eli5: How does lack of sleep kill someone?
In: Biology
The previous explanations do a great job. Here are some direct health issues because of *the sleeps*:
**Dementia** is closely linked to lack of sleep – Reagan and Thatcher bragged about how little sleep they had, both got dementia.
**Heart problems**: because of daylight savings we gain and lose an hour of sleep every year. When we gain an hour there’s a 30% drop in heart problems the following day.
When we lose an hour there’s a 30% increase in heart problems the following day.
This lil fact stuck with me too: When we sleep we’re open to being attacked. So there’s a reason why Mother Nature *makes* our bodies turn off all its defences for 8 hours.
It feels obvious to think about it, but we just don’t think about it.
Here are more slithers of the interestings: Lack of sleep became a big problem once light was invented – our brains our dumb and thinks it’s sunlight. So flick light on and boom “iT mUsT bE sUnsHiNe, gOOD moRnINg” said the brain.
So if our brains couldn’t handle it in back in 1890 then they sure can’t in 2024.
Basically society has evolved faster than our bodies can keep up with: phones, t.v., Barbenheimer showings at midnight, etc.
If you want more then Matthew Walker is a sleep scientist who covers this reaaally well in his book, he’s also done [podcasts](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwaWilO_Pig) on this. Explains it super simply, and it’s so fascinating!
The REM stage of sleep, when you’re dreaming, is when the trash removal process occurs. This is what killed Michael Jackson. He was taking a drug to suppress dreaming.
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