleepiness, clumsiness and weight loss or weight gain. It adversely affects the brain and cognitive functions. This is commonly found in mothers with a young baby, people working in shifts, people travelling in different time zones, and young executives etc.

We have not even noticed that the cause behind all the illnesses, all the disorders that have entered the man's life is lack of sleep. The person who cannot sleep rightly cannot live rightly. We should understand that sleep is not a waste of time. The eight hours of sleep are not being wasted; rather, because of those eight hours, we are able to stay awake for the next sixteen hours. During those eight hours life energy is accumulated, our life gets revitalised, the centres of our brain and heart calm down and our life functions from our navel centres. There is a myth that sleep can be conditioned by learning to get little sleep with no negative effects. However, studies show that getting enough quality sleep at the right times is important for mental health, physical health, quality of life, and safety.

Feeling of tiredness and remain unrefreshed during the day are some of the major symptoms of those who are deprived of adequate sleep. Sleep deficiency also can interfere with work, schooling, driving, and social functioning. Sleep deficiency can cause problems with learning, focusing, reacting, and trouble in making decisions, solving problems, remembering things, controlling emotions, behaviour or coping with change etc. The person may take longer time to finish tasks, have a slower reaction time, and make more mistakes.

The signs and symptoms of sleep deficiency may differ between children and adults. Children who are sleeping short might be hyperactive and show problems in paying attention. They also might misbehave and their school performance could suffer. Sleep-deficient children may feel angry and impulsive, have mood swings, feel sad or depressed, or lack motivation.

To be continued