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Sleep debt Each individual
needs a daily sleep requirement in order to have a defined sleep. Sleep debt is therefore the
accumulated amount of lost sleep. If the average daily amount of sleep needed by an individual is
eight hours, for example, sleeping six hours a night for one week will create a sleep debt of
fourteen hours. The larger the sleep debt, the stronger the tendency to fall asleep. The size of
the sleep debt is the major determinant of the strength of the tendency to fall asleep at any
particular moment while we are awake.
What most people do not know, is that sleep debt does not go away by itself. It must be repaid just like a financial debt. The longer you stay awake, the more you'll have a need for sleep. It's one of the basic elements of human nature, just like hunger. If you haven't eaten for a while you get hungry. The same way, we build a greater craving to go to bed, the longer we are awake. This is what we call 'sleep debt'. From the moment you wake up, the gage starts counting as it were. If you've been very active during the day, you'll have created enough 'sleep debt' at night to be able to sleep well. Any sleep debt that we have accumulated will stay with us forever as far as we now know. A very large sleep debt can be accumulated by losing a small amount of sleep each day. Often, people feel very fatigued and they do not know why. They have forgotten that they didn't get enough sleep on several nights a week ago and haven't made it up. The total amount of sleep you have lost in the last few months is your personal sleep debt. Whatever sleep debt you are carrying, it will not go away. It is no more likely to disappear than your credit card balance. How do you know if you have a large sleep debt?It could not be simpler. If you become drowsy at anytime during the day, you have a sizable sleep debt. Large scale surveys have shown that about 90% of all adults experience sleepiness after lunch. In what may be the number one erroneous belief in our society, we assume that eating a big lunch causes us to become sleepy. This is completely wrong! When our sleep debt is low, we do not become sleepy after lunch. When our sleep debt is large, our alertness will diminish in the mid-afternoon whether or not we have had lunch. Other signs that we have a large sleep debt are difficulty waking up in the morning, difficulty concentrating, low motivation, and a tendency to be cranky and irritable. Sleep debt "unmasked"In addition to a heavy lunch, most people think that a warm room, boredom and monotomy, or an alcoholic beverage are direct causes of sleepiness. None of these things directly cause sleepiness, they rather unmask sleepiness and your sleep debt. If you do not have a sizable sleep debt, things like lunch, boredom or alcohol will not cause you to become sleepy. Anytime you experience daytime drowsiness, no matter what you are doing, you must conclude you are carrying a sleep debt. Some people who are carrying an unusually large sleep debt think they have "chronic fatigue syndrome." This construction and destruction of sleep debt, however, only work one way. There's no such thing as accumulating sleep to create more time during the day to stay awake, on the contrary even. If you sleep longer to prepare for a long busy day, it might have an adverse effect. |