The less you sleep, the less you live
The somnologist told about the "catastrophic epidemic" that struck society
Society is mired in a "catastrophic epidemic of sleep deprivation," which can lead to consequences more serious than we can imagine. This was stated in an interview with The Guardian (The shorter your sleep, the shorter your life: the new sleep science) by an American scientist, director of the Center for the Study of Sleep in Humans at the University of California at Berkeley Matthew Walker.
"No aspect of our biology remains unaffected by lack of sleep," he says. According to the scientist, the disadvantage (that is, less than seven hours) Sleep can lead to numerous problems, including memory impairment, diabetes, obesity, cancer and Alzheimer's disease.
Walker explains why people have been sleeping less in the last 75 years. Firstly, the fact is that we "electrified" the night. "It is light that is an important factor that takes away our sleep," he explained.
Secondly, the problem is the time that people spend at work and on the way to it. "Nobody wants to sacrifice the time they have left for family and entertainment, so they sacrifice sleep instead," Walker says.
In addition, in the modern world, many people associate sleep with weakness and laziness. "We want to appear busy, and one way to show this is to report how little sleep we get. This is a badge of honor," the scientist noted.
According to him, humans are the only species deliberately depriving themselves of sleep for no apparent reason.
In his opinion, large organizations and legislators should seriously address the problem of sleep deprivation.
"The situation must change: at work and in society, at home, in families. Have you ever come across a poster of the National Health Service, on which people would be encouraged to sleep? And when was the last time a doctor prescribed a patient not sleeping pills, but sleep itself? Sleep should be a priority, it needs to be stimulated," he says.
He himself admits that he sleeps eight hours every night, and this rule is not subject to revision. "If I give people some advice, it's like this: go to bed and get up at the same time every day, no matter what," he says, noting that he takes sleep very seriously because he has seen what a lack of it leads to.
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26.09.2017