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Show r How Essential Is This 'State? By LINDSAY R. CURTIS, M.D. s wakathon and y it was for a good purpose. A local Was set up in a prominent (dace and given the very thing such a person desires most . . . lots of publicity. The charity for which the young man was sacrificing his sleep was .delighted, (or this stunt promised to bring In more funds than they could ever have hoped for. The jockeys goal: to stay awake . . . and functioning for over 200 hours without sleep. But after only 18 hours, certain changes in body physiology were apparent. Subsequent research has shown that even in this length of time, the' stress of going without sleep causes the body to produce a chemical similar to LSD, one that causes hallucinations. As the hallucinations Increased in frequency and severity, the otherwise carefree and ex trover tive young man devel-ope- d a look of anguish on his face. He became overcautious and distrustful of his situation and of those around him. He became unsure of himself. He seemed to know that many of his feelings were due to Illusions, yet he was not quite sure. His arms and legs felt detached from his body. He could no longer concentrate or even carry out simple tasks. A compression band kept tightening e its grip around his head. His alert and sensitive facial expression became haggard and hollow-eyed- . Flames seemed to. dart out at him from every door that was opened. To his tortured mind, simple threads on clothing appeared to be crawling worms. Although this young man accomplished several pre-se- t goals, withand standing over 200 hours of sleep-los- s garnering huge sums of money for charity, these goals exacted a severe nice. True, after some 14 hours of uninterrupted rest most of the severe symptoms had disappeared, but there is no way to be certain that some of the changes in physiology and brain function are not permanent We may never know toe extent of irreversible brain damage that occurred. It is a great paradox that this semiconscious state called sleep, in which everyone participates for approximately d of his life,' is so little understood. At age 60, a man has spent nearly 20 years of his life asleep. For most of us, this huge segment of our lives remains a complete mystery fthat rises up mice a day and claims our complete cooperation. And usually we enter this state very willingly. Generally speaking a man can survive complete starvation for three weeks with few ill effects, yet the same person It was a fer from Irritability, forgetfulness, Illusions, headaches and many other symptoms may just be suffering from chronic much-publicize- d disc-jocke- one-tim- d, well-meani- one-thir- becomes completely psychotic when deprived of sleep for much shorter periods of time. Experiments, on anlmalshaye demon-strate- d very noticeable changes from protracted loss of sleep. And in many cases, these changes have left PERMANENT traces. Through extensive experiments undertaken at various medical centos throughout some rather , interesting findings have emerged that give us insight into some of toe problems of sleep-losFor instance, sleep loss was found to quickly bring out severe symp- toms in the mentally ill. Patients who were otherwise progressing well with their illness soon exacerbated into an low point and in som cases became totally disabled again. Epileptics suffered more seizures. Hallucinations, illusions, delirium, paranoia, all these became more disorientation severe according to the amount of rest that was k6t Studies of sleep have demonstrated that there are many stages of sleep and apparently each stage serves its own purpose. By means of electrodes strategically placed on' an individuals head, an exper fenced observer can tell when the sleeper progresses from light to medium to draper sleep. In spite of toe fact that many people claim they never dream, this is not true. Everyone dreams. By means of careful monitoring, an observer noting exactly when dreaming occurs, can waken the sleeper and in nearly all cases toe person is able to recite toe content of his dream. . Dreaming occurs during toe lighter stages of sleep and is punctuated by rapid eye movements. Not only do dreams play a role in everyones sleep, the role they play seems to be a vital one. Repeated studies confirm toe fact that dreaming has a relationship to mental all-tim- e ... well-bein- g and may serve as a psychological safety valve for the release of tension. If an individual is deprived of dreaming during one or two nights (by awakening him during these Intervals) he will make up for this loss by dreaming more on subsequent nights. Although the body rests during sleep, it becomes obvious that toe mind continues to process a considerable amount of material through this mech- anism called dreaming. For years man has known and often used acute loss of sleep as a means of torture, of eliciting confessions and breaking down toe will. Police departments still use this method from time to time and we have good reason to fed ' that it was used on American POWs during toe Korean War. Many of those who gave false confessions of germ warfare, for instance, had first been broken down by depriving them of sleep. But what about chronic loss of sleep? Someone has said that toe optimum amount of sleep is "just five minutes more. Thomas A. Edison Is alleged to have survived on just two or three hours of sleep each night However, those who knew him best record that he frequently indulged to cat naps during his waking hours. His active mind simply would not submit to a prolonged period of rest Churchill rarely missed his one-hoafternoon nap. Regardless of the conference or toe guests, if President Truman became sleepy, he would slip into toe next room, take oft his shoes and promptly snatch a few minutes of rest x ' One good method of determining how much sleep a person requires is to hide the clock and see just how many hours it takes between the time of falling asleep and awakening refreshed. Dally cheating on the amount of sleep required will not produce dramatic or sudden changes to a person. However, many of those who suf- ur tendance at sacrament meeting, Sunday School and MIA for toe past sit years, according to Bishop John El Bennett Jeffrey Sfevea Gragg, a freshman at Brigham Young University and a Three priests to toe Hyde Park Ward, (last Cache Stake to era Utah have been awarded the " Duty to pod Award. They are Steven Msrsai Dalaes, 18, son of Bishop and Mrs. Earl M. Dataes; David Charles Safeae, 18, son of Mr. and Mrs. dames 8. Suisse; and Joseph 8cott Jeppraea, 16, son of Mr. sad Mrs. Woodrow W. Jeppecea. All three boys are graduates of Sky View High School to semiSmlthfield and are four-yea- r nary graduates. Jady Ann Perfifi, daughter of Tony and Shirley Perfili of the Spencer Third Ward, Oquirrh East Stake la Magna, Utah, has had perfect at member of the Newark Branch, Columbus (Ohio) Stake, was recently voted "Teen-ag- e Republican of the Year to Ohio. Jeff served as president of the Licking County Teen-ag-e Republican He has been acdub to 196-6tive to the Aaronic Priesthood, worked as a home teacher, assistant Sunday School superintendent and on welfare, building fund and other priesthood project!. Ten Duty to God awards have been presented to young men to the 7. drug-induce- i d rest WEEK ENDING OCTOBER K 1967 . . - There is still much wisdom- - in the old Idea of eight hours And this means a rest that is natural, normal, physiological, a sleep not altered by drugs. A far better cure fra insomnia than drugs is to read to bed until fatigued, then quickly turn over and surrender oursleves to this great mysterious state called sleep. . of-re- r 16th Ward of Phoenix North Stake v this year. Scouts and Explorers must be active to the Aaronic Priesthood, YMMIA, Sunday School and must have bran registered in Scouting for at least four years to receive7 the award. Recipients during 1966 are Mark Alexander, Kick Price, Sfevea Nlebea,-Gordo- n Gaisfoid, Spencer PHoe,-MynBoom, Glenn Haaier, Dennis Levfe, Steve Kecberkaas and Brace Robertoon. L, William Wlllardsoa to the recipient of toe first Duty to God' Award in the Columbus Second Want of the Cblumbus Stake to Ohio. . Bill was also a member of the, first graduating class to seminary to Columbus, according to Bishop Les E. Beadlxen. ; imasnnwnwniiiimiuiuiiuiiiuiiiiiimHmtwtmiHiiiii.HiMimw RCH ! -- - taken-for-grant- loss of sleep. . While It is true that one may become accustomed to working longer, sleeping Iqss, and yet continue to function, most often this will be accomplished at the exprase of efficiency and over-al- l good health. In some of these cases, the person has learned how to sleep efficiently and nature crowds more of his much needed "rapid eye movement dreaming into the shorter hours of sleep. Inability to sleep may be toe warning signal of impending illness, depression, or even suicide. Help for this situation should be sought through legitimate medical channels. However, "light sleep must not be confused with loss of sleep, since some who feel they do not sleep, simply do not remember the long hours of normal sleep but tend to dwell on a relatively short, wakeful period. What about drugs and sleep? Some 26 million Americans take barbiturates each year to make them sleep while half this number take dexedrine to stay awake. In addition, about $250 million is spent on tranquilizers each year. Small wonder that we are such a peaceful nation! We worry about narcotics and dope addicts, yet for every person addicted to narcotics, there are 12 who are literally "nice drugs, "hooked on the toe barbiturates. Too many of these individuals vacillate between taking barbiturates to sleep and amphetamines to stay awake. About 10,000 people die each year from barbiturate poisoning. This figure is even more tragic when one realizes that possibly half of these did not Intend to commit suicide, but unknowingly took a fatal dose of toe drug while under its influence. Should we take barbiturates and tranquilizers to help us sleep? Although there are exceptions to this rule, one pbould not indulge in habitual use of sedatives,- - either tranquilizers or barbiturates to sleep. They suppress toe essential apld eye movement type of sleep with its important dreams. Small wonder then, that such people often notice a loss of mental sharp- ness, even confusion, disorientation and poor judgments that belie toelrjolght of -- |