On World Sleep Day, March 14, we can look to the ancient Greeks who knew sleep is sacred. They worshipped Hypnos, the god of slumber, and feared his twin brother Thanatos, the god of death. Sleep was more than rest – it was a divine necessity, a borderland between life and death.
I learnt this the hard way. After months of battling brain fog, chronic fatigue, loud snoring, low libido and mood swings, I finally sought answers via a sleep test. The diagnosis? Severe sleep apnea.
My symptoms – misdiagnosed as menopause – were actually the result of my body gasping for air throughout the night.
The relief of ruling out dementia was short-lived when the sleep consultant hit me with the reality: Carrie Fisher and John Candy had died from it. And I carried seven times the risk of falling asleep at the wheel of my car than the average person. The solution? A CPAP machine, weight loss, and a warning to inform VicRoads of my condition.
Dr Vicki Kotsirilos, GP, sees the effects of sleep disorders every day, a silent epidemic, robbing us for our health, energy and wellbeing. She warns that our late-night habits – especially our addiction to screens – are wreaking havoc on our melatonin production.
“At the end of the day, when the sun sets, having bright lights on and being on iPhones can impact the release of melatonin from the pineal gland. If we don’t wind down – if lights and noise persist – melatonin won’t release properly, and poor sleep habits can disrupt our natural circadian rhythms, leading to numerous health issues, including disease,” she explains.
Her advice is simple but crucial: “Early morning sun exposure helps regulate our circadian rhythms, ensuring melatonin is produced for release at night when it is needed.”
When it comes to sleep apnea, she’s blunt. “Even five kilos or more above normal weight can increase the risk of sleep disorders.”
Psychosocial Recovery Coach Christina Roma sees the effects of sleep deprivation in her patients.
“The first thing I ask my patients is about the quality of their sleep. When you neglect sleep, it catches up with you, but there is no one-size-fits-all approach,” she says.
She points to the stress we all carry in a post-pandemic world.
“In today’s chaotic world, stress is a constant companion. We are living in weird times, bombarded with negative news – still reeling from COVID, and for some Greeks, still recovering from the debt crisis,” she says.
Stress doesn’t just keep us awake it embeds itself in our subconscious, lingering in our dreams.
“Dreams, especially during REM sleep, are important for our mental and physical well-being. They help process emotions and enhance creativity. Positive dreams improve mood, while nightmares can trigger anxiety. From a physical standpoint, quality sleep supports immune function and metabolic balance. Sleep disorders, on the other hand, are linked to increased risks of depression, anxiety, chronic fatigue, diabetes, and weight gain,” Roma adds.
Hippocrates, the father of medicine, warned us centuries ago: “Both sleep and sleeplessness, when beyond measure, constitute disease.” Yet we continue to push our bodies beyond their limits, sacrificing sleep in the name of productivity. But at what cost?
This World Sleep Day it’s time to wake up to the reality of our self-inflicted exhaustion. The ancients were right: sleep is not a luxury—it’s a necessity. And if we don’t reclaim it, Hypnos may just have his revenge and let loose his wife Pasithea, the goddess of hallucination, as his brother Thanatos waits round the bend.
