It is the most precious possession in our homes. The computer is given pride of place, sometimes even kept in an air-conditioned room, covered with a dust-sheet, wiped carefully, serviced regularly and tended with utmost care.
Do you bash it, drop it, keep it on for days on end or treat it shoddily, asks Consultant Psychiatrist Dr. Raveen Hanwella attached to the National Hospital in Colombo, comparing and contrasting how we treat our computers to a much more advanced and unique possession we have – the brain.
This big wrinkly gray sponge that we carry inside our heads, the brain, in fact is considered the “boss” of our bodies controlling each and everything we do even in our sleep, MediScene understands.
The importance of sleep for the brain cannot be underscored enough, points out Dr. Hanwella, explaining that the harm caused by injuries that one may do the brain through contact sports also cannot be ignored, especially in children where the brain is still growing.
This Psychiatrist is certainly not talking off the top of his head, but is armed with global research done in the first decade of the new millennium to back his claims.
Citing research results brought into the public domain at the end of last year, he says that cognitive deficits of sleep deprivation come quickly and stay long, while thinking that you will catch up on lost sleep during the week over the weekend may not necessarily reverse the impact on the brain. Unfortunately, many people and children who keep awake into the early hours of the next day fail to recognize the effects.
Explaining that cognitive problems are those connected to thought processes, he says that it can include loss of higher reasoning, forgetfulness, learning disabilities, concentration difficulties, decreased intelligence and reductions in mental functions. Cognition is the process by which knowledge and understanding are developed in the mind.
“The effects of sleep restriction are immediately experienced by the brain after just one short night of four hours of sleep, while burning the candle at both ends for just one work-week can result in a steady accumulation of cognitive problems,” says Dr. Hanwella, quoting research conducted by the Division of Sleep and Chronobiology in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia, America.
“Sleep deprivation cannot be caught up,” he reiterates, urging children with growing brains not to push the limits by burning the midnight oil too long. For good students poring over books till the crack of dawn may in fact bring about disastrous consequences. It’s not cost effective.
Loss of sleep has a slow build-up over time, which is most dramatic in attention and working memory and cognitive speed. How fast you think, your ability to attend to things and respond quickly from a motor standpoint, as well as your ability to use your working memory, the research has found, with those deprived of sleep for five consecutive nights reporting that they are sleepier. Although it does not get worse across the week, cognitive function gets worse.
The more alarming finding of two more follow-up studies at the same university is that although deficits improved with “sleep recovery”, as sleep duration, sleep stages and sleep intensity returned to normal, the recovery was not complete even after a recovery sleep of 10 hours, he pointed out.
The sleep needs of people vary, he says, adding that on average a person needs between 6 to 8 hours of sleep. The young need more and the old less.
Contact sports
Referring to contact sports such as rugby, boxing, hockey, football and martial arts, Dr Hanwella says that repeated knocks on the head could cause concussion or mild traumatic brain injury leading to permanent damage of the growing brain.
If there is a hard knock to the head, the child should not be sent back to the field immediately even if he seems alright, he advises.
Citing the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, Dr. Hanwella says that concussion is defined as “a complex pathophysiological process affecting the brain, induced by traumatic biomechanical forces”.
Tackling the issue of when a concussed athlete should return to the field, he says worldwide the steps followed are: Complete rest until all symptoms have diminished; thereafter engaging in light exercises such as walking; sport-specific training; non-contact training drills; full-contact training drills; finally returning to the sport.
Concussion, according to research, affects children of different age-groups in a different manner, said Dr. Hanwella, pointing out that the younger the child is, the longer the recovery period. More numerous the concussions, worse their severity and longer the recovery time, while there are also indications that concussion among younger children may lead to more severe long-term developmental and cognitive problems.
Don’t bash the head even as a joke or slap a child hard because that too can damage the brain, says Dr. Hanwella, pointing out a home truth that all of us forget: The brain cannot be bought, neither can it be transplanted like many other organs.
Mothers beware
Mothers-to-be need to be conscious that prenatal smoking (by them) and adolescent nicotine exposure has serious adverse effects on the developing central nervous system in children and adolescents, Dr. Hanwella warned, citing research carried out in the US.
Studies indicate that prenatal and adolescent nicotine exposure was associated with sex-specific auditory and visual attention impairments in teens. “In the female adolescents, exposure to nicotine either prenatally or from current smoking was associated with reductions in both auditory and visual attention performance accuracy. In male adolescents, the nicotine exposure was linked to decreases in auditory attention but not visual attention,” he said quoting the study. |
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