Recently, I stumbled upon the scariest story I have ever read. It was about an experiment done by the Russians during the WWII. The Russian scientists decided they wanted to see what would happen to a person if they did not go to sleep for an extended period of time. The amazing thing about the experiment was that it wasn’t conventional at all; they scientists were only doing the experiments with a null hypothesis: that staying awake for a long time does nothing to the brain, there was no alternative hypothesis, the scientists just wanted to see what would happen. Also, this experiment was terribly unethical; the subjects were prisoners of war, falsely promised freedom after the experiment. There was also a large element of physical harm involved in this experiment, which I will get to later. The experiment was to put these five subjects in a secured room with a stimulant-gas to keep them awake. In the room were beds, but no bedding, bathrooms, running water, and enough food to last the subjects a month. There was only a small window to look into the room, and an intercom to hear what the subjects were saying. As the experiment grew on, the subjects became more and more senile and seemingly dead. When the guards entered the room, they found the subjects as the picture below shows, the most vile beings, if you could even call them that, anyone had ever seen. Eventually the subjects died or were killed after several tests were run on them. This was seriously the scariest thing I’ve read in my entire life, if you want to read about it, here is the link.
Now, after further researching this experiment I found that it was a work of fiction, of course. No such specific test was ever done, however, tests were done on military subjects concerning sleep at their own will and discretion, but none of them turned the subjects into demon-zombies, usually the tests were either severely painful or lethal.
This reading this story, however, did make me curious about sleep. What happens when we sleep? Why do we need it? What happens if we don’t get enough of it, or any at all?
It turns out; why we sleep is a great unknown among scientists.
What sleep is and how we sleep, in contrast, has actually been discovered. Until the 1950s, sleep was thought to be completely passive: the body would shut down and rest. We now know that sleep is largely an active process for the brain, the exact process I have shown below in this picture.
But why we sleep is another question.
Sleep studies are actually a very common thing. The study is called polysomnography, and it can diagnose someone with a whole range of sleep disorders. According to Medline Plus, “Your health care provider will place electrodes on your chin, scalp, and the outer edge of your eyelids. You will have monitors to record your heart rate and breathing attached to your chest. These will remain in place while you sleep. The electrodes record signals while you are awake (with your eyes closed) and during sleep. The test measures the amount of time it takes you to fall asleep and how long it takes you to enter REM sleep.” The electrodes detect a range of things, from brain waves, to heart rate and breathing, to eye and leg movements. When the test is finished, a specially trained doctor will examine your results, and be able to tell you if you have a disorder. Disorders can range from insomnia, to narcolepsy, to sleep apnea.
While scientists can’t figure out exactly why we have to sleep, they have been able to determine some results and consequences of a lack of sleep. According to HealthySleep, a Harvard-run website, besides the usual short-term affects like drowsiness, bad mood, and lack of focus, a lack of sleep can affect a person heavily in the long-term: leading to diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure. HealthySleep also adds that there are three methods of studying these results: sleep-deprivation studies, cross-sectional epidemiological studies, and longitudinal epidemiological studies.
Sleep-deprivation studies are exactly what they sound like. According to HealthySleep, “(this) involves depriving healthy research volunteers of sleep and examining any short-term physiological changes that could trigger disease. Such studies have revealed a variety of potentially harmful effects of sleep deprivation usually associated with increased stress, such as increased blood pressure, impaired control of blood glucose, and increased inflammation.” These studies are ethical, of course, because the subjects volunteer to do the test, they agree that the people running the test are not liable for any consequences coming of it.
Cross-sectional epidemiological studies don’t exactly examine the sleeping person themselves; they examine questionnaires filled out by people who have been classified with the same disorder or group of disorders at one time. For example, “both reduced and increased sleep duration, as reported on questionnaires, are linked with hypertension, diabetes, and obesity.” These studies, however, cannot examine the effects of the sleep itself, because it is only a questionnaire, the people aren’t being studied directly.
The third and most convincing type of research, longitudinal epidemiological studies, follows a person with a sleep disorder for an extended period of time. Over this time, they examine the effects of the lack of sleep, and compare them to other patients to try and find links.
Almost all of these methods of study find that lack of sleep can lead to diseases such as diabetes and high-cholesterol. So, in conclusion, while no one may know why we sleep or why we need sleep, all of the above material concludes that sleep is indeed necessary for our well-being. You hear that, over-worked and under-slept college students? Go to bed early tonight: it’s good for you.
Sources:
http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/The_Russian_Sleep_Experiment
http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/matters/consequences/sleep-and-disease-risk
http://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/polysomnography/basics/definition/prc-20013229
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003932.htm
https://www.sleepassociation.org/patients-general-public/what-is-sleep/
This blog was an attention grabber. I was scrolling then saw the creepy picture and was like “wait what is this…?”
I agree that lack of sleep will affect our general health. Personally I have never come across someone who acquired a disease from lack of sleep, but I am sure it is possible! My question is – could these studies include a confounding variable due to previous health issues and/or a line of family issues?
Overall I really liked your blog because sleep is life! I always become nauseous from lack of sleep. So that could be something to look into as well!
As awful as the experiment above was, as I read it I kept thinking about the Zoey 101 episode where Quinn keeps Dustin awake with the shock bracelet. Although they are very different it made me smile! As I was reading the rest of your blog I was impressed by the way you split up your data by the different types of research, it was a very logical way to sort your findings. I was looking online for something of worth to add, but the truth of the matter is I think you covered a lot of good material.
That was a very captivating post that really drew me in. The concept of sleep is a very curious one to me. I am one who can not fully function unless I get 8 hours of sleep, no less. But my curiosity still stands as to why there are people who can fully function and be energized after 6 hours of sleep. I did some research and found that there is a gene mutation called BHLHE41. This mutation allows for people to get much less sleep and feel the same as an individual who gets 8-9 hours each day. People who do not have this mutation but still only get 6 hours or less of sleep are actually hurting their bodies and not getting a fully recovered system after each and every long day. Over all your ideas were very interesting and I would love to here more insight on this topic. http://news.yahoo.com/scientists-discover-why-thrive-less-sleep-others-163712171.html
That is such an awful experiment and I’m still shocked that they did that to their prisoners of war. What attracted me to this post was that I haven’t been sleeping well recently so, I wanted to read more about it and I was not expecting that at all. I was curious as to what lack of sleep can cause/lead to so I decided to look into it more. WebMD has a great list of surprising effects of lack of sleep. The one effect that really caught my eye was that “losing sleep can make you gain weight”. According to a study that took place in 2004, people who sleep less than 6 hours a day were almost 30 percent more likely to become more obese than those who slept 7-9 hours. I thought that was really interesting. For more interesting effects and more about the link of sleep and obesity check out the link above.
This post attracted my attention especially since I have recently been thinking about lack of sleep effects. I am always one to go to bed early, no mater what the situation is I can not go to sleep past 1 am on a weekday. My roommates on the other hand, spend hours on end studying into the wee hours of the morning, sleep for three hours, then wake up and go to their exam. While they do not turn into demons or zombies like your article stated, I find this shocking. Even if I did not feel fully prepared I would go to sleep at a decent hour because I was raised to believe that sleep is just as important of a factor to success on exams. I decided to further explore this topic and get some facts on the subject. This article states that sleep is crucial to storing memories that you learned that day. REM sleep, the last stage of sleep that may not be occurring if you are cutting it off by not getting a full 7-8 hours, is strongly associated with learning and memory. This article goes more fully in depth into the topic but to summarize, while learning takes an immense amount of time and is important sleep is just the same and impactful.
I apologize for the lack of a live link. Let me try this again… Article
That was truly terrifying. I was severely shocked until I read your note that this experiment did not happen at all. One thing I thought was really interesting about your piece is that you said doctors still don’t know why we have to sleep, but that they can still determine pros of sleeping and cons of not getting enough sleep. Another point I liked is that you explained that short-term sleep-deprivation studies exist. Perhaps I should sign up for one; with 17 credits this semester, I might as well get paid for what sleep I’m already losing! It’s terribly unethical but I would be interested in seeing a legitimate experiment like the fake Russian one. Check out this article on what happens when a human is deprived of sleep, the brain pretty much shuts down!
What a terrifying experiment! I am very glad to hear that it was fake. While this is a very interesting topic that should definitely explored, it does come with complications. Studying sleep deprivation can become unethical. However, the studies that you mentioned avoided that problem. How many people were involved in these studies? What were their ages? It would be interesting to study the affect of sleep on people of different ages. Studies show that young children need more sleep because their bodies are still developing. For that reason, would the lack of sleep have more drastic effects on them than on adults? Also, it seems as though many of these studies are observational, which unfortunately does not provide as strong evidence as experimental studies do.