The Sleep Deprived Filipino

Too much sleep is bad for you then again so is too little sleep. If there's anything that needs to be considered in the work cycle -- it's when too much pressure is too much! Somebody can say that 46% of Filipinos don't get enough sleep but that's probably just an understatement. If you think about it -- it's probably higher than 50% and may even have reached 80% or even more as of recent. Can you really think about the effects of sleep deprivation?

Here's an excerpt from The Philippine Star concerning sleep deprivation:

What does sleep really do for us? Aside from allowing the body to rest, sufficient, quality sleep allows our minds to refresh, and facilitates the transfer of short-term to long-term memory. Proper sleep has been proven to help students perform better in school the following day, particularly in complicated tasks like mathematics. Decision-making and emotional stability are also affected by the right amount of good sleep.

A team of scientists at the University of Rochester recently discovered that during sleep, the brain purges itself, flushing out its own chemical waste through a hidden network of channels that resemble a plumbing system. These pipes simulate opening up during sleep. In addition, researchers think that this cleansing process uses up a lot of energy, which may explain why the brain waits until bedtime to take out its own trash. Also, your body saves the energy it uses to see while you are sleeping, which possibly adds needed fuel to this process. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine also revealed that growth hormone is released in children while they are asleep. Of course, there is still some debate as to which is the optimum time to sleep, some suggest 10 p.m. to 2 a.m., others say midnight to 6 a.m. is best.

Studies have shown that, in the last few decades, children (and therefore, adults) have been sleeping less and less. Adults whose parents enforced strict bedtime rules have been found to function more efficiently at work and sleep more than hour more than those who grew up with no rules on when to sleep. Other research showed that if you deprive a healthy adult of sleep for six straight days, his body chemistry will resemble that of someone literally twice his age, and it will take him a full week to get his metabolism back to normal.

While modernization has its benefits -- it also has its setbacks too. I was thinking about why sleep deprivation is getting more common which is dangerous for society. I'm not saying that we should remove the Internet or go back to the stone age. Rather, the problem is multi-dimensional which already existed even before the Internet came into power. You can start with students where school gives too much homework and too many expectations at once. You can also have people who are overwork and underpaid. You can also have the problem of the nightlife people who stay up late to have a good time even when there's work the next day.

So what's the result of a sleep-derived nation? Incompetence comes in as a result of it. The brain can't function properly due to a lack of sleep. Have you ever noticed that when you lack sleep that you can't even understand basic arithmetic and basic instructions? It's because body mechanisms need to rest. If machines do need their rest to avoid overheating then why are we permitting our bodies to overheat? Unfortunately, the human body really has no spare parts. You can always get a new Central Processing Unit but you can never replace a person's damaged brain.

I was thinking why is it that many government offices have people who can't understand simple instructions? I would want to think it may also involve a lack of sleep aside from a disorganized system. A disorganized system will stretch the work of anyone beyond eight hours. The problem is that the government office hours are closed yet you may still see some of the employees working beyond office hours because of rush schedules. It's stupid to deprive people of their sleep and then wonder why they can't understand basic instructions such as simple mathematics. Some of them may even be incompetent not because of their IQ but because their body is compromised. A body that lacks rest will inevitably get sick as the heart can't beat blood properly plus the rest of the body goes down as a result. Who can work well if they are sick?

I think it's time to consider changing the system and prioritizing a balance between work and sleep for this reason. Sleep is really needed for people to work properly. If people can get heavily fined for overworking employees, if teenagers can get fined for staying out late at night even when there's school the next day, if schools just started regulating giving of homework and requirements -- you can imagine the outcome can be different. It had me thinking how can you sleep at 11 P.M. because you were doing a mountain of homework and wake up at 6 A.M. and not expect to burned out? How can you expect government employees to perform their jobs properly if they are always overworked? I guess that explains why many end up getting caught playing video games or sleeping at work because they are stuck with too much workload even after office hours. They probably have very little time to chill out after their burdensome work!

Time management goes both ways. I agree that students need to manage their time such as not waiting until the last minute before doing their projects. Unfortunately, you've also got teachers with very poor time management too such as announcing quizzes and projects in so short a time. How can you expect to teach students to do time management to do quality work if you don't have good time management skills? The same should go with the workplace. Bosses themselves should find effective and efficient ways to make sure nobody has to work overtime as much as possible while giving reasonable overtime schedules -- even if it means having shifting schedules so the first batch can get some good sleep. Those who had to work late at night will also report late in the morning. This is all about keeping them rested so quality is maintained. Without rest -- it's no wonder why you've got a lot of people who are becoming very stupid to the point that common sense is compromised!

Having a day-off is not enough to compensate. Sometimes, I even wonder if government offices should also be open on Saturdays (maybe up to 1 P.M. only) for this reason -- it would allow work to spread more evenly than just a five day schedule. Just imagine how government employees can have an extra day to do their work without rushing on Friday. Some banks today now open on Saturdays when they used not to do so. I think having government offices open on Saturdays to do transactions may reduce pending work. This of course should apply that all work needs to be done by a specific deadline, having a systematized working system so government employees can eventually work for no more than eight hours and overtime may need to be limited to just an hour or two. Then again, spreading the work schedule across several days may also minimize the need for overtime.

It's really time to take sleep more seriously. Remember that all work and no play makes anyone stupid!