Sleep Deprivation

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I'm looking for information to convince my students to sleep. They need scientific proof that sleep will help them in their studies. Many of my high school students only get 4 hours of irregular sleep a day because they stay up at night to study. Could you help me? I am teaching in the rural mountainside of Korea where we don't >have access to library and books -- just the Internet.

Victoria Lee

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Comment 12:

Something to note re metabolic rates:

There is the suggestion that 1 second of real time is 'mapped' to 1.2 heartbeats in humans which is 72 beats per minute. There is also the suggestion that fit individuals can optimise this to 1 : 1 by functioning with a rate of 60 beats per minute. Thus the unfit require more sleep than the fit. If I then impose a social regime of X hours sleep per day, but I am unfit and so need X+y hours, so over time the accumulation of 'lost' y hours will start to take hold and I get tired easily.

Thus a light exercise regime can help in optimising metabolic functions and so optimise sleep times and help to remove the 'need' for the y hours and so these hours become available for use, either in leasure or in work.

The adult mappings of 1.2 to 1, if changed by 0.05 (or is it 0.005? I have a formula somwhere....we see the same 'complexity' patterns in that very small changes can elicit noticable differences later) gives you a time distortion of about 5 seconds per minute, and there is the suggestion that this is Spearman's elusive 'g' factor in basic intelligence determinants in that the time distortions allow for variations in information assimilation and so perceived 'IQ'. For example, you will have states where an individual who processes data at a rate of 100 bits per second, when compared to someone who can process 120 bits per second will seem 'less intelligent'. In 'real' time so both have a second to process the data, but the differences in metabolic rates (barring health problems) allows the person burning 'higher' to accumulate more data in that they have 'more time' to do so.

The compensation for this is that the 1.2 burner requires more sleep!

Cretanism results from a rate that is too slow, there seems to be a linkage failure, and this ties to thyroid diseases in that the thyroid controls MR. There are also times to some types of psychosis that result from the rate being too high. (note that so-called flashbulb memories are linked to very high rates that accompany stress -- e.g. where were you when JFK/John Lennon/etc etc was assasinated? We see this in car accidents etc where time seems to 'slow down'...)

This all suggests that there is a range within which information can be processed with higher rates (barring health problems etc) leading to 'better' processing but the price can be threats to body integrity. (ADHD/ADD/Schizoids often take stimulants that help 'link' time such that there are less perceived distractions..experience is 'smooth' rather than agitated and so 'lumpy'...)

With this in mind note that lack of sleep can lead to agitated behaviour and lack of self-control -- characteristics shared with ADHD/ADD ...

Then note that (I think this is right ?!) ADHD/ADD is linked to dopamine uptake problems and these are also linked to hippocampus processes of linking memories; sleep deprivation can lead to 'unusual' memory associations possibly as a result of disruptions to the 'rhythm' of memory linkage in that it becomes disjoint and 'random'...

The other side of the coin deals with serotonin uptake problems and depression. Depression can emerge from social stress such that the uptake of serotonin is too fast (high MR can do this?). It is thus possible for too much study to create stress (tiredness) that leads to depression (and in extreme cases suicide?)

As you can see from this, 'proper' balance is essential, high MR rates can improve things for some but at a price, better to reduce the rates through maintaining overall body fitness and so process the same amount of information but with less cost in energy.

best,

Chris.


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Silvia Helena Cardoso, PhD

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