Being a nurse, I made healthy suggestions: eat nutritious foods, keep to a consistent sleep schedule, cut out the naps, take vitamins, and get more exercise. Then I took her to the doctor who asked if she was on drugs (no) or feeling depressed (no) and then took lots of blood - all normal. By October, she was sleeping over 10 hrs/night and another 3-4 hours after school. Back to the doctor, more questions, more tests, still normal. By December, she was sneaking home during the school day to take naps and her grades were falling swiftly. She awoke with a headache each day and no type or dose of medication seemed to diminish the pain. She no longer had the stamina to exercise or the ability to concentrate. She was eating well, taking vitamins, and now getting 14-16 hours of sleep per day but now instead of joking about how tired she was, she was sobbing. Full of questions, why did she always feel like she needed to sleep? Why couldn’t she do any of the things she used to? Why did she sleep so much? Why couldn’t she remember what they talked about in class that day? ... What was wrong with her? I told her she needed to go back to the doctor, to which she replied, “ Why, they’ll just ask me the same 50 questions, take blood, tell me it’s not normal to sleep this much, and then they won’t DO anything.” And she was right.
Sleep
Over the last few years media attention has begun to focus on the toll sleep disorders are taking on our society. The National Commission on Sleep Disorders Research, part of the National Institutes of Health, estimates that as many as 40 million Americans may suffer from sleep disorders and/or sleep deprivation with consequences that include reduced productivity, increased likelihood of accidents, higher risk of morbidity and mortality, and decreased quality of life. Oprah is talking about it, and magazines run it as a cover story. We know that sleep deprivation has been used as a form of torture, affecting the ability to think clearly, make rational decisions, memorize, recall, react appropriately both physically and emotionally, and damaging our immune systems, making us more susceptible to disease. Despite all this knowledge, we boast that we get by on 3 or 5 hours of sleep and wear our sleep deprivation as a badge of honor- even as we fall asleep at the wheel.When prisoners are prevented from healthy sleep, we scream they are violating the Geneva Convention and basic human rights. If your own body does it to you, well, somehow that is your fault, your weakness. What does the most medically advanced society in the world have to offer? Shrugging shoulders, puzzled expressions, and after a lot of pushing, a referral to a specialist, usually a neurologist, who gives you stimulant drugs. So now you are awake, but you still feel exhausted.
