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(Transcrição)
In 1965, 17 year-old high school student, Rendy Gardner, stayed awake for
264 hours. That’s 11 days to see how he’d cope without sleep. On the 2nd day,
his eyes stopped focusing.
Next, he lost the ability to identify objects by touch. By day 3, Gardner was
moody and uncoordinated. At the end of the experiment, he was struggling to
concentrate, had trouble with short term memory, became paranoid, and
started hallucinating.
We go sleepy due the signals from our body telling our brain we are tired, and
signals from the environment telling us it’s dark outside. The rise in sleep
inducing chemicals, like adenosine and melatonin, send us into a light dose that
grows deeper, making our breathing and heart rate slow down and our muscles
relax.
This non REM sleep is when DNA is repaired and our bodies replenish
themselves for the day ahead. In the USA, it’s estimated that 30% of adults
and 66% of adolescents are regularly sleep-deprived.
This isn’t just a minor inconvenience. Staying awake can cause serious bodily
harm. When we lose sleep, learning, memory, mood, and reaction time are
affected. Sleeplessness may also cause inflammation, hallucinations, high blood
pressure, and it’s even been linked to diabetes and obesity.
In 2014, a devoted soccer fan died after staying awake for 48h to watch the
world cup. While his untimely death was due to a stroke, studies show that
chronically sleeping fewer than 6h a night increases stroke risk by 4.5 times
compared to those getting consistent 7 to 8h of shuteye.
For a handful of people on the planet who carry a rare inherited genetic
mutation, sleeplessness is a daily reality. This condition, known as Fatal Familial
Insomnia, places the body in a nightmare state of wakefulness, forbidding it
from entering the sanctuary of sleep.
Scientists think the answer lies with the accumulation of waste products in the
brain. During our waking hours, our cells are busy using up our day’s energy
sources which get broken downinto various bioproducts including adenosine.
As adenosinebuilds up, it increases the urge to sleep, also known as sleep
pressure.
So, what’s happening in our brain, when we sleep, to prevent this? Scientists
found something called the glymphatic system, aclean up mechanism that
removes this build up and is much more active when we’re asleep.
Nós ficamos sonolentos devido aos sinais de nosso corpo, dizendo que nosso
cérebro está cansado e sinais do ambiente nos dizendo que está escuro lá fora.
O aumento nós químicos indutores de sono, como a adenosina e a melatonina,
nós enviam para uma dose leve que cresce profundamente, fazendo nossa
respiração e coração diminuir o ritmo e nossos músculas relaxam.
Esse tipo de sono não REM, é quando o DNA é reparado e nossos corpos se
reabastecem para o dia seguinte. Nos EUA, é estimado que 30% dos adultos e
66% dos adolescentes são normalmente privados de sono.
Esse não é apenas um pequeno incoveniente. Ficar acordado pode causar sérios
danos corporais, como quando nós perdemos sono, aprendizado, memória,
humor, e o tempo de reação é afetado. A insônia também pode causar
inflamação, alucinações, alta pressão sanguínea, e foi ainda ligada ao diabetes
e a obesidade.
Então, o que acontece em nosso cérebro, quando nós dormimos, para prevenir
isso? Os Cientistas encontraram algo chamado sistema glinfático,
um mecanismo de limpeza que remove esse acûmulo e é muito mais ativo
quando estamos adormecidos.