At our age we all think we are Invincible and that we only need 4-5 hours of sleep and we can still perform at optimum levels. But according to the article Tolerate Sleep Deprivation we might not be as strong willed as we think, maybe, like most things we get better at it with age.
In the article experimenters sought to test and compare sleepiness, vigilance, and overall performance in young-old adults and young adults during a sleep deprivation period or vigil of 26 hours. To test their hypothesis of whether or not the ability to cope with less sleep is due to age they used 37 healthy participants, the participants started off with 3 baseline days with the usual 8-hour sleep time followed by a 10-hour awake period, this was their designated beginning Constant Routine. The rest of the routine consisted of the participants having to stay awake for 26 hours while being monitored by an EEG and an electrooculogram (EOG) to monitor episodes of dosing off and performance/attentional failures defined by slow-rolling eye movements (SEM). To measure performance, the participants went through a Reaction Time test. Then experimenters then recorded each participant sleep efficiency, sleep depth, and sleep continuity and compared them between the two groups.
In the end they found that even though the older participants had a lower sleep efficiency compared to the younger participants the older group had an overall more significant sense of alertness and reaction time (performance) than the younger group did.
This is probably one of my favorite articles we’ve done so far because I would have never guessed that the older you get you’re more likely to be more alert with longer periods without sleep. The article even helped explain the VLPO to me a little bit better and how it functions and relates to how we fall asleep. But I actually can’t be that surprised because when I think about it I can see it in my grandparents, my grandmother who is pretty spritely for anyone’s age really can stay up until like 11pm or 12am and sleep for like 4 or 5 hours and get up and start cleaning and I’m just like wake me up when the sun’s up. But my grandfather is not in too bad of shape but has some health complications and you are sure to find him in his chair with his blanket asleep at any time of the day.
This article is great for older people because maybe they don’t know why they can’t stay awake during the day and this could help them seek the attention necessary. It is also important for those our age as well, it serves as a lesson that contrary to popular belief we need as much sleep as possible in order to perform well in our day to day, also it gives insight for the future that staying healthy well into your older years can have some sleep benefits.
That's interesting that older people are more alert than younger people with long periods without sleep. I would have thought the opposite since younger people tend to have more energy and because as we get older, our bodies are more likely to slow down mentally and physically if we do not take care of it. I guess it's good news for us, though, as we continue on to medical and graduate school and beyond! Also, I like how you mentioned at the end how it's important for us to get more sleep than we currently are in college and how it's important for us to stay healthy as well.
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