Can Energy Drinks Replace Sleep?
Added: (Wed Dec 08 2010)
Pressbox (Press Release) -
In today’s world it seems to be a rhetorical question. Almost anyone who holds a job is asked to work more hours, work late, and come in early. Today the question seems to be “how much sleep can you give up?”
Most of us need seven to eight hours of sleep each night, few of us are able to sleep that long. Sooner or later we all need to look for ways to function. Ways to wake up, energize, focus, and hopefully not get fired for falling asleep at a meeting.
Science backed by big business is hard at work helping us with ever increasing lack of sleep most of us experience. Everywhere we look there seems to be an ad for a new and improved supplement that will boost our energy and give us the “pick me up” that we need to get through the day.
Lately energy alone is not enough and we have supplements such as the time released Energy & Focus (www.EnergyAndFocus.com) that will not only boost the energy but also focus the mid.
But how do the supplements work?
Supplements just like coffee contain one or more stimulant in them. Coffee is one of the most popular and probably oldest “energy drink” even thou we don’t think about coffee in these terms. Coffee contains caffeine, the same stimulant as many of today’s energy drinks, shots, and pills. Caffeine is not the only stimulant used, but it is the most commonly used one.
Caffeine works by blocking receptors in the brain that bind to the neurotransmitter adenosine. Adenosine is responsible for slowing down cell activity and triggering drowsiness when it binds to those receptors, causing the feeling of sleepiness. Once adenosine receptors are blocked by caffeine (or any other stimulant), the brain does not slow down, does not fall asleep, causing a person to stay awake and alert. In addition caffeine is responsible for blocking the re-uptake of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that causes feeling of relaxation, and helps to regulate sleep.
What is the price we have to pay for using stimulants?
Stimulants, as helpful as they are, don’t allow us to simply forgo sleep, but rather allow us to take on a “sleep debt”. Sooner or later the amount of sleep we need will catch up with us, and sleep debt has to be paid off. There is no definite rule for how much sleep debt a person can accumulate. The amount of sleep one can do without varies from person to person, but the less the better. One should always remember that prolonged sleep deprivation (not paying off your sleep debt) causes sickness, delirium and death.
What’s next? What will replace the stimulants?
Studies are currently performed on “short sleepers.” About 1 in 1,000 people is a short sleeper who only needs few hours of sleep (in some cases less than 4).
From preliminary research we know that short sleepers are often genetically linked, mother and daughter are both short sleepers for example. This finding has launched a search for “short-sleeper gene” which one-day may be used to help us all become short sleepers.
So, going back to the original question; Let us assume that a pill, a gene, or medical procedure is found that will safely allow you to give up all sleep.
Would you do it? Would you give up all sleep if you could?