[excerpt] How much sleep do you get? New research shows that question carries more weight than you might think. Lack of sleep causes inattentiveness and makes it difficult to learn, but neuroscientist Jerome Siegel has another question.
"The more subtle question is: If you don't get sleep, will it shorten your life span?" said Siegel.
Siegel studies dogs with narcolepsy, a serious sleep condition.
"Under extreme conditions in animals, if they're totally sleep-deprived for periods of weeks, they will die. They will die sooner than if they don't get food," he said.
During sleep, heart rate, blood pressure and temperature drop. The body also secretes growth hormone, which regulates muscle mass in adults. It also secretes leptin, a hormone that tells the body it's had enough food.
A recent study shows when healthy volunteers were sleep-deprived, they became pre-diabetic after just one week. And that's not all. Read the entire article. "
