Ranjan Das SAP CEO’s Sudden Death: Lack of Sleep Kills

I know I've been blogging about sleep for the past few weeks but its been one hot issue that the health community is interested about. With world financial crisis and job security looming everywhere, people develop the habit of sleeplessness or willingly sleep less because they have to meet up some deadlines for work or at school.

I'd like to share with you a shocking story of an Indian business man named Ranjan Das who's CEO of a company named SAP who recently collapsed and succumbed to heart attack after attending a regular gym training.

People who knows Ranjan personally say that he is a very athletic guy. He eats well and an avid marathoner and attends the gym regularly. But the sudden death from an unlikely disease shocks the world, specifically the corporate world. After much research, it was soon found out that Ranjan cause of death is linked to what most people working in the corporate world suffers about - sleeplessness.

How Sleeplessness Could Kill You

Perhaps, what everone missed out was Ranjan's bad habit of sleeping less less than 7 hours a day. In his interview on NDTV in the program ‘Boss’ Day Out, he confessed how he wanted to change his sleeping habit as he only manages to sleep around 4 to 5 hours a day only.

Let me share with you some research that suggests how continued lack of sleep can help make you more susceptible to diseases and more likely to suffer from heart attack:

• Short sleep duration (<5 or 5-6 hours) increased risk for high BP by 350% to 500% compared to those who slept longer than 6 hours per night. Paper published in 2009. As you know, high BP kills.
• Young people (25-49 years of age) are twice as likely to get high BP if they sleep less. Paper published in 2006.
• Individuals who slept less than 5 hours a night had a 3-fold increased risk of heart attacks . Paper published in 1999.
• Complete and partial lack of sleep increased the blood concentrations of High sensitivity C-Reactive Protein (hs-cRP), the strongest predictor of heart attacks. Even after getting adequate sleep later, the levels stayed high!!
• Just one night of sleep loss increases very toxic substances in body such as Interleukin- 6 (IL-6), Tumour Necrosis Factor-Alpha (TNF-alpha) and C-reactive protein (cRP). They increase risks of many medical conditions, including cancer, arthritis and heart disease . Paper published in 2004.
• Sleeping for <=5 hours per night leads to 39% increase in heart disease. Sleeping for <=6 hours per night leads to 18% increase in heart disease. Paper published in 2006.

This might be a good reflection to all of us about how lack of sleep could really put our lives in danger. There is no altertive. Have at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep a day to ensure maintenance of optimal health.