No such dimension

Dr Fahim Chand | Monday February 6, 2023 06:00

It is remarkable how under a prolonged onslaught, the simplest of life's offerings bring such intense pleasure.

Earth's unending journey had rhythmically changed its trajectory to allow the Northern hemisphere closer proximity to the sun. As such, the banished winter faded as the approaching summer dispersed its glow in every direction.

The chlorophyll infused leaves projected bright green as they slowly danced to the wind's seductive anthem. There's an illness that has been documented by poets for centuries. Its symptoms include a flushed face, increased heart rate, appetite loss, restlessness and daydreaming.

It's called spring fever. Of course, spring doesn't just lighten our mood; as Alfred Lord Tennyson described, 'In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.' While Tennyson's heart yearned for the provocative gazes and cryptic tongue of romance's frolic, I was in no such dimension.

Though as I looked around a campus, cover girl walked past. Shorts, tank tops and sandals were the preferred attire as northern skin welcomed the solar rays in pursuit of melanocyte stimulation. All in the quest for the summer's ultimate prize, the perfect tan.

Though the winter darkness blunting one and all mood had lifted, there was seriousness in the air. My roommate Dave and I had dispatched one more final exam. The initial joy had disappeared and now our psyches were already primed and in the zone, so to speak. As we continued towards the parking lot to return home for supper and prepare for the exam tomorrow, we passed Saugeen-Maitland residence.

This was a coed residence on campus and had earned the amusing nickname The Zoo. It had certainly earned its status as a party place at Western University. Curiously there was no laughter and frivolity emanating from the building today; even the professional partiers were readying themselves for a productive exam period.

Dave and I had already discussed the just written exam and conversation had already segued into more pleasant topics. There was always abundant laughter when we were together and we had that curious ability to uplift each other. As we entered our apartment, I went to the kitchen to prepare supper. Our arrangement was that I cooked and he cleaned. The intercom buzzed as Dave dried and put away the last of our dishes. Our close friend Dan Ceccacci would be joining us to study for our first exam the next day.

Our exam period included 16 final exams in two weeks. We had two clinic sessions per day for patient treatments throughout the year, so when exams approached one had to prioritise appropriate study for each course's importance. Tomorrow's first exam was biochemistry and we had allocated just one night to study what we had learned all year.

Yeah, that meant the dreaded all nighter. Biochemistry included a barrage of information and intense memorisation. Hardly ideal for a one night cramming. Following breakfast we left to write the three hour exam. I was relieved when results came out that I got an A in the course. Being a healthcare student at university placed extreme demands on our time and as such adequate sleep seemed to be an elusive luxury. A recent study on sleep patterns in the United States finds that Americans are failing in their never-ending quest for proper rest, resulting in deficiencies that might have a negative influence on health. The study, described by the authors as the first to individually measure sleep duration between workdays and leisure days, examined sleep data from over 9,000 Americans aged 20 and older.

According to the research, which was published on November 22, 2022 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, about 30% of respondents had difficulty getting or staying asleep, and around 27% were extremely drowsy during the day. The study also discovered that more than 30% of individuals had an hour of sleep debt — when you sleep less than your body requires — and that almost one in 10 adults had a sleep deficit of two hours or more. According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, adults over the age of 18 require at least seven hours of uninterrupted sleep every night to be healthy. Obesity, heart disease, dementia, and mood disorders such as anxiety and depression have all been associated to sleep debt and variable sleep duration. Furthermore, nearly half of the adults in the research had social jet lag, which is defined as a mismatch between the sleep schedule chosen by a person's internal biological clock and the one enforced by society.

Insomnia, early awakening or excessive drowsiness, daily weariness, difficulties focusing, constipation or diarrhea, and elevated cortisol levels can all result from untreated social jet lag. It may also contribute to the onset of obesity, Type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. Meditation, deep breathing, and progressive muscular relaxation are all suggestions for falling asleep rapidly. Then, to keep your internal clock running smoothly, it's also best to keep to the same schedule on non-work days. I look back fondly on my years at Western University, though I definitely do not miss the extreme stress and lack of sleep during exams. Though what helped is I had 39 other classmates to share the misery with. My alarm has gone off. Oh no I don't have to wake up, I now put one on to remind me to go to sleep to get my seven hours. The world has changed.