Sleeping and your health: The science

[ZDL]

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[Romanov]

Low amounts of sleep have been linked to weight gain and obesity.
Van Cauter, E. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, November 2004; vol 89: pp 5762-5771

Sleep reduction has been demonstrated to reduce both naturally occurring growth hormones and lead to insufficient adrenal production in the human body. This would obviously have the most pronounced effects on someone under the age of 25, but can also lead to degradation in muscle mass and premature joint wear, among other negative effects.
Clinical Endocrinology

Psychologically, sleep reduction has shown to change brain activity patterns in a number of different ways. It can lead to symptoms of psychosis and bipolar disorder in otherwise mentally healthy people.
American Journal of Psychiatry

Lack of sleep can also cause a slow down or stoppage of enzymes repairing naturally occurring metabolic wear on brain cells. This is a very serious effect and can lead to permanent brain damage.
Why We Sleep

Another study found that lack of sleep caused a massive increase in certain hormones which inhibit or stop new cell production in the brain.
No sleep means no new brain cells

More effects of sleep reduction include: high blood pressure, heart failure, stroke and depression.
Sleep Deficit

There are, of course, many short term effects that can be observed from lack of sleep. It depends entirely upon the person for exactly how much sleep loss is needed to induce a particular functional inhibition, but the same symptoms are found in nearly all sufferers. These include impaired cognitive ability (logical thought and reasoning), impaired short term memory, impaired alertness (sometimes resulting in a 1/3 reduction in alertness levels), and an impaired immune system.
Sleep Deficit

More tangible consequences can be found in that "drowsy driving" (driving while excessively tired) is thought to account for nearly 100,000 traffic accidents every year in the US or that lack of sleep doubles the likelihood of job related injuries.

The US Army has conducted many studies on the effects of sleep deprivation and reduction since World War II. Every one has concluded that sleep is a vital resource in warfighting and facing an enemy on the field that has a greater amount of sleep than you puts you in a decidedly disadvantageous position.
Human Performance

[woodandsteel]

What is the actual science on rest/sleep and it's affect human health? Is there a magic number? Which faculties suffer and at what point does each degeneration begin? Can irregular, insufficient or absorbent amounts of sleep be linked to any long term damage?

No old wives tales or 8th grade health class answers (unless they happen to be correct). Looking for evidentiary research and hard data. Thanks.

I've been wondering the same thing.

I work a 10 hour overnight shift. I then have to get my oldest daughter on the school bus and then watch the two little ones while mom is at work.

As a young man in his 20's, I could do these shifts on my head. As a father pushing 40, I can really feel the effects of shift work.

....snip......

That is a lot of good information. Thank you.

I need to find another line of work....

[threefeathers]

This is helpful. For many years I got 7 hours sleep a night, as I'm older I need 8 or more to feel good.

[QuietShootr]

In re the last item on the list: The 'I can go two weeks on two hours of sleep a night' has been a balls thing in the Army (and I'm sure in the other services, except for the Air Force, that is) for as long as I can remember. It wasn't until my last enlistment (2003) that I ever heard anything about a sleep plan.

[glocktogo]

I can tell you first hand from going almost a year with undiagnosed sleep apnea that long term lack of sleep is devastating. It damn near drove me crazy.

[Rayrevolver]

As a flight test monkey we get this pounded through our skulls every year. Most of the charts say you need to give yourself the "opportunity" for 8 hours of rest per night. I am not talking about crew rest chasing skirts at the bar but actual rest.

They always show slides on the compounding effect on your body and equate it to an equivalent blood alcohol level. This goes for both too little sleep and too much sleep.

Basically you act like you are drunk. Bad decisions, bad motor skills, loss of situational awareness.

The studies usually show it takes a few days of rest to recover if you have been doing the 4-6 hours of rest routine. I found a "Sleep Debt" link below but it doesn't show the all the information I hoped it would.

To wiki!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_deprivation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_debt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatigue_%28safety%29

[ZDL]

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[TY44934]

I am in the same boat: early 40s w/ 2 kids under 2 yrs old. Not much sleep going on at our house.

Thanks for all the info. Will wade through it if I can find a free moment.

I've been wondering the same thing.

I work a 10 hour overnight shift. I then have to get my oldest daughter on the school bus and then watch the two little ones while mom is at work.

As a young man in his 20's, I could do these shifts on my head. As a father pushing 40, I can really feel the effects of shift work.




That is a lot of good information. Thank you.

I need to find another line of work....

[ST911]

Various industries involving shift work have conducted research on the topic. Most notably, I believe IACP had some papers on shift length and employee performancce (8, 10, 12hr days). 3M did something similar. The fire service (via NFA, IIRC) also studied employee performance in their Kelly/24hr schedules. Hit one of the online med student hangouts, and they talk about the long intern and residency days, and science of their effects.

Great stuff above, too.