There are many people who boast about their physical strength and vitality, even though they sleep for barely four-five hours at night. However, a leading neuroscientist, Matthew Walker has revealed that lack of at least seven to eight hours sleep on a regular basis causes severe changes in the human body. These changes, in turn, lead to severe health problems like obesity, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, cardiac problems, diabetes and even premature death.

Sleeping for seven to eight hours at night enables the brain to release hormones and compounds which significantly reduce Health risks, by reducing appetite, retaining memory, improving the immunity system, etc.

Unfortunately, there is no alternative way to make up for the sleep loss at night so Walker has stressed the need to sleep more in his book, “Why we sleep.”

About Walker’s 'Why we sleep'

Through his compelling book, “Why we sleep,” Matthew Walker has strongly addressed the problem of sleep loss, which has resulted from changing employment and social patterns, coupled with the sleep slaying consumer products. According to the Financial Times, Walker went to the extent that he referred to the sleep loss problem as public health disaster. He said that it “is having a catastrophic impact on our health, our life expectancy, our safety, our productivity and the education of our children.”

Opinion of the Nobel Prize winners

The three American scientists Jeffrey Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael Young, who won The Nobel Prize for biochemical oscillation this year, have discovered how the human body-clock monitors the circadian rhythm of wakefulness and sleep.

Their research too has urged the necessity of sleep hygiene and the importance of getting sufficient sleep at night.

Stanford University research results

In other research conducted by Shahab Vahdat and his colleagues at the Stanford University of California, revealed that processing and consolidating memories is another vital function of the human brain during sleep.

According to New Scientist, the research team at California screened more than 50 people and finally selected 13 volunteers for the study.

The 13 people, who managed to fall asleep in a noisy MRI scanner, were monitored closely by the research team to determine how the memory trace travels from one part of the brain to another.

Vadhat revealed that “The initial memory trace kind of disappears, and at the same time, another emerges.”

All three cases speak volumes about the importance of seven to eight hours of constant sleep at night, the lack of which will lead to fatal diseases and death in the long run.
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