WEBVTT - Sleep No More 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.680 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:13.720 Works dot com. Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:16.760 your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. Julie, 0:00:16.760 --> 0:00:19.439 how much sleep did you get last night? Seven and 0:00:19.480 --> 0:00:22.560 a half hours. It's pretty good. Yeah, it wasn't bad. 0:00:22.680 --> 0:00:26.000 I mean, eight is the that's the ballpark, that's clean 0:00:26.040 --> 0:00:29.280 living right there at eight. Right, that's what I aspire to. 0:00:30.120 --> 0:00:36.120 But I need that. What about you? Um, let's see twelve, two, three, four. 0:00:36.640 --> 0:00:40.280 I tend to get around like generally at my idea, 0:00:40.320 --> 0:00:43.080 it's like it's seven, but I feel much better when 0:00:43.120 --> 0:00:46.640 I get eight. Well, and it makes a huge difference, right, 0:00:46.760 --> 0:00:49.519 Sometimes I get six. In the past, I found that 0:00:49.600 --> 0:00:51.640 like I can sort of I can pull like one, 0:00:51.880 --> 0:00:53.360 like one night a week. I can stay up a 0:00:53.360 --> 0:00:56.080 little late, but then I need to make it out 0:00:56.320 --> 0:00:58.120 like I don't know, I used to it. It was different. 0:00:58.720 --> 0:01:02.640 You're younger, but well yeah, but but these days, yeah, 0:01:02.800 --> 0:01:07.800 I find myself getting seven, but eight would be gravy. Well, okay, 0:01:07.800 --> 0:01:10.399 so there's this idea out there that eight hours is 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:13.280 the ideal, or actually between six and eight hours sort 0:01:13.280 --> 0:01:15.600 of depends. Everybody is wired a little bit differently, and 0:01:16.040 --> 0:01:19.680 certainly melotonin levels are different depending on depends how much 0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:22.600 sleeping you're getting done on the train later on in 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:25.160 the day, or or under your desk in a secret 0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:28.800 compartment that you've built that nobody can see that looks 0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:33.320 like cubicle but it's not. Yeah yeah, yeah, um, but yeah, 0:01:33.360 --> 0:01:37.240 there's this idea that um that there's are these are standards. 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:41.480 They even call the this sleep hygiene these days. But 0:01:41.560 --> 0:01:45.360 there's a really fascinating New York Times article, um actually 0:01:45.400 --> 0:01:48.160 New York Times magazine. It is called the sleep industrial Complex. 0:01:48.560 --> 0:01:50.120 And we'll talk a little bit more about this in 0:01:50.120 --> 0:01:53.600 a second, but sleep industrial complex, the sleep industrial complex, 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:56.280 about this idea of sleep is being this you know, 0:01:56.360 --> 0:01:59.400 god given right of eight hours and this is the 0:01:59.440 --> 0:02:01.800 normalcy in this is sleep hygiene, and we should all 0:02:02.720 --> 0:02:05.560 order these two thou dollar beds so that we can 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:10.800 sleep better because we spend half our lives sleeping. But 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:12.680 before we go into that, I wanted to mention that 0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:16.560 we are of course talking about sleep, um this idea 0:02:16.560 --> 0:02:19.519 about whether or not in the future and the near 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:22.080 future we will need as much of it and the 0:02:22.120 --> 0:02:24.920 reasons why. But before we go into the reasons why 0:02:24.960 --> 0:02:28.200 we may or may not need sleep. Let's talk about 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:33.239 the old days, the olden days of sleep. Well, sleep 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:36.120 was invented and when no, it wasn't, and we've always 0:02:36.240 --> 0:02:38.119 we've always slept. So I mean that's the thing when 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:39.959 when you when you first brought this up, like, what 0:02:40.000 --> 0:02:43.640 was what it sleep used to be? Like? My thought was, well, 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:45.600 it was probably like it was now. You got tired 0:02:45.600 --> 0:02:49.360 in the evenings, maybe a little earlier, especially especially and 0:02:49.520 --> 0:02:52.600 say if you're you feel like an agrarian kind of 0:02:53.440 --> 0:02:55.400 environment going on, there's only so much you can do 0:02:55.560 --> 0:02:58.000 at night. You need to get early, so when it's 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:00.400 too dark to work, you go to sleep. Or in 0:03:00.560 --> 0:03:02.680 like saying medieval city settings where you would have certain 0:03:02.760 --> 0:03:05.760 like curfews in place, you're not even you know, you 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:07.600 can only live it up so much at night, so 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:09.160 you might as well go to bed, right, Well, you 0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:12.079 don't have electricity, right, so, yeah, there's not a ton 0:03:12.120 --> 0:03:17.120 to do. Video games were primitive. There's a stick and 0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:21.000 dirt and then your candle run out anyway, so eventually 0:03:20.960 --> 0:03:23.680 you're tired of fighting the lights and you just go 0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:26.840 to sleep and you could get eight hours I would guess, right, well, 0:03:26.840 --> 0:03:29.640 what they're saying though, is that, um, you know, depending 0:03:29.639 --> 0:03:31.200 on the time of the year, you could have ten 0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:35.120 hours of sunlight in fourteen hours of darkness. And um. 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:38.440 In this article that I talked about that just talked 0:03:38.440 --> 0:03:42.720 about the sleep industrial complex, Roger Ekra, professor of history 0:03:42.720 --> 0:03:45.840 at Virginia Tech, says that for many centuries, and perhaps 0:03:45.920 --> 0:03:50.120 back to Homer, Western society slept in two shifts because 0:03:50.120 --> 0:03:52.320 there was so much darkness right there, fourteen hours and 0:03:52.320 --> 0:03:54.600 you didn't have electricity. And he says that people went 0:03:54.640 --> 0:03:56.360 to sleep, got up in the middle of the night 0:03:56.400 --> 0:03:59.200 for an hour or so, and then went to sleep again. Thus, 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:03.000 night quoting here divided into a first sleep in a 0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:07.800 second sleep, um. And this is where they have this intermission. 0:04:07.880 --> 0:04:10.680 And he says that there was an extraordinary level of 0:04:10.760 --> 0:04:14.440 activity during this intermission period. So it's not just like 0:04:14.600 --> 0:04:17.320 I woke up, I stumbled into the bathroom, or I 0:04:17.320 --> 0:04:19.440 stumbled into the kitchen and ate a chicken wing and 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:21.760 then I went to sleep. No, it's like you're getting up, 0:04:21.800 --> 0:04:24.240 you're hitting the town for a couple of hours. Yeah. Yeah, 0:04:24.240 --> 0:04:25.760 He's just that people would get up and they tend 0:04:25.760 --> 0:04:29.000 to their animals, or they would do housekeeping, or they'd 0:04:29.000 --> 0:04:33.160 have sex, or they just lay in bed thinking, um, 0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:36.920 smoking a pipe. Pieces valid options, gossiping with bedfellows, because 0:04:36.920 --> 0:04:39.159 I remember this is back in the day, like you 0:04:39.240 --> 0:04:41.839 might be sleeping in a bed with six other people, 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:45.599 not necessarily that that far away in some society. Like 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:48.839 when I read Black Robe, which I'm sure I've mentioned 0:04:48.839 --> 0:04:52.559 here before, the awesome novel had to do with the 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:56.400 Native American populations in the US, particularly hur On people, 0:04:56.720 --> 0:04:58.760 and then also Jess Wits. But but there are a 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:01.839 lot of descriptions of the of the group's sleeping environments 0:05:02.440 --> 0:05:06.080 among the Hurran and and and and certainly, Yeah, it's 0:05:06.080 --> 0:05:08.680 like it's a communal experience and if people were waking up, 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:11.839 you'd be able to chat a little, well, do it 0:05:11.960 --> 0:05:14.560 or smoke? You would just spoke. Or if you're Benjamin Franklin, 0:05:15.040 --> 0:05:17.480 you would take a cold air bath, which means that 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:20.560 he would read naked in a chair and he'd call 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:24.400 it his cold air bath in the middle of the night. Yeah, 0:05:24.400 --> 0:05:26.320 you can kind of see that really well, right, Like 0:05:26.400 --> 0:05:29.560 for some reason then that's something that's easy to imagine. 0:05:29.600 --> 0:05:32.599 I always imagine him now as the version that we 0:05:32.640 --> 0:05:36.760 saw in the John Adams HBO mini series, played by 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:40.200 that great actor whose name eludes me at the moment. Yeah, 0:05:40.240 --> 0:05:44.200 that guy. But anyway, they kind of they play up 0:05:44.240 --> 0:05:47.159 his his bodiness a little, not to like comic degrees, 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:51.160 but to but to what feels like a more realistic degree. 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:54.960 So I can imagine that Ben Franklin enjoying his cool 0:05:55.000 --> 0:05:58.120 air bath during That's exactly what I thought of a 0:05:58.120 --> 0:06:01.520 corpulent Ben Franklin. I have to say. Um So, anyway, 0:06:01.560 --> 0:06:04.760 that the idea here is that um sleep has not 0:06:04.839 --> 0:06:08.120 always done an unbroken block of six to eight hours, 0:06:08.160 --> 0:06:10.720 and that people have always sort of done different things 0:06:10.760 --> 0:06:13.719 with it. In fact, uh, there's no conclusive evidence, but 0:06:13.800 --> 0:06:18.240 it's thought that Leonardo da Vinci practice something called polyphasic sleep, 0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:21.440 and that's taking twenty to thirty minute naps every couple 0:06:21.440 --> 0:06:24.200 of hours throughout the day and the night, which you 0:06:24.200 --> 0:06:28.080 can actually see the advantages to that, right, because you 0:06:28.160 --> 0:06:31.080 kind of get refreshed at at intervals. Well, I mean, 0:06:31.120 --> 0:06:34.320 if you like. I've never tried it, but certainly if 0:06:34.360 --> 0:06:36.920 I were to look at my own schedule, I would say, yeah, 0:06:36.920 --> 0:06:40.400 when I wake up, those first six hours are are 0:06:40.440 --> 0:06:42.480 optimal for me. That's when I'm gonna get my best 0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:45.400 writing done. That's when if I'm podcasting, that's when I 0:06:45.400 --> 0:06:48.080 need a podcast and am not in the PM, and 0:06:48.120 --> 0:06:52.160 then by the afternoon I'm having increasing difficulty stringing words 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:55.799 together or remembering where I kept things. So it would 0:06:55.880 --> 0:07:00.120 it would seem logical that if I just increase my 0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:04.080 waking periods, I would increase my optimal thinking periods as well, 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:08.160 if you had a balance of the two. Sure. Yeah, Well, 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:12.880 it turns out, according to Eckerach, that slip disorders could 0:07:12.920 --> 0:07:14.960 be especially the ones that in which you wake up 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:15.840 in the middle of the night and you have a 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:18.720 hard time getting back to sleep. Um that this may 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:21.400 actually not necessarily be a sign of being not being 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:24.720 able to fall asleep again, but could be rooted in 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:27.640 the more traditional pattern that we just spoke of, in 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:30.040 which there are ten hours of daylight fourteen hours of 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:33.720 darkness and people had those intermissions. M Now, I believe 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:36.600 there was a sign felt episode where Cramer was going 0:07:36.680 --> 0:07:39.120 after Dilniana our DaVinci model and it ended up not 0:07:39.200 --> 0:07:41.480 working for him. Not to say that that is a 0:07:41.520 --> 0:07:46.760 clinical trial of of said sleep pattern, but but a 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:49.040 number of viewers probably make that connection. Oh and by 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:53.040 the way, Tom Wilkinson, the actor okay, okay, great well 0:07:53.080 --> 0:07:58.320 and aeravetic medicine to there. There's different um dosia's they 0:07:58.320 --> 0:08:01.640 call them, that rule different parts of the day. So 0:08:01.880 --> 0:08:05.120 there's this idea that certain does you would fall asleep 0:08:05.160 --> 0:08:07.680 easily and then you would wake up, and that there 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:09.920 are some people who actually follow this. So these are 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:13.080 like four hour blocks of time. So if this certain 0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:16.800 do show, which was more amenable to sleep, were to 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:18.440 occur during the day, and then you would sleep during 0:08:18.440 --> 0:08:20.400 that time period. So they are all there are many 0:08:20.440 --> 0:08:22.800 different ideas of sleep and how to accomplish it. Yeah, 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:25.120 I mean certainly, just in anyone's friend group, you can 0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:28.120 probably think of various people who are you know, night work. 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:31.840 Like my sister for instance, she does she bakes beads 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:34.920 for jewelry. Uh and uh she does that like exclusively 0:08:35.000 --> 0:08:37.000 in the wee hours of the morning and then sleeps 0:08:37.120 --> 0:08:40.000 late and uh and we are stays up at night 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:43.200 and works on it and then sleeps rather late. Whereas 0:08:43.200 --> 0:08:45.200 I'm just the opposite of I'm gonna do something creative 0:08:45.800 --> 0:08:49.080 um or or an involve spot. It's going to have 0:08:49.120 --> 0:08:51.200 to happen in the a m SO, and you see 0:08:51.200 --> 0:08:53.960 people with drastic differences in that. I can't think of anyone. 0:08:53.960 --> 0:08:58.199 I've never met anyone who's like, yeah, middle of the day, Yeah, 0:08:58.400 --> 0:09:01.320 right off at eat a sandwich about three o'clock. That's 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:05.240 when I was really yeah yeah. Um, alright, let's talk 0:09:05.240 --> 0:09:07.640 about why we need sleep. We've talked about this a 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:10.640 little bit before previous podcasts, but let's just sort of 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:13.640 have a refresher. That newborn sleep up to twenty hours 0:09:13.640 --> 0:09:16.360 a day, um, and of course they need that because 0:09:16.400 --> 0:09:19.480 they're secreting growth hormones and all sorts of crazy things 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:21.640 that are going on to help them grow. Um. And 0:09:21.640 --> 0:09:24.960 then us adults log between six to eight hours of sleep, 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:29.080 and it is essential to mammals. Yeah. Sleep, just just 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:31.199 a few bullet points here. Sleep gives the body a 0:09:31.280 --> 0:09:33.959 chance to repair muscles and other tissues to replace aging 0:09:34.040 --> 0:09:37.920 or dead cells. So it's the it's maintenance time in 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:40.440 the old body. Sleep gives the brain a chance to 0:09:40.600 --> 0:09:43.800 organize in our archived memories, dreams or thought by some 0:09:43.920 --> 0:09:45.880 to be part of this process. We've discussed that before. 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:48.760 The idea of the of dream that our dream cycle 0:09:48.880 --> 0:09:53.040 is a is a problem solving um space that happens 0:09:53.040 --> 0:09:56.480 at a at a subconscious level. Sleep lowers our energy consumption, 0:09:56.559 --> 0:09:58.640 so we need three meals a day rather than four 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:02.439 or five. And since we don't do anything you know, 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:04.160 in the dark anyway, we might as well turn off 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:06.600 and save energy. That's, of course, going rolling back on 0:10:06.679 --> 0:10:10.200 older models of we're we're not nocturnal creatures. We can't 0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:13.360 see anything, so we're gonna as well shut down also 0:10:13.920 --> 0:10:17.680 um as um as as the the Wigham child points 0:10:17.679 --> 0:10:19.920 out in the Simpsons, sleep is where you're viking, So 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:24.360 there's that. That's that's right, sleep perchance to dream. Um. So, yeah, 0:10:24.360 --> 0:10:26.160 a lot of the points back to the fact that 0:10:26.200 --> 0:10:28.760 we have this three pound a little you know, operating 0:10:28.800 --> 0:10:31.319 system that does take a lot of energy. And as 0:10:31.360 --> 0:10:33.640 you say, if we can turn off, then we can 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:35.360 conserve that and we don't have to keep feeding that. 0:10:35.880 --> 0:10:38.360 So what happens when we we can't go to sleep, right, 0:10:38.559 --> 0:10:41.439 That's that's that's always been the problem. Because you can 0:10:41.640 --> 0:10:45.120 force yourself to stay up, be it out of sheer terror, 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:51.000 out of by the use of natural or illicit um substances, 0:10:51.840 --> 0:10:55.760 or just sheer you know, intensity of thought. You you 0:10:55.800 --> 0:10:58.439 may be able to keep yourself to some degree awake 0:10:58.480 --> 0:11:01.400 and not also various medical conditions. Of course we'll do 0:11:01.440 --> 0:11:05.440 this as well. UM, but you met this one night 0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:07.760 of sleep, it's not going to kill you. You're generally 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:11.560 gonna be irritable the next day. UH may slow you down. 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:15.160 You become tired easily. Um. Or it's also if possibly 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:18.520 would be totally wired because of adrenaline. Um, you're still 0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:20.720 just you know, pumping through it. Say you're running for 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:24.559 your life from you know, monsters all night and then 0:11:24.559 --> 0:11:27.440 into the next day. UM. All right, if you missed 0:11:27.440 --> 0:11:29.640 two nights asleep, though, then it starts really kissing up 0:11:29.679 --> 0:11:34.360 catching up with you. Concentration becomes difficult, attention span falls, UM, 0:11:34.600 --> 0:11:38.120 Mistakes increase, like silly mistakes, even things that you do 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:41.040 every day. You know, try download the dishwasher. You're gonna 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:43.680 break glasses left and right, that kind of thing. After 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:47.120 three days, though, that's when you start to hallucinate. Um, 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:51.200 and clear thinking becomes impossible. Um. And with contin you know, 0:11:51.240 --> 0:11:54.520 you may start seeing spiders in the corners that aren't there. 0:11:54.600 --> 0:11:57.880 You know, I actually have experienced that before when my 0:11:57.960 --> 0:12:00.760 daughter is a newborn and being up in the middle 0:12:00.760 --> 0:12:02.960 of the night with her so much, and at some 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:05.840 point I remember hallucinating that the room was getting really 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:10.040 tiny big, and that's when I was like, Okay, this 0:12:10.120 --> 0:12:12.120 is you know, these are the effects of not being 0:12:12.120 --> 0:12:14.440 able to sleep, and it is not. I mean, this 0:12:14.480 --> 0:12:17.079 is one of those things that that a large percentage 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:20.160 of Americans, um, and the rest of the world too, 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:23.880 really uh actually happened to them as well. I mean, 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:27.760 Americans get less than the generally recommended eight hours of 0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:30.000 sleep per night and then they suffer some type of 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:33.559 sleep deprivation symptom. What's worth pointing out about the three 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:37.160 days plus thing. Um, you were hallucinating a little bit, 0:12:37.200 --> 0:12:38.920 but you were still ground in reality. You were like 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:41.000 I knew something was that you were like, the room 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:43.920 is not really moving, or you might realize there aren't 0:12:43.920 --> 0:12:46.680 really ghost spiders crawling in the corners of my vision. 0:12:47.160 --> 0:12:49.520 But it can reach the point where you actually lose 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:53.840 grasp of reality. Um. And we've we've had we've conducted 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:59.160 experiments where rats forced to stay awake continuously eventually die. Yeah, 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:01.000 they can live up to three years. But you're right, 0:13:01.200 --> 0:13:03.240 if you were to take two or three weeks and 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:06.240 continuously deprive them of sleep, they would die. So we 0:13:06.280 --> 0:13:09.360 know obviously that this is something that we cannot go without, 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:13.120 or can we That's the thing, because inevitably, I mean 0:13:13.160 --> 0:13:15.679 we we've all had that point be it. You know, 0:13:15.760 --> 0:13:18.040 especially if you if you've been in a college scenario, 0:13:18.280 --> 0:13:20.679 or you found yourself like dealing with a newborn or 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:23.840 any kind of stressful, time consuming portion of your life 0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:26.920 feel or or maybe you just through the video game 0:13:26.960 --> 0:13:28.480 you want to play and you never have time for it, 0:13:28.559 --> 0:13:30.760 or hobby you want to pursue, or that book you 0:13:30.760 --> 0:13:33.120 want to write, and you find yourself sleepy and out 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:35.920 of out of energy when you could work on it. 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:38.520 You may think yourself, Man, if I, if I could 0:13:38.520 --> 0:13:41.080 just get rid of this sleep thing, then that would 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:44.320 totally open up my day. I'd have half my life back, 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:48.000 and I could use that to go after these various 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:53.319 UH endeavors. Or certainly in military and scenarios, we've had 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:56.280 situations where all right, we need to win this thing. 0:13:56.320 --> 0:13:58.720 We need these pilots to come in, fallow the planes 0:13:58.760 --> 0:14:00.719 and then go out again. But we need them to 0:14:00.760 --> 0:14:02.560 be able to fly the plane. We need them to 0:14:02.600 --> 0:14:07.719 have UH, to have that alertness and inability that is 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:09.320 there when they first wake up in the morning. How 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:12.240 can we sustain that. Yeah, let's talk more about the 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:15.160 history of soldiers and stimulants, because that's a great example. 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:18.439 You have people who are in high stakes situations there 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:21.080 in different time zones, most of the time, they're in 0:14:21.160 --> 0:14:24.320 a different climate, they're under extreme stress, and sleep is 0:14:24.320 --> 0:14:27.080 a fleeting thing, right. There are times that you want 0:14:27.080 --> 0:14:28.480 to turn it on and there are times that you 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:31.160 want to turn it off. Um And this I thought 0:14:31.200 --> 0:14:34.880 was really interesting. The number currently of writtle and adderal 0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:38.960 prescriptions written for active duty service members increased by nearly 0:14:39.160 --> 0:14:43.760 one thousand percent in five years from that's from thirty 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:46.880 to UM. But so it decreased or has increased from 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:50.520 three thousand to thirty two thousand and try Care Management Activity, 0:14:50.560 --> 0:14:52.840 which is an arm of the Department of Defense, says 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:56.120 that this is because there have been increased diagnosis of 0:14:56.200 --> 0:15:00.000 a d h D. But then we know the military 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:02.440 where he has had a long history of using stimulants 0:15:02.480 --> 0:15:05.840 to help keep troops alert and awake. And certainly, I 0:15:05.880 --> 0:15:09.880 mean you're dealing with military environments. You know, combat environments. 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:12.200 It's it's ultimately a matter of life and death. So 0:15:12.720 --> 0:15:15.080 it's it's alright, it's hard to argue against the use 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:18.680 of those those substances in these circumstances. I mean, if 0:15:18.720 --> 0:15:21.360 if you're looking at this this individual, is this individual 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:24.600 is going out back into combats, going back out into 0:15:24.640 --> 0:15:26.920 a situation where he or she may be shot at 0:15:27.200 --> 0:15:30.560 or shot down, etcetera, then then how do you make 0:15:30.600 --> 0:15:34.520 the argument against giving them that chemical edge, or giving 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:37.160 them the chemical edge to actually sleep and rest when 0:15:37.200 --> 0:15:39.920 they return with all of these thoughts still ringing in 0:15:39.960 --> 0:15:43.760 their head and all these fears and apprehensions. UM. I 0:15:43.800 --> 0:15:46.680 wanted to point out to that during the Vietnam War 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:50.480 that US troops, troops were given amphetamines, and amphetamines worked 0:15:50.480 --> 0:15:54.640 throughout the braining to boost levels UM a range of neurotransmitters, 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:58.000 and it's it's it's pretty much speed, right, which would 0:15:58.080 --> 0:16:02.360 keep you very active and alert. And Nazis also gave 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:05.320 it to their troops in the form of something called 0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:10.720 privatin okay the German infantry. Yeah, and um A provocil 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:14.960 and motor finel our centrals, nervous system stimulants and those 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:19.840 have been used by military pilots and special forces during missions. UM. 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:22.280 The problem, of course, with all of this are the 0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:29.680 side effects. Provacil has side effects that include nervousness, insomnia, excitation, irritability, tremors, dizziness, 0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:34.600 and headaches. Uh So it's not the perfect drug here, 0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:36.920 and certainly it is a solution to some of the 0:16:36.920 --> 0:16:40.960 problems that exist in this environment. But when you know 0:16:41.080 --> 0:16:43.840 at what cost? Yeah, I mean because so certainly I 0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:47.800 think pilots that's a great example of this, because especially 0:16:47.840 --> 0:16:50.000 if you're dealing with flying along very long distance on 0:16:50.040 --> 0:16:53.520 a combat mission or what have you, you want them 0:16:53.520 --> 0:16:57.120 to have optimal performance for the entire time. But even 0:16:57.160 --> 0:17:00.000 with these these chemicals, you it's going to get increasingly 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:02.840 shaky the more you push it out. It's like holding 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:05.879 them a hold in yoga. That's how far removed him 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:08.479 from combat scenarios, I guess. But but you know, it's 0:17:08.520 --> 0:17:10.119 like the longer you hold it the shaker, it's going 0:17:10.160 --> 0:17:14.240 to get to the point where no amount of chemical 0:17:14.920 --> 0:17:20.080 um aid is going to help you. Or so we thought, right, 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:22.080 and we won't go into some of the instances, but 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:25.320 there there have been some um some of the use 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:30.800 of provocol and motor phenel in which some unfortunate instances 0:17:30.840 --> 0:17:33.040 have happened and people have wondered whether or not it's 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:36.240 the side effects from the drug that that we're um 0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:40.240 you know, causing people to not think clearly or or 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:45.520 having impaired thinking. So, uh, let's talk about In two 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:50.320 thousand and seven, h DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, 0:17:50.400 --> 0:17:53.120 which comes up with some really cool things. Um. Yeah, 0:17:53.160 --> 0:17:56.359 everything from from from driverless cars to out I mean 0:17:56.400 --> 0:18:00.600 it really runs the gamut. Yeah. Uh, they in conjunction 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:04.800 with UM with Department of Defense and Jerome Signal, professor 0:18:04.840 --> 0:18:07.040 of psychiatry at U c l A, came up with 0:18:07.119 --> 0:18:11.919 a nasal spray that would help create a sense of 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:16.359 wakefulness and alertness without many side effects, which is this 0:18:16.400 --> 0:18:20.760 is a huge breakthrough. Yeah, I mean, the the idea 0:18:20.920 --> 0:18:22.720 is is pretty great. I mean they refer to it 0:18:22.760 --> 0:18:26.719 as a sleep replacement drug, which just sounds crazy. That's 0:18:27.119 --> 0:18:30.199 I mean, it's sleep replacement. I mean it tends to 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:33.159 go against everything that we've we've discussed so far, the 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:36.560 idea that that's sleep is inevitable, sleep is mandatory. But 0:18:36.600 --> 0:18:38.800 if you could actually replace it with a drug, then 0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:41.520 what couldn't we do in the space of twenty four 0:18:41.560 --> 0:18:44.800 hours or forty eight hours or even longer. Alright, so 0:18:45.080 --> 0:18:47.960 check this out. There was a study of monkeys who 0:18:47.960 --> 0:18:50.480 were deprived of sleep for thirty the thirty six hours, 0:18:51.240 --> 0:18:53.359 and I wonder how they did that by the way, 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:56.720 to like to just play loud music or like, you know, 0:18:58.359 --> 0:19:01.280 given the first five seasons of breaking bad. Uh yeah, yeah, 0:19:01.400 --> 0:19:04.560 well that'll do it right there. Um. And then those 0:19:04.560 --> 0:19:07.560 monkeys were given either orex in A or a sailine 0:19:08.240 --> 0:19:11.760 placebo before taking standard cognitive tests. And what they found 0:19:11.800 --> 0:19:13.480 is that the monkeys who are given arex in A 0:19:13.640 --> 0:19:16.720 in a nasal spray scored about the same as alert 0:19:16.800 --> 0:19:22.159 monkeys on cognitive tests, while the sailine control group was 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:25.760 severely impaired. And so this is a study that was 0:19:25.800 --> 0:19:29.800 published in the December twenty six, two seven edition of 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:32.200 the Journal of Neuroscience. It was found that O rex 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:35.280 and A not only restored their cognitive abilities, but it 0:19:35.480 --> 0:19:38.120 made and this is huge, and made their brains look 0:19:38.160 --> 0:19:41.600 awake and pet scans as well. So there's evidence that 0:19:41.680 --> 0:19:44.840 it's not just that there's a certain level of alertness, 0:19:44.920 --> 0:19:48.199 but that they could have been firing on all cylinders. 0:19:48.520 --> 0:19:51.280 All right, Well, let's let's take a quick break and 0:19:51.280 --> 0:19:54.720 when we come back we'll keep rolling. We will stay alert, 0:19:54.960 --> 0:19:58.760 stay awake, and keep talking about the death of sleep 0:19:58.840 --> 0:20:06.760 here possibly all right, we're back, and we were talking 0:20:06.760 --> 0:20:12.040 about rex and a, this promising sleep replacement drug candidate, 0:20:12.520 --> 0:20:16.439 which do not go to your your pharmacy, Do not 0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:18.600 go to your doctor and ask for rex and a, 0:20:18.680 --> 0:20:22.760 becaun't buy it online. I'm sure something is available that 0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:26.000 is calling itself our x and a. UM. It's also 0:20:26.040 --> 0:20:29.280 called hypocretin. It's a neuropeptide hormone and it's produced in 0:20:29.320 --> 0:20:33.040 the hypothalamus, and it's what allows us to remain awake 0:20:33.119 --> 0:20:36.240 for a continuous chunk of time because our body basically 0:20:36.600 --> 0:20:40.160 releases our x and A throughout the day. So this 0:20:40.200 --> 0:20:43.520 is the interesting part is that UM. The reason that 0:20:43.560 --> 0:20:47.440 O x in A was discovered to help manipulate these 0:20:47.440 --> 0:20:51.200 different sleep states and wakeful states is because they noticed 0:20:51.440 --> 0:20:56.240 researchers noticed that people who have narcolepsy have trouble falling asleep. UH. 0:20:56.760 --> 0:21:00.480 And the reason they are having trouble falling sleep is 0:21:00.520 --> 0:21:04.960 because they lack O rex in A. This this wakefulness hormone. 0:21:05.480 --> 0:21:08.760 So rexin A is the finger of the brain poking 0:21:08.800 --> 0:21:12.439 you and keeping you awake during that meeting or that 0:21:12.520 --> 0:21:16.240 church sermon and uh, and people with narcolepsy don't have 0:21:16.359 --> 0:21:18.520 that finger to poke them in the shoulder. And it's 0:21:18.520 --> 0:21:23.240 interesting because previously researchers were trying to treat sleep disorders 0:21:23.320 --> 0:21:26.600 by really inducing sleep at the right time, rather than 0:21:26.640 --> 0:21:29.920 tinkering with wakefulness. So sort of they took the opposite 0:21:30.000 --> 0:21:31.879 tact here, instead of like we're going to knock you 0:21:31.920 --> 0:21:35.960 out at thirty pm, let's actually look at what's going 0:21:35.960 --> 0:21:38.359 on in the brain. Yeah, yeah, so if so, the 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:41.240 idea here is that if the deficit of ox and 0:21:41.280 --> 0:21:43.840