Sleep Facts

When you don’t sleep for long periods you really do become a different person. Or I should say that you start acting in ways that are incongruous with your normal behavior. But why is this?

We still don’t really know why we sleep at all. There are certainly many theories and speculations. One thing we do know though is what not sleeping does to the mind.

Researchers from the UCSD School of Medicine & the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System, San Diego worked with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology to watch the brains of sleep-deprived subjects while having them perform simple learning tasks in a 1999 sleep study. They found that the frontal lobe was highly impaired in those deprived of sleep. On the other hand the prefrontal cortex was actually more active.

This results in a lower level of inhibition, difficulty with speech and a harder time with finding creative solutions to problems as the frontal lobes are very active in those areas. The increased activity in the prefrontal cortex makes one more focused on goals and helps one socially interact. This allows putting aside immediate needs and delaying instant gratification for future gratification. Phineas Gage was a famous railway worker whose prefrontal lobe was damaged resulting in his inability to temper his immediate feelings and focus on long term goals.

Researchers also have found that the areas of the mind associated with math and other higher problem solving functions are shut down with sleep loss as well. You simply can’t solve those hard problems when you don’t have the sleep.

What does all of this mean. Effectively someone who is deprived of sleep loses creativity and inhibitions, loses some basic math skills but at the same time becomes more likely to put aside short term goals in order to focus on long term goals. The person deprived of sleep also becomes better at interacting with others to fulfill these goals. All of this makes good sense at some levels. Nature is telling us to stop being novel and creative, stop trying to solve complex problems that depend on math and stop worrying about the details that are inhibiting us. Nature tells us to worry about working with others to get the big goal solved. This goal of course is actually getting some sleep.

When your brain doesn’t get to sleep its number one priority is to only solve the immediate problems that are keeping it from sleeping. This generally is a good thing, although it can lead to obsessive behavior at times when an issue becomes too significant. We’ve all known someone who can’t sleep nights worrying about a long term goal.

I think the most interesting realization for me is that sleep is essential for creative thought. You just don’t solve hard problems well when you are sleep deprived. These reasons are all compelling enough that the value of a good nights sleep should be immediately apparent to anyone. Even a person who is suffering from sleep deprivation itself.

People who are sleep deprived are much like those zombies we see in schtick horror movies. Instead of mindlessly looking for brains however they want one thing. The cry for “brains…….” is replaces by an equally insistent cry for “sleeeep…..”.

Don’t let this happen to you!