The Real Reason Why Some People Are Lazy
The Real Reason Why Some People Are Lazy
The Real Reason Why Some People Are Lazy
More than a few times per month, I have patients commentthat they think others perceive them as being lazy. Whetherthey like to "sleep in" or have trouble getting up in the mornings,or if they're prone to taking naps in the afternoon, theirsleepiness often elicits other's perception of them asbeing lazy or unproductive. Add to this a saying fromProverbs: "Laziness brings on deep sleep, and the shiftlessman goes hungry." Given that this type of work ethic runsdeep in our modern day culture, it's difficult to avoidbeing called lazy if you're not the first one in the officeand the last one to leave.
However, laziness may have less to do with sleep than itdoes with how well one is breathing while they're sleeping.Without assessing the latter, it would be wrong to assumethe former.
Sleepy or Sleep Deprived?
Typically, most self professed "lazy" people don't lookforward to waking up in the morning. On more than oneoccasion, patients have complained that they "curse themornings" when they have to get up. Often it takes multiplecups of coffee, or vigorous exercise, before they feel evensomewhat functional. Naps are also a requisite for most ofthese people and almost all of them crash at night,completely exhausted by the time they get to bed. In themorning, they never feel refreshedalways feeling likethey've slept only for a few hours.
The other common misperception people have about othersleepy people is that they must have trouble sleeping orthat they have insomnia. However, what many supposed"lazy" people suffer from is not usually due toinsomniathey can fall asleep just fine. In fact, many ofthese people fall asleep too easily. The difference is,these people just can't wake up once they do fall asleep.
So, if these people are not sleep deprived, sleeping morethan their peers, why do these people seem so tired and"lazy" all the time? The true answer lies in how wellthey're breathing while they're sleeping.
To Breathe Or Not To Breathe
Many supposed "lazy" people that I see in my practice oftenhave a sleep breathing problem called Upper AirwayResistance Syndrome (or UARS for short). This often occursto those who have a smaller than average airway opening, ora bigger than average tongue to jaw size ratio. And forthose who suffer from UARS, this is the primary reason whythey're not getting the deep and restful sleep that theytruly need and desperately desire.
It's taken for granted that all humans have rigid, openwindpipes that allow air to pass easily from the nosethrough the lungs. What's unique about the human upperairway, however, is that due to our unique ability to talk,our voice boxes are much lower down, underneath the tongue,which forces the tongue to rotate backwards. This is finewhen you're awake, but when you're on your back, the tongueand voice box falls back partially due to gravity.Furthermore, when you go into deep sleep, your throat andtongue muscles relax, then with a bit of deep inspiration,the tongue falls back completely to occlude the 1-2 mmairway space behind the tongue.
If you have UARS, a number of different scenarios can occur: the tongue falls back, and youcan wake up after a few seconds, with you panting, in asweat, your heart racing, and in a state of panic. Or youwake up from deep to light sleep only, never realizing thatyour sleep was disturbed.
Also, if you stop breathing for 10 seconds or longer, andthen wake up, then you just had an apnea or a "loss ofbreath" due to an obstructed airway. Five or more apneasper hour is in the range of having obstructive sleep apnea.But even if you stop breathing 20-30 times every hour, eachlasting anywhere from 1-9 seconds, you'll be told you don'thave any apneas, so therefore there's nothing clinicallywrong with you.
This is the major conundrum many UARS patients findthemselves in. Although they're not found to have aclinically diagnosable problem, they still suffer from thesame level of fatigue and exhaustion that many OSA patientsexperience. This may be why so many UARS patients are oftenmistaken for being lazy and not properly treated as someonewho suffers from a sleep breathing problem.
Fighting While Sleeping
Another physiologic phenomenon that many UARS patientsexperience is that they're constantly under a low gradestate of stress or anxiety.Whether or not they feel thisway while they're awake, while they're sleeping, theirbodies are in a constant mode of "fight or flight." Bothhormonally and neurologically, having UARS can put yourbody under enormous stress. Since you're never able toreach a deep level of sleep, and stay in a sustained stateof light sleep, your entire nervous system goes en guarde,and becomes hypersensitive. Even your emotions and sensesare heightened, including your hearing, vision, taste, andsmell. Simultaneously, you are exhausted all the time.
Also, in this constant state of readiness, blood is takenaway from your gastrointestinal system, your reproductiveorgans, your skin or your hands and feet. This may be why so many people with UARS have cold hands or feet or sufferfrom a rash of gastrointestinal problems.
Laziness May Be a Virtue
But there is one positive side to all of this. Contrary topopular belief, I see many people with UARS who selfproclaim themselves as being lazy, compensate for theirchronic fatigue and lack of energy by becomingoverachievers, being highly productive and creative in everything theydo, going non-stop during the day, but crashing at night.They're also much more attuned to their bodies, beingproactive about their health, and taking care of whateverillnesses they have before they become huge problems.
However, there are those who can't sustain this high energylifestyle especially as they get older and they startgaining weight. What happens for many of these patients isthat they now progress into a more severe form of sleepbreathing problem like OSA.
So the next time you think you're lazy or think that othersperceive you this way, the way you feel and act mayactually be due to chronic deep sleep deprivation and not apersonality defect. Something else to sleep on.
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