How much sleep do we really need and what it does to us
Like me, most people have asked themselves this question. The truth is that there is no real formula as to how much sleep we actually need. Sleep demands vary from person to person, and many factors influence the need for sleep such as age, pregnancy, environment, drugs, etc. Take for instance the age factor: most infants require about 16 hours of sleep, yet adults are fine with an average of 8 hours. That is half the time needed by an infant. Despite 8 hours being the average sleep time, some adults need just 5 hours every day to feel ready and energized and some people like myself, need about nine or ten hours.
Although Sleep was thought to be a passive process until the 1950’s, we know with certainty that our brains are very active during our sleep phases. One of the greatest discoveries about sleep is the fact that our brains consolidate memories and boost our learning abilities during sleep. The popular phrase “sleep on it” is not far-fetched from reality. Many people have had eureka moments during sleep like in the case of famous scientist Dimitri Mendeleyev. His greatest invention was the periodic table of elements. This idea came to him during his sleep one afternoon while taking a nap. The key question here is: If sleeping can boost our memory and learning considerably, why don’t we encourage sleeping more? It seems that the only people taking advantage of this fact are pre-schools where they allow all children to take naps. No wonder kids are so clever!
Sleeping Myth:
Lost sleep is not recuperated
I regret to tell all those believers out there that they can recuperate lost sleep. When your body is deprived from sleep, you generate “sleep debt” and like any other debt you might accumulate in life, you have to pay it back. The more you accumulate sleep debt, the worse it is for your body and mind.
We believe we can function 100% on less sleep but that is not true and there is a lot of research supporting that fact. If you live a life of constant sleep deprivation then you live a life of constant impairment. Your judgment is affected, reaction times, mood, body chemicals and much more. You might think you are ok, but the truth is that you are not. It is like a drunken person saying they are ok to drive. They think they are, but we all know it is not the case.
When I was a graduate student we would attend a few seminars every week to see what other scientists where doing and keep up to date with new advances in science. During my four years of school I would fall, asleep quite often, within 5 minutes of the speaker talking.
I used to believe they were boring, but the truth is that I was completely sleep deprived and my body would shut down any moment it could. Being in a room with dim lights was not the best place to fight sleep. If you fall asleep that easily like I used to then you are sleep deprived.
Stimulants, although effective, in the long run will not help you. Caffeine is the most popular anti-sleep stimulant. Eventually if you keep accumulating sleep debt, caffeine or any other stimulant will have no effect on you. Your brain can’t be tricked for too long.
The effects of not sleeping are strong enough to cause death. Experiments done in rodent’s show that a normal rat, whose life spam is about 3 years, will die if the REM stage is deprived for five weeks. And rats that are deprived of all stages (1-5) will only live 3 weeks.
The effects are worse than being food deprived!
In his case studies he conducted interviews with major celebrities including Andrew Carnegie, The Rockefellers and Thomas Edison. He realized that they all had one thing in common: they were able to transform their sexual driving force to increase their success and potential.
It is not an easy task by any means, but those who are able tend to be very successful. You might be asking how this can be achieved. One of the most effective steps towards transferring sexual energy is to establish a stable monogamous relationship. Your spouse/partner will be the best driving force to help you control the power of sex and deviate it to better use. I am not saying that you should not have sexual relations with your spouse by all means. Having one partner, as I mentioned above, allows you to focus and having relations with your spouse greatly increases happiness and your financial success.
References:
Hill, Napoleon. 1937. Think and Grow Rich. The Ralston Society.
Fisher, Hellen. 2004. Why we Love. New York: Owl Books.
German Garcia-Fresco, PhD.
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