Healthy sleep is crucial for your physical and mental well-being. At the Marc Bony Chiropractic Center in Mataró, we understand the importance of adequate rest and its relationship with natural health.

The Science of Sleep

Studies conducted by Eve Van Cauter, director of the Sleep, Metabolism and Health Center at the University of Chicago (USA), indicate that sleeping less than 6 hours a day could impair reaction capacity, generate cognitive problems, and incapacitate rational decision-making!

Effects of Lack of Sleep

According to her study, sleeping less than 6 hours each night can cause:

• Aging of the heart
• Risk of insulin resistance
• High blood pressure
• Risk of severe dementia or Alzheimer’s
• Psychosis or mental impairment
• Lack of concentration and productivity
• Blood intoxication
• Immune system dysfunction

The ideal amount of sleep for an adult is 6 to 9 hours per night.

The documentary “Science of Sleep” by National Geographic (available only in English) —conducted in 2015— showed research carried out in the 80s where it was found that depriving mice of sleep for 17 consecutive days resulted in certain death.

Studies

In 2013, in the United States, drowsy drivers caused 72,000 car accidents in which 800 people died and 44,000 were injured. This is more than the deaths caused by texting and drunk drivers.

Surveys show that 63% of people do not get enough sleep to stay healthy, 69% have frequent sleep problems and 22% are so drowsy during the day that it affects their quality of life and work. The main reason indicated by most people is that they simply ignored their drowsiness to complete tasks they needed to fulfill.

Healthy sleep consists of several stages:

Stages 1 and 2 (light sleep; non-REM): Here, biological processes in your body slow down, but your brain remains active as it begins the editing process where decisions are made about which memories to store and which to discard.

•Stages 3 and 4 (deep sleep; non-REM): this is a deeper sleep stage, during which physiological cleaning and detoxification processes in the brain occur. Here your cerebrospinal fluid can remove waste.

•Stage 5 (REM): this is the rapid eye movement (REM) phase, where dreaming occurs. In this phase, your brain is as active as it is during wakefulness, but your body is paralyzed, preventing you from acting out your dreams.

Some have had a terrifying experience of sleep paralysis during this phase and found their body unresponsive. The “treatment” for this disorder is knowledge. As noted in “The Science of Sleep”, you simply need to be informed about what is happening so you can calmly get through the episode, which typically won’t last more than a few minutes.

Economic Data

Sleep deprivation has cost 411 billion dollars annually in accidents and loss of productivity³ to the economies of the United States and Europe, an amount equivalent to approximately 2.28% of their gross domestic product. Additionally, 1.2 million workdays are estimated to be lost.

The Influence of Genetics, Jet Lag, and Stress Chemicals on Sleep

Lack of sleep can be worsened by jet lag. Also known as flight fatigue, time zone change syndrome, or desynchronosis, jet lag occurs when travel across time zones disrupts the internal body clock, causing daytime drowsiness and lethargy, nighttime insomnia, irritability, confusion, and poor concentration.

Interestingly, researchers have found that people with a genetically inherited sleep disorder called familial advanced sleep phase syndrome have a circadian body clock that operates approximately three hours faster than normal.

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