Little known fact...

As a nerd one of the nerdiest things I do is read...a lot. Now, not all of what I read is useless, so I'll share a few little nuggets from a book that i read that was absolutely fascinating.

Power Sleep
by James Maas. Dr. Maas has the distinction of teaching the largest university lecture in the United States. More than 3,000 students can be in attendance at the Psych 101 class which he teaches at Cornell University. He's been studying the process of sleep for over 20 years and has consulted for many professional athletes including Olympic Gold Medalists!

So there's this stuff we all need. It's called sleep. The problem is that our society rewards behavior (working too much, watching too much TV, filling your day with lots of stuff) that tends to leave most of us sleep deprived, and this sleep deprivation has its price.

The MOST sleep deprived groups of citizens are, from most sleep deprived to least:

1. College Students
2. Senior Citizens
3. Pilots and business executives
4. Everyone else

Now, there are some of you who will read this and say, not me....I'm a great sleeper...I can fall sleep anywhere, anytime. Of course you can....that's because you are sleep DEPRIVED. The normal well-rested individual SHOULD take 15 - 20 minutes to fall asleep each night.

Here are some other things about sleep. Most of us know that there are stages of sleep. The most commonly known stage is REM sleep (or rapid eye movement). What most people DON'T know is that you cycle through various stages of sleep several times per night...and that each of these stages has a different emphasis for your regeneration from the day's activities.

Two of the most interesting of these stages happen to be near the end of your sleep cycle.

1. One of these stages will be particularly interesting to athletes. During this particular stage of sleep...your brain releases a wave of calcium that reinforces the neural pathways formed/used during the day. (It basically calcifies them and makes them more permanent.) Why is this important? Imagine you are a golfer...you go out for a lesson and finally your golf pro says something that makes perfect sense and your swing is perfect. You swing the clubs beautifully all afternoon. You go home. And if you get a full night's sleep...or at least, until the calcium wave hits, then your day's progress is reinforced and you will retain the benefit of your practice. If you don't, it's almost like you didn't practice at all.

So, athletes that wake up early in the morning (sacrificing sleep) in order to train extra hard beware...you may actually be negating the benefits of your training by not getting enough rest.

2. The other stage is more relevant to the rest of us. Seratonin is a neurotransmitter that most people hear about when people discuss MDMA (or Ecstasy). Basically, Seratonin has been linked to emotional health...specifically happiness. Opponents of MDMA claim that studies show MDMA artificially inflates levels of seratonin uptake....causing a general depletion which can ultimately lead to depression. Well, turns out that seratonin is replaced during sleep in general...but largely during the final stages of sleep. People who chronically miss the last couple of hours of their daily sleep requirement will routinely miss this critical phase of Seratonin replacement. Is it any wonder that anti-depressants are among the top-selling pharmaceuticals in the world?

Finally, Dr. Maas tells us that sleep deprivation is cumulative. If you need 8.25 hours of sleep a night, and get 6.25 a night....sleeping for 8.25 hours on Saturday night will not catch you up for the rest of the week's deprivation. You will actually need to get extra sleep EQUAL to the amount of sleep that you deprived yourself of in the past.

I read that and lost hope. While I certainly don't get as much sleep as I should (because I fall asleep anytime and anywhere), this book has opened my eyes to how critically important it is to at least try.

There is a ton more interesting stuff in the book, and i highly recommend getting a copy (just click the link above.)