Sleep Andyour Health by DURK PEARSON and SANDY SHAW
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HEALTH&WELF!E Sleep andyour Health BY DURK PEARSON AND SANDY SHAW lthough our understanding of the memorial. We still do not know, but plement. The thymus gland enables cer- A biochemical and physical processes there are hypotheses. tain white blood cells, called T-cells, to underlying sleep is still rather crude, we An interesting hypothesis is that REM identify and attack entities that are now know enough to be able to modify (rapid eye movement) sleep may serve to foreign to the individual’s body. When some of them repeatably. increase our brain’s supplies of certain there is inadequate GH, the thymus Sleep is an altered state of conscious- neurotransmitters, the catecholamines shrinks in size and the white cells don’t ness from that of our everyday world. (dopamine, norepinephrine), that are im- do as good a job of locating, killing, and We are put to sleep by increased quan- portant for learning, memory, long-term eating bacteria, viruses, and cancer cells. tities of serotonin in the brain. Serotonin planning, emotions, primitive drives, Certain of these white cells instruct other is an inhibitory neurotransmitter (chem- motor activity, and other functions. An white cells (called B-cells) to make an- ical used for communication between increase in these substances has been tibodies. This, too, is performed less well nerve cells) that decreases the firing rate measured in the brains of experimental when there is inadequate GH. of certain nerve cells. The quantity of animals after REM sleep, and a lack of Older people release less growth hor- serotonin in the brain depends on a day- REM sleep has been known for many mone than younger people do, and this is night clock cycle maintained by the years to reduce ability to concentrate and suspected by some scientists studying brain. Even in the absence of any exter- focus and to increase aggressiveness and aging, including ourselves, to be an im- nal dark or light signal to establish the bad judgment. portant factor in the rapid decline in time of day, most people run on a 23- to REM is associated with dreaming, a health that occurs after young adulthood. 26-hour daily rhythm. fascinating altered state of conscious- It is possible to bring GH release back up Serotonin is manufactured by the brain ness. It is initiated in the brain by a to young-adult levels by taking supple- from the nutrient tryptophan, which may release of the hormone vasopressin by ments, including the nutrients L-trypto- be obtained from the diet (for example, the pituitary gland. It is currently phan, L-arginine, and L-ornithine (amino bananas or milk) or from a nutritional available as a prescription drug, &pido acids) and the prescription drug L-Dopa supplement purchased in a drug or (Sandoz), used to treat a condition of ex- (also an amino acid). Taking these just health food store. In order for the brain cess urination caused by a deficit of before bedtime increases GH release at a to convert the tryptophan to serotonin, vasopressin. We have experimented with natural place in the daily cycle. Other vitamins C and B-6 are required, so sup- this drug (because it has been shown to stimulants of GH release include exer- plements of these ought to be taken with increase intelligence and improve mem- cise, fasting, and hypoglycemia. tryptophan for best results. ory in several human clinical trials) and Reducing sleep without disturbing the Animal studies have shown that after a found that it increases the ability to brain’s chemistry may be an effective large carbohydrate meal more trypto- visualize. Thus, its connection with strategy for life extension; even if we phan enters the brain; insulin released in dreaming is not surprising. don’t live any more years than is normal, response to the carbohydrates alters the Another hypothesis concerning why we can increase our subjective life spans binding properties of tryptophan to the we sleep is that it removes individuals by up to about a third. Although it is protein that carries it in the bloodstream. from the relatively more dangerous night possible for at least some individuals to This phenomenon explains, at least in environment to the relative safety of the function with very small amounts of part, why so many people fall asleep at home territory. It puts us “on hold,” so sleep, data indicate that, for most of us, lectures after lunch! to speak. sleeping seven to eight hours a night is Another aspect of sleep is staying One important event that takes place normal, and any substantial deviation asleep once serotonin has induced us to about 90 minutes after we begin to sleep from that amount is usually associated enter that state. The cholinergic nervous is the release of growth hormone (GH), with a reduced life span. system in the brain uses the neurotrans- triggered by serotonin and dopamine. Staying awake for prolonged periods mitter acetylcholine to regulate the input Growth hormone is necessary for the results in a psychotic state (including of stimuli from the outside world. When proper function of our immune system- hallucinations and paranoid delusions) we sleep, this input is greatly reduced, the white blood cells, thymus gland that closely resembles that seen in chronic allowing us to stop paying attention to (located behind the breastbone), spleen, abusers of amphetamines. They both our surroundings and enter the sleep bone marrow, and various chemicals, in- result in depletion of brain stores of state. Taking choline (along with vitamins cluding antibodies, interferon, and com- norepinephrine, an important neuro- B-1 and B-6, which are required for its transmitter. Staying awake for a couple conversion to acetylcholine by the brain) We invite questions of general of nights has been of benefit to some peo- can help us to stay asleep. Lecithin interest from our readers. Send ple with depression, possibly by a (which contains phosphatidyl choline) your query along to REASON mechanism involving a resetting of day- Health & Welfare, Box 40105, and the prescription drug Deaner @ night cycles. It is known that REM (Riker) are also effective. Santa Barbara, CA 93103. deprivation reduces the threshold for Why do we need sleep? This is a ques- (A limited number of reader questions electrical shock convulsions. Thus, it can be answered in print; personal tion that has interested scientists and replies cannot be made.) may activate an overly inhibited nonscientists alike since time im- (Continued on p. 55.) Copyright 0 1982 by Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw SPOTLIGHT Tender of the Tradition B Y PA TRICK COX gentleman and a scholar.” The nomic Education with Leonard Read. In Liberty, a quarterly that provides ‘Aphrase came up so many times in the early ’60s Liggio began working with abstracts of recent scholarly articles on discussions about Leonard Liggio, it was the William Volker Fund, which was set- or related to individual liberty. obvious that his friends and associates ting up the Institute for Humane Studies in When the Cat0 Institute began to cut have already reached a firm consensus back on its less policy-oriented programs about the man. But friends and asso- in 1979, Literature of Liberty-and ciates are only one category of opinion Leonard Liggio-found a home back at givers; a writer can often find out more the Institute for Humane Studies. With about a person from detractors and the death in 1973 of Baldy Harper, who critics. Not with Leonard Liggio, though; had inspired much of the support for IHS for everybody seems to like him. Perhaps and provided it with a guiding vision, the that’s why he’s been able for years to act institute had been going through a period as peacemaker between factions and of search for new financial backing and a figures within the group of people broad- clear-cut direction. Liggio was appointed ly dedicated to individual liberty. president in 1979 to bring back some of When the old, more enlightened right the vitality that was evident while of the ’30s and ’40s began to give way to Harper was at the helm. Among IHS’S re- the conservative movement of the pres- cent activities are support for Austrian ent, with its bent toward foreign adven- economics at Stanford University and a turism, trade protectionism, and selec- continuing program of conferences, sem- tive welfare for business, Leonard Liggio inars, and publishing. was among the few young people who LEONARDP. LIGGIO When asked about the goals of the in- held forth the earlier ideals. They taught stitute, Liggio points to Hayek’s widely and talked and published during the Menlo Park, California, with Harper as reprinted essay, “Intellectuals and dreary O OS, seeking to build the ground- president. Liggio began giving lectures Socialism.” The socialists talk about the work for a rejuvenation of classical at IHS seminars, especially on historical masses, notes Liggio, but they invest in liberalism and the old right, of laissez matters. swaying the opinions of the elite, of faire in personal, economic, and foreign Most of the period’s leading defenders policymakers and intellectuals. IHS’S ef- affairs. of classical liberalism were associated forts, too, are directed toward those who Liggio was a member of the Circle with the institute. Ludwig von Mises, put forth and act on ideas. Or, as Liggio Bastiat, a group that met in New York F. A. Hayek, Henry Hazlitt, Rothbard, says, they’re “investing in human City during that time “to talk about liber- and Ren Rogge are just a few. Under capital.” tarian ideas and generally carouse,” ac- Harper’s leadership, IHS went about the Although Liggio is generally optimistic cording to Murray Rothbard, who was business of schooling new minds in the about the prospects for liberty, he says also a member with Ronald Hamoway, philosophy of freedom.