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The blessed state

Lack of sleep will kill us sooner than lack of food

PHOTO: AP

BEST TONIC Sleep is wonderfully restorative

Like hunger and thirst, sleep can be considered as a major, principal biological drive. It cannot be ignored or neglected at any stage of our life. Sleep is universal and serves a primordial purpose, so vital to preserve physical and mental health of living beings. In sleep, the head bobs; eyes cease to flutter and the muscles of the whole body slump. These are classic signs to know that someone is fast asleep and hold true in the case of all species, birds, animals and even flies. Deprivation of sleep causes physical and mental problems and faster deaths than those deprived of food. Humans with undeniable drive to sleep make up the lost one by sleeping deeper and longer the next chance they get it.

Researchers say that fruit flies sleep up to 12 hours a day. If animals like sheep slept really not deeply, they would be extinct.

Sleep patterns

Interestingly, in the case of the dolphin, the mother, after giving birth, does not sleep for a substantial time. Nor does the newborn. The baby then gradually increases the hours of sleep to adult levels over a period of months, and the mother goes back to her regular sleeping pattern. Recently, results from sleep studies in human and animals have begun to lead to some promising explanations. Researchers are finding that sleep may help babies learn the placement of their limbs at the proper places and adults to fix new memories in their brains.

Sleep is wonderfully restorative. It gives the brain time to replenish energy stores. It may also allow recuperating from the learning it does during the day. Or, perhaps, sleep may do some combination of all these things. After a day of hectic work we drag ourselves to bed and wake up after seven or eight hours later, alert, revitalised, energetic, happy and recharged.

We sleep because we want our bodies and brains adequate power to repair it. Sleep repairs the damage caused by our busy metabolism, replenish dwindling energy stores and even grow new neurons. Sleep deprivation may cause damage to the cell membrane in the hypothalamus; mental discord, problems in spontaneity, flexibility and originality in our thought processes. One of the primary functions of sleep is to repair the cerebral cortex from the wear and tear of consciousness. Army psychology and strategy reveals that soldiers learn complex battle manoeuvres and operations skills comparatively in a better way, while they sleep. Individuals without sleep for periods of 72 to 98 hours might experience increasing psychological disorganisation for time, place and feelings of depersonalisation.

We must sleep in order to stay sane. The strategy to induce sleep is to eat plain carbohydrates like potatoes, corn, bagels and muffins, which trigger the sleep-inducing brain chemical serotonin.

Sleep is costly, for in sleep, we neither take care of anyone around us, nor protect ourselves. When an animal sleeps, it is not taking care of its young and not indulging in self-protection. It neither eats nor procreates.

Sleep allows us to process, consolidate and retain new memories and skills. The more one sleeps, the more improvement he shows, which really is a nice linear relationship.

C.P. SOMASUNDARAM

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