PROBLEM OF SLEEP IS KEEPING MANY SCIENTISTS AWAKE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 26, 17 August 1949, Page 3

PROBLEM OF SLEEP IS KEEPING MANY SCIENTISTS AWAKE

Sleep has lQng fascinated scien_ tists. “If only we could find the cause of it,” they think, “we could do away with sleep.” This may be a questionable benefit, but you cannot stop science. Already at the Carnegie Institute in the United States they have reared a breed of tireless “dancing” mice .... Scientists! have found out a good deal about sleep. They know that our temperature and blood pressure fall, our limbs become slightly larger, respiration slows, muscles /relax, and gland activity and the whole metabolism are lowered. Depth Of Sleep

And they have tested- depth of sleep by subjecting sleepers to noises of different intensities. They have even had a look through a hole in a patient’s skull to see if the brain shrinks.

We know that people’s sleep requirements vary from four to ten hours. The average sedentary wo'rk_ er needs eight hours. The manual labourer can get along on four. Crude physical effort recovers more quickly after sleep than co-ordina-tion and higher discrimination. Sleep also varies with age. Newborn babies sleep almost all the time, a few months later they do the same except for a brief period of activity about 5 a.m. Adolescents should have at least

10 hours Some old people need more others less, than the normal hours of sleep. There are many theories about the cause of sleep. Anaemia of the brain is an old one which few believe. Another theory is that the toxic effects of activity in the body produce sleep. Blood from a sleeping clog was injected into another which was wide awake. The latter fell asleep at once, but this proved nothing—it was probably tired or bored with the business.

It did not explain why inactive bedridden people * still need sleep, o:r why in Siamese twins with a common blood supply one was awake while the other slept. Modern Theory

Modern theory of the cause of sleep is that it is a reflex inhibition of. the brain which spreads like water over the brain, layer by layer, so that we relax, our eyelids droop, our vision swims, and we finally lose consciousness.

The/re are still many questions to be answered. We do not know what miracle takes place while we are asleep to enable us to face the world refreshed next day.'

We do not know what causes animals to hibernate for the winter. Why does sleep occur at /regular intervals? Why does monotony or a boring acquaintance put us to sleep so quickly? How is it that an expert hypnotist can put a person to sleep with a snap of his fingers? Is there a sleep centre in the brain controlling our slumber? Why do some people fall asleep suddenly without warning for short periods during the day? Why have' some slept for years at a stretch?

Scientists all over the world are working on these problems. Perhaps one day they will be able to answer them.