Sleep: The silent epidemic

The shorter you sleep, the sooner you’ll die.

That’s a head turner if I´ve ever seen one. Don’t you think?

Unfortunately, as good of a title as it is, people won´t give it more than 5 seconds of their time, only to forget about it entirely.

Even if people knew it for a fact that their life is shortening every time they sacrifice sleep, they would still fail to care for it.

Why? you may ask.

Why is it that time and time again we fail to do what’s right?

Why do we find it so hard to do what´s good for us, what’s healthy, even while being bombarded by scientific evidence to do so?

Well, that’s what I´m trying to understand.

Perhaps our inability to bring to present value the long-term effects of our wrong doings it’s a human affliction. Or maybe we’re powerless to our internal wiring which primes immediate satisfaction (dopamine) above all.

Or maybe, just maybe, we fail to care for our sleep because we don’t understand it.

Personally, and for our sake, this is the reason I choose to believe.

Though it makes a hell of a bumber sticker, it’s true. Ignorance can affect us in a myriad of ways, and in this case, it might even get us killed.

This is why I’ll try my best to condense an entire book in a single post, in the hopes to help great minds such as Matt Walker to evangelize the word of our lord (sleep) and why you should welcome it with open arms.

A change in perspective

Before learning about sleep, we must first change the way we see it.

You see, sleep isn’t just a time for physical recovery, as it was believed to be for centuries. Nor is it a time to “rest your mind”. In fact, there’s so much going on while we sleep that it’s almost impossible to summarize it in a single post, but I´ll do my best.

As author Matt Walker puts it:

So, how is it that something such as sleep, that has irrefutable evidence of its benefits, has been so overlooked by today’s society?

The answer, I believe, can be broken down into the following statements:

1. An erroneous understanding about sleep

2. A deeply engrained “hustle culture”

Thus, in this post I´ll show you:

• What is sleep and why it’s important

• Why hustle culture is wrong and how it continues to affect us

• How to sleep better

Let´s start with the first one by asking ourselves one of the most important questions humanity has been asking for millennia.

What is sleep?

Eventhough we could go with a literal definition of sleep as “a natural and irreversible process of reduced consciousness that is essential for physical and mental restoration…bla bla bla”.

I’d rather you remember a simpler one:

Sleep is the single most effective thing we can do to reset our brain and body health each day.

That’s it. Plain and simple.

Now that we have that out of the way. Let’s address something far more important.

Why should you sleep?

Allow me to quote the great Matt Walker for this:

If your answer is a clear and resounding YES! Then congrats, you’re already on the first step towards a healthier future.

And yes, you guessed it, the “revolutionary new treatment” is sleep. Though a little hyperbolic, it’s not far from reality.

Sadly, we humans are stubborn creatures and as history has taught us, looking solely at the benefits of things is never enough to convince us.

So, with the hopes of teaching you about the importance of sleep and drag you to a new and healthier lifestyle, allow me to traumatize you first.

Think about this as a necessary evil in your character-development story so that you finally understand the importance of sleep.

Without further adue, I present you, the data. Because people are always quick on their feet when arguing with others, but arguing with data is the same as lecturing your dogs. It’s a losing battle.

So buckle up because what you’re about to read is as true as it is scary.

Studies show that:

Sleep deprived people (sleeping 6 hrs or less) are/suffer a:

• 70% more likely to get injured while performing phisical activity

• 11.5 times more likely to be involved in a car accident due to slow reaction times and likeliness of falling asleep

• 45% increased risk of developing and/or dying from coronary heart disease

• 400% to 500% more likely to suffer one or more cardiac arrests

• 200% more likely to have a heart attack or stroke

• 200% to 300% more likely to suffer calcification in their coronary arteries which causes coronary heart attacks

• 40% less effective at absorbing glucose which increases their risk for type 2 diabetes

• Men have a 29% lower sperm count

• Women suffer: 20% drop in folicular-releasing hormone, 33% higher rate of abnormal menstrual cycles and are 80% more likely to suffer from issues of sub-fertility reducing the ability to get pregnant

• 32% higher infection rate regarding the flu and several other diseases

• 40% more likely to develop cancer

• 40% increase in sweet cravings

And as hard as it is to imagine, this is merely scratching the surface.

But, if health is not enough to convince you because you’re part of the “I’d rather work hard now and sleep later” group, then here’s some data that will change your over-worked and under-slept mind.

Sleep deprived people are/ suffer a:

• 20%-40% reduction in memory retention

• 400% loss in concentration

• a 60% amplification in emotional reactivity

• a 40% deficit in learning new things/facts

• 20% learning disadvantage

And that´s not all. Sleep has been proven to increase creativity, boost memory (short-term and long-term), increased attention, enhance problem solving, and more.

In addition, sleep is one of the defining factors for numerous neurological and psychiatric conditions such as:

• Alzheimer’s disease

• Anxiety

• Depression

• Bipolar disorder

• Suicide

• Stroke

• Chronic pain

• and more

Now you understand why your mother told you to sleep early as a kid?

Hopefully that brought some sense into you.

That being said, let’s address the other elefant in the room.

Hustle culture: A productized disease

2/3 of adults in developed nations are considered sleep deprived. Let that sink in.

For comparisson, 10% percents of adults suffer from diabetes 2 and the US alone spends around $ 413 billion dollars annually in diabetes related costs.

The silent epidemic, that’s what they call it. And in all fairness, they’re right. There isn’t a single thing in this world that has been more neglected and undermined than sleep.

And it’s insane considering there isn’t a single activity that you could do, nor a single suplement you could take that would have a greater impact on your health.

The same goes the other way around. There’s probably not a single activity you could perform (or stop doing) that would generate as much health hazards as depriving yourself from sleep.

Yet we’re the only species that actively choses not to sleep.

Crazy isn’t it?

And the worst part. It’s entirely free.

There’s no barrier of entry.

This isn’t an activity limited only for those with deep pockets, or living in first world countries.

It’s free to access. Anywhere and everywhere.

Yet, every day when facing the decision either or not to sleep early, we choose to the obvious one:

Stay-up late, sleep little and complain the following day.

Though sarcastic and slightly comedic, it’s the truth for most adults in all developed nations. And unfortunately, society is at fault.

Hustle culture can be traced down as early as the Industrial Revolution and remains as strong as ever in nowadays world.

This mindset that glorifies constant work and long hours at the expense of well-being continues to wreck havoc in our lifes and, sad to say, doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon.

A hundred years ago 2% of Americans slept less than 6 hours a day. That number is around 30% today.

Globally, 65% of people fail to obtain 8 hours of sleep as recomended by the World Health Organization, and that numbers continues to increase by the day.

And this “culture” continues to impact the fabric of human society at different levels:

1. Education

2. Work place

3. Health care

Education

As Matt Walker talks about in his book, children and teenagers have a different circadian rhythm (a 24/hr internal clock that regualte sleep cylces and more) which is a couple of hours later than ours (adults). This slight difference means they’re naturally active later in the day and get tired later at the night.

Pair that up with school schedules which 80% of them in the USA start at 8:15 and that’s the equivalent of asking a grown up to wake up at 3:15 to start working at 5:15. It’s lunacy.

Workplace

As we have seen before, sleep is essential for productivity, which means sleep deprived employees are not only unproductive but are more likely to make mistakes.

An independent report by RAND Corporation on the economic cost of insufficient sleep offers a sobering wake-up call for CFOs and CEOs.

Likewise, a study done by Matthew Gibson and Jeffrey Shader found that employees who slept more, earn more money on average.

The study found that an extra hour of sleep resulted in an increase of 4% of their salary. Way above the average pay rise in the US (2.5%).

So there’s really no reason to keep employees sleep deprived is it?

Health care

Apparently, to a statistical provable degree, asking your doctor ”How much skeep you’ve had in the last 24 hours” is a great predictor of whether or not there will be a serious medical error.

Scary right? Yet health care is one of the most affected areas by sleep deprivation and somehow we glorify this type of behavior as if being a good doctor meant barely sleeping and working overtime.

Data shows that there’s a 170% increased risk of a surgeon inflicting a serious surgical error on you if he hasn’t slept properly before surgery.

So if we should sleep, why shouldn’t they?

How to sleep better

As you might’ve realized by now, there’s a myriad of factors as to why sleep is important, but likewise, there’s a myriad of ways we can improve the way we sleep.

So, with the goal of not boring you to death with details, here’s a list of simple and easy things you can do to start sleeping more and better:

12 tips for healthy sleep by Matthew Walker

1. Stick to a sleep schedule. Go to bed and wake up at the same time each day. As creatures of habit, people have a hard time adjusting to changes in sleep patterns. Sleeping later on weekends won’t fully make up for a lack of sleep during the week and will make it harder to wake up early on Monday morning. Set an alarm for bedtime. Often we set an alarm for when it’s time to wake up but fail to do so for when it’s time to go to sleep. If there is only one piece of advice you remember and take from these twelve tips, this should be it.

2. Exercise is great, but not too late in the day. Try to exercise at least thirty minutes on most days but not later than two to three hours before your bedtime.

3. Avoid caffeine and nicotine. Coffee, colas, certain teas, and chocolate contain the stimulant caffeine, and its effects can take as long as eight hours to wear off fully. Therefore, a cup of coffee in the late afternoon can make it hard for you to fall asleep at night. Nicotine is also a stimulant, often causing smokers to sleep only very lightly. In addition, smokers often wake up too early in the morning because of nicotine withdrawal.

4. Avoid alcoholic drinks before bed. Having a nightcap or alcoholic beverage before sleep may help you relax, but heavy use robs you of REM sleep, keeping you in the lighter stages of sleep. Heavy alcohol ingestion also may contribute to impairment in breathing at night. You also tend to wake up in the middle of the night when the effects of the alcohol have worn off.

5. Avoid large meals and beverages late at night. A light snack is okay, but a large meal can cause indigestion, which interferes with sleep. Drinking too many fluids at night can cause frequent awakenings to urinate.

6. If possible, avoid medicines that delay or disrupt your sleep. Some commonly prescribed heart, blood pressure, or asthma medications, as well as some over-the-counter and herbal remedies for coughs, colds, or allergies, can disrupt sleep patterns. If you have trouble sleeping, talk to your health care provider or pharmacist to see whether any drugs you’re taking might be contributing to your insomnia and ask whether they can be taken at other times during the day or early in the evening.

7. Don’t take naps after 3 p.m. Naps can help make up for lost sleep, but late afternoon naps can make it harder to fall asleep at night.

8. Relax before bed. Don’t overschedule your day so that no time is left for unwinding. A relaxing activity, such as reading or listening to music, should be part of your bedtime ritual.

9. Take a hot bath before bed. The drop in body temperature after getting out of the bath may help you feel sleepy, and the bath can help you relax and slow down so you’re more ready to sleep.

10. Dark bedroom, cool bedroom, gadget-free bedroom. Get rid of anything in your bedroom that might distract you from sleep, such as noises, bright lights, an uncomfortable bed, or warm temperatures. You sleep better if the temperature in the room is kept on the cool side. A TV, cell phone, or computer in the bedroom can be a distraction and deprive you of needed sleep. Having a comfortable mattress and pillow can help promote a good night’s sleep. Individuals who have insomnia often watch the clock. Turn the clock’s face out of view so you don’t worry about the time while trying to fall asleep.

11. Have the right sunlight exposure. Daylight is key to regulating daily sleep patterns. Try to get outside in natural sunlight for at least thirty minutes each day. If possible, wake up with the sun or use very bright lights in the morning. Sleep experts recommend that, if you have problems falling asleep, you should get an hour of exposure to morning sunlight and turn down the lights before bedtime.

12. Don’t lie in bed awake. If you find yourself still awake after staying in bed for more than twenty minutes or if you are starting to feel anxious or worried, get up and do some relaxing activity until you feel sleepy. The anxiety of not being able to sleep can make it harder to fall asleep.

Conclusion

Evolution spent over 3 million years perfecting sleep in service of basic life support functions and in the last few hundreds years we´ve managed to decimate this and our health for the sake of “productivity”.

This silent pandemic been taking victims for years now and will continue to do so if we don’t start to act.

It’s time to claim back our right for a full-night sleep without embarassment. As we’ve seen, there isn’t a single reason for sleep deprivation rather than the obsolete argument of “we’ve done so before so we should continue to do so as well”.

Now that you have at your hands the tools to change your sleep, I hope you will be reunited to that powerfull elixir that you used to enjoy a long time ago.

Hopefully this post brought some sense into you and you’ve now realized the importance of sleep.

The obvious next step is to actually working on improving it, which to be honest is the hardest part.

Though do not desist. Once you experience the true power of what 8 hrs of sleep can do, I’m sure you won’t be so quick on your feet to stay up late again.

This was a summay of a fantastic book by the genius Matthew Walker called Why We Sleep.

Matthew Walker is a renowned neuroscientist, sleep researcher, and professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. With over two decades of experience studying sleep, he has published more than 100 scientific papers on the subject. As the author of the bestselling book Why We Sleep, Walker has become a leading voice in raising awareness about the critical role of sleep in health, productivity, and well-being. His work has been featured in global platforms like TED Talks and Netflix documentaries, making complex sleep science accessible to the public.

If you wish to learn more about sleep I strongly encourage you to read his book.

Also, here’s a link of my personal notes on his book in case you want a quicker dive into it:

 https://ww.notion.so/luisfbeltran/Why-we-sleep-Unlocking-the-power-of-sleep-and-dreams-cd39285249d644c7b0b8b46739ecc98e?pvs=4

Also, if you stumbled upon this post online, I encourage you to subscribe to my newsletter where we review 1 book per week with the goal making knowledge accessible and easy to digest for everyone.

As always, thank you so much for reading, and I’ll see you next week.

Live for more,
Luis Beltran
Quito, Ecuador