Sleep

I’ve only pulled one all-nighter in my life. At the end of the second semester of my sophomore year in college, my exam schedule was a killer. Classes ended on a Friday, “reading days” were Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, and exams started on Tuesday. I had four exams that year (my English class had a final paper rather than an exam), and they were scheduled on the first four mornings of the exam period – Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I co-opted a small study room in my dorm for the week. On Tuesday, I came back from my exam after a quick lunch, tossed my stuff from that exam in a corner, and picked up my stuff for my Wednesday exam. Lather, rinse, repeat for the rest of the week.

By Thursday, I was running on adrenaline. I didn’t drink coffee at that time in my life, but caffeinated sodas were my friends.

Thursday night came around, and I was studying for my hardest exam – Microeconomics. At about 3 am I realized that I still had more studying to do, and that I didn’t have time to sleep. So I didn’t.

I don’t remember what grade I got on those exams, but I know what grades I got for the semester.

• Calculus – C

• Microeconomics – C

• Statistics – C

• Art History – C

• English – B

I was never so happy to see a bunch of C’s on my grade report.

I’ve sometimes driven when I was too sleepy to be safely on the road. Haven’t you? I remember one time I was driving from Williamsburg to Northern Virginia and found myself literally nodding off on Route 95 — bad idea. I pulled into a rest stop and took a 30-minute nap. Now, I’m not generally a nap person. But the pull of sleep was too strong to be ignored. I woke up refreshed – at least refreshed enough to drive the 45 minutes to my house.

My husband Tim and I raised two children. Babies cry a lot, get their days and nights mixed up, refuse to nap on command, and in other ways disrupt their parents’ sleep cycles. I may or may not have cried a bit myself. I think it’s fair to say we were emotionally deregulated.

Studies show that being deprived of REM sleep, particularly, impairs memory, emotional regulation, and spatial awareness. How many of us have been told at some point that “things will look better in the morning” – in other words, we will be more emotionally stable after we’ve had some sleep.

What happens when people don’t get enough sleep?

• They exhibit impaired cognition – slower thinking and poor concentration. Their judgment is impaired and they make poor decisions. They are more likely to have accidents (not only when they’re driving, but also when taking medication or cooking). In extreme cases, they become delusional or paranoid.

• They are irritable, anxious, and emotionally unstable. They are at greater risk of depression and they are less able to tolerate stress or frustration.

• Their physical health can be impaired. Their immune systems are more vulnerable, their cortisol and insulin levels are imbalanced, and their appetite is deregulated.

Not everyone needs the same amount of sleep. I generally function pretty well on about 6-7 hours of sleep each night. I know this because I don’t generally doze off while reading or watching TV at night, and I wake up naturally, without an alarm, after I’ve been asleep for about that length of time. I know other people who would feel sleep-deprived if they didn’t get their eight hours per night.

Science bears this out. In general, getting less than six hours of sleep every night for an extended period of time provokes measurable cognitive and health declines. Someone who stays awake for more than 24 hours performs regular tasks like someone with a blood alcohol level of 10% -- above the legal driving limit in most jurisdictions https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/work-hour-training-for-nurses/longhours/mod3/08.html

I probably don’t have to tell you why I’m writing about this today, but here’s the TL/DR: the United States Congress has decided that all-night (or very late-night) sessions are the only way to pass the current budget Megabill. For example (one of several that have been reported), Representative Debbie Dingell (D-Mich) dozed off during a committee hearing after having been awake for over 30 hours.

The Senate held several all-night sessions in the past week. On June 28-30, the Senate debated the budget resolution package for more than 35 hours. From June 30-July 1, they continued debating this resolution for more than 27 hours. Last night (July 2-3), the House kept floor proceedings open late into the night. The key vote began around 9:30 pm on Wednesday and was concluded at 3:20 pm on Thursday. As I’m writing this, Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies is speaking, extending the vote on the final bill so that the GOP has to actually do this during the daylight hours rather than sneak it through while everyone is asleep. Real Profiles in Courage we got there, I gotta say.

This is, as the saying goes, no way to run a railroad – much less the Congress of the United States

Actual picture of Speaker Mike Johnson early this morning.

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