Sleep is an essential requirement for the normal functioning of the human body. Sleep plays an important role in ensuring the wellness of the human body both physically as well as mentally. Though scientists still do not understand how exactly it works, there is a unanimous understanding that we cannot do without it. Newborn infants sleep approximately 70 percent of the day, but that usually declines with age to about six hours per day in adults. It is not just sitting idle in bed for a third of our lives. While we sleep, the body is working; working very hard to prepare us for the next day. Certain hormones essential for growth are released mostly during sleep.
Most of us might say night time is when we do most of our best work and being awake at 8 am is not really their favourite part of the day. A small part of you might wish they did not have to sleep at all but when you do sleep, you definitely do enjoy it.  But the body doesn’t really rest when you are sleeping. Have you ever suffered from a headache and then you sleep for some time to wake up with the pain having vanished? This is the effect that a good night’s rest has on your body. The need to sleep is one of the strongest biological urges we have and one of the few that we really cannot control. And the fact is mammalian species will actually die from a lack of sleep before they die from thirst or starvation.
It does not take long for the brain and body to feel the effects of sleep deprivation and the problems increase with time.  Just go one night without sleep and your brain quickly starts to crumble, beginning with the amygdale; that part of the brain that prepares the brain for danger. Short term sleep deprivation throws the amygdale into overdrive which, in turn, shuts down the prefrontal cortex, which is the part of the brain that controls logical reasoning among other things. So a single all nighter will put you in a state of panic. When signals bypass the prefrontal cortex, the sleep-deprived brain connects instead to another part that evolutionarily is very old and primitive, the locus cerulos which makes you respond instinctively to stress and panic. Only problem is it can interpret anything as a threat, a swerving car, a bad joke, bright light. This leaves you very anxious and suspicious. The longer you go without sleep the worse things get, memory and speech control are the next to suffer but after several days it gets really weird. General paranoia gives way to increasingly vivid hallucinations (Some theories that this is your brain actually forcing you into a waking sleep).
The big question now is can a lack of sleep actually kill you. The answer to this is YES!!! Sleep is closely tied to immune health. Studies have shown a 50 percent decrease in antibodies in test subjects who were only moderately sleep-deprived for one week exposing them to a host of illnesses. A famous study from the 1980s conducted by Alan Rechtschaffen in which a group of rats deprived of sleep all died within two weeks. The cause as far as the researchers could tell was simply exhaustion. Nothing physically was wrong with the rats.
You probably now want to know how long can you go without sleep. I do not have an exact answer but the longest documented case of a person voluntarily staying awake is of 17-year-old Randy Gardner who in 1965 spent 264 hours which is about 11 days sleep.
Gardner emerged relatively unscathed physically but was described as being cognitively dysfunctional at the end. While awake, he experienced blurred vision and involuntary eye movements.
Rutsate is a second year medical student at UZ. He is a member of the Zimbabwe Medical  Students Association (ZiMSA) and  the current National SCOPH director.local

GWERU – Talk of excellence and hard work, Lower Gwelo Adventist High School (LOGAHS) has done just that; recording an impressive 84 percent pass rate in the November 2017 ‘O’ level examinations, beating their 2016 mark by three percentage points.
Their most outstanding pupil emerged with a whopping 16 straight As.
When contacted by TellZim News, deputy school head Jabula Sibanda said he was satisfied with the pace by which the school was progressing in terms of improving the quality of passes.
“We did well and our parents are happy especially those with children who are on top the list of our best performers. Our best pupil has 16 As and the runner ups have 15, 14 and 13 As respectively. We have managed to beat our previous pass rate of 81 percent and that is a sign of hard work on the part of our staff and pupils,” said Sibanda.
The SDA Central Zimbabwe Conference, who are the school’s responsible authority, said the perfor-mance was reflective of the excellence that all SDA institutions espouse.
The conference’s education director, Pastor Lambat Ncube said he was proud of the pace that has been set by the school.
“We are pleased by the hard work that is being done at Lower Gwelo. Those results speak for them-selves but there is still a lot of more hard work to be done in order to make sure that the excellent pace is maintained. 
“The other schools that we run as the SDA church have also done well at both ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels so this is a sign that both teachers and pupils are working hard. Most importantly, it shows that God is guiding all our efforts,” said Pastor Ncube.local

Cephas Shava

MWENEZI – A police detective with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is in trouble with the law after he allegedly accepted a bribe from two suspects who had been caught with fake money, TellZim News has learnt.
When contacted for comment, Masvingo provincial police acting spokesperson, Assistant Inspector Kudakwashe Dhewa said he had not yet received the report.
Reliable sources, however, confirmed that the detective (name supplied) was under investigation and a criminal case had already been opened against him.
Vandirai Mhoya and Pressmore Dziva from Rineti 8, village Sithole under Chief Neshuro are said to be now demanding their bribe money back from the detective.
They were arrested sometime in January this year after they reportedly used fake R1000 to buy beer at Gumbo Night Club at Rutenga growth point.
The two were later released but were arrested again last week in connection with a similar offence allegedly committed at Maranda Business Centre.
“Dziva and Mhoya claim that they paid the then investigating officer after they were arrested for their first offence in January. When the two suspects were arrested yet again, the detective didn’t want to meet them, knowing too well their previous deal,” said a source.
Other sources also claimed that the detective was indeed paid a big bribe to quash the case.
“He demanded a total of R10 000 to facilitate the release of Dziva and Mhoya so their families sold some cattle to raise the money. He was then paid R8 000 and he assured them that the case was now history.
“They were, however, surprised to hear that the case was still pending and that the two still had a case to answer. They now are demanding that he should pay back the money,” said a close source.local

MWENEZI – The Mwenezi Rural District Council is implementing tough measures to rid the streets of illegal vendors and unregistered taxes commonly known as mishikashika at Rutenga growth point.
The exercise has seen vendors who used to operate day and night along the main highway to Beitbridge being ordered to demolish their structures and leave.
Mwenezi RDC chief executive officer (CEO) Albert Chivanga told TellZim News there was sufficient designated space for all those who want to do their business legally.
“We are definitely going to succeed in driving vendors to designated points. We are not alone in enforcing this operation. We have the support of other stakeholders from the security sector.
“Transport operators should operate from the official terminus. For vendors, we have also enough proper markets to accommodate all of them,” said Chivanga.
Many informal traders, however, slammed the operation which they said was inconsiderate to their plight.
“We have been making good business here but we are now being forced to go to less lucrative market places. Our clients are mainly the travellers using this road so I don’t see how we will survive selling our products away from the road,” said one informal trader.local

MASVINGO – Some members of the National Association of Secondary School Heads (NASH) in the province are fuming over what they say were controversial elections held during the organ-isation’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) at the Civic Centre last week.
The elections were presided over by the organisation’s counterpart; the National Association of Primary School Heads (NAPH) and the Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZIMTA) to choose a new executive.
The process, however, nearly stalled after representatives from some districts raised objections and protested that the nominations were improperly done, leading to the disenfranchisement of many prospective contestants.
Such districts as Masvingo, Chivi, Zaka and Gutu appeared to be totally unhappy, with indica-tions that they were given insufficient time to fill nomination forms and submit their nominees.
The anomaly meant that there was little, if any real opposition to the current executive, led by Cuthbert Chuma of Mwenezi High School, which won back power uncontested.
TellZim News later caught up with Clapos Chauraya of Mapanzure Govt High School, Masvingo district, who admitted that the elections had left many people unsatisfied.
“We were only given three days to collect and fill the nomination forms. It was hard to get offi-cial information on the process so everything was like guess work.
“People feel they have been denied their rights as Nash members to contest in the election. How come the whole board could be elected back into office without any contestation?” Chiuraya quipped.
Emmanuel Chavarika of Zaka blamed the NASH constitution for the anomalies, saying it was silent on many critical areas thus giving people the latitude to act the way they want.
“This is what we have now and we have to go with it. Some people are definitely not happy but the problem is in our constitution which is weak and silent in many respects. That would have to be corrected if there is to be greater consensus and harmony in the future,” said Chavarika.
Other heads from Chivi said the nomination process was rigged in favour of the sitting execu-tive and all prospective contestants were shut out of the official communication channels.
“That was not a credible election at all. The nomination process was opened on Wednesday and quickly closed on Friday before some people had even had about it. Our presence at the elec-tions was just used to provide a façade so that it appears everybody was involved when in actu-al fact, the process was exclusionary. It’s difficult to see how these guys can claim legitimacy based on such a defective process,” said one head.
In his remarks after the elections, Chuma, however, said he was satisfied by how the process was ran.
“We would like to thank you for the support and we appreciate the confidence that you have in us. I can assure you that where there are issues of disgruntlement and we will attend them am-icably,” Chuma said.
He later told TellZim News in an interview that in every process of that nature, there is bound to be some disagreements.local

Ndeya Nyede