Skimping on sleep can shorten life, experts warn
Habitually short cycle can impair immune system
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – If you get the right amount of ZZZs at night, you will not only feel better, think better, eat better and drive better, you may actually live longer, sleep experts say.
And while there’s still plenty that scientists don’t know about sleep and its restorative power, recent evidence shows that not getting the 7 to 9 hours of sleep recommended for healthy adults each night has serious health consequences.
“You basically die at an earlier age,” said Dr. Thomas Kilkenny, director of the Institute of Sleep Medicine at Staten Island University Hospital, citing a higher risk of stroke, diabetes and cardiovascular disease among people who voluntarily or involuntarily sleep less than the recommended amount of time.
A habitually short sleep cycle impairs the immune system, and also elevates blood glucose levels, leading to the development of diabetes, said Dr. Irina Petrenko, a staff member at New York’s Richmond University Medical Center who has a sleep medicine practice in Brooklyn.
“Our ability to fight infection is impaired,” she said. What many don’t realize, she said, is sleep also affects weight gain.
As we sleep, levels of the hormone leptin are elevated, telling our bodies we’re full, she explained. “Low levels make our brain think we don’t have enough energy, so our brain tells us we’re hungry,” she said. “It increases our desire to snack while we’re awake. We’ll be craving something sweet. If you’ve just had a few episodes of insomnia, you’ll be reaching for the coffee with sugar and the cookie.”
The body balances leptin with another hormone, ghrelin, she said. Ghrelin tells the body it’s hungry, and it decreases during sleep. “It has a significant impact on our weight control because during the daytime you could have a very healthy diet, but without sleep, our immune system slows down, we gain weight and we have cravings for sweets.”
Cholesterol goes up when sleep levels are low, she said, noting laboratory studies performed on mice. “Sleep-deprived mice had larger cholesterol plaques in their arteries and high levels of inflammation in their blood vessels,” she said.
Memory, concentration and spontaneous thought also suffer when we sleep too little, studies have shown.
“People burn the candle at both ends, unfortunately, in the U.S. culture of working hard, and burning the midnight oil is actually looked upon as heroic,” Kilkenny said.
As many of us work or study late into the night and sleep less and less in an effort to learn or achieve more, we’re actually being counterproductive, he said.
“The best thing to do before a test is to go to bed early, get restorative sleep,” Kilkenny said. “Even if you don’t study it all, you’re still better off. A lot of that extra stuff is really going out the window and you’re never going to remember it.“
Staten Island Borough President James Oddo has taken up the cause of sleep deprivation, pressing for city high schools to start classes a bit later in the day. The extra sleep will do teenagers good, he says, pointing to the fact that teens are wired to stay up later at night.
“Asking a high school kid to go to bed at 8 o’clock is pointless,” he said. “And we force them to get up early. We spend $60 billion a year, trying to educate kids at an improper time.”
Fortunately, Oddo said, the science of sleep is improving and minds are being opened.
Of course, there are those who make every effort to get a good night’s sleep, but are prevented from doing so because of medical conditions, such as sleep apnea and insomnia.
Sleep apnea is a breathing disorder in which breathing stops and starts during sleep. Snoring, gasping for air and waking up tired after a full night’s sleep are symptoms of sleep apnea, Kilkenny said. Those who suspect sleep apnea should see their primary care physician or a sleep specialist because they aren’t getting quality, restorative sleep, he said.
Getting patients to use the treatments prescribed, including wearing a CPAP mask to keep airways open during sleep, is sometimes a challenge because people often don’t see the danger they’re putting themselves in by sacrificing sleep.
“To those that don’t want to use the treatment, I say, ‘You’ll use it, but it’ll probably be after your stroke or heart attack,’ ” Kilkenny said. “Sometimes, it’s a tough-love situation.”