The Big Snooze

This morning a cat jumped on my head as I lay in bed. I glanced at the digital clock. It read 9:15. There is no particular time when I need to get up in the morning anymore, so I was wasn’t late for anything (except from the perspective of a hungry cat), but that was an anomalous reading nonetheless. 8:00 a.m. is a more typical time for me to arise these days, and even that feels very lazily late to me after decades of school and work schedules that demanded much earlier rises. Even if I’m up until 3:00 a.m. (once commonplace but now a rarity) I’ll most likely be up before the readout changes from 7:59 to 8:00. During the day I’ll notice the missed hours of sleep however. I have no explanation for this morning’s delay other than that whatever complex regulates such things (suprachiasmatic nuclei and the pineal gland have something to do with it, most sources say) decided I needed more sleep, just as some mornings (like yesterday) it decides I should be wide awake at 7:00, and on some nights (thankfully few lately) it decides I won’t sleep at all.

It’s not entirely clear why we need sleep. There are numerous hypotheses ranging from resetting the immune system to consolidating memories, though despite decades of research they are only hypotheses. (One suggestion is that it kept our ancestors out of trouble at night when they couldn’t see dangers well if they wandered around, though it seems to me that a bunch of snoozing hominins would be very vulnerable to predators.) There are notable negative physical effects from not getting enough sleep including hormonal imbalance, hypertension, and increased risk of obesity, diabetes, and heart attack. There are a handful of people who get by on just a few hours per night without noticeable ill effects (a study published in Science implicates a genetic mutation on the gene DEC2 as the cause) but even they need some sleep; they are just more efficient sleepers who get done in less time whatever the rest of do when zonked out for eight hours. As that may be, it is unknown for certain whether it is sleep per se that is healthful or whether it is the thwarting of the sleep-inducing systems that is unhealthful. In a disturbing 1989 study at the University of Chicago, ten rats were subjected to total sleep deprivation. All of them died between day 11 and day 32. No cause of death could be found. There were symptoms to be sure including odd ones such as lesions on the tails, but nothing normally lethal such as organ failures or blood poisons. They just died.
 
For obvious reasons, the research team didn’t repeat the experiment on people, but there have been numerous less extreme sleep deprivation experiments on humans. The record for sleep deprivation is held by Randy Gardner who was 17 at the time. (There are accounts of others who since have beaten his record, but they are not independently verified.) In 1964 he stayed awake for 264.4 hours: over 11 days. He found the experience awful and lost a grip on reality toward the end (hallucinations are common in cases of severe sleep deprivation), but after a 14-hour nap he recovered completely. There were no health aftereffects.
 
The longest I ever was awake at single stretch was 75 hours. This was at George Washington University as long ago as 1974. I was wrapping up two term papers before their deadline. All the (pre-internet) research was finished and the papers were roughed out, but they still needed substantial work. With no other stimulants but Mountain Dew (for readers in countries where it isn’t sold, Mountain Dew is a caffeinated fizzy drink) I plugged away for three days without sleep. At 10:40 a.m. on the due date, a Friday, I finished typing the very last bibliography entry, grabbed both papers, and left my dorm on 19th Street. One paper was due at 11 and the other at 1. As I strolled along F Street my vision was fuzzy, the DC street sounds and my own voice were oddly muted, and my feet felt as though big soft pillows were strapped to them. Door handles felt rubbery. The experience wasn’t quite hallucinatory, but it came close. When I returned to my dorm after delivering the papers I slept for 12 hours. I didn’t know what day it was when I woke up. I’m satisfied to let 75 hours stand as a personal best. I’ve since gone as much as 40 hours at a stretch, but unintentionally: a sleepless night occurs now and then. It makes one appreciate the next snooze. Rita Rudner: “Sleep is the best of both worlds; you get to be alive and unconscious.”
 
Sporadic short-term insomnia is normal: stress, worries, heartburn from overeating, and even itches can cause it, along with a multitude of other things. Sometimes there is no discernible reason, in which case you might as well get up and do something else. This type of insomnia is self-limiting. At some point our own biology will put us to sleep. Chronic insomnia is another matter. Any number of medical and mental health problems can cause it that are worth addressing. For most of us most of the time, however, insufficient sleep isn’t something forced upon us. It is our own fault: we stay up too late even if we must get up early. It’s a hard habit to break, but the benefits are large if we do. "For any purpose requiring the Energy whether of the Body or the Mind,” wrote Dr. William Kitchener in his 1821 book The Art of Invigorating and Prolonging Life, "A 'forty-winks' nap in an horizontal posture is the best preparative for any extraordinary exertions of either." So too.

Sarah Vaughan – Through a Long and Sleepless Night