The grueling Medical College Admission Test, or MCAT, was first developed in the 1920s George Washington University Professor Frederick August Moss. It was originally called the Scholastic Aptitude Test for Medical Students. Moss developed the readiness test as a way to reduce the high attrition rate in medical schools. The MCAT paved the way for other standardized admissions tests like the SAT, and college-bound students still have to endure many sleepless nights in preparation. But Moss probably wouldn't mind such a sleepless legacy: For Moss, a professor of psychology at GWU, sleep was a useless habit.
IN November 1925 Popular Science Writer Newton Burke described an experiment that Moss conceived to evaluate whether sleep was “a tragic waste of a third of the precious hours of life.” His study was one of several pioneering experiments at the time to evaluate the effects of insomnia and determine whether people could be trained to go without sleep altogether.
A century later health– The benefits of sleep are well documented. Yet, oddly enough, the corollary of Mauss's central question still persists: is sleep not a waste of time, but can there be too much of it?.
A century ago, seven students did not sleep for more than two days
On a weekend in late August 1925, Moss gathered seven students in Foggy Bottom, a bustling GWU neighborhood sandwiched between the White House and Georgetown in Washington, DC. Their task: stay awake for at least 60 hours, during which Moss periodically monitored vital signs and reflexes, administered intelligence tests and gave simple tasks such as parallel parking a car to test alertness.
Among volunteers She was the aptly named Louise Omwake, she was only 17 years old and already an outstanding student and athlete. Her classmate Thelma Hunt, reportedly witty and extremely ambitious, has her sights set on a career in psychology. For Omwijk and Hunt, researching insomnia was just one adventure in a remarkable life. Both went on to distinguished careers: Omwake as a pioneer in national education, and Hunt as a psychologist, physician, and department chair at GWU.
For next two and a half daysThe group of seven traveled through rural Virginia, played baseball and sang songs to stay awake, and ultimately succeeded in their mission. To summarize Moss's preliminary findings, Popular ScienceBurke wrote: “Too much sleep, like too much intoxication, may actually be harmful, weakening the activity of the mind and body.”
In the 1920s, many wondered whether we really needed that much sleep.
The 1920s obsession with sleep—or rather, insomnia—reflected the cultural mood of the time, shaped by America's rapid industrialization and embodied by ambitious leaders such as inventor Thomas Edison, who 1889 interview with Scientific Americanstated: “I work twenty hours a day. I find that four hours of sleep is sufficient for all purposes.”
To his credit, Burke remained skeptical of Moss's findings and other insomnia experiments being conducted at the time, including the National Center experiment. first sleep research laboratory at the University of Chicagorecorded Popular Science in July 1925. Summarizing the results of such experiments, Burke concluded: “Scientific opinion agrees that no method has yet been developed that allows the average person to significantly reduce their sleep without harm to their health.”
A century later, we know sleep really matters
A century later, scientists confirmed Burke's conclusion that sleep is not a waste of time or passive sleep. Rather, it involves active, important biological work. But sleep is still little studied. Only in the last two decades have scientists developed the tools to analyze the biological activity that occurs at the cellular level during sleep.
Specialized laser beams, or optogenetics, can measure and activate neural pathways. And advanced imaging techniques such as deep ultrasound can show what's happening in different areas of the brain. Such studies have shown that during sleep the brain consolidates memories, restores itself and removes toxins, like beta amyloidprotein associated with Alzheimer's disease. the immune system is recharged During sleep, hormones are sent to regulate metabolism and cell growth.
While in 1925 some scientists may have been caught up in the popular desire to give up sleep, today it is considered essential for health and quality of life. But there may be a twist here.
Recent epidemiological analyzes And systematic reviews A study involving millions of participants found a U-shaped relationship between sleep duration and health. Both too little sleep And too much sleep were associated with a higher risk of disease and early death. Some studies have shown that sleeping too much has supreme association with worse health consequences than too little sleep.
Although the optimal amount of sleep varies depending on agefor adults, there is an optimal time between seven and nine hours a day, which results in the lowest risk of poor health outcomes. It's important to note that these results do not suggest that sleeping too much necessarily leads to poor health, but rather that it correlates with health risks. In other words, oversleeping can be a warning sign for serious problems such as chronic illness, depression, apnea, or other conditions that cause fatigue or interrupt sleep patterns. Habitual oversleeping requires medical attention.
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Recent studies also show that sleep regularity may be as important as duration. Consistent sleep and wake times help reduce the risk of poor health outcomes. People whose sleep times vary greatly may face a higher risk of diseases such as obesity, cardiovascular diseasesand mood disorders. Good sleep hygiene emphasizes habits that promote regular bedtime as well as optimal sleep conditions, such as limiting stimulating time before bed and maintaining a dark and cool bedroom environment.
It's no surprise that sleepovers and marathon marathons—like studying for a college entrance exam or final exam—also wreak havoc on your sleep hygiene and quality of sleep. According to Evening starHowever, when the insomnia study ended in 1925, none of the students “experienced any difficulty in falling asleep, although it is generally believed that when a person remains awake for such a long period of time, he has difficulty falling asleep when he does go to bed.”
Although most of us, like Rip Van Winkle, spend more than 20 years of our lives in bed, today we know that sleep is not a “tragic waste” but rather an investment in health, longevity and quality of life. Although too little sleep has been found to be harmful, the possibility that too much sleep may also be problematic (a warning sign) retains one aspect of Moss's original analysis.
Thelma Hunt, one of Moss's best students, went on to earn her Ph.D. and M.D. degrees, eventually accepting the position of chair of the GWU psychology department, a position she held for 25 years. Among her many contributions to the field of psychology, Hunt reported to have said“All my life I have had a colossal amount of energy, I think, largely due to my physiological make-up, so I can do a lot of things and not get tired right away.”
Despite the “physiological appearance”, what would have been an insurmountable challenge for most teenagers in any century, on a sultry summer weekend a hundred years ago, when seven undergraduate students proudly defied sleep for 60 hours straight. They could not have known at the time that their sleepless odyssey was at the forefront of a century-long effort to unravel the mysteries of sleep.
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