–To ignore it can be frightening

SLEEP is considered something we do when we are tired or bored, or the alternative realm to which we retreat from our immediate harassing and stressful thoughts. Sleep is essential for old people, or so I thought as a young man, and I did mention some experiences that I have had that took some of my then youthful fantasy opinions and dumped them into the stupid bin, which I will repeat briefly in this article.

Some years ago, I decided that if I bought a car, all of it would be on my strained economy, because nothing concerning vehicles is manufactured in Guyana. The alternative, then, was that it must be to fulfil a business necessity. I’m on the road daily; I’m basically self-employed and pioneering the unusual niche of illustrated storytelling through mainly self-publishing in our small world. This venture has met with reasonable successes but with great obstacles. Hiring motor services is cheaper than paying the bill of ownership right now.

So, where does sleep come in? People are dying on our roads: Young people; some young at heart. The ally is accelerating. I had an experience. I was a young man in a Jeep driven by a colleague coming from Linden. This was in the early 1970s; we were talking, and I didn’t remember stopping talking. However, I opened my eyes and realised that I had fallen asleep and that the Jeep was in the middle of the road. I shook my colleague. He was asleep, too. He barked at me accusingly, “You’re supposed to talk and keep me awake!” “I fell asleep; I can’t remember how!” I responded.

The following day, I approached the medic. My contention was that I was young and fit, so I shouldn’t fall asleep like that. The medic laughed, weighing the hours awake on the job, and informed me of the power of sleep. She also used what I then classified as a ‘big-word’. ‘Sleep deprivation’ she called it. She informed me that, “If the body needs sleep, it will take it. Depending on the circumstances, your body demands sleep; that’s how accidents happen and people die.” I have often reflected that these factors should be incorporated and explained to drivers in training on the limitations of the body.

THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP
Looking at the science, sleep defines a biological and behavioural state in which we are quiet and relatively unresponsive to external stimuli. Most people spend about one-third of their lives in the state of consciousness that is sleep. Sleep is essential to our culture of awareness and being alive.

However, how does sleep help the brain? Researchers have found that the sleeping brain appears to repeat a pattern of neuron firing that occurred while the subject was recently awake as if in sleep, the brain was trying to commit to long-term memory what it had learned that day. When we do not get enough sleep, we may feel less alert and vigorous or confused and fatigued. Lack of sleep not only affects energy levels but mental and social functioning as well.

Sleep deprivation over prolonged periods has been recognised to cause hallucinations, delusions and psychosis in normal persons. Going long periods without sleep is so well acknowledged as disorienting that forced sleep deprivation is a widely used brainwashing technique. See-MAYO-CLINIC; NGM-May 2010.

The incident that influenced this article and research occurred earlier this year with a young taxi driver who was taking me back home from an exhibition around 12:30am when, after his second nod, I touched and instructed him to pull over and take a five. He did. It almost reached an hour. I touched him again, and began a conversation.

He’s a public servant with a young family who bought a car. Bank payments pushed him to hit the road from around 6pm to around 1am or earlier as a taxi driver to fill in the extra income. The old proverb dictated that I quietly remind him that “Yuh can’t burn candle at both ends; de light gon run out.”

The car is necessary for the family, thus, it has to be paid for, a logical situation, but with potentially dire consequences. How many of the accidents and road-rage incidents we witness daily can be attributed to factors mentioned here? We can only speculate. I don’t know if any institution can pay direct interactive attention to this factor. This is a little beyond just the Traffic Police.

It’s a multi-social medical reality. I’ve asked some drivers if when receiving instructions as a driving student, they had the discussion about the relationship between driving and mental fatigue. Of the few I’ve asked, the answers more or less revolved around having a solid meal card for the job, so I conclude not these fellows, the topic has not resonated with this 1.1% and their listening, smiling buddies.