Is too much sleep be bad for you?

               As a new parent, one of the questions that pops up like a pimple ready to make me question my self-worth is," So, is your baby sleeping through the night?" Feelings of failure permeate my soul as I make some joke like, "If that is what you call walking up every two hours? Hahaha.... "My laugh is strained, my eyes darting around the room like a beast in heat, while my brain questions whether I even deserve to raise a child if I can't make them sleep for 12 hours in  a row. The secret of her flawless skin and radiant complexion is, she says, a perfect night's and morning's sleep. It's the sort of slumber most of us can only dream about. Fifteen hours of sleep i excessive by any standards. There is no evidence that taking an excessive amount of sleep like that is going to do you any good at all," says Professor Jim Horne, director of the sleep research centre at Loughborough University. Sleep appears to be triggered by the discharge of particular nerve cells in the brain. These cells fire off messages telling the body to wind down and chemicals that cause drowsiness begin to circulate in the blood. Hormones are also produced during sleep to carry out running repairs and to boost the immune system ready for the next day. The skin, too, gets a helping hand, and so do muscles.

                               Sleep plays a critical physiological function, and is indispensable for your intellectual development. Those who do not respect their sleep are not likely to live to their full mental potential. Modern society has developed a set of well-entrenched rules that keep sleep in utmost disregard. This has been driven to pathological levels in American society. Here are some bad rules that hurt sleep:

• it is ok to use an alarm clock to cut sleep short
• it is ok to work in shifts
• it is ok to travel people around the world without much attention to the jet lag problem
• it is ok to save time by sleeping less and working more
• it is ok to pull kids out of bed in time for school
• it is ok to skip nights before important exams, etc.

               

                        By cutting down on sleep, we learn less, we develop less, we are less bright, we make worse decisions, we accomplish less, we are less productive, we are more prone to errors, and we undermine our true intellectual potential. A change in societal sleep habits can spell a social revolution in learning, health, and productivity on a scale that few imagine.

                         Sleep, that is not artificially controlled to match our schedules and desires. It is a sleep without alarm clocks and sleeping pills. Mankind has practised free running sleep for as long as it existed. Our ancestors were gently encouraged to retire to bedtime at sunset, and would wake up naturally, probably after having spent no less than 8-10 hours in bed. All departures from that healthy practise were an important of culture, habit, religion and or tradition.