Should Catching Enough "ZZZZZs" Be a Priority?

by WiredBerries Editors — August 6, 2007

The process of sleep is still somewhat mysterious to scientists. What we do know is that sleep effects the entire body. Dr. Michael Twery, director of the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research at NIH's National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, says, "Sleep originates with the timing of our biological clock. The biological clock operates in almost all of our tissues."

One thing is crystal clear--getting enough sleep is serious business! Research shows that bad things happen when we chronically don't get enough of it. "Too little sleep or not enough restorative sleep can seriously affect the way we think, behave, form memories, and perform at work and school," explains Dr. Merrill Mitler, program director for sleep research at NIH's National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. "A continued lack of sleep also puts us at risk for mood disorders such as depression and can lead to poor concentration and poor judgment, social problems, greater risk of car crashes, and increased risk of substance abuse."

One sleep experiment showed that otherwise healthy young adults developed resistance to insulin after a few nights of only 4 hours of sleep. Insulin is a hormone needed to convert sugar, starches, and other food into energy. When the body can't use insulin properly, diabetes can develop. After the researchers allowed the young adults to go back to 8-hour sleep periods, the problem reversed within days.

Other studies have found that people who get less sleep tend to have higher rates of obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes. A great deal of research is now focused on understanding the underlying links between sleep and these health factors.

Many people suffer from sleep disorders (up to 70 million Americans), which should be treated by a sleep specialist, but for most of us, the problem is that we simply consider sleep a low priority. We try to stay awake as much as we can to do more work, watch some TV, or fit other things into our busy days.

So, how much sleep do we really need? According to studies, the old "8 hours" advice is true. Experts recommend that adults get at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night. School-aged children and teens need at least 9 hours. Children in preschool need between 10 and 12 hours a day, and newborns need a whopping 16 to 18 hours.