Ranjan Das, CEO and MD of SAP Indian subcontinent died after a massive
cardiac arrest in Mumbai on Wednesday.
One of the youngest CEOs, he was just 42 year old
What killed Ranjan Das and Lessons for Corporate India
A few months ago, many of us heard about the sad demise of Ranjan Das
from Bandra, Mumbai. He was very active in sports, was a fitness freak
and a marathon runner. It was common to see him run on Bandra's Carter
Road . Just after Diwali, on 21st Oct, he returned home from his gym
after a workout, collapse! d with a massive heart attack and died.
It was certainly a wake-up call for corporate India . However, it was
even more disastrous for runners amongst us. Since Ranjan was an avid
marathoner ( in Feb 09, he ran Chennai Marathon at the same time some
of us were running Pondicherry Marathon 180 km away ), the question
came as to why an exceptionally active, athletic person succumb to
heart attack at 42 years of age.
Was it the stress?
While Ranjan had mentioned that he faced a lot of stress, that is a
common element in most of our lives. We used to think that by being
fit, one can conquer the bad effects of stress.
The Real Reason However, everyone missed out a small line in the
reports that Ranjan used to make do with 4-5 hours of sleep. This is
an earlier interview of Ranjan on NDTV in the program. Well-known
cardiologist on the subject of 'Heart Disease caused by Lack of Sleep'
have distilled the key points below in the hope it will save some of
our lives.
Some Excerpts:
1. 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.
2. Young people ( 25-49 years of age ) are twice as likely to get high
BP if they sleep less.
3 Individuals who slept less than 5 hours a night had a 3-fold
increased risk of heart attacks.
4 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!!
5. 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.
6. 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.
Ideal Sleep
In brief, sleep is composed of two stages: REM ( Rapid Eye Movement )
and non-REM. The former helps in mental consolidation while the latter
helps in physical repair and rebuilding. During the night, you
alternate between REM and non-REM stages
4-5 times.
The earlier part of sleep is mostly non-REM. During that period, your
pituitary gland releases growth hormones that repair your body. The
latter part of sleep is more and more REM type.
For us to be mentally alert during the day, the latter part of sleep
is more important. No wonder when you wake up with an alarm clock
after 5-6 hours of sleep, you are mentally irritable throughout the
day (lack of REM sleep). And if you have slept for less than
5 hours, your body is in a complete physical mess ( lack of non-REM
sleep ), you are tired throughout the day, moving like a zombie and
your immunity is way down.
Finally, as long-distance runners, you need an hour of extra sleep to
repair the running related damage.
In conclusion:
Barring stress control, Ranjan Das did everything right: eating proper
food, exercising ( marathoning! ), maintaining proper weight. But he
missed getting proper and adequate sleep, minimum 7 hours. In our
opinion, that killed him.
If you are not getting enough sleep ( 7 hours ), you are playing with
fire, even if you have low stress.
Unfortunately, Ranjan Das is not alone when it comes to missing sleep.
Many
of us are doing exactly the same, perhaps out of ignorance.
