World Sleep Day Co-Founder, Upstate's Antonio Culebras, MD, Says Benefits Of Sleep

Press release from Upstate Medical University:

March 10, 2022

When it comes to sleep, Antonio Culebras, MD, says our grandmothers were right. 

“We remember our grandmothers telling us you have to sleep well so you can grow healthy and tall,” said Culebras, an Upstate professor of neurology and sleep medicine specialist. “It is absolutely true.”  However, the benefits of sleep and the best practices for quality sleep are not well understood in our society, especially in the United States, due to a lack of awareness and education.  

That’s why Culebras and several other specialists from around the world created World Sleep Day in 2008. Scheduled this year for March 18, World Sleep Day aims to advocate for and raise awareness of just how important those Z’s are and to call attention to sleep disorders and treatments for them. 

Every living thing needs sleep and does sleep, even plants who can turn down their leaves at night.  

“There has been a bad philosophy surrounding sleep that it is a waste of time, and it is not,” Culebras said. “It is absolutely necessary to have a clear mind and a healthy body.” 

Sleep, which is generated by the brain, restores our physical and mental energies. Sleep deprivation impacts cognition, memory, attention, decision making and overall mental energy, and eventually impacts the body physically. 

During deep sleep, the first phase of sleep, the brain releases growth hormone, crucial to growth and development in children. Even after a person stops growing, growth hormone is responsible for healthy skin, teeth, hair, and organs. During REM sleep, when dreams occur, people consolidate memories. 

Studies have shown that subjects who are completely sleep-deprived for several nights can experience a swelling of their brains, loss of memory and poor judgement, among other side effects. 

Culebras said that he reviews research grants for the Department of Defense and that there is much interest in understanding the impacts of sleep deprivation, particularly as it relates to decision making, judgement and memory for soldiers who must make quick, life or death decisions.  

He said most adults should sleep seven to nine hours a night, and that sleep deprivation accumulates like a debt with interest to a bank, and it may take several nights sleep for a person to catch up. But many adults sacrifice sleep for work or screen time.  

This press release was produced by Upstate Medical University. The views expressed here are the author’s own.