Sleep as Sustenance
you may have heard the expression
sleep is priceless if you’re like me
you may be thinking are you sure about
that because
i can finish this assignment tonight and
then sleep more tomorrow
but sleep isn’t like my student loans no
no
i can’t make up for it at a later date
this was my wake-up call in regards to
why we
as humans need not just food
water and shelter but also sleep
my name is lily and i am a bilingual
nursing student at the university of
alberta
who am i to tell you about sleep many
times over the course of my academic
career
i’ve prioritized other tasks over sleep
which is not recommended
you may know the feeling hearing your
alarms in the morning but feeling to
wake up to them
perhaps i’m not the best person to
deliver this talk
but sleep is something we can all learn
about
and i want us to understand why we have
to sleep
let’s say i slept for less than five
hours
because there’s a midterm exam the next
day and i was up
studying and cramming for it true story
unfortunately
the next day i’m feeling really stressed
out my nervous system is in high gear
telling me to fight or flight
because of my sleep disruption and
during the midterm itself
it’s hard to focus and it’s difficult to
recall my knowledge
because lack of sleep can block memory
consolidation
and affect performance and cognition
after school let’s say my dad asked me
if i want to practice driving that day
well i better be careful because drowsy
driving causes
6 000 fatal car crashes in the united
states
every year cutting back on sleep for
short-term benefit
isn’t like cutting processed sugar out
of your diet for a while
the truth is sleep affects much more
than just my brain my glucose regulation
is
toppled and my appetite is affected
making me crave more carbohydrates
it has an impact on my mood and
motivation affecting how willing i am to
do physical activity and exercise
my cells don’t regenerate as efficiently
and it leads to me having a more tired
appearance
i’m more likely to even fall sick if i
continue down this path of sleep loss
it’s possible i experience insomnia more
often
and the balances within my body are
thrown off
increasing stress hormones and
inflammation
leading to a higher risk of obesity
diabetes cardiovascular disease cancer
and even death the purpose of going over
all these health effects
is not to scare you into sleeping more
but understand
why we sleep in the first place if
there’s one thing i know as a nursing
student
it’s biology what happens exactly when
we do sleep as much as our bodies need
sleep gives back to your body looking
into biology
no one would dispute that we need food
for our body to make energy and we need
water
to have enough blood to go around as
some examples
if we look at someone who’s sleeping on
the outside it might just look like
they’re like
snoring but on the inside there’s a lot
more going on
for one your immune system is
strengthened
making vaccines even more effective if
there’s one thing you don’t want to be
doing nowadays it’s getting sick
and after a long day of work your body
cells can do some much-needed repair
by muscle growth and protein synthesis
and now it’s time for a joke what do you
call
a sleeping bull a
bulldozer so here’s the catch if someone
told you an
actually funny joke today your memory
consolidation
would be worked on while you’re asleep
so you have a better chance of
remembering that joke and sharing it
with someone else tomorrow
and this applies to other information
too such as your studies
up in our brains there’s a lot going on
and there’s a chemical that is produced
and builds up
as our brain cells are active it’s
called adenosine
it induces a feeling of tiredness
and when you sleep the brain can clear
out adenosine
and other waste products allowing you to
feel more alert when you wake up
here’s a real life example of this you
may know someone who is
awfully cranky before their coffee
coffee is a substance
that alters our chemistry it blocks
adenosine so we don’t feel tired
the world health organization has a
definition of health
i like to refer to a state of complete
physical mental and social well-being
socially sleep can help you get along
with others by improving mood and
behavior
mentally sleep can work towards reducing
stress
and improving cognitive processes like
coping and problem solving
and we talked about on the physical
front how your cells
and your brain can benefit the question
i want to ask you
are you physically mentally and socially
well when you lack sleep
but i don’t have to be the one to tell
you to sleep your mom will
just kidding your body will have you
ever been so hungry that your
belly starts grumbling telling you that
it’s time to eat
well what about yawning or the sensation
of
drifting to sleep because you’re so
tired these are also built in mechanisms
that are saying hello i’m tired it’s
time for bed
furthermore you don’t have to take my
word for all this information
i had to google all this and it still
might not convince you
so in your own experience i want you to
recall
how foggy it feels after a night of bad
sleep
compared to how refreshing a good night
of sleep is
if you don’t sleep well it’s like
stepping into a puddle
because even after you’re up and out of
that puddle
walking around the lack of sleep will
leave
imprints on other systems and aspects of
your health
throughout the day you may be looking at
yourself
or at your professor your teacher your
parents and wondering
well why am i not learning about this in
school
perhaps it’s because they don’t want us
to fall asleep in school
but even statistics canada recognizes
that sleep gets too little time in the
spotlight
in my experience sleep deprivation is
actually normalized in academic
institutions
and there’s a sense of productivity and
a strong desire
to perform well in place of sleep
quantity and quantity sometimes
so what are some things that we can do
about this
first learning by listening here today
you’ve taken that
first step in learning about sleep
awareness
drives behavior changes there’s so much
research out there
about what sleep can do and how a lack
of it can destroy you
and i’ve just shared a little bit of it
second reflecting is your sleep setup
comfortable
do you have a nightly routine to calm
down and get into
a sleepy state don’t be afraid to sleep
more how tomorrow goes could depend
on the quality of sleep you have today
third sharing share something you
learned about sleep with a colleague or
a family member
i’m not telling you to suddenly become a
sleep cheerleader
or change your sleeping habits but to
recognize
that our outlook on sleep is something
we need to shift
from secondary to sleep as sustenance
in no way am i a sleep specialist
but i think it is important to
understand the link between
health and sleep there are various sleep
problems that are complex and outside of
my scope
so i urge you to see a health
professional if you’re experiencing
those problems
nevertheless sleep helps sustain us
as humans it’s one part of the puzzle of
health
along with all the rest of the things we
need to maintain such as food
hydration and physical activity
but sleep is one where you don’t have to
move or even think
you have a daily chance to reap the
benefits of sleep
and the best part is it doesn’t cost a
penny
let’s let our conscious selves better
appreciate our unconscious hours
thank you so much i hope you sleep
soundly
you