Sleep, visibly one of our main circadian rhythms, is an important component of our lives, accounting for a third of the day’s 24 hours for many people.
From an evolutionary perspective, circadian rhythms play a vital nourishing purpose: recharging our bodies to allow them recover for the next day.
Study after another are out there on the effects of altered sleep and the interactions with other biological rhythms.
The multiple interconnections of these rhythms unfortunately means one can’t treat any in isolation.
The 2017 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to the trio of Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young “for their discoveries of molecular mechanisms controlling the circadian rhythm”. Their works and cutting edge research have been inspirational to many with interest in the field, helping shed more light in this area.
Sleep, visibly one of our main circadian rhythms, is an important component of our lives, accounting for a third of the day’s 24 hours for many people. From an evolutionary perspective, circadian rhythms play a vital nourishing purpose: recharging our bodies to allow them recover for the next day.
Study after another are out there on the effects of altered sleep and the interactions with other biological rhythms. The multiple interconnections of these rhythms unfortunately means one can’t treat any in isolation.
They are all intricately intertwined though focus is given to the “master clock” that dominates the rest.
Perhaps sleep’s most important function is the sustenance it offers to the brain. The startling observations of sleep deprivation studies both short-term and long-term suggests it is necessary for good health. From my perception one of its most important benefits is its effects on cognitive functions.
Evolving workhours, however, place an asynchrony between our ancestors’ sleep-wake cycles where daylight was a time for work and night a period of rest and sleep. With many economies now on a 24-hour model, workers find themselves working “off rhythm” that is those awake when the body should ideally be asleep. This group bears the brunt of sleep disorders.
Easily, medics fall into this group given the continuous nature of our hospital operations. Policemen, long distance truck drivers and flight crew crisscrossing time zones are also victims.
Interestingly though is the role sleep’s presence or lack thereof plays on other invisible “internal clocks”. Physiologically these are responsible for regulation of functions like appetite, growth, reproduction, fertility, immunity and many more.
There are many causes of altered sleep patterns ranging from physical or psychological illnesses, substance abuse but work related sleep-disorders are becoming a significant component of such disturbances. Surveys show that as societies and populations shift to intense formal economies such disruptions tend to increase.
One’s domicile settings may also play a role given the input environmental cues play on sleep. Long-term traffic and other disturbing noises near houses may affect sleep patterns.
A good example being neighbourhoods near busy airports and flight paths. Typically village people may have fewer work-related sleep issues, maybe as a result of their sedentary lives.
Among occupational health and human resource practitioners, organisations need to start developing protocols to safeguard the health of such workers. For individuals with insomnia, identifying the causes whether work-related, physical, psychosocial or environmental is a first step towards resolving the problem.
Dr Omete is a medical physiologist. [email protected] Twitter:@healthinfoK
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