Up to three Chinese fans have died so far in the World Cup. The cause, as revealed this week by several media, has been none other than the fact that he has stayed awake for several nights in a row in order not to miss any match, including the fateful Spain-Holland match
The fans, of very different ages – 24, 51 and 39 years old – have not, however, been the first people to whom lack of sleep costs their lives, as the truth is that the populous eastern country has already been the scene of similar tragedies during the last World Cups and European Championships.
Is it possible to literally die of sleep? The director of the Estivill Sleep Clinic assures that, in fact, you can die from this cause and that “a person can even die earlier from sleep than from hunger or thirst”. However, the expert reports, for this to happen, the subject in question would have to remain “a total of seven days without sleeping for a single minute.” “The only scientific studies carried out in this regard have been with experimental animals (mice) that, after spending five or six days in continuous movement and without sleep, experienced metabolic changes in their brain that led to death within 48 hours.”
And the fact is that night’s rest should never be taken lightly. The dream is, Estivill emphasizes, “a repair, restoration and memorization workshop, because during the night we repair and restore everything we have worn during the day so that we can use it again the next day.” How many hours of sleep will we have to get to restore everything we spend? In Estivill’s opinion, we should always bear in mind that the hours of sleep vary depending on age. “A five-year-old child, who moves a lot, should sleep at least 11 hours; the adolescent, 9; the adult, 8 and the elderly – from 65 years of age – will have enough with 6 hours”.
If we do not respect the much-needed hours of rest, it is possible that, as the specialist points out, “we suffer from tiredness, bad mood, loss of concentration, irritability, slowness of cognitive responses… In short, obvious signs that let us know that we have a problematic lack of sleep.”
Source: ABC
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