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Ranjan Das, CEO and MD of SAP Indian subcontinent
died after a massive cardiac arrest in Mumbai on Wednesday. One of
the youngest CEOs, he was just 42 year old
 What killed Ranjan Das and
Lessons for Corporate India
A few months ago, many of us
heard about the sad demise of Ranjan Das from Bandra, Mumbai. He was
very active in sports, was a fitness freak and a marathon runner. It
was common to see him run on Bandra's Carter Road . Just after
Diwali, on 21st Oct, he returned home from his gym after a workout,
collapse! d with a massive heart attack and died.
It was
certainly a wake-up call for corporate India . However, it was even
more disastrous for runners amongst us. Since Ranjan was an avid
marathoner ( in Feb 09, he ran Chennai Marathon at the same time
some of us were running Pondicherry Marathon 180 km away ), the
question came as to why an exceptionally active, athletic person
succumb to heart attack at 42 years of age.
Was it the stress?
While Ranjan had
mentioned that he faced a lot of stress, that is a common element in
most of our lives. We used to think that by being fit, one can
conquer the bad effects of stress.
The Real Reason However,
everyone missed out a small line in the reports that Ranjan used to
make do with 4-5 hours of sleep. This is an earlier interview of
Ranjan on NDTV in the program. Well-known cardiologist on the
subject of 'Heart Disease caused by Lack of
Sleep' have distilled
the key points below in the hope it will save some of our
lives.
Some
Excerpts:
1.
Short sleep duration (
<5 or 5-6 hours
) increased risk for high BP by 350% to 500% compared to
those who slept longer than 6 hours per
night.
2. Young people ( 25-49
years of age ) are twice as likely to get high BP if they
sleep less.
3. Individuals who
slept less than 5 hours a night had a 3-fold increased risk of heart
attacks.
4.
Complete and partial lack of
sleep increased the blood concentrations of High sensitivity
C-Reactive Protein (hs-cRP), the strongest predictor of heart
attacks. Even after getting adequate sleep later, the levels stayed
high!!
5. Just one night of sleep loss increases very
toxic substances in body such as Interleukin-6 (IL! -6), Tumour
Necrosis Factor-Alpha (TNF-alpha) and C-reactive protein (cRP). They
increase risks of many medical conditions, including cancer,
arthritis and heart disease.
6. Sleeping for <=5
hours per night leads to 39% increase in heart disease. Sleeping for
<=6 hours per night leads to 18% increase
in heart disease.
Ideal
Sleep
In brief, sleep is composed of two stages:
REM ( Rapid Eye Movement ) and non-REM. The former helps in mental
consolidation while the latter helps in physical repair and
rebuilding. During the night, you alternate between REM and non-REM
stages 4-5 times.
The earlier part of sleep is mostly
non-REM. During that period, your pituitary gland releases growth
hormones that repair your body. The latter part of sleep is more and
more REM type.
For us to be mentally alert during the day,
the latter part of sleep is more important. No wonder when you wake
up with an alarm clock after 5-6 hours of sleep, you are mentally
irritable throughout the day (lack of REM sleep). And if you have
slept for less than
5 hours, your body is in a complete physical
mess ( lack of non-REM sleep ), you are tired throughout the day,
moving like a zombie and your immunity is way down.
Finally,
as long-distance runners, you need an hour of extra sleep to repair
the running related damage.
In
conclusion:
Barring stress control, Ranjan Das did
everything right: eating proper food, exercising ( marathoning! ),
maintaining proper weight. But he missed getting proper and adequate
sleep, minimum 7 hours. In our opinion, that killed him.
If
you are not getting enough sleep (
7 hours
), you are playing with fire, even if you have low
stress.
Unfortunately, Ranjan Das is not alone when it comes
to missing sleep. Many of us are doing exactly the same, perhaps out
of ignorance. Please forward this mail to your colleagues/friends as
possible, especially those who might be short-changing their sleep.
If we can save even one young life because of this email, we would
be the happiest person on
earth. |
