Sleep: 5 Things You Didn't Know
3- Some people have a fear of sleepBelieve it or not, but some people actually develop a fear of going to sleep. Clinophobia (or somniphobia) is an intense, irrational fear of going to sleep. The clinophobic individual may fear sleep itself, or what happens during sleep. For example, some individuals fear nightmares or wetting the bed, while others fear the consequences of various sleep disorders, like sleep apnea. Some even fear that they will die during sleep since the act of sleeping mimics the act of dying. Of course, although unusual, it is understandable how such a phobia may develop. After all, it’s not unheard-of for the elderly to pass in their sleep, and certainly, the childhood prayer "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep" does little to lessen irrational fears as well: “…should I die before I wake…”
4- The body has a natural alarm clockEver wake up mere minutes before the sound of your alarm? If so, you can thank a helpful little hormone by the name of adrenocorticotropin. Adrenocorticotropin functions as the human body’s internal alarm, being released several hours prior to wake-up time.
Scientists believe that the hormone is released to deal with the “stress” of waking up (adrenocorticotropin was previously known to prepare the body for stressful events during the day). What’s even more interesting is that we have conscious control over this hormone. When adrenocorticotropin was studied in humans, participants who were told they would be woken at an early time had higher levels of this hormone in comparison to those who had no anticipation of waking. Therefore, simply telling yourself you need to wake up early might just be enough to prime your internal alarm.
5- Four days without sleep will turn you into a psychoOnly four days without sleep are needed for hallucinations to set in. For confirmation one needs to simply look back to our old pal Randy Gardner (from the first entry on our list). Randy was held under sleep deprivation in highly controlled conditions, being monitored round-the-clock by a team of physicians. After just four days without sleep, Randy began hallucinating, believing that he was the African-American collegiate football player Paul Lowe, winning the Rose Bowl.
Such hallucinations are not unique. When Brit Tony Wright stayed awake for 11 days back in 2007, after only five days he recorded in his online diary visions of "giggling dancing pixies and elves" appearing on his computer screen.
Although such anecdotal evidence is far from empirical, the simple fact is that it’s not ethical to subject participants to such lengths without sleep, so reproducing such results is rare. Regardless, don’t try this at home, kids.