Is it Possible that our Sleepy Quality Would have Actually Been Better if We Lived in a PreIndustrial Time?

The Preindustrial article by Jerome M. Siegel highlights a dominant cultural issue surrounding sleep health – which is the advent of first world luxuries and amenities – like electricity 24/7 and the internet.  The paper highlights an examination of sleep duration and timing as they are related to natural light, ambient temperature, and seasons in three still preindustrial cultures: those being the Hadza, Kalahari San, and the Tsimane.  The study found these societies’ sleep schedules to be fairly consistent with natural light – any changes being limited to perhaps changes daylight depending on the season.

For example, according to the study, the Tsimane and the San experience about an hour longer night’s sleep during the winter as compared to summer; this is not surprising because both of these groups live just far enough south of the Equator to feel the swing of season changes (15 and 20 degrees respectively).  What did surprise me however, a striking finding of the study, was that sleep patterns only minimally varied among these peoples – despite them being separated from each other by both some stretch of geography and by language, in other words totally separate aside from the unifying nature of their pre-industry culture.  Therefore, it can be inferred that such patterns are not in fact dictated by geographical location or culture by rather by the human condition (physiology).  If this conclusion is to be accurate, it would explain why even residents of “the city that never sleeps,” i.e. New York City, can hit that wall of bodily exhaustion without proper sleep health maintenance.

As a college student evaluating the information provided and analyzed in this article, I am not shocked about its findings related to circadian rhythm sleep patterns and artificial light, but am recommitted to my ongoing effort to “normalize” my sleep schedule, and get both a healthy quality and healthy quantity of sleep, like those in undeveloped countries or my ancestors.  Even my parents talk about their daily routines of no cell phones, finding entertainment outdoors only – coming home when it got dark, reading, and going to bed.  So even with artificial light, they still had a more “natural” sleep routine/ bed time, but today, with so many forms of stimulation that maintain the body’s alertness rather than naturally getting to sleep, we are (and this is a generalization) a pretty sleep-deprived generation…and I am very concerned for the next generation’s sleep health.

I commented on Ashley Zapata and Rachel Moore's blogs this week.

Thoughts on the Value of Your Fitbit...by someone who does not own one.

With the first week of classes behind us, it is a good time to evauluate my sleep habits especially in light of the Fitbit article, which discusses the ability of such devices to not only monitor excercise (in accordance with its more common use) but other things like sleep patterns.  The article here noted is written by Lisa Meltzer; and it highlights the need for sleep monitoring devices, specifically for evaluating children -- who are not typically able to record their own sleep patterns accurately or consistently via journal-like measures or questionnaires.  Devices like Fitbits, which claim to monitor sleep, among other physiological acitivty (i.e. movement), are called acceleromters.  The fitbit costs roughly $100.  The study included 63 participants, ages 3-17 (mean of 9.7), and it took place at at the Children's of Alabama youth sleep laboratory.  Its aim was to validate Fitbit claims that the device can accurately monitor one's sleep-wake cycle.  Because of issues encountered with the devices used, only 49 of the 63 participant's data was used.  The Fitbit Ultra was found to underestimate sleep efficiency by about 20%, not a comforting outcome for a pricy and theoretically reliable device.  Still, in other cases, the Fitbit actually overestimated TST (total sleep time) and efficiency.

The study found that while the Fitbit and other devices are quality devices for for their aim, they are perhaps not the best sleep efficiency measurement tool (namely for youth populations).  It should also be noted that one should not simply use a Fitbit to measure  and monitor his/her sleep health.  I personally do not have a Fitbit or other device so it may be a little difficult for me to fully appreciate all that was mentioned in the article about them -- good or bad -- but I woubenld like to purchase a device like it though to keep track of more aspects of my own health.  Since I do not have a device like it, or something remotely similar on my Smartphone, I simply use a mental clock of my circadian rythm to track my sleep health.  With that, I offer limited confience in self-reporting because my sleep is still fluctuating as I settle into a daily routine at school.  It is my opinion that the commerical availability of devices like Fitbits, or other similar devices for consumers, is inheretnly a "good thing."  A tool to aid in health monitoring is something that American society really benefits from.  However, I think the availability of Fitbits is only one small step toward greater progress.  While monitoring one's steps everyday or getting in bed at the same time every night and waking up at the same time every morning are healthful habits: only walking will not get you een 5k-ready, and gettig on your phone before bed, even at 10 pm, detrimentally affects your sleep time and quality.  Therefore, I welcome more research comparing the connecitons between Fitbit owners and what their habits are -- are the Fitbits actually helping them live healthier (and of course sleep better)?

A Review and Thoughts about "...Tennis Players" (Reyner et al.) by a Lacrosse Player

As an athlete myself currently (Baylor lacrosse), as well as having competed in fairly competitive sports all my life, I understand the anxiety mentioned in Reyner's article.  Playing sports "takes a lot out of you."  The travel and jet-lag also mentioned are detrimental to any athlete competing nationally or abroad because competition is all about performance, and when your body is taxed from enduring a 10-hour time difference, you cannot perform at your absolute best -- something especially important I believe for team sports, since others are counting so much on your contributions.

To combat fatigue, Reyner mentions the increased use of caffeine among athletes, I suppose especially student- athletes, since students (generally I am referring to college-age students) are a large population of caffeine- consumers as it is [this phenomenon noted in Dr. Drake's article, "Caffeine Effects..."  I was intrigued by the lack of aid that caffeine provides, according to the article, aside from its help to combat "sleepiness." ...I would think that caffeine's effects on the body (i.e. increased heart rate) only multiply and athlete's speed, timing, and alertness in any given setting (here tennis).  And in fact caffeine, because it speeds up heart rate, could, in fact does sometimes increase speed -- but its help in a sport like tennis that requires judgment and accuracy is unknown because such phenomena are a function of both duration of sleep and sleep quality: so a sleep deprived tennis player may benefit from caffeine intake in that he or she is more alert during the game but the physical coordination on his/ her serve may still suffer because of poor sleep duration/ quality.  Since the direct correlation of caffeine to athletic performance is still unclear and unknown, I, other American athletes, and athletes around the world would benefit from further research into this correlation.

For this article, sixteen semiprofessional (university) tennis players with good sleep patterns (6.5-8 hours/ night) were studied across two setups: one which considered sleep deprivation alone and another which compared caffeine with placebo on performance (double blind experiment).  Sleep deprivation effects on performance varied only slightly between men and women.  Caffeine seemed to provide little aid then for men and women alike; and in general, sleep reduced by roughly one third in both studies had detrimental performance effects.  Whether a suffering athletic performance is routed in psychological doubting because of one’s awareness of sleep loss or if it is truly related to physical limits placed on the body by sleep deprivation remains to be seen.

Speaking for myself, I notice an unquantifiable but evident “slowness” in lacrosse games for which I lack sleep/ rest.  I feel that my reaction time is slower, I run slower, and think less “smart” (i.e. making the best split second decisions in the middle of a game).  Interestingly, I seem to perform my best when I get about 6-7 hours of sleep and not as well when I get more than that – something counterintuitive in my opinion.  Nonetheless, I, along with other much more gifted athletes than myself, continue to search for the habits that constitute peak athletic performance and contribute to an athlete’s best game of the season.  The information in this article is indeed a good starting place for that search but more guidance is desired.