Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams

by Matthew Walker

Take an under-slept child to a doctor and describe these symptoms without mentioning the lack of sleep, which is not uncommon, and what would you imagine the doctor is diagnosing the child with, and medicating them for? Not deficient sleep, but ADHD.

Amphetamine and methylphenidate are two of the most powerful drugs we know of to prevent sleep and keep the brain of an adult (or a child, in this case) wide awake. That is the very last thing that such a child needs.

As a matter of fact, several pilot studies in the US have shown that when you limit residents to no more than a sixteen-hour shift, with at least an eight-hour rest opportunity before the next shift,IX the number of serious medical errors made—defined as causing or having the potential to cause harm to a patient—drops by over 20 percent. Furthermore, residents made significantly fewer diagnostic errors to begin with.

It is worth reiterating that which we learned in the chapter on the effects of sleep deprivation in humans and rats: a loss in the ability to maintain core body temperature, cardiovascular stress, respiratory suppression, and a collapse of the immune system. Why are we not designing NICUs and their care systems to foster the very highest sleep amounts, thereby using sleep as the lifesaving tool that Mother Nature has perfected it to be? In just the last few months, we have preliminary research findings from several NICUs that have implemented dim-lighting conditions during the day and near-blackout conditions at night. Under these conditions, infant sleep stability, time, and quality all improved. Consequentially, marked and significant improvements in neonate weight gain and significantly higher oxygen saturation levels in blood were observed, relative to those preterms who did not have their sleep prioritized and thus regularized. Better still, these well-slept preterm babies were also discharged from the hospital several weeks earlier!