As Ernest Hemingway said, “I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I’m awake, you know?”
However, this quote predates the existence of Netflix and Skype, so maybe he’d recant that statement if he spent a night clicking the “Go to next episode” button while binge-watching season one of “Orange Is the New Black.”
Unfortunately, as classes — not to mention the final episodes of “Breaking Bad” — begin and new tasks start piling up, sleep is one of the first things that tend to slide to the bottom of the priorities list. This is a travesty, people: You basically turn into a monster when you don’t sleep. Sleep not only affects your motor skills, productivity, mood, immune system, blood pressure, cardiovascular health and sex life, but scientists confirmed yesterday that chronic lack of sleep could also lead to brain disease later in life.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison concluded a study that confirmed sleep helps boost the production of myelin — the cells responsible for brain repair — according to Medical News Today. Although further research is needed to know for sure, the researchers believe extreme or chronic lack of sleep could trigger symptoms associated with multiple sclerosis, a progressive brain disease associated with myelin damage.
Medical News Today contributor Honor Whiteman reported that studies conducted on brain activity during sleep over the years have shown that many genes switch on during sleep and switch off during wakefulness. Until this new study out of the University of Wisconsin, however, the specific effect of sleep on certain types of cells was unknown.
“They point to oligodendrocytes,” Whiteman wrote. “These cells are responsible for making myelin within a healthy brain and in response to injury. The researchers add that myelin is responsible for allowing electrical impulses to move from cell to cell, ‘similar to insulation around an electrical wire.’”
According to the National Sleep Foundation, we know that sleep is needed for restoration and renewal, but sleep — like space, the ocean and Beyonce’s thighs — is a natural phenomenon. Although it may seem that new sleep studies are redundant, since we know that sleep is important, scientists still don’t understand the exact function of sleep.
Merrill Mitler, a sleep expert and neuroscientist at the National Institutes of Health, said sleep is vital to our molecular structures, energy balance, intellectual function and alertness. Lack of sleep interferes with higher levels of reasoning, problem solving and attention to detail — key skills needed when pursuing a college degree.
The prevalent attitude toward sleep among college students is that it’s disposable. It’s almost considered a feat of strength to forgo sleep in favor of studying or drinking, and caffeine addictions and sleepless nights are romanticized to the point of annoyance. Forgoing sleep, however, is a risky behavior pattern with long-term consequences.
A version of this editorial ran on page 6 on 9/5/2013 under the headline "Wake up, America: Scientists confirm benefits of sleep"
