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The Science of Sleep, 60 MINUTES, June 2008

Bath Splendor Wakes Up to the Value of Sleep


I’ve noticed that sleep – actually, the lack of it – is getting a lot of attention lately. It seems that everywhere I turn, there’s a commercial, an ad or a conversation about sleep difficulties and sleep solutions.

Because Bath Splendor embraces the belief that taking a bath is one of the lovely (and drug-free!) ways to wind down and relax; because we know that relaxing the body is the first step to relaxing the mind; and because we know that both are pre-requisites for a delicious night of good sleep, we proudly introduce sleep products from Essence of Vali.

A few scented drops of "Sleep" do for the bed what our carefully-selected Bath Splendor products do for the bath: they create an environment of pure, joyful, “it’s time for me” relaxation, setting the stage for lovely, deep and healthy sleep.

In “The Science of Sleep,” a CBS “60 Minutes” segment originally broadcast on March 13, 2008 and updated on June 12, we picked up a few sleep stats and thoughts that got our attention. From the segment transcript*:

• We know we need to sleep, but why? Why do we spend seven or eight hours a night immobile and unconscious? What really happens inside our brains and bodies while we're sleeping?
The answer: sleep is critical. In a series of studies done back in the 1980s, rats were kept awake indefinitely. After just five days, they started dying. Matthew Walker, director of the Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab at the University of California, Berkeley, says they started dying from sleep deprivation, adding that they would die about as quickly from food deprivation.

• In another study of college students, sleep was found to actually enhance (versus just preserve) memory and performance by at least 20 to 30 percent.
While many people feel that you have to stay awake to get more done, the truth is that you can get a lot more done if you get a good night’s sleep.

• What if you do sleep, but just not enough? An NIH-funded study at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Medicine showed that subsequent nights of little sleep created a cumulative, impaired ability to think fast, react quickly, and remember. But people who are chronically sleep deprived, like people who've had too much to drink, often have no sense of their limitations. They believe they've trained themselves to function normally.

• We are sleeping less than ever before. In 1960, the median answer was eight hours. Today that number has fallen to 6.7 hours, a decrease of more than 15 percent in less than a lifetime….which may be putting us in a perilous situation.

• And how about sex? Sleep-deprived male fruit flies in a study rarely if ever mated, yet non-deprived male fruit flies mated with vigor.

• What role do naps play? Scientists told 60 Minutes that what's most important is getting your seven and a half to eight hours total, so naps can help. And brand new research is showing that long naps, including REM sleep, can even improve emotional outlook, making people less sensitive to negative experiences and more receptive to positive ones.
*© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.


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