How do presidents get so little sleep

High-ranking politicians often have to settle for just a few hours of sleep a day. How do they manage to keep working with such a small amount of rest?

For participation in the election campaign candidates for the presidency of the country pay a dream.

According to the current us President Barack Obama, he lays in the schedule of six hours of sleep a day, but so much sleep he can not always.

One of his predecessors, bill Clinton, said that he sleeps 5-6 hours a day.

How much should a senior Executive, such as a President, sleep to be able to work normally?

This issue is of particular importance when the presidential candidates ‘ election race reaches its climax.

Does the amount of sleep affect their performance? How do they manage to exist in such a busy schedule? And is it possible to write off some mistakes and mistakes for lack of sleep?

As a neurologist who has studied the problem of sleep for many years, I know that sleep affects performance and health.

Some people can get 4-5 hours of sleep a day, but most of us need much more.

Scientists have yet to develop a “unified generalized theory” of evolutionary meaning and goals of sleep, but studies have already revealed a number of important functions for the human body and brain.

Following a meta-analysis of scientific medical literature last year, The American Academy of sleep medicine and the sleep research Society issued a joint statement according to which adults are recommended to sleep at least seven hours a day to maintain health.

This recommendation is based on a systematic review of previous studies. The statement also says that regular sleep of less than six hours a day is “insufficient to maintain health.”

Sleep is cyclical and includes phases of fast and slow sleep. During the fast phase, we have the brightest dreams. The slow-wave sleep is divided into light sleep (stages N1 and N2) and deep slow-wave sleep (stage N3).

It is believed that slow wave sleep is especially important for physical recovery and health promotion, as it contributes to the preservation and restoration of cells.

Both fast and slow sleep are necessary for good memory performance. The REM sleep phase is necessary for memory consolidation, especially procedural and spatial.

During slow-wave sleep there is information processing and consolidation primarily declarative memory of facts and events.

Brain cells (neurons) interact with each other through synapses – contacts connecting neurons by transmitting signals through chemicals, neurotransmitters. Slow wave sleep is needed to clear and simplify these compounds and bonds.

Thanks to this cleaning, the process of memory consolidation retains strong links and eliminates weak ones.

In the past few years, evidence has begun to emerge that sleep is important to combat age-related memory impairment and the gradual development of mild cognitive impairment and dementia.

As shown by animal studies, sleep promotes the release of the brain from the waste of his life, such as amyloid.

As animal studies have shown, sleep helps to release the brain from waste, such as amyloidosis

The accumulation of amyloid plaques is considered one of the classic signs of Alzheimer’s disease. This newly discovered sleep function – brainwashing to eliminate toxic products – is of great interest to scientists.

Countless studies have demonstrated a deterioration in cognitive brain activity after sleep deprivation on a number of parameters – including attention, emotion regulation, learning, memory, and “management functions.”

In the framework of these studies, management functions are understood as the ability to work in multitasking and to build complex sequences.

In addition, this category may include the ability to self-regulate and control their behavior and speech in order to avoid inappropriate situations.

Most of these functions suffer from lack of sleep cognitive indicators of attention; there is also a moderate impact on comprehensive attention and memory.

Fortunately, judging by the results of research, the ability to simple reasoning from lack of sleep does not change.

At the same time, the area of the brain that is most actively involved in the implementation of administrative functions is affected by the most common sleep disorder – obstructive apnea.

Through a deeper understanding of the importance of sleep and its role in cognitive activities have changed job descriptions, restrictions on the number of hours of work and guidance on the monitoring and prevention of errors related to lack of sleep, for different categories of professionals, including doctors and pilots.

There is evidence that lack of sleep has a number of consequences for the human body, ranging from chronic sleep disorders, weight gain, obesity, diabetes, hypertension and depression and ending with an increased risk of heart disease, stroke and even death.

There is also a relationship between lack of sleep and decreased immunity and increased sensitivity to pain.

The American sleep Foundation periodically conducts a survey “Sleep in America”. According to this survey, 40% of respondents sleep less than seven hours a day.

The relationship between lack of sleep and decreased immunity and increased sensitivity to pain was established

Under the initiative of the Ministry of health and social services “Healthy people 2020“, aimed at strengthening the health of the population, the goal was “to increase the proportion of adults who receive sufficient sleep.”

A number of studies have also been carried out showing an increase in the number of errors and accidents caused by lack of sleep.

Given the relationship between sleep and efficiency, scientists have experimentally proved that increasing the number of hours of night sleep allows professional athletes to improve their results.

Many professional sports teams now resort to the services of experts in the field of sleep to maximize the achievements of their athletes.

How to deal with the effects of sleep deficit

Caffeine. During wakefulness in the frontal lobes of the brain accumulates a substance called adenosine, which is associated with sleep cravings. Under the influence of caffeine, these receptors are blocked, the accumulation of adenosine temporarily stops, and you want to sleep less.

Daytime sleep. There is evidence that a short day’s sleep (ideally no more than 20 minutes) can help to improve vitality and efficiency.

Some managers have actively taken advantage of this opportunity. Having a place at work where you can get a few minutes of rest between meetings without interference can be very useful.

According to the National sleep Foundation, among those who try to sleep regularly after lunch were several presidents, including John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush.

Office equipment. In our society, there is an increased tendency to use smartphones and other electronic devices to organize your schedule, reminders of important events and access to the necessary information. Once these devices were even called “spare brains”.

Senior managers usually have a staff that helps to solve countless issues and interact with many people to work in a regular mode, as well as to deal with emerging problems and crises.

This points to the need to form a sufficiently large apparatus of qualified employees capable of becoming a kind of “organizational brain” (provided that at least some of them manage to get enough sleep).

Theoretically, the President can cope with the lack of sleep through a combination of these strategies. Perhaps the candidates for this post use the same methods.