What would happen if you didn’t sleep? - Claudia Aguirre — Transcript

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1. 0:07In 1965, 17-year-old high school student, Randy Gardner
2. 0:12stayed awake for 264 hours.
3. 0:16That's 11 days to see how he'd cope without sleep.
4. 0:20On the second day, his eyes stopped focusing.
5. 0:23Next, he lost the ability to identify objects by touch.
6. 0:27By day three, Gardner was moody and uncoordinated.
7. 0:30At the end of the experiment, he was struggling to concentrate,
8. 0:33had trouble with short-term memory,
9. 0:35became paranoid,
10. 0:37and started hallucinating.
11. 0:39Although Gardner recovered without long-term psychological
12. 0:41or physical damage,
13. 0:43for others, losing shuteye can result in hormonal imbalance,
14. 0:47illness,
15. 0:48and, in extreme cases, death.
16. 0:50We're only beginning to understand why we sleep to begin with,
17. 0:55but we do know it's essential.
18. 0:56Adults need seven to eight hours of sleep a night,
19. 0:59and adolescents need about ten.
20. 1:02We grow sleepy due to signals from our body
21. 1:04telling our brain we are tired,
22. 1:06and signals from the environment telling us it's dark outside.
23. 1:10The rise in sleep-inducing chemicals,
24. 1:12like adenosine and melatonin,
25. 1:15send us into a light doze that grows deeper,
26. 1:18making our breathing and heart rate slow down
27. 1:20and our muscles relax.
28. 1:23This non-REM sleep is when DNA is repaired
29. 1:27and our bodies replenish themselves for the day ahead.
30. 1:30In the United States,
31. 1:32it's estimated that 30% of adults and 66% of adolescents
32. 1:36are regularly sleep-deprived.
33. 1:39This isn't just a minor inconvenience.
34. 1:41Staying awake can cause serious bodily harm.
35. 1:44When we lose sleep,
36. 1:46learning,
37. 1:47memory,
38. 1:47mood,
39. 1:48and reaction time are affected.
40. 1:50Sleeplessness may also cause inflammation,
41. 1:53halluciations,
42. 1:54high blood pressure,
43. 1:55and it's even been linked to diabetes and obesity.
44. 2:00In 2014, a devoted soccer fan died
45. 2:03after staying awake for 48 hours to watch the World Cup.
46. 2:08While his untimely death was due to a stroke,
47. 2:10studies show that chronically sleeping fewer than six hours a night
48. 2:14increases stroke risk by four and half times
49. 2:18compared to those getting a consistent seven to eight hours of shuteye.
50. 2:22For a handful of people on the planet who carry a rare inherited genetic mutation,
51. 2:27sleeplessness is a daily reality.
52. 2:30This condition, known as Fatal Familial Insomnia,
53. 2:34places the body in a nightmarish state of wakefulness,
54. 2:37forbidding it from entering the sanctuary of sleep.
55. 2:40Within months or years,
56. 2:42this progressively worsening condition leads to dementia and death.
57. 2:47How can sleep deprivation cause such immense suffering?
58. 2:51Scientists think the answer lies with the accumulation of waste prducts
59. 2:55in the brain.
60. 2:56During our waking hours,
61. 2:58our cells are busy using up our day's energy sources,
62. 3:01which get broken down into various byproducts,
63. 3:04including adenosine.
64. 3:06As adenosine builds up,
65. 3:08it increases the urge to sleep, also known as sleep pressure.
66. 3:12In fact, caffeine works by blocking adenosine's receptor pathways.
67. 3:18Other waste products also build up in the brain,
68. 3:20and if they're not cleared away, they collectively overload the brain
69. 3:24and are thought to lead to the many negative symptoms of sleep deprivation.
70. 3:29So, what's happening in our brain when we sleep to prevent this?
71. 3:33Scientists found something called the glymphatic system,
72. 3:37a clean-up mechanism that removes this buildup
73. 3:40and is much more active when we're asleep.
74. 3:43It works by using cerebrospinal fluid to flush away toxic byproducts
75. 3:48that accumulate between cells.
76. 3:51Lymphatic vessels, which serve as pathways for immune cells,
77. 3:54have recently been discovered in the brain,
78. 3:57and they may also play a role in clearing out the brain's daily waste products.
79. 4:03While scientists continue exploring the restorative mechanisms behind sleep,
80. 4:08we can be sure that slipping into slumber is a necessity
81. 4:13if we want to maintain our health and our sanity.