The Science of Sleep
March 18th, 2008If you’ve ever doubted the importance of sleep and its connection to health, please take a look at these two clips. A very good, eye-opening (pun intended) story about the value of sleep.
60 Minutes story - The Science of Sleep part one
60 Minutes story - The Science of Sleep part two
March 20th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Wow, what a wake-up call. I was amazed by this study showing that merely 6 nights of short sleep can put someone in a prediabetic state! When I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, I had a hunch that my bad sleep habits had been a contributing factor.
I was also struck by the discussion about people who boast of being able getting by on minimal sleep - that our society views it as something to be proud of! But the studies in this 60 Minutes special indicate quite the opposite.
I wonder how aware people are that our sleep deprivation endangers not only ourselves but also the lives of others.
March 21st, 2008 at 5:20 am
A long time ago I was driving along the border of Idaho and Wyoming. I was returning from a camping trip and it was late at night. I became so sleepy I was desperate for a place to pull over and sleep but there wasn’t even a shoulder let alone a rest area. To make matters worse to one side there was a mountain wall and to the other there was a several hundred foot drop to a lake.
I kept dozing and jerking awake. No matter how loud I turned my radio up, rolled my windows down and slapped myself - and I slapped hard - I still kept falling asleep. The only thing that saved me was when I fell asleep and woke up to find myself in the opposite lane heading toward a rock wall. It must have pumped enough adrenalin in me to get across the border into Wyoming and to a rest area.
That memory will stay with me a long time.