Tired drivers die in road accidents every year, but this is not the only problem. If you sleep too little, your risk of getting sick increases.
This is stated by renowned American sleep researcher Matthew Walker in his new book Why We Sleep.
Getting enough sleep is a life-prolonging miracle cure. It makes you more creative, improves memory, helps you stay slim, reduces appetite, protects you from cancer and dementia, and lowers the risk of diabetes, heart attack and stroke.
More than 17 thousand scientific articles speak about this, Walker writes.
The American believes that all the major causes of illness and death in industrialized countries - such as heart disease, obesity, diabetes and cancer - are somehow caused by lack of sleep.
Both physical and mental illness
“Sleeping too little increases your risk of a sea of illnesses, both physical and mental. Fear, depression, diabetes, cardiovascular disease are all linked to lack of sleep,”says Bjørn Bjorvatn, researcher at SOVno (Norwegian Sleep Research Service) and professor at the University of Bergen. And he continues:
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“It is important that sleep is your priority. This can be tricky - being awake is often much more fun. But if you sleep too little, it will have consequences."
Björvatn has just read a book by his American colleague. He says that the relationships Walker describes are known from the research already done, but perhaps his American colleague is going too far.
Håvard Kallestad, a scientist at the Norwegian University of Technology (NTNU) and a psychologist at St Olav's Hospital, says Matthew Walker is a leading researcher in the field of sleep research. While his findings may seem overly dramatic, what he writes is not a mistake, Kallestad stresses.
“We humans spend a third of our lives sleeping. And sleep is still a scientifically unsolved problem,”says Kallestad, who is constantly researching sleep problems in patients.
Weight is growing
The risk of getting one or another disease due to lack of sleep increases, because a person may begin to gain weight. Being overweight increases the risk of developing type II diabetes, as well as heart disease.
“If you sleep too little, your appetite increases and you crave sweets more,” says Björvatn.
Walker believes that the risk of getting this or that disease increases greatly, even if a person sleeps six to seven hours. The ideal time to sleep is eight to nine, and at least eight hours, which is how much you should sleep every night.
Björvatn points out that too little sleep increases the risk of illness. But what may not be enough for you is enough for your neighbor. There are people among us who sleep little.
“There is no documentary evidence that we have to sleep eight hours every night. In adults, the need for sleep is different. What scares me more is what might happen if everyone starts to spend eight hours in bed. Then many will simply lie and not sleep, and this causes insomnia."
Some studies in the United States have shown that if you sleep for eight hours in a completely dark room, where no light penetrates at all, people become much more efficient. But we don't live in dark rooms, says Professor Björvatn.
Risk of Disease Increases
• In his book, researcher and professor Matthew Walker describes how lack of sleep increases the risk of heart disease by increasing blood pressure.
• The risk of getting cancer more than doubles as the cells that protect the immune system become weaker.
• Salt deposits and plaque are early signs of Alzheimer's disease. People who start to develop dementia often sleep poorly. Too little sleep prevents plaque from clearing. And the result is a spiral that reinforces itself. This means good sleep can delay dementia.
Can't sleep
Kallestad of the Norwegian University of Technology says there are basically two reasons why people sleep too little. There are those who could sleep longer if they had the opportunity to spend more time in bed, and there are those who will not sleep more, even if they have been in bed for a long time.
The latter may have insomnia. There is a good treatment for them. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) results in 60% of those with insomnia experiencing significant improvement, says Kallestad.
“A lot of people tend to underestimate sleep, but people should definitely spend enough time on it,” he says, adding:
“Sleep is important for memory. We need to sleep in order to be able to absorb new knowledge, and when we sleep, we "process" what we learned."
A recent study by SOVno in Bergen found that 20% of people suffer from insomnia (sleep time measured according to international diagnostic criteria). This is a big figure.
“This indicates an increase in the number of people suffering from insomnia, and at a younger age. The use of electronic media in bed after a person has gone to bed is one of the factors that have changed in recent years, especially among young people,”says Björvatn.
Sleepy bedroom
If you have trouble sleeping, it will not help you much if you stop "sitting" on the phone or kicking the kids out of the bedroom.
Sleep researcher Björn Björvatn and colleagues from SOVno in Bergen conducted a study to find out which sleeping habits are associated with diseases such as insomnia.
1,001 people were interviewed by phone, asking questions about the respondents' sleeping habits. They were asked whether they had read a book while lying in bed or "sat" on the phone, about the temperature in the bedroom, whether there was noise, how new the bed was, and whether they shared the bed with someone.
“There is little difference in sleeping habits between those who have insomnia and those who sleep well,” says Björvatn.
He emphasizes that research can show some kind of relationship, not cause-and-effect relationships. It is not uncommon for those with sleep problems to have the newest beds and the best mattresses. Between those who suffer from insomnia and those who sleep well, there was no difference in the use of a mobile phone in bed.
“Some of those with insomnia use electronic media when they cannot sleep. That is, they do the same thing that they do when they are awake. It is naive to think that if we give up our mobile phone, the problem will be solved."
Nevertheless, the advice not to "sit" on your mobile phone in bed is worth heeding, Bjørvatn emphasizes.
Are you getting enough sleep?
According to American sleep researcher Matthew Walker, you can tell if you are getting enough sleep if you answer two questions.
Could you fall asleep again at 11 o'clock, waking up early in the morning? Do you have to drink coffee to function optimally up to 12 hours? If you answer yes to any of these questions, it means that you are sleeping too little or too poorly, he writes in his latest book.
Björn Björvatn thinks this is too strict a conclusion. He believes that we ourselves can feel whether we sleep too little or not.
“It's possible that you feel like drinking coffee even if you've slept enough. The main thing is to sleep in such a way that you don't feel tired the next day,”he said.
You need to get enough sleep, not more than enough, advises Björvatn. Many people feel that they only get tired if they lie in bed for a long time.
Jorun Gaarder