Sleep is for the weak

I wake up every morning to a WhatsApp message, usually sent between the hours of 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. that says “Sleep is for the weak”. A classmate wakes up in the middle of each night to put this on our year group page. As to what wakes him up each night, we are yet to figure it out.

But the question is: is sleep indeed for the weak?

Pondering over this with my unqualified mind and my limited references, I came across a linkage between sleep and the immune system. Yes, the immune system! During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ghana experienced a flood of information on the immune system, just like many other countries. There were opinions from the good, the bad, the ugly, the sham, and the right man. Every voice suddenly became an expert in the immune system.

Health discussions are certainly good for a country that spends all its peak media hours discussing politics. A worrying trend, though, is the rise of many foreign and local immune boosters in our markets that claim to solve all of our health problems. There is the production and sale of immune system boosters in every corner of Ghana. Some are from approved and unapproved pharmaceutical and herbal companies. Some are imported and sold through seemingly lucrative marketing strategies, and some are purely products of quackery. Are these immune boosters the magic wands to solve all our health problems? Some of them are very expensive, especially foreign ones.

We chase these expensive immune boosters and neglect simple lifestyle modifications like getting enough sleep. Must a good immunity booster be necessarily expensive? Don’t smoke, eat a balanced diet high in fruits and vegetables, exercise regularly, maintain a healthy weight, stop drinking alcohol or drink in moderation, take steps to avoid infection such as hand washing, try to minimize stress, get adequate sleep (8 hours at night), etc. What happened to all these healthy ways to strengthen our immune system?

How reasonable can it be to tell the people of Ghana, a struggling third-world country, to rely on such expensive drugs and supplements to boost their immune systems when there are simple and cheap dietary changes and other lifestyle practices that can help the masses for free? Isn’t it a temporary delusion to think that one drug or food supplement can solve all of our health problems? Let’s continue the discussion as we try to divulge the linkage between sleep and the immune system from an ordinary man’s point of view and what wakes my classmate up each night to write, Sleep is for the weak.

With COVID-19 lurking around in its ever-mutating state and not seeming to settle, the unusual restrictions and protocols to prevent infection ostensibly abandoned, and an increased desire to boost our immune systems, let’s learn a new habit of sleeping well.

According to scientific research, the average adult requires at least seven and a half hours of sleep every night. In these seven and a half hours, a person goes through 590 minutes of sleep cycles. During these cycles, the brain transitions from deep, non-rapid eye movement sleep to REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. Non-REM sleep purifies and maintains the brain and heart during the first couple of sleep cycles. The subsequent set of cycles is essential for the processing and retention of the day’s information. Insufficient sleep leads to a decline in health and productivity.

Sleep deprivation is associated with cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes. Lack of sleep has also been linked to breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in men, according to studies. In a study conducted at Hong Kong University, disrupted sleep for even a single night was found to result in DNA damage. This may help explain the link between cancer and sleep deprivation, according to experts. Insomnia is also associated with anxiety and depression. South Korea and Japan ranked among the worst in terms of the quality of sleep. Interestingly, Japan and South Korea share the highest suicide rates on the globe. Did you know that we also gain weight if we don’t get enough sleep? In 2016, researchers at Kings College London discovered that sleep-deprived individuals consumed an average of 385 additional calories per day. That is a daily excess of four and a half slices of bread. The link between sleep deprivation and obesity is explained by abnormal levels of two hormones, leptin, and ghrelin, according to a 2019 study conducted by researchers at Pennsylvania State University on individuals in their 20s. Lack of sleep is also associated with decreased productivity. If you don’t get enough sleep, you’re sluggish at work, and concentration is difficult, resulting in decreased productivity.

Sleep promotes healthy cognitive function, including mood, concentration, decision-making, and judgment. In addition, it helps the body repair itself, combat disease, develop immunity, regulate metabolism, and prevent chronic health issues. Harvard Medical School found that habitual nappers had a 37% decrease in cardiac disease. This number multiplied when they focused on men, and there was a 68% decrease in heart disease among men who habitually nap. There is a direct correlation between napping and not dying early, according to a study of approximately 3000 Swiss individuals, aged 35 to 75, who were selected at random. Even one nap per week reduced the risk of heart disease, stroke, and heart attack mortality by 42%. Do you still believe that sleep is for the weak? The opposite is actually true: a lack of sleep can lead to a decline in health, making us weaker and more susceptible to illness and even increasing the risk of diseases such as heart attack, hypertension, and stroke.

Some people may not get the luxury of sleeping 8 hours a night regularly due to the nature of their work. If you belong to this category of workers, remember to have some rest during the day to make up for what you might have lost in the night. Don’t let social media keep you awake and put a toll on your already stressed body. If we do not take breaks to refresh, reorganize, and care for our health, our bodies will do so for us, and it may not be at the most convenient time.

Sleep now to boost your immune system while you have the luxury, for you might pay to sleep sometime when the body decides. A good night’s sleep matters too. Let’s try to enjoy some good nights of sleep and hope to wake up every morning to a message from my classmate that ‘sleep is for the weak’.