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A month ago, many of us heard about the sad demise of Ranjan Das fromBandra, Mumbai. Ranjan, just 42 years of age, was the CEO of SAP-IndianSubcontinent, the youngest CEO of an MNC in India . He was very active insports, was a fitness freak and a marathon runner. It was common to see himrun on Bandra’s Carter Road . Just after Diwali, on 21st Oct, he returnedhome from his gym after a workout, collapsed with a massive heart attack anddied. He is survived by his wife and two very young kids.
It was certainly a wake-up call for corporate India . However, it was evenmore disastrous for runners amongst us. Since Ranjan was an avid marathoner(in Feb 09, he ran Chennai Marathon at the same time some of us were runningPondicherry Marathon 180 km away), the question came as to why anexceptionally active, athletic person succumb to heart attack at 42 years ofage.
Was it the stress?A couple of you called me asking about the reasons. While Ranjan hadmentioned that he faced a lot of stress, that is a common element in most ofour lives. We used to think that by being fit, one can conquer the badeffects of stress. So I doubted if the cause was stress.
The Real ReasonHowever, everyone missed out a small line in the reports that Ranjan used tomake do with 4-5 hours of sleep. This is an earlier interview of Ranjan onNDTV in the program ‘Boss’ Day Out’:http://connect.in.com/ranjan-das/play-video-boss-day-out-ranjan-das-of-sap-india\-229111-807ecfcf1ad966036c289b3ba6c376f2530d7484.htmlHere he himself admits that he would love to get more sleep (and that he wasnot proud of his ability to manage without sleep, contrary to what othersextolled).
The EvidenceLast week, I was working with a well-known cardiologist on the subject of‘Heart Disease caused by Lack of Sleep’. While I cannot share the video northe slides because of confidentiality reasons, I have distilled the keypoints below in the hope it will save some of our lives.
Some Excerpts:
• Short sleep duration (<5 or 5-6 hours) increased risk for high BPby 350% to 500% compared to those who slept longer than 6 hours per night.Paper published in 2009.As you know, high BP kills.
• Young people (25-49 years of age) are twice as likely to get highBP if they sleep less. Paper published in 2006.
• Individuals who slept less than 5 hours a night had a 3-foldincreased risk of heart attacks. Paper published in 1999.
• Complete and partial lack of sleep increased the bloodconcentrations of High sensitivity C-Reactive Protein (hs-cRP), thestrongest predictor of heart attacks. Even after getting adequate sleeplater, the levels stayed high!!
• Just one night of sleep loss increases very toxic substances inbody such as Interleukin-6 (IL-6), Tumour Necrosis Factor-Alpha (TNF-alpha)and C-reactive protein (cRP). They increase risks of many medicalconditions, including cancer, arthritis andheart disease. Paper published in2004.
• Sleeping for <=5 hours per night leads to 39% increase in heartdisease. Sleeping for <=6 hours per night leads to 18% increase in heartdisease. Paper published in 2006.
Ideal SleepFor lack of space, I cannot explain here the ideal sleep architecture. Butin brief, sleep is composed of two stages: REM (Rapid Eye Movement) andnon-REM. The former helps in mental consolidation while the latter helps inphysical repair and rebuilding. During the night, you alternate between REMand non-REM stages 4-5 times.
The earlier part of sleep is mostly non-REM. During that period, yourpituitary gland releases growth hormones that repair your body. The latterpart of sleep is more and more REM type.
For you to be mentally alert during the day, the latter part of sleep ismore important. No wonder when you wake up with an alarm clock after 5-6hours of sleep, you are mentally irritable throughout the day (lack of REMsleep). And if you have slept for less than 5 hours, your body is in acomplete physical mess (lack of non-REM sleep), you are tired throughout theday, moving like a zombie and your immunity is way down (I’ve been there,done that ☹ )
Finally, as long-distance runners, you need an hour of extra sleep to repairthe running related damage.
In conclusion:Barring stress control, Ranjan Das did everything right: eating proper food,exercising (marathoning!), maintaining proper weight. But he missed gettingproper and adequate sleep, minimum 7 hours. In my opinion, that killed him.
If you are not getting enough sleep (7 hours), you are playing with fire,even if you have low stress.I always took pride in my ability to work 50 hours at a stretch whenever thesituation warranted. But I was so spooked after seeing the scientificevidence last week that since Saturday night, I ensure I do not even set thealarm clock under 7 hours. Now, that is a nice excuse to get some moresleep. ☺
Unfortunately, Ranjan Das is not alone when it comes to missing sleep. Manyof us are doing exactly the same, perhaps out of ignorance. Please forwardthis mail to as many of your colleagues as possible, especially those whomight be short-changing their sleep. If we can save even one young lifebecause of this email, I would be the happiest person on earth.
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