Lack of Sleep the Silent Pandemic

[Music]

modern lifestyle

is busy with the whirlwind of activity

sometimes stress seems to be inescapable

i bet

not all of you here feel completely

rested and rejuvenated and ready to take

on this day

you know i feel kind of tired

you see we’re all on the spectrum of

exhaustion and yet for one-third of our

lives

we sleep we transition from this vibrant

thoughtful active persona that we exude

during the day

and power down into this quiet and

tranquil state of hibernation

come nightfall ever since i was young

i’ve struggled going to sleep even with

a comfortable atmosphere of stars above

me

you could find me way after the lights

were supposed to be out with

a flashlight in the book sorry mom

actually ironically sleep was one of

life’s many mysteries that had me up all

night consciously pondering

because you see i had this curiosity

questions would bubble up and then

spin into ideas ideas into actions and

before i knew it

well let’s just say i put that sticky

note pad next to my bed to some good use

as years flew by and the intensity of

school gradually increased

it was my hours of sleep that suffered

the most

i felt more accomplished with more

academic rigor and i enjoy the

challenges

yes there are more distractions but it

felt good i liked being in the know in

the light

if you will but it took away from my

quiet time in the dark

i believed that maybe sacrificing an

hour of sleep to write that paper or

that lab report was a badge of honor

i thought i was able to access work

hours in which others were not taking

full advantage

was it admirable uh

i could handle it well that ladies and

gentlemen

was where i was wrong you see that right

there

that’s the paradox because the more

sleep

someone is losing the more the sleep

deprivation

the less capable that person is of

realizing it in themselves

once sleep deprivation with its fuzzy

headedness irritability and fatigue

has a person in its clutches they can

hardly recall what it’s like to be fully

rested

you know i just wouldn’t be able to

think about that

that i don’t know that word

i just couldn’t focus i couldn’t connect

the dots

i might forget to pack my lunch i might

forget a friend’s birthday

but small things really started adding

up

and before i knew it i had fallen into

the falsely secured trap of a pattern

i was running along on the treadmill in

the pitch black dark

for quite some time sleep research was

also in the dark

but to really understand the

consequences of sleep deprivation

one must both understand what sleep is

and why it is so important

to our general well-being because

let’s face it everyone wants to feel

good in the morning

so what is sleep i was actually

fascinated by even the basis neurology

behind this

so-called simple phenomenon i mean it

happens every day

according to the american sleep

association sleep is a four-stage

process comprised of three

non-rapid eye movement stages and then

one final very important

rapid eye movement or rem stage

basically

our brain has four distinct stages that

we go through to promote restorative

sleep

the measurement of neural activity

between these different stages can be

graphed

which actually presents an interesting

visual though this would be

you when you just feel drowsy you’re

awake you’re not asleep

but you’re presenting forth what’s

called alpha waves

this is actually entering sleep in stage

one at this point

we go in and out of consciousness and we

can be awakened easily

stage two is the first stage of deeper

sleep

in this stage your eye movements in

brain waves slow

stage three you present forth what’s

called delta waves interspersed with

smaller faster waves

it is very difficult to wake someone

during stage three which is also known

as deep sleep

this is stage four otherwise known as

the dreaming stage

rapid eye movement it’s very important

because this is where you can

consolidate most of your memories

we spend significantly different times

during each stage depending on the hour

of the night

so if this is what happens when one

sleeps

what happens when one doesn’t sleep i

bet we probably all know what i would

term be the basics

you know that lack of sleep puts you in

a bad mood

could affect you long term you know etc

etc

i mean yes that’s true and also very

important

but i was about to learn that the

infects a compass

encompass and link so much more

so why do we sleep well primarily for

two reasons

first would be restoration every day

your brain accumulates a sort of

metabolic waste while this is completely

normal as your brain is going about its

neural activities too much accumulation

of these waste products can lead to

neurological disorders

sleeping is very important so you can

wake up with a clear and refreshed mind

you have to consolidate your memories

made throughout the day in all your

various neural connections

this happens primarily during rem sleep

which is again why it is very very

important

insufficient or fragmented sleep could

render your ability to form concrete and

emotional memories

useless imagine not being able to

remember

some of the most beautiful or

spectacular moments of your life

if we step back and look at teens

specifically

in reality we aren’t getting as much

sleep as we should be

only 15 of teenagers reported getting

eight and a half hours of sleep on the

school night

according to common sense media parents

most prevalent concerns

would be teen drinking and teen driving

yes maybe teen sleep deprivation seems

like an obscure problem compared to

these

more pressing conundrums to parallel

teen sleep deprivation

with teen alcohol consumption

losing one hour of sleep has the same

effect

as one alcoholic drink in terms of

reaction

to move to teen automobile accidents

according to dr maddox a ub sleep

specialist

putting a teenager in the car to drive

at 7 30 in the morning

has the same reduced reaction effect as

putting an adult in the same car to

drive at 4 30 in the morning

i wanted to help but i didn’t know how

because i had made these late nights my

own sleep behavior

i had made it my normal regardless

i set out to make big changes because i

knew i had to stop denying my body the

sleep i desperately needed

most teens need 9 hours and 15 minutes

of sleep to function best

so i decided i would try to hit my age

specific sleep quarter

sleeping best i could eight hours every

night

for two weeks no exceptions here are

some personal graphs

of how my sleep worked out as you can

see on this night of january 3rd 2020

i was awake from quite some time before

i even fell asleep

i was awake for a full hour and 12

minutes

you see between our circadian signals

and our biological clock as well as

different hormonal secretions

teenagers are in a sense programmed to

go to sleep later

and wake up later if we move through

the two weeks period i started to notice

interesting correlations as i was

getting

most of my rem sleep in the early and

light hours of the morning

this is not an anomaly for a teenager in

fact

most teenagers experience this we get

our rem sleep

in the morning so therefore the morning

is the best time for teenagers to sleep

the ideal sleep time for teenagers would

be between 11 pm

and 8 am but at 8 am the school bell

rings

we can switch off our capacity to feel

good and do good things for others

just by not sleeping and if teens don’t

feel good

we’re not going to work well if you’re

an administrator listening to this

i implore you to find a new way to make

high schools

start later the benefit would be so much

so impactful to these teenagers who need

their rem sleep in the morning to form

concrete memories

teens parents you me us all of us

we are all in desperate need of sleep

i even found when i did sleep more i

wanted to sleep more because of just how

restorative it felt

when i got home each afternoon the

homework process was expedited because

i wasn’t only working harder i was able

to work more efficiently

better because i had gotten more sleep

it just really felt good to be good feel

good again and

that can be each and every one of us

i know things get hard and at times

sleep doesn’t seem like a priority

but it’s too important to pass up sleep

death is our silent pandemic

we can’t let sleep bankrupt our energy

sleep well and feel even better and so

with that

i will say to you good night and sweet

dreams

thank you