The Insomnia Blog - Sleep Doctor Michael Breus, PhD

Andy Rooney on Sleep

Yes, Andy, we do sleep about a third of our lives away.

And I agree, it would be nice to have a gauge on us to let us know when we need to get some shut eye or when we’ve had enough, much like a battery light that comes on to tell us it’s time to charge a certain device for optimal use. Green means go. Red mean stop.

Earlier this month when Andy Rooney gave his classic spiel during the last segment of 60 Minutes, he talked about sleep. He doesn’t quite understand why so many people have problems with sleep, especially since he “can sleep night or day, sitting, standing, or lying down” and he admits to falling asleep right at his desk or on a bus going across town. He can get along on 7 hours, and thinks that anyone who gets 9 hours or more is sleeping his or her life away.

Andy’s quips were no doubt enjoyed by many. But a few big topics Andy failed to cover, though, are sleep’s impact on:

Pilot Fatigue to Blame?

If you learned upon landing that your plane’s pilots had overshot the airport by 150 miles because they fell asleep at the controls, what would you feel?

Terrified?
Shocked?
Lucky?

I’d feel a mix of the above. In this week’s latest hit to the airline industry, a Northwest flight to Minneapolis overshot its destination and pilot fatigue could be to blame. Of course, the pilots are saying they were in an argument at the time and that’s the reason for the blunder (not that I’d like to see my pilots so distracted over a “debate” that they still overshoot the runway!).

Fatigue among pilots has been a recurring theme this year, punctuated earlier this year by the deadly crash near Buffalo that was partly blamed on fatigue (that crash was blamed on pilot error).

The Federal Aviation Administration is rewriting its rules that govern flight time for pilots and their required rest periods in order to reduce the chances of fatigue. It will be the first update to the rules in decades and will utilize research that wasn’t available before.

Does that make me feel better the next time I fly?

Tic-Toc: News about Your Clock

I love a study that debunks an old theory long believed true. Last week scientists at the University of Michigan came out with a bold statement: everything we know about the human biological clock is wrong.

According to these researchers, who hail from mathematics, the cells responsible for maintaining the clock in the part of the brain called the suprachiasmatic nuclei, or SCN, don’t fire all day and night like previously thought. The cells that control the clock are silent during the day.

Though these cells sustain an electrically excited state, they don’t actually fire until a brief period around dusk, and then remain quiet throughout the night before releasing another burst of activity around dawn. 

Think of a clock that only chimes twice a day – because the time only needs to be announced at two particular times.  The clock keeps ticking during the silent periods, to make sure the time is accurate when it is time for the chimes to sound.

This may not sound like big news for you (or even mean all that much), but it means a lot to people in sleep medicine and in general medicine for that matter. I’ve written often about biological clocks in the past. It’s a fascinating area of research that has so many applications to everyday life.

Consider how much your internal clock determines the quality of your life. And if you don’t know what I mean by that, then here’s a quick summary. All of the following relate to your internal cloc

Big Decisions Decided After All-Nighters?

Imagine having to make a huge decision that may affect the lives of millions.  Your constituents have voted with confidence in your ability represent them on issues like health care and education.

But after months of contentious debate, when the deadline nears, it comes time to make the critical decisions, there’s nothing left to do but pull numerous all-nighters, eat poorly, and struggle to stay awake while you and your colleagues fight for a resolution.

Sound like a group project in college or business school?  No wait -  it is actually the State Senate!

This is what’s been happening in states like California where budgets are running in the red and constitutional rules have forced legislators to lock themselves in the statehouse to get bills passed.  California lawmakers have pulled at least six all-nighters so far this year.