Lecturer Stresses Importance of Sleep

Every single seat in the lecture hall was taken. A huge cluster of students stood in the back. The lecturer even jokingly offered to let people sit on the floor next to his podium. Unlike most other popular talks on campus, this lecture was not about a pressing social or political issue, nor was the speaker famous outside his field. Instead, it was about sleep, which, judging from the chorus of yawns before the lecture, was on many students’ minds.

The talk, titled “Vitamin ‘S’ Deficiency: An Introduction to Normal Sleep and Sleep Disorders,” was given by Associate Professor of Psychiatry Wilfred Pigeon, the Director of the Sleep and Neurophysiology Research Lab at the University of Rochester Medical Center. As the talk’s title suggests, Pigeon introduced students to current research on sleep and sleep disorders while making a plea for students to lengthen and improve their sleep.

Pigeon began by explaining the biology and neuroscience of sleep. Sleep is regulated by the suprachiasmatic nucleus and the pineal gland in the brain, both of which are influenced by sunlight, but are not tied to any biological clock. Sleep is divided into four stages, which the body cycles through every 80 to 100 minutes: two stages of lighter sleep, one stage of deep sleep and one stage of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, when dreams occurs. Observing someone in REM sleep for the first time was what made Pigeon interested in studying sleep.

“The first time I saw [someone enter REM sleep], that is where I got hooked on doing sleep stuff,” Pigeon said. “I thought, ‘that is so cool!’ I am watching that guy dream!”

He is more interested, however, in the dangers of sleep loss. He brought up an influential 2003 study titled “Ethanol and Sleep Loss,” which compared the effects of sleep deprivation with the effects of alcohol consumption and estimated the equivalent blood alcohol content (BAC) of getting less than eight hours of sleep. Six hours of sleep impairs reaction time and memory in a way that resembles having a .045% BAC, or two to three drinks. Four hours puts one at the equivalent of a .095% BAC, over the legal limit to drive.

He then referenced a laundry list of studies and examples showing the often severe effects of sleep deprivation. One study showed that medical students in residency programs who had normal amounts of sleep made 30 percent fewer errors than students who worked overnight shifts. Other studies found that insomnia made people more susceptible to depression and suicidal thoughts or that sleep deprivation reduced people’s response rate to the Avian Flu vaccine.

But the example that resonated the most with the audience was about the effect of sleep on students. Recognizing research showing that adolescents need more sleep than adults, the Minneapolis Public School District did a controlled study from 1997 to 2001 by starting school later for some, but not all, of its high schools. The study found that students who got got more sleep were allowed to spend more time on homework, and more sleep increased attendance for students of all grades and ethnicities.

Consistent but moderate sleep deprivation is also dangerous. Pigeon referenced a study that recorded how long subjects took to fall asleep during daytime naps after getting variable amounts of sleep the night before and pointed out its implication for drivers.

“After one week of sleep, for five hours a night, [one becomes a] danger on the road, in terms of how sleepy one is during the day,” Pigeon said.

Contrary to popular thought, he mentioned that it is possible to make up a sleep debt by sleeping in on the weekend. But he cautions that making up sleep works by “equal exchange” (a loss of one hour of sleep has to be made up for by an extra hour of sleep), so at some point it becomes impractical: getting six hours of sleep a night for a week can only be canceled out by sleeping for 20 hours on a weekend night.

He finished by dispensing advice on improving sleep. To not feel tired after napping, he recommended limiting naps to no more than 30-45 minutes to avoid going into REM sleep. He recommended waking up to sunlight if one’s circadian rhythm is off, because of jet lag or an unusual sleeping schedule, but said that that would not help with general insomnia. However, he was most outspoken on apps like Sleep Cycle and SleepTime+ that purport to keep track of one’s sleep cycle and then set an alarm that will not interrupt deep sleep or REM sleep, which he dismissed with a b-word that cannot be printed in this paper.

“Please don’t use those apps, they suck,” Pigeon said. “They have no way to really measure your sleep cycle.”

In addition to being well attended, Pigeon’s talk was well received.

“People seemed fascinated by the material of his talk,” Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology Martin Seehuus, whose research specializes in sleep disruptions, said. “He was great at integrating research findings with people’s real life experiences.”