Sleeping less may life less

Sep 12: Study led by Professor Francesco Cappuccio from the University of Warwick’s Warwick Medical School found that sleep deprivation falls harder on women then man.

Examining participants including 4199 men and 1567 women, who slept less then 5 hours a night to see the risk of developing high blood pressure is higher in men and women getting the recommended 7 hour sleep.

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He observed that women who slept for less or equal to 5 hours have a tendency to develop twice the high blood pressure of a woman getting 7 hours of sleep a night.

Professor Cappuccio said “Sustained sleep curtailment, ensuing excessive daytime sleepiness, and the higher cardiovascular risk are causes for concern. Emerging evidence also suggests a potential role for sleep deprivation as a predictor or risk factor for conditions like obesity and diabetes,”.

The research paper entitled: ‘Gender-Specific Associations of Short Sleep Duration with Prevalent and Incident Hypertension: The Whitehall-II Study’ is published in the October issue of “Hypertension”.

In another study, researchers from National Sleep Foundation have alarmed the ‘ill effects of Sleep Deprivation’. They found that poor sleep habits may also transforms in obesity.



"There's an association between (poor, inadequate) sleep and obesity," said Dr. Joseph Ojile, head of the Clayton Sleep Institute.

The scientific evident came when University of Chicago researcher in endocrinology, Eve van Cauter, found that poor sleep disrupted two hormones associated with appetite.



It was marked that Leptin and Ghrelin which control requirement of food in the body. Leptin says no to food, while ghrelin tells yes to food. The interplay of both the hormones is required to keep a balance in the body regarding need of food.

In a study the subjects were made to sleep for just four hours a night .And the malfunctioning of the hormones was seen in two days. Leptin production decreases by 18% while Ghrelin production increased by 28%. This change in hormones led them to crave for higher calorie food.



Thus on the basis of this experiment researchers reached to a conclusion that sleep deprivation increased appetite, causing over eating and then weight gain.

Many other studies have found that sleep deprivation results in many physical as well as mental problems. The journal ‘SLEEP’ in March 2007 published an article that claimed sleep deprivation impairs the ability to make moral decisions.

We feel rejuvenated after sleep, as our mind as well as our body goes to rest. It involve a cycle of complex brain waves pattern, Rapid Eye Movement) (REM) and Non REM sleep. REM is the period when we dream.

A good sleep is followed by enhanced learning and memory, it also affects our social behaviour, brain is said to get repaired during sleep, and immunity also gets a boast. Lack of sleep interferes in the normal functioning of our body. Outcome of sleep deprivation has affected decision making, lack of concentration, anxiety, depression, irritability.

The amount of sleep one need depends on various factors like one’s genetic makeup, age and physical well being. Though one can make up for the sleep debt who is not having proper sleep for few days but chronic sleep debt must be treated on proper time.

Sleep has been one of the favorite subjects of study among the researchers because of the mystery surrounding it.