European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 3, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                T the Only one cultural sociological and economic factors keep Many people awake o it s 0 z by Irene Wielawski los Angeles times Geoff Long was having trouble getting the words out. It was an easy question and he knew the answer right off. But Long press Secretary to the chairman of the California Assembly ways and Means committee was astonished to find himself tripping Over his Tongue and tumbling into Long embarrassing pauses when he tried to reply. Quot i knew what i wanted to say but the words just would t come Quot he remembers. Long s Boss rep. John Vasconcellos d-calif., had a different problem after a string of 16-hour Days at the legislature. As soon As he would get on the Road for Home his eyes would Start to close. But years of late night political huddles had led Vasconcellos to develop a system he opened All the windows and put the top Down on his convertible to get maximum wind in his face. Even so he had to slap his Cheeks repeatedly to stay awake. Long s wife Joyce Terhaar was not working 16-hour Days. Hers ran closer to 24 hours if their son Connor a a Newborn at the time a Felt like staying awake. One afternoon after four nights up with a fussy Connor Terhaar could think of Only one Way to amuse him pulling a string on a musical toy Over and Over for 45 minutes. Quot i could t even smile or talk to him Quot she recalls. Welcome to the world of the sleep deprived. They Are Normal and for the most part healthy people who a because of work social obligations new babies maybe an addiction to late night to a repeatedly get less sleep than their bodies need. The problem is growing researchers say so much that Congress has created a commission to study its dimensions causes and consequences and to recommend a sleep policy for the nation. It inadequate sleep shows up in More than yawns and smudged eyes. A tax auditor May be More prone to making errors a teacher More Likely to explode at rambunctious students an artist or writer or composer More Apt to Grope for inspiration. There Are safety considerations As Well. Quot what is the contribution of sleepiness to Auto accidents How sleepy is the night shift at the local nuclear Power Plant How Many people get insufficient sleep because of their lifestyles and what Are the important Public health issues related to Lack of sleep Quot asks Andrew a. Mon Jan executive Secretary to the National commission on sleep disorders research. Quot these Are some of the questions we will try to  babies have always kept new parents awake and even a Century ago someone As key to hammering out a state budget As Vasconcellos might have worked his staff into the night. So these events alone do not explain the growing numbers of sleepy americans. Researchers blame cultural sociological and economic factors for turning what used to be transient episodes of sleepiness into a chronic condition for Many americans. David f. Dinges a sleep scientist at the University of Pennsylvania cites the modern drive to Quot have it  Quot today we Are told you can have a career you can have Leisure time you can have Quality time with your kids and of course you have to have your health time which is the daily workout at the club Quot Dinges says. To squeeze it All in Many people resort to setting the clock s alarm to an earlier hour or to staying up later the consequence is a sleep deficit that grows through the week affecting Job performance personal relationships creativity alertness and general enjoyment of life. Added to this is the growing number of Quot shift Quot workers in the american Economy who work something other than a 9-to-5 schedule in the most recent study 1985 by the . Bureau of labor statistics 11.6 million people or 16 percent of the labor Force fit into that category. Another More recent study reported in the new England journal of Medicine estimates that 7.3 million americans work a True night shift reporting for work when most people Are going to bed and leaving at Sunrise. Shift work hardly existed before Thomas Edison invented the electric Light bulb most people arose with the Sun and went to sleep when it was too dark to do anything else a rhythm of life that roughly complemented the biological or circadian rhythms that control the body s sleep Alert sensations. The circadian clock programs the human system to be Alert and Active usually Between the hours of 7 . And 11 ., and reduces that stimulation during the hours when people Are most Likely to be asleep 11  To 7 . There also appears to be biochemical support for the tradition in some cultures of afternoon naps or siesta roughly Between the hours of 1 and 3, when there is a measurable letdown in Energy according to Merrill m. Mitler a sleep psychologist and director of research at the sleep disorders Center of the Scripps clinic and research foundation in san Diego. But reliable artificial Light created an incentive to ignore these natural tendencies. Suddenly it was possible for industries to operate around the clock. It was not difficult for a factory owner to figure out that three shifts produced More scalable goods than one. Soon Many people besides firefighters police officers and Hospital workers were working in the Middle of the night. Society s drive to push Back the night did not Stop with factory owners today Many stores stay open until 9 ., and some operate 24 hours. Even Banks have added night and saturday hours. The trend researchers say affects not Only workers in extended hour service industries but also those who have completed their workday. The environmental hubbub full of enticements to run one More errand or schedule one More appointment makes it an almost herculean act to remain Home for a restful evening. Bedtime inevitably gets pushed off. Most adults need Between seven and eight hours of sleep a night although scientists say the amount declines in older age the amount of sleep each person needs is believed to be genetically programmed despite the common boast of hard chargers that they have trained themselves to do with less sleep than they once required. In fact say researchers such people have merely trained themselves to function with a chronic sleep deficit. There is Little evidence that reduced sleep in humans even if it goes on for months or years As it can with people who work night shifts is life threatening. Studies of rats deprived of All sleep for several weeks showed Radical and ultimately fatal disruption in metabolism but for obvious reasons the Experiment has never been tried on humans Quot people with chronic sleep deficit Are often Cranky miserable uncreative unmotivated distracted forgetful and sometimes a Little depressed. Quot people approach problems in a less efficient Way Quot Mitler says Quot they tend to persevere with unsuccessful methods unable to shift to better ones. Sleep deprivation increases the likelihood that people will be overwhelmed by Complex  Dinges who directs sleep research at the Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital scoffs at those who argue that they have methods of coping effectively with less than their biological sleep quotient. Quot when you Are chronically sleep deprived you lose your ability to judge your alertness Quot he says. The longest sleep deprivation study on humans lasted 12 Days says Dinges. At the end the subjects suffered misperception loss of Fine motor skills memory problems and cognitive slowing and they were unable to pick up on key perceptual signals. Quot your ability to concentrate is completely gone Quot says Dinges. A you get very stubborn insisting on a method that has t worked and you can to  Mary a. Carskadon director of the sleep research Laboratory at Bradley Hospital in East Providence r.i., and professor of psychiatry at Brown University has found that creativity suffers in people operating with a sleep deficit. Quot one of the things that goes is the capacity for divergent thinking a loss of the ability to free associate Quot she says. Quot it might be harder to do a crossword Puzzle or develop a successful and Campaign after several Days of inadequate  in Industry the concern is Over the Quality of work performed on Odd shifts. Sleep deprivation May be harder to detect in a basketball player whose work involves constant motion and physical exertion with the added stimulation of Competition. But in a desk bound worker whose Job demands finely focused attention to detail inadequate sleep can dramatically affect performance. Says Dinges Quot we now have a lot More automation in the workplace. In our cars we have Power steering Multi speaker sound and cruise control. So that leaves people with the one task they Don t do Well when they Are sleepy Monitor the machines Quot researchers Are looking into theories that inadequate sleep Lowers the body s resistance to illness. Or. James m. Krueger professor of physiology at the University of Tennessee has approached the question by studying the Impact of illness on the body s need for sleep. Quot everyone seems to know that when you Are sick you sleep More Quot Krueger says Quot physicians always Tell patients to go Home and get rest but until now there has been no scientific evidence to support that it does any  what Krueger and his colleagues found was that rats and rabbits produced More cytokines a proteins that boost the immune system a when they were fighting a bacterial or viral infection. Some of these cytokines were found to have the additional effect of inducing sleepiness in the animal biochemically linking the animals disease fighting efforts to an increased need for sleep. Krueger cautions that animal sleep patterns differ greatly from human and that human studies confirming the link Between immune response and sleep needs remain to be done. But the animal experiments lend the first scientific support to what has Long been popular Wisdom when you Are sick go to bed Early and sleep late. Quot a vis be a ijhiv1 a it it. L a a a a in Xiv a a a tv5>s9b9 a a  a a. V a a. ,.v a a a a try m a a a to i a ,1 y vex Quot a a x Xiv Rax ssh a �.� a a Vy. . 3s new York time skids have sleeping problems too by Marianne Daniels Garber . Stephen w. Garber . And Robyn Freedman Spizman Cox news service dear parenting since school began our son has had trouble falling asleep. Talking about school does t seem to help. We be tried relaxing and have always had a bedtime routine but it still takes him More than an hour to fall asleep. He s frustrated and now very tired. A mom. Dear mom once a Cycle like this gets started it May take a variety of measures to break it an important step toward a permanent easing of the nighttime problem will be reconciling whatever school issues exist. The More your son knows what to expect about school the More quickly his worries May scatter. That along with a few successful papers and comments from the teacher will ease his fears. The suggestions outlined focus first on solving the immediate problem then on overcoming the sleep problem. A a talk with the teacher. Her awareness of your songs concerns May make an immediate difference. More pointedly though talk about ways to help your child feel comfortable and successful in the classroom. A watch the weekends. If your child has no difficulty falling asleep on Friday and saturday but the problem regularly returns on sunday there May be other issues such As problems with a bully or concerns about the bus ride a Don t ignore stressful situations. If stressful situations involving you and dad have been developing it May be time to discuss them. Your child s fears May be worse than the temporary problems you Are experiencing. If the issues Are More permanent they will need to be expressed a sooner May be better. A try warm milk. It May sound like grandma s solution but warming the milk permits a natural ingredient in milk to soothe. A teach relaxation skills. Relaxation skills built on deep breathing exercises and deep muscle relaxation can be very effective but they must be practice. A accept the inevitable. You can get your child in bed but you can t make him sleep. Your child May be overtired others simply need less sleep. All will experience Wakeful periods in their lifetime. Teach your child How to Cope with the discomfort of fretful wakefulness a read listen to music pretend or  provide a Small Book Light and a cassette player with earphones for your child to pass the time. A change the focus. Once we have been up for a sleepless night or two most of us come to dread bedtime. You May be Able to break the Cycle by permitting your child to stay up a bit later or even falling asleep in a new position. Of course this is Only a temporary solution. If you permit it More than once or twice you May have to Deal with a second problem parenting is written by Marianne Daniels Garber an educational consult and Stephen w. Garber a clinical psychologist and Robyn Freedman Spizman an author of books on educating and motivating children Page 14 tuesday March 3, 1992 the stars and stripes a Page 15