With the advent of electricity, Americans get on average, three hours less sleep per night than our ancestors did before the light bulb. Now it seems that all of the latest electronic media and gadgets are an even bigger distraction, causing widespread sleep deprivation that has a great percentage of the population hooked on caffeine and energy drinks to get them through the day.

I have always been a person who becomes a poorly functioning zombie after just one night of poor quality sleep or not enough hours of sleep. My body needs a full 7 to 8 hours, and if I get 6 I won’t be thinking clearly halfway through the next day; less than 6, my body literally starts breaking down until I take a nap. I will start to get a headache and often even a scratchy throat until I take a nap and get that extra hour my body needs. So, I am always amazed by people who can consistently pull “all nighters” because of a partying lifestyle, heavy studying, crazy work hours or motherhood. 

This type of a lifestyle does not come without a price. An increasing body of evidence seems to indicate that not getting enough sleep and sleeping at odd hours, increases one’s risk for cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. In fact, there is evidence to support the idea that America’s obesity epidemic might be directly correlated to the average number of hours that Americans are sleeping.

This makes sense when you consider that not getting enough sleep affects the hormones that regulate appetite. Out of 10,000 adults studied between the ages of 32 and 49, those who slept less than 7 hours per night, were more likely to be obese.

Lawrence Epstein, president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine says that the attitude that we have in our society that we can get by without sleep or manipulate when we sleep, without consequences, is false.  It has been proven that being awake in the wee hours is counter to the body’s internal clock, which throws bodily functions out of sync.

Not only does your body produce more stress hormones when you get insufficient sleep, but substances in the blood cause an inflammatory response. “Based on our findings, we believe that if you lose sleep that your body needs, then you produce these inflammatory markers that on a chronic basis can create low-grade inflammation and predispose you to cardiovascular events and a shorter life span,” said Alexandros N. Vgontzas of Pennsylvania State University.

Other studies have found that sleep influences the functioning of the lining inside blood vessels, which could explain why people are most prone to heart attacks and strokes during early morning hours.

The following is taken from a Washington Post article from 2005:

After several studies found that people who work at night appear unusually prone to breast and colon cancer, researchers investigating the possible explanation for this association found exposure to light at night reduces levels of the hormone melatonin. Melatonin is believed to protect against cancer by affecting levels of other hormones, such as estrogen.

“Melatonin can prevent tumor cells from growing — it’s cancer-protective,” said Eva S. Schernhammer of Harvard Medical School, who has conducted a series of studies on volunteers in sleep laboratories. “The theory is, if you are exposed to light at night, on average you will produce less melatonin, increasing your cancer risk.”

Other researchers are exploring a possible link to other malignancies, including prostate cancer.

“There’s absolutely no reason it should be limited to breast cancer, and it wouldn’t necessarily be restricted to people who work night shifts. People with disrupted sleep or people who are up late at night or get up frequently in the night could potentially have the same sort of effect,” said Scott Davis of the University of Washington.

So, *f.a.t. friends, think of repeated occurrences of lack of sleep as continuous withdrawls taken out of the health bank account without depositing enough currency back into the account to compensate for the multitude of withdrawls. If you want to stay Fit After Thirty inside and out, get to bed by midnight to ensure optimal melatonin production, and keep your sleep consistent and plentiful, and encourage your family and loved ones to do the same!