If you don't sleep, you stuff your brain..

G'day everyone!

I just wanted to share my ideas on communicating how important sleep is for the brains continued survival. I tell it to stuborn people who do not think that there apnea is a problem.

I have been trying to tell stubborn people that I know that have sleep apneoa to seek treatment ASAP because they do not think it is a serious condition. I found an study that has helped me convince people that you need proper sleep for your brain to rewire itself and generate new neurons every night. Some people do not know this but if you don't sleep for more than 10 days you fall into a deep psychosis and die. A certain culture would use this method to execute political prisoners - cruel but they knew it worked.

I just use this study to show a link between not sleeping and brain damage. I know that my links are sort of pseudo science and layman style but it get's the method across. The below study was done in the late 1800's and was the first time somebody scientifically discovered what happens when someone doesn't sleep. WARNING: IF YOU ARE SQUEAMISH AND CAN NOT TOLERATE CRUELTY TO ANIMALS FOR RESEARCH PURPOSES DO NOT READ FURTHER. STOP READING NOW.

Summary: The experimental studies on sleep deprivation were initiated by the Russian physician and scientist, Marie de Manacéine, who studied sleep- deprived puppies kept in constant activity. She reported in 1894 that the complete absence of sleep was fatal in a few days, pointing out that the most severe lesions occurred in the brain. In 1898, the Italian physiologists Lamberto Daddi and Giulio Tarozzi also kept dogs awake by walking them; the animals died after 9-17 days, and their survival was unrelated to food consumption. In the histological study performed by Daddi, degenerative alterations, mainly represented by chromatolytic changes, were observed in neurons of the spinal ganglia, Purkinje cells of the cerebellum, and neurons of the frontal cortex. Daddi ascribed these changes to a state of autointoxication of the brain during insomnia. In 1898, the psychiatrist Cesare Agostini, interested in the psychic phenomena caused by prolonged insomnia in humans, sleep deprived dogs by keeping them in a metallic cage in order to avoid fatigue. The dogs survived about 2 weeks, and degenerative changes were observed in their brains. In these experimental paradigms, the effect of sleep loss was confounded by motor exhaustion and/or intense sensory stimulation. In spite of the absence of adequate controls, the pioneering studies performed at the end of the 19th century represented the first experimental attempts to relate sleep with neural centers and suggested that sleep is a vital function and that the brain may be affected by insomnia.

So it goes to show that you will may get lesions ON YOUR BRAIN from sleep deprivation. Imagine the micro damage you could get from severe sleep debt? If you want a long life, get your sleep.

Just in case you are wondering where I found this it is on the Sleep Journal website. They provide acedemic sleep science articles for a small fee. I have used them many times. The above excerpt is NOT copyright due to it's age but more modern studies are.



Any thoughts?

Still nauseating after a hundred years.
At least the "scientist" is now as dead as his victims--and the data was saved.
We also know that human torture and cult programming often takes the form of sleep deprivation.
It all fits together--and now I understand why I was so grumpy/weepy/messed up before my cpap.

Hi Matty,
I never thought much about sleep till I had a diagnosis of OSA. Now I think about it and pay attention to research and movie references,

There was an X-files episode where a group of experimental soldiers were operated on to eliminate sleep...to make them better and more efficient soldiers. And of course they all went totally psycho.

And more real life ...there actually is a condition called Fatal Familial Insomnia in which the victims are unable to sleep. It's only present in about 40 families in Italy. When the disease manifests itself...often around age 40, they grow increasingly demented and eventually die...from inability to sleep. They die of exhaustion. I kid you not. Google it.

So now I have a healthier respect for the value if sleep and strap on my mask every night.
Jamis

PS Matty...do you have a machine on order?

Hey Chunkyfrog,

It is a nauseating study, but that's research for you. Poor puppies, I think they are doing less and less of that kind of stuff now?

Hey Jamis,

I don't think I will google Fatal Familial Insomnia becuase I am a hypochondriac!!!! (although it sounds genetic).

I am waiting to see my sleep doctor soon to get the exact kind of Bipap I need (auto or non auto) and will order the machine then. Thanks again for that,

regards

Matt.