Avionics News April 2014 - 58

BUSINESS BASICS

Continued from page 57

RESTFUL REHAB
Ironically, suffering the epidemic is
optional, Mayo Clinic cardiologist Dr.
Virend Somers told the Minneapolis
Star-Tribune. "One of the reasons it's
a choice is people don't quite understand or realize the consequences of not
getting enough sleep." Of course, the
quantity we each need is personal, but
it generally falls into the range of seven
to nine hours; fewer than 3 percent of
adults are "short sleepers" who can
function optimally on only four or five
hours. If you're not among them and
are trying to game your system, you
should learn more about how sleep - or

the lack of it - affects the brain and the
body.
Sleep is actually fairly complex,
according to the Division of Sleep
Medicine at Harvard Medical School. It
comprises four different periods - three
of non-random eye movement sleep
that provide physical recuperation,
hormonal balancing, tissue repair, and
learning consolidation; and one of REM
sleep, which enables procedural memory, linking of memories in new ways
that boosts creativity, and dreaming.
Ideally, our brains go through
this cycle several times a night, and
we're wired for this to occur. Our
"homeostatic sleep drive" makes us
feel increasingly tired for every hour
we're awake, and our "circadian pace-

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58

avionics news

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april

2014

Sales & Service

maker" consolidates long periods of
daytime wakefulness and nighttime
sleep. When those two signals finally
cross at the end of the day - assisted
by darkness that causes our brains to
release the sleep-inducing hormone
melatonin - we want to turn in.
Ignoring this impulse does bad
things. Even one night of missed
sleep increases blood concentrations of proteins associated with
concussions, which suggests sleep
deprivation causes brain damage.
Sleeplessness also starves the brain of
fuel, impeding its higher-order structures that help us choose appropriate
foods - or make nuanced decisions
at work. Sleep-deprived people tend
to be more rigid and inflexible, and
they chase gains while ignoring risks,
according to researchers at Duke
University. Other studies show that
even moderate sleepiness stymies
self-control and increases unethical
behavior, such as cheating, cutting
corners and skirting rules.
Elsewhere in the body, fatigue
amps up our fight-or-flight stress
response to increase anxiety and
worrying. It shocks the immune
system into action to produce a
flood of white blood cells and
inflammation, and it boosts blood
hormones that stimulate hunger
- especially cravings for carbohydrates and sugars. The sobering
result is this: People who sleep for
less than six hours a night - and
who sleep so poorly they wake up
tired - have a 65 percent greater risk
of cardiovascular disease than their
well-rested colleagues. So if you say
you're dying for a good night's rest,
you may be more correct than you
realize.
Continued on page 60
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Avionics News April 2014

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