The only problem with lost sleep is that you can’t truly make up for it. Sure, if you take a nap or sleep in a little later on the weekend you’ll feel more refreshed, but the damage is already done and can’t be undone. Someone mentioned on another post that they have the radio on all night while sleeping, but it’s even been said that this prevents the body and brain from truly getting the needed rest and the brain is still working because of the sound. I know on nights when I’ve forgotten to set the sleep timer on the tv before I doze off, I wake up the next morning feel no where near as refreshed as I normally do.

Lack of sleep, does indeed make me more hungry - it is as if I get less sleep, I need more food to function. Lack of sleep does cause poor memory, it starts will students and grade and test scores. Then continues into adulthood, where we forget to do much of what we do not write down.

Lack of sleep has always been the one thing that’ll wreck me. It is also the thing that’ll cure me when I start to get sick. It affects my mood, my eating habits, my health, everything. So I’m not surprised at the findings. The problem is, in our 24/7 world, especially in business, admitting to having 8 hours a night seems to be treated as an anomaly. Plus, when everyone else is “bragging” about their 5 or 6 hours, my admission of 8 hours gets some strange reactions. I swear lack of sleep and being too busy sometimes seems like a competition between people. It’s like needing 7-8 hours of sleep is some kind of weakness. Do people equate it with laziness?

I learned recently when my diabetes went haywire that sleep and good blood sugar control are closely related. Now I try to get more sleep, and my BG readings are closer to what they should be, but I have a hard time sleeping. It’s as if my body insists that there is only so much time in the day and it doesn’t want to waste it. I go to bed each night and fight with my own body to make it rest. People keep pointing me towards sleep meds, but honestly, a diabetic has enough medicine in her life without adding any more…. But I can tell you firsthand that sleep affects EVERYTHING, even those things you’d least expect.

I LOOK FORWARD TO WATCHING THE FULL STORY ON 60 MINUTES. LACK OF SLEEP PLAYS HAVOC ON OUR SYSTEMS. JUST LOOK WHAT IT DOES TO CHILDREN WHO DONT NAP!

Man oh MAN do I feel it when I don’t get enough sleep. It’s like being stoned. But I hope your story covers what lack of sleep does to kids. I couldn’t believe, when my kids were young, peers saying their 6 and 7 year-olds were up until 10 PM on school nights. Little kids and teens need more than 8 hours a night, or it affects their ability to learn and their ability to grow.

I rarely get a good nights sleep anymore. I am tired in the day and sometimes grouchy. I would love to sleep like I used too. The mind is willing the body says no!

Basically, I have NO problems when it comes to sleeping [except for that Tuesday morning Garbage truck!]. Once I “hit the pillow”…I’m sound asleep. [Oh, did i mention that I’m single?] Shirley W. NJ

The ‘brain’ works as electrical/chemical impulses to where sleep is very important in that it produces the chemicals needed for healing of the physical/chemical make-up of the human being. With that said, each and every person requires a different amount of sleep due to the fact that we are all different. The problem being…finding the amount of sleep each individual needs.

I’m really looking forward to watching this. As graduate student, I rarely get enough sleep these days. And I know it’s affecting things. I miss sleeping like I did in high school, let alone college.

I didn’t used to have problems with sleeping, and required about 8-9 hours to feel rested. But since I’ve hit my forties, plus have two preschoolers now, I never get “enough.” Even when I’m in bed for 8 hours, I wake often—those kids sure change our brain functioning! But there are a few tricks that help me to sleep better—one is getting enough calcium and the other is eating protein right before going to sleep. I have low blood sugar, and protein will give your body a boost about 5-6 hours after eating it. If I don’t eat protein at bedtime, I wake around 3-4 a.m. and can’t get back to sleep. It’s because my blood sugar is low, at least that’s what my doctor tells me. I know of many other people who wake around this time, but none have ever heard of the protein fix, so if that’s your problem, it won’t hurt to give it a try. My husband gets even less sleep than I do, and it’s like living with an alcoholic sometimes. He just doesn’t realize how spacey it makes him. I definitely have to have him watch this video!

I attended a conference re: neuroscience and women. Sleep is absolutely essential for learning to take place. As a previous poster noted, the brain renews itself during sleep neuroconnections are made as we sleep. I’ve sat in numerous conferences with parents in my role as a Director of a Private Elementary School. One of my frequently asked questions is “How much sleep does your child get at night?” When sleep deprivation is a problem, children show tremendous gains in learning after this area has been addressed. My 20something sons come home from college, as if they were in a coma, but I just let them sleep as long as they need to. They have a lot of sleep to make up. It’s just as important as nutrition and water. I can’t wait to watch your story, Leslie. www.createanewseason.com

What about the Martha Stewarts and Donald Trumps who claim to thrive on only four hous of sleep a night and indicate that the rest of us are lazy, self indulgent and low functioning when we insist on eight?

Wow, this is very worrying. My college-age daughter and most of her friends are horribly sleep deprived. As architecture students they are often up for 48 hours at a time working on projects due for review. This is a regular occurrence, and I’ve been worried about the health cost…now I’m really worried. Thanks for doing this story, Lesley. I’ve got the show Tivo’d so I don’t miss it. Best Regards, Fran

All too often we turn to the pharmaceutical fountain of youth to solve our problems and allow us to be immortal. Sleep, exercise, natural diets and intellectual stimulation are what brought our species forward to be living as long as we do now. Every body is as unique as a snow flake and the quantity and quality of our resource needs may vary. Regardless of our individual needs, if our long life is not a happy one (I don’t know about you, but good sex makes me happy), who wants to make it long?