‘When I’m rested, I’m at my best’

“To sleep – perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub…”. The words are from the well-known soliloquy of Prince Hamlet in the Shakespearean play, ‘Hamlet’, which starts with another famous phrase, “To be or not to be.”

People experience several difficulties in the matter of getting enough, and good, sleep, spending about a third of their lives’ sleeping, notwithstanding. Researchers, and experts, are still trying to unravel the mystery of why people sleep, and what happens, when they do.

The natural sleep-wake cycle is regulated by a hormone of stress, called cortisol. The brain and the body remain active during sleep, which removes toxins in the brain that build up while one is awake. The recommended duration of sleep for an adult to remain looking young and healthy, called beauty sleep, is about 7 to 9 hours.

There are three stages of sleep, the non-Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, when dreams happen, a shorter spell of the same and, then, the cycle again. Quality sleep, in adequate measure, is important for a number of brain activities. The word, sleep, has many connotations. While a ‘sleeping partner’ is colloquial, for a person who provides some capital for a business, without taking an active part. Likewise, a ‘sleepy place’ is one which is quiet, without much activity. Similarly, to be ‘caught napping’ means to suddenly be in a position of being unprepared to deal with a situation on account of being inattentive. A ‘sleepy conscience’ is one that remains calm and a ‘sleep over’, an overnight’s stay at another’s place. A ‘sleeper agent’, likewise, is a spy who is placed in a target country, or organization, not for an immediate mission, but as a dormant, and potential, asset.

Sleep disorders, such as inadequate or disturbed sleep, have adverse consequences on one’s health. In fact, sixteen hours of being awake at a stretch is known to decrease one’s performance as if the blood alcohol levels were above the legal limit. For example, some people find it hard to wake up in the morning, on account of a condition called dysania, usually caused by nutritional deficiency or depression. Sleep apnea, a potentially serious condition, with breathing repeatedly stopping, and starting, is often reflected in symptoms like loud snoring, and tiresomeness, even after a full night’s sleep. People who either do not sleep well, or adequately, suffer from a condition called insomnia, which, strangely enough, is common in divorced, and separated, people. Likewise, somnambulism or sleep walking which some people engage in every night, is harmless, but not always so. And, after a child is born, the parents lose between 400 750 hours of sleep in the very first year! A major contributor to disturbed sleep is the 24 hour Internet access. Regular exercise, like a brisk walk, can help ease disorders.

Fortunately, advances in medical science are helping people find ways to get the sleep they need. Sleeping during the day is generally regarded as unnatural. According to Hindu mythology, demons, also called ‘rakshasas’ or ‘nisacharas’, moved about at night and slept during the day. Short naps, taken during the day, however, can have many beneficial effects. A ‘power nap’ is a short nap of about 10 to 30 minutes. The short time frame helps one wake up refreshed. They boost the immune system and reduce stress, while increasing alertness, and improving one’s mood and performance. They also help people with jobs requiring high vigilance,such as drivers and pilots, to recharge, reducing the risk of accidents.Statistics have also shown that an extra hour of sleep reduces accidents. In fact, many car rental companies extract a promise that one will not drive on fewer than six hours of sleep.

Many famous persons were used to taking ‘power naps’. Thomas Edison, the inventor of the electric bulb, the gramophone, the motion picture camera, the telegraph and the telephone, famously observed that, “Nature has not intended mankind to work from eight in the morning until midnight, without that, refreshment of blessed oblivion, which, even if it lasts only 20 minutes, is sufficient to renew all the vital forces.” Edison was said to have slept only three or four hours a night, and, sometimes, would work for 72 hours straight. The secret of his spectacular productivity was short power naps. He claimed that he could sleep “as sound as a bug in a barrel of morphine,” and often got in a couple of three hour naps during the day. Henry Ford, a great friend of Edison, used to say that Edison “did not sleep very much but just napped a lot.”

Another, equally famous, historical figure, Sir Winston Churchill, the legendary Prime Minister of Britain during the Second World War, used to insist that the afternoon nap was a non-negotiable part of his daily routine. Yet another celebrated personality, who was habituated to power naps, was John F Kennedy, the President of the USA, known for his role in the historical USSR-USA confrontation, over the Cuban crisis. He would nap for an hour or two soon after lunch, asking not to be disturbed unless there was an emergency. So effective was this habit of his that Jacqueline Kennedy, his wife, later advised Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, to take naps, saying, they “changed Jack’s whole life”.

Thanks to the speed with which road, train and air travel take place these days, travel need no longer need mean sleeplessness, or disturbed sleep. Aircraft, trains and buses now also provide additional amenities that allow passengers to have a good night’s sleep.

Many young people prefer to study at night, on account of the peace and quiet, in the ambience, which aids concentration. The habit, some of them have, of studying the whole night, however, can result in adverse consequences, caused by deprivation of sleep.

One recalls, in this context, the song sung by well-known yesteryear Hindi movie crooner Mukesh, and enacted on the screen by the great matinee idol Raj Kapoor in the popular Hindi movie of the 1960s, ‘Teesri Kasam’. A stanza in it conveys the sentiment, that one spends one’s childhood in frolic and fun, youth in sleeping contentedly and ends up, lamenting about wasted time in old age. In other words, like all good things, there can be such a thing as too much sleep.

A very curious, and interesting, consequence of the advent of the colour TV, is that nearly 75 per cent of people today dream in colour, compared to just 15 per cent earlier!

The great French Emperor and military commander, Napoleon Bonaparte, was known to be a whirlwind of energy during military campaigns. Galloping from place to place, pouring over maps and pondering strategy, he would, for days at a stretch, neither change his clothes, nor lie down, for a full night’s sleep. He did, however, have the knack of falling asleep, quite literally, at the drop of a hat, a gift to which his supreme confidence was attributed. He could sleep like a baby before, and even during, a battle when cannons were booming nearby. His power naps staved off the fatigue of sleeplessness. But, then, when the battles were over, he would sleep for 18 hours at a stretch. He is famously reported to have said “six hours for a man, seven for a woman, and eight for a fool.”

(The writer was formerly Chief Secretary, Government of Andhra Pradesh)