“If you die in your dream then you’ll die in real life too!” This was a belief I often heard whispered with reverence on the playground in my younger years. Older kids would nod sagely, as if they had a friend who had died in such a manner. For as kids, sleep was special and mysterious- and we all wanted more of it. But as we grow older, the specialness of sleep seems to fade as we focus more on getting at least the minimal amount of sleep needed for functioning. According to the Center for Disease Control, one in three Americans is sleep deprived, usually chronically. And this lack of sleep, however, impacts the important role sleep has in maintaining our mental health. Without adequate rest, we are prone to act in irrational and non-adaptive ways (such as binging on sweets or becoming easily upset).
Although much research has focused on the detrimental effects of sleep deprivation, further research is need to understand what happens during this portion of non-consciousness. As far as we can tell, every living thing from trees to flies has some form of sleep or quiescence (quiet resting) during which it recovers from previous activity. In smaller, simpler organisms, this quiescence might only include clearing cellular debris but in more complicated organisms this sleep period is also important for changes in the brain. In humans, sleep is a privileged period of time when the brain doesn’t have to take in external information. Instead the mind prioritizes shuffling and re-organizing information learned during the day. We call this process of organizing and solidifying information memory consolidation. Most scientists agree that this process is always going on, but is especially prevalent during sleep. Memory consolidation is one reason why consistent sleep is so important for our daily lives.
When we are sleep deprived, we restrict our brain’s ability to organize and prepare for the next day. This means that we are more likely to be forgetful, impulsive, and moody. College students who assume that they will do better in the exam by pulling an all-nighter are actually making it more difficult for themselves to succeed. Sleep deprivation is especially damaging because the part of our brain necessary for forming memories, the hippocampus, is particularly sensitive to sleep deprivation. It’s almost like a switch where at a certain point you are unable to learn and retain almost any information you are studying late into the night.
In addition to impairing memory, not getting enough sleep can also lead to motor control problems. If you’ve ever noticed that you seem to be less coordinated after staying up all night (or not getting enough sleep for a prolonged period of time), the loss of sleep is probably to blame. Coordinated motor control, especially for fine motor control is actually a complicated mental ability. So when you are sleep deprived, you aren’t able to respond as quickly or accurately to your surroundings. This problem has serious implications for professional truckers or others who drive long distances. In America, more than 1550 people are now killed by sleep-deprived automotive drivers.
The above mentioned problems are only a few of the consequences of sleep deprivation on the brain. In recent years there has been an escalating interest in the cognitive effects of sleep and why sleep is so important for a huge variety of mental abilities. But despite the accumulating evidence of sleep’s importance, Americans still tend to habitually stay up late and rise too early- putting us at a constant disadvantage. Thankfully, there are a few simple tricks that have been shown to help the chronically sleep deprived get some rest. First, going to sleep and waking at a consistent time each day helps us set our internal clock so it’s easier to fall asleep and we get quality rest. Another simple trick is treating your bedroom as a place reserved for sleep. Avoid watching TV or playing video games in bed as this creates a mental association between your bed and these activities instead of sleep. These tricks, along with avoiding caffeine in the evening, can greatly improve your ability to get restful sleep.
So maybe the schoolyard wisdom about dying in your dreams doesn’t hold up to modern science. In fact, the relationship seems to go the other way: a prolonged lack of sleep can actually cause death. But schoolyard children are right to think of sleep with awe and wonder.
There is some truth in the thought that sleep is a special period of time important to our health and well-being. We should retain some of that awe and wonder from our childhood years and realize how special sleep is.Footnotes:
I would like to say a special word of thanks to ComSciCon16 for helping me craft this piece. It's a wonderful convention/program that has provided me with lots of feedback, as well as helping me make connections with other interested science communicators.
