REM-sleep deprivation and death
DJensen
it is mentioned a few times that denial of sleep, REM sleep in
particular, eventually leads to death. At the time I accepted that at
face value (the plot wouldn't work otherwise) but since I've never
heard this confirmed I more or less put it in the realm of chakras and
crystal power.
I've come across anecdotes of people going years without sleep, or
having rare conditions that prevent normal sleep, even the claim that
SIDS (Sudden Infact Death Syndrome, aka crib death) is prevented by
REM sleep, but so far no confirmed evidence that prolonged REM sleep
deprivation causes death in people. I also found defunct links to
pages claiming figures of 250-or-so hours or as much as 4 months of
sleep deprivation will be fatal. Two accounts claim REM sleep
deprivation will kill rats in 21 to 37 days, however.
Lack of REM sleep can cause irritability the day after, then physical
and mental exhaustion, impaired reflexes/reaction time, and eventually
hallucinations. Poor judgement and exhaustion can obviously cause
death when you're involved with heavy or fast-moving machinery, but
that happens with drug and alcohol abuse too and can be avoided.
So is it true, or just a plot device?
--
DJensen
Christian Weisgerber
> A few weeks ago I got around to reading The Lathe of Heaven, in which
> it is mentioned a few times that denial of sleep, REM sleep in
> particular, eventually leads to death.
True.
It has been mentioned in passing in two recent articles on sleep
in PLoS Biology, with proper references:
Why We Sleep: The Temporal Organization of Recovery
doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060106
| In rats, total sleep deprivation is lethal after two to three weeks
| [14]. Within days, animals become hyperphagic but lose weight, a
| state associated with increased heart rate and energy expenditure.
| Body temperature subsequently drops. Animals are then increasingly
| debilitated, emaciated, and develop ulcers on the tail and paws
| [14]. Total REM sleep deprivation produces a similar syndrome with
| a longer time course [14].
References:
| [14] Rechtschaffen A, Bergmann BM, Everson CA, Kushida CA, Gilliland
| MA (2002) Sleep deprivation in the rat: X. Integration and
| discussion of the findings. 1989. Sleep 25: 68-87.
Is Sleep Essential?
doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060216
| Harmful consequences of sleep deprivation have been described in
| many studies. Most dramatically, prolonged sleep deprivation leads
| to death. Rats kept awake using the disk-over-water method develop
| a peripheral syndrome characterized by increased metabolic rate and
| decreased body weight, which culminates in death after 2-4 wk [36].
| Prolonged sleep deprivation is also fatal in flies [37], cockroaches
| [38], and humans with fatal familial insomnia, who die after
| developing a syndrome not unlike that seen in sleep-deprived rats
| [39].
References:
| [36] Rechtschaffen A, Bergmann BM (2002) Sleep deprivation in the
| rat: an update of the 1989 paper. Sleep 25: 18-24.
| [37] Shaw PJ, Tononi G, Greenspan RJ, Robinson DF (2002) Stress
| response genes protect against lethal effects of sleep
| deprivation in Drosophila. Nature 417: 287-291.
| [38] Stephenson R, Chu KM, Lee J (2007) Prolonged deprivation of
| sleep-like rest raises metabolic rate in the Pacific beetle
| cockroach, Diploptera punctata (Eschscholtz). J Exp Biol 210:
| 2540-2547.
| [39] Montagna P, Lugaresi E (2002) Agrypnia excitata: a generalized
| overactivity syndrome and a useful concept in the
| neurophysiopathology of sleep. Clin Neurophysiol 113: 552-560.
--
Christian "naddy" Weisgerber na...@mips.inka.de
John F. Eldredge
Untreated obstructive sleep apnea causes partial prevention of REM
sleep. The patient repeatedly wakes up most of the way, or completely.
When I was first diagnosed with apnea, I was going through such a cycle
about every two minutes, on the average. Untreated OSA produces a five-
times-greater risk of diabetes, stroke, and heart attack than in OSA
patients using a CPAP machine.
--
John F. Eldredge -- jo...@jfeldredge.com
PGP key available from http://pgp.mit.edu
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better
than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria
DJensen
> DJensen <i_m...@yahoo.ca> wrote:
> > A few weeks ago I got around to reading The Lathe of Heaven, in which
> > it is mentioned a few times that denial of sleep, REM sleep in
> > particular, eventually leads to death.
>
> True.
> | Prolonged sleep deprivation is also fatal in flies [37], cockroaches
> | [38], and humans with fatal familial insomnia, who die after
> | developing a syndrome not unlike that seen in sleep-deprived rats
> | [39].
As I mentioned I knew (obliquely) of the rat studies, but people
aren't rats and Fatal Familial Insomnia is a very rare mutation and
not something you can develop by not sleeping. Prolonged REM-denial
increases the risk of acquiring various other conditions but nothing
definitely and directly fatal in humans, from what I can tell.
Thank you for the references, though I currently don't have the means
to follow them up.
--
DJensen
Par
> Thank you for the references, though I currently don't have the means
> to follow them up.
IIRC they were in PLoS, which is free.
/Par
--
Par use...@hunter-gatherer.org
How do I set my laser printer on stun?
Christian Weisgerber
> As I mentioned I knew (obliquely) of the rat studies, but people
> aren't rats and Fatal Familial Insomnia is a very rare mutation and
> not something you can develop by not sleeping.
It's the other way around: FFI is a condition that causes the
inability to sleep, eventually resulting in death. This is the
best data point for humans so far, because performing sleep deprivation
until (potential) death as an experiment has not been done for
ethical reasons. Or at least, if any torturers have done it, they
haven't published papers on it.
Christian Weisgerber
> > Thank you for the references, though I currently don't have the means
> > to follow them up.
>
> IIRC they were in PLoS, which is free.
The articles I quoted, but not the referenced papers.