In October 2012, Felix Baumgartner received the Guiness World record for the fastest freefall by taking a helium balloon capsule to the edge of the earth’s atmosphere, jumping out and reaching a speed of 843 miles per hour (breaking the sound barrier) with just a suit, some oxygen and a parachute - no vehicle of any kind. There are a lot of Guiness World records of people going over Niagara Falls. The oldest, the youngest, the most and on. Niagara Falls is about 100 feet tall. Guiness will no longer accept any records about sleep deprivation because it is too dangerous.
It is somewhat dependent on circumstances, but humans will die without sleep in about the same number of days as they can go without food.
We all should be looking to avoid the Big 3 – artery disease (heart attack, stroke), cancer, and dementia. We can add metabolic disease (type II diabetes) to the list because it dramatically increases our risk for the Big 3.
We are starting to learn more and more that, just like diabetes, sleep deprivation also increases our risk for heart attack and stroke, cancer and dementia (especially Alzheimer’s disease).
The mechanisms preventing dementia seem to be the newly discovered glymphatic system in our brains that turn on during deep sleep. The glymphatic system cleans out waste products and excess fluids. The ways in which sleep lowers our risk for heart attack, stroke and cancer are less understood, but still very much known to be true and proven in large scale studies.
Both quantity and quality are important.
Quantity is easier to figure. How much time did you spend sleeping?
Quality is a little more difficult.
· How restless were you?
· How much time did you spend in REM sleep?
· How much time did you spend in deep sleep
· When did you sleep?
You can optimize your sleep quality by doing the things we will talk about and hope you are getting good quality sleep. You can also track your sleep quality with an Apple Watch, an Oura Ring or a Woop Band. These device measure and track your sleep quantity, restlessness, REM sleep, deep sleep and more. With one of these devices, you can see if a 3pm coffee is affecting your sleep. You can see if a glass of wine with dinner affects your sleep and more.
Next week we will talk about ways to improve your sleep quality. Some might surprise you.
I look forward to reading the follow up to this article.