Everyone knows that sleeping a minimum of 7-8 hours a day is necessary to maintain a good physical condition, a good emotional state, and adequate mental health.
However, the theory applied to practice is somewhat utopian in the 21st century. The new generations sleep less every day, falling below the average of 7 hours, which over a long period of time can lead to alterations in the digestive system, heart problems, hypertension and memory loss, among others.
Sleeping the minimum 7 hours is, according to the WHO, necessary to achieve the 4 phases of sleep and the rapid eye movement (REM) phase. These phases of sleep collaborate in the acquisition of energy, help to retain information in the long term, release sex hormones and improve the immune response.
Not getting enough sleep can lead to daily problems such as errors in decision making. In addition, it has been seen that people are prone to greater consumption of narcotic substances and medical pills to offset the effects of lack of sleep.
On the other hand, in the most extreme cases of spending sleepless nights, the body stops metabolizing glucose correctly and failures in the immune system begin. Within 3-4 days, people begin to hallucinate . After more than a week, the organism can begin to fail, being able to cause death, although this is not common.
The record is held by Randy Gardner , in 1964, with 11 days without sleep and without stimulants beyond Coca-Cola on a regular basis. The effects were important. Randy experienced all of the issues listed above, including slurred speech, lack of expression, monotones of speech , etc. After going back to sleep, the time you spent awake affected your taste, smell, hearing and mind. She felt nauseated when smelling common foods, suffered from hearing loss and sometimes suffered from micro dreams. After several days dragging these problems, they took him to a hospital to monitor his brain waves and, over time, he recovered his normal abilities.
Randy's parents, however, were very concerned, as they thought that so many days without sleep would mean the death of their son. It was a matter of luck that this was not the case.
Cases like this should serve to value more the art of knowing how to sleep and make us aware that the hours of sleep are important, as is the quality of it, for a normal performance in our health and daily life.