From: "Strong, Lee" <StrongL at MTMC.ARMY.MIL>
To: "WSFAList (E-mail)" <WSFAList at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Sleep Cycles
Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2003 08:04:46 -0400
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

	Ron Kean made the point that most humans need about 6-8 hours sleep
per day.  My diabetes teaching nurse recommends 8-8.5 hours.  The actual
rule is that most humans require about 1/3 of total time asleep to maintain
normal mental performance.  Failure to get enough sleep is typical expressed
in being "sleepy" during "waking" hours, i.e. reduced mental performance.
In extreme cases, sleep deprivation can lead to insanity.  A team of French
researchers put a volunteer in a cave isolated from all normal sleep/wake
cycle pressures and clues, allowing him to adopt whatever pattern he wished.
He settled into a 48 hour "day", sleeping about 16 hours at a stretch.  A
more extreme case occured during the Korean War when the North Koreans
forbade a US prisoner to sleep at all and had a guard check on him once a
minute to insure that he was not sleeping.  The guard was stationed outside
the prisoner's cell and opened an eyehole in the door once every 60 seconds
to check to see if the prisoner's eyes were open and his head moving around
as waking people normally are.  The prisoner maintained his sanity by
resting in a seated position and sleeping for 50 second bursts when the
eyehole was closed.  When the eyehole was open, the prisoner exhibited
sufficent wakeful behavior to avoid punishment.  The sleep that he was
getting was not very restful but he had nothing else to do and could
continue this pattern 24/7 so he eventually got adequate rest and maintained
his sanity.
	Sleep deprivation can cause and contribute to diabetes, which is one
reason why I don't like late night events regardless of their nature.