'Arrogance' of ignoring need for sleep

[frigidmagi]

BBC

Society has become "supremely arrogant" in ignoring the importance of sleep, leading researchers have told the BBC's Day of the Body Clock.

Scientists from Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Manchester and Surrey universities warn cutting sleep is leading to "serious health problems".

They say people and governments need to take the problem seriously.

Cancer, heart disease, type-2 diabetes, infections and obesity have all been linked to reduced sleep.

The body clock drives huge changes in the human body.

It alters alertness, mood, physical strength and even the risk of a heart attack in a daily rhythm.

It stems from our evolutionary past when we were active in the day and resting at night.

But scientists have warned that modern life and 24-hour society mean many people are now "living against" their body clocks with damaging consequences for health and wellbeing.

He said: "We are the supremely arrogant species; we feel we can abandon four billion years of evolution and ignore the fact that we have evolved under a light-dark cycle.

"What we do as a species, perhaps uniquely, is override the clock. And long-term acting against the clock can lead to serious health problems."

He says this is an issue affecting the whole of society, not just shift workers.

Prof Foster said that this was an acute problem in teenagers and he had met children who sleep by popping their parent's sleeping tablets in the evening and then downing three Red Bulls in the morning.

Blue light

Emerging evidence suggests modern technology is now keeping us up later into the night and cutting sleep.

"Light is the most powerful synchroniser of your internal biological clock," Prof Charles Czeisler, from Harvard University, told the BBC Day of the Body Clock.

He said energy efficient light bulbs as well as smartphones, tablets and computers had high levels of light in the blue end of the spectrum which is "right in the sweet spot" for disrupting the body clock.

"Light exposure, especially short wavelength blue-ish light in the evening, will reset our circadian rhythms to a later hour, postponing the release of the sleep-promoting hormone melatonin and making it more difficult for us to get up in the morning.

"It's a big concern that we're being exposed to much more light, sleeping less and, as a consequence, may suffer from many chronic diseases."

[Pioneering genetic research is now uncovering how living life against the clock is damaging our health.

About 10% of human DNA has a 24-hour pattern of activity, which is behind all the behavioural and physiological changes in the body.

But studies have shown rhythm can be disrupted by short sleep durations or shift work.

Dr Simon Archer, who conducted the studies at the University of Surrey, said there was a "large impact" on how the body ran.

"These are all fundamental biological pathways that can be underlying links to some of the negative health outcomes that we see such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity and potentially cancer in people who don't get enough sleep or do shift work," he said.

Experiments show people can become pre-diabetic after a few weeks of shift work.

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Dr Akhilesh Reddy, from the University of Cambridge, said the body clock influences every biological process in the human body and the health consequences of living against the clock were "pretty clear cut", particularly in breast cancer.

He said: "Try to live more rhythmically, in tune with the environment and not have too much bright light before bedtime because it will affect the clock and sleep."

Prof Andrew Loudon, from the University of Manchester, said: "The problems caused by living against the body clock may be less sexy than the countless 'this or that causes cancer stories' it is none-the-less a major problem for society."

"You might not notice any short-term changes in your health following circadian disruption, but over a long period of time, the consequences could be quite severe.

"Governments need to take this seriously, starting perhaps with reviewing the health consequences of shift work, and society and legislators needs to take this on board."

[General Havoc]

Vague assertions of awful shit that will happen based on poorly understood science ("10% of human DNA has a 24-hour pattern of activity"), useless anecdotes ("I know a child who..."), scaremongering (If you are tired, you will get cancer, diabetes, and have a heart attack), general blame throwing at everyone but the author ("Society is supremely arrogant"), and a single throwaway line at the end about how "someone ought to do something about this pervasive thing that I just came up with. What? A constructive solution of any sort? Come on man, I told you about the fact that your lifestyle which I disapprove of is literally exterminating the human species. Am I supposed to actually think here too?"

Yep, that's a BBC science article for you.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Vague assertions of awful shit that will happen based on poorly understood science ("10% of human DNA has a 24-hour pattern of activity")

That part is actually right. Different genes get turned on and off due to different stimuli. For example, the genes that manufacture vasopressin get turned on when you engage in pair-bonding activity with a mate (such as cuddling). Other genes have this happen due to light exposure or the lack thereof.

There are health consequences for not getting enough sleep. This is not a shock. Shift work is harmful, also not a shock. Not because the shift timing itself is bad, but because shifts are unstable. Without seeing the actual papers I can only make general comments, but here goes.

First of all, no, we did not evolve being active in the day and resting at night. We, as a species, evolved from nocturnal proto-primates who later became diurnal, and when the forest gave way to savannah and we evolved into proper hominids and mastered fire, we became active at whatever time was conducive to our local survival. There are places on earth where being active during the day is bad (deserts), or not possible for significant portions of the year (the arctic). I would hypothesize that there are either population differences in gene activity based on light, or that stable cycles irrespective of light will modify patterns of gene transcription.

Suggestion with respect to blueish light. Filter the god damn lightbulbs if it is a problem. Jesus fucking christ. You put a fixture on that filters out some of the blue light and leaves other parts of the spectrum. This is not difficult.

Education. Not starting school in the pre-dawn might be a good idea. Holy Shit. Start at 9 AM instead of 7. Holy Fuckbeans.

[Lys]

The eight hours of sleep a night is useful as a guideline, but it shouldn't be adhered to rigidly. There is a lot of indication that humanity has some flexibility and an individual's sleeping habits should be tailored to their personal needs. Some people require as little as six hours of sleep, some people do better by taking a nap sometime during the day, some people do best by breaking up their nightly sleep into two parts with a period of activity in between.

[General Havoc]

Breaking one's sleep up into two portions actually used to be quite common from what I've read, back in the 19th century. It's certainly been a subject of many regular "Behold the glorious way things were before society fucked everyone up and ruined the life of all mankind forever in ways that I alone am not responsible for" articles.

[Lys]

Yeah, I've read the same thing, that's why I mentioned it. I recall period writings suggest that the break between first sleep and second sleep is the best time to have sex, both from the point of view of enjoyment and to enhance the chances of produces children. It certainly sounds fun: Wake up feeling nice in your comfy bed, snuggle up intimately with your significant other, enjoy yourselves, then go back into the warm embrace of slumber.