Everyday Musings > Zzzzzzz

I yawn. Throughout the day. It’s not that I’m bored and sometimes, not even that I’m tired. Yet it’s always there.

As is widely known, a yawn is the reflex opening of the mouth that ensures deep inhalation and slow exhalation of oxygen. Andrew Gallup and Gordon Gallup at the State University of New York at Albany further add that yawning is a mechanism that helps increase blood flow to cool the brain; since the brain works better when cooler.

That makes me see yawning in a completely different light, since it means that I don’t yawn because I feel tired, I yawn so I can become more alert. The Gallup’s say that a good yawn actually offsets the wish to sleep. So when yawning spreads to the whole group in a meeting, it’s actually an attempt of the group to keep everyone alert and vigilant. A ha.

So much talk on yawning begs some talk on sleep. Apart from 500 words a day, I also resolved to get enough sleep. But I’ve been struggling to define what ‘enough’ means. Alexander the Great and Margaret Thatcher got by on four hours a day. Giraffes can do without it for weeks. Edison claimed it was a waste of time. Even the sheep I summon at night snoozes for about three hours. Just how much sleep do we really require?

Research says there is no ‘right’ number, but as is said, 8 hours is an average. But it’s how deep we sleep rather than how long.

The Sleep Foundation in America states that two factors affect sleep. A person’s basal sleep need – the amount of sleep our bodies need on a regular basis for optimal performance – and sleep debt, the accumulated sleep that is lost to poor sleep habits, sickness, awakenings due to environmental factors or other causes.
Two studies, they say, suggest that healthy adults have a basal sleep need of seven to eight hours every night, but where things get complicated is the interaction between the basal need and sleep debt.

For instance, we might meet your basal sleep need on any single night or a few nights in a row, but still have an unresolved sleep debt that may make us feel more sleepy and less alert at times, particularly in conjunction with circadian dips, those times in the 24-hour cycle when we are biologically programmed to be more sleepy and less alert, such as overnight hours and mid-afternoon. We may feel overwhelmingly sleepy quite suddenly at these times, shortly before bedtime or feel sleepy upon awakening. The good news is that some research suggests that the accumulated sleep debt can be worked down or "paid off." Whew. It’d be ironic to have sleepless nights worrying about sleep debt.

But that said, sleeping too less or sleeping too long has its effects. Too less and you could trigger obesity, heart problems, diabetes even. Too much and you could turn morbid and die faster.

The internet is crowded with tips on smart sleep. But I just heard this one. Before hitting the pillow, tell yourself, ‘I’ll sleep well”. And miraculously, it works. Try it tonight.