How to "pay off" sleep debt - Your Life - Brief Article

Here is some advice for staying alert long after April 7, the day clocks spring forward one hour and most Americans lose an hour of sleep. "If you're young, sleep an hour later on Sunday; if you're older, go to bed an hour early," suggests William C. Dement, director of Stanford (Calif.) University's Sleep Disorders Center and professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. He is quick to point out that, for the 60,000,000 Americans who suffer from sleep debt, daylight-saving time isn't the culprit. "If you're well rested, losing that one hour of sleep when daylight-saving time begins won't make a major difference. Don't worry about it," he maintains.

However, most people incur a sleep debt because they don't get enough sleep over time, Dement says. "A debt builds up if you sleep less than your personal need--from six to 10 hours a day, depending on individual variation--over the course of many nights. The good news is that you can repay the debt without interest. Someone who needs 10 hours of sleep could pay back a 10-hour debt over 10 days by sleeping one extra hour each night. You can catch up Aster--for example, repaying six hours by sleeping 15 hours--though only actual sleep counts. Lying in bed and staring at the ceiling won't help repay the debt.

"To make the most of the time in bed, we recommend that older people go to bed early to pay back their debt or to make up for the hour on daylight-saving time. On the other hand, young people usually find it easier to sleep in later," Dement indicates. The reasons for the generation gap aren't clear, but research indicates that older people may react differently to darkness and light. "The biological clock of older people tends to become set so that they feel sleepy sooner after dark than younger people," he suggests.

Dement emphasizes that a single good night of sleep won't do much to help a seriously sleep-deprived person. A study conducted with long-distance truck drivers in the mid 1990s under simulated conditions showed that those who were seriously sleep-deprived were prone to doze off while driving even if they had eight hours of sleep three nights in succession before a long driving assignment. "Their overall debt was too large to overcome in three nights."

How do you know when the debt is repaid? "You'll feel it," Dement explains. "You'll regain alertness and the feeling that extra sleep just won't make any difference anymore."

COPYRIGHT 2002 Society for the Advancement of Education
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group