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