Is sleeping aways a complicated problem?

Is sleeping aways a complicated problem?

Text and photos by P.J. Leo

JAKARTA (JP): How long must a person sleep? There is no single
and definite answer about this mystery of life. Some people need
only a few hours of it while others need a much longer time.

According to medical experts, one needs an average of seven to
eight hours of sleep per day. However, they remind us that we
need not worry about how long we should sleep because what
matters is whether or not we can rest enough during our sleep.

A sleeping pattern is highly individual. If we are in a
stressful situation, our sleep is usually shorter than usual and
is not a sound sleep. So, having enough sleep during a stressful
situation may not necessarily guarantee that your body and mind
will be fresh again.

An individual needs sleep in accordance with his job and also
with the needs of his body. According to D. Thom in his book,
Everyday problems of the everyday child, a baby in its first
month sleeps about 20 hours but then the period of sleep gets
shorter and shorter to about 12 hours when a child is under five
years old. An adolescent sleeps nine hours a day and in adulthood
one needs only seven to eight hours a day.

There is of course a personal difference between one child and
another with regard to sleeping. Likewise in the case of adults.
It is not possible, therefore, to establish a standard about
sleeping hours and sleeping conditions in an exact manner.

You may want to know why children need more sleep than adults?
A child's physical growth requires a lot of energy, which is used
for growth as well as the replacement of the body's tissues. All
this takes place during a child's sleeping hours.

Someone who has just recovered from a disease or an accident
also needs a lot of sleep, for the same reasons, as do people of
advanced age, who need extra hours of sleep.

A quality sleep is not determined by the length of sleep
proper. A few hours of sleep cannot hamper the productivity of a
person as revealed by psychologist Dr. Yul Iskandar, in the
column Science and Technology in Kompas daily. "Bung Karno
(Sukarno), Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Margaret Thatcher
generally slept only two or three hours, yet they were
productive," Iskandar said.

The criterion which you may use to find out whether you have
had enough sleep or not is the quality of your physical and
mental ability the next morning. If the next morning you can move
around agilely, think clearly and have bright eyes, this means
that your sleep is adequate.

One knows from experience what lack of sleep is. Staying awake
overnight can be overcome but if we continue to stay awake for
the second or third night, the entire body will feel the effects.

Lack of sleep will reveal itself in drooping eyes, pale skin
and an unstable walk. It will lead to a physically weak
condition: feelings akin to a hangover, cold hands and feet and
pins and needles in your hands or feet. Lack of sleep also makes
you vulnerable to illnesses.

Some of us can sleep easily just about anywhere and anytime,
particularly during the day. If we look around us, in public
places for example, people will close their eyes when the urge to
sleep becomes unbearable. One will then become oblivious to all
the noises around. Many people benefit from a nap, though. Close
your eyes and have a nap and you will regain the freshness you
need to proceed with your activities.

As you can see from the accompanying photographs, vendors,
workers carrying goods, land diggers and scavengers are fast
asleep (during the day) just anywhere and in any position.

So, sleeping is a complicated problem. According to the
results of research conducted by Claparade, disclosed in his book
Abnormal Psychology, sleep is not the consequence of the
settlement of fatigue, but a vital function that a living
creature performs to avoid continuous fatigue. Therefore sleep is
a mechanism of defense.