![Steven A. Shea is acting chief of the division of sleep medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital. ''It's important to treat [sleep] with respect,'' he says of the body's need for rest.](http://cache.boston.com/resize/bonzai-fba/Globe_Photo/2009/05/24/1243203733_4605/539w.jpg "Steven A. Shea is acting chief of the division of sleep medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital. ''It's important to treat [sleep] with respect,'' he says of the body's need for rest.")
Steven A. Shea is acting chief of the division of sleep medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital. ''It's important to treat [sleep] with respect,'' he says of the body's need for rest.
(Aram Boghosian for The Boston Globe)
STEVEN A. SHEA | G Force
Respect your sleep
Steven A. Shea is acting chief of the division of sleep medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital. ''It's important to treat [sleep] with respect,'' he says of the body's need for rest.
(Aram Boghosian for The Boston Globe)
May 25, 2009
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To many people, sleep seems a luxury - the first thing to sacrifice in the hectic rush of work, job, and family. But to Steven A. Shea, acting chief of the division of sleep medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, sleep is serious; it should be considered a pillar of health, along with exercise and diet. Shea has studied all aspects of sleep, including why certain events, such as heart attacks, tend to strike at a particular time of day. Here's an edited version of a recent conversation.
CAROLYN Y. JOHNSON
Q. Why study sleep?
A. Almost everything in our life fluctuates on a daily rhythm. Many diseases undergo different levels of severity at different times of day and night. One of the things we're studying is whether there is a role of the internal body clock in triggering such events.
Q. What are examples of diseases that strike at a certain time of day?
A. Perhaps the most famous is the incidence of heart attacks and strokes and even sudden cardiac death. These occur mostly in the morning hours, around about 9, 10, or 11. There's almost a doubling of the chance of them occurring at that time of day, compared to nighttime.
Q. How much is understood about the role the clock plays in disease?
A. Very little. [In experiments] we keep people awake and by doing that we can monitor the physiology. We've been looking at how blood clots form, and how quickly they form at different times of the body clock cycle.
Q. Is the sleep deprivation of modern-day life bad for us?
A. The body in general can make up for loss of sleep by extending sleep on the subsequent night. There's emerging evidence to suggest that chronic partial sleep loss can be deleterious. There are lots of obvious psychological effects of chronic partial sleep loss and emerging evidence of some of the physiological effects.
Q. Should people rethink their approach to sleep?
A. It's important to treat it with respect. If you disrespect it, it will come back and bite you. In the short term, it might be that you fall asleep at the wheel. And it may come back to bite you in the long term if there are effects of chronic partial sleep deprivation, such as the emerging evidence suggesting increased risk of diabetes, hypertension, obesity - and, I hate to say this, shortened life span.
Q. Have you changed your sleep patterns?
A. No - because I study sleep and I have to sometimes work at night. I've tried to change the habits of my teenage children, but I cannot.
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
