A new spin on sleep loss
by Michèle Nardelli
To
sleep! perchance to dream: – ay, there’s the rub. (Hamlet III, 1, 65-68)
And for Melbourne DJ, Matt Solo, who has just captured a Guinness World Record for continuous music mixing, "the rub" came as waking dreamlike hallucinations during the five day sleepless challenge.
UniSA sleep researcher Dr Jill Dorrian witnessed the onset of hallucinations as she monitored Solo.
"Most reports show that hallucinations start at around 50 to 60 hours of being awake," Dr Dorrian said. "Solo’s experience ran true to form."
Dr Dorrian said while there are laboratory studies on the effects of sleep deprivation there are very few studies of sleep deprivation in a real world context. Her observations supported the idea that while the frontal lobe will suffer under the stress of sleeplessness, the brain seems to be able to harness other resources to maintain practised tasks for some time.
"While Solo was reporting that he thought the turntables were houses and the mixer was a cobbled street, he was still mixing music and not making errors."
But it was late on day three that he experienced his most frightening hallucination, completely forgetting how to DJ and mix.
"At this point he really needed support to continue functioning – it was clear that his body was demanding sleep."
While Dr Dorrian says she is still to analyse a full video of Solo’s experience, certain aspects of his responses are quite significant.
"It is clear that sleep deprivation has a huge impact on the ability to perform tasks," Dr Dorrian said. "The brain makes its best effort to keep a person functional but there comes a point where it cannot counter the effects of sleep loss.
"We also know that beyond world record attempts, people can accumulate sleep debt just in the course of their work or everyday life. People with newborn babies who wake regularly, people working shifts or in emergency services, or even those who tend to burn the candle at both ends, will carry a sleep debt that can impair capacity to function at safe levels."