Short abstract
Doctors fear programme might have belittled dangers of sleep deprivation
A reality television gameshow that deprived contestants of sleep for a week and subjected them to tests including electric shocks has been criticised for exploitation.
Shattered—made by Endemol UK, which also produced Big Brother, and shown on Channel 4 last week (4 to 10 January inclusive)—featured 10 contestants, aged 19 to 33, living together in a purpose built studio in London's Docklands, where they underwent exercises designed to test memory, perception, reaction times, and mental agility. There was a “live elimination show” each evening to determine which contestant had lost the most function, and should therefore leave. The final remaining contestant would win the prize of a possible £100 000.
Figure 1.
Sleep challenge: the contestants of Shattered
Credit: CHANNEL 4
Contestants were allowed to sleep for up to two hours at a time, on the recommendation of the programme's medical advisers, but every “illegal sleep,” when a participant shut their eyes for more than 10 seconds, meant £1000 was knocked off the prize money. In one challenge contestants had to work their way through a series of doors, some of which had handles that gave them an electric shock. This was despite advice from an independent ethics panel that electric shocks should not be used.
Neil Douglas, professor of respiratory and sleep medicine at Edinburgh University, and president elect of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, said: “This is not a scientific experiment. It is voyeurism of people in distress to no benefit of anybody.”
Professor Douglas feared that the programme—“an attempt to do something different for sensationalism”—might minimise the risks of sleep deprivation in the mind of the general public and make patients reluctant to seek help for sleep problems. “We have to stress that going about your life severely deprived of sleep does not work. You only have to think of the Selby rail crash.”
Ten people were killed as a result of the crash in February 2001, when a driver (Gary Hart) fell asleep at the wheel of his car, which came off the M62 motorway on to a railway track. Hart, who was driving after a sleepless night, is now serving a five year sentence for manslaughter.
Professor Douglas said that sleep problems were prevalent in the general population but often went undiagnosed. The format of Shattered, “which would never have got past a hospital ethics committee,” risked trivialising them, he said.
His concerns were echoed by Professor Jim Horne, director of the Sleep Research Centre at Loughborough University, who was a member of the independent ethics panel advising the makers of Shattered. He stressed that the programme should not be taken as a study of sleep loss.
Professor Horne was concerned about any impression that it was “somehow macho” to go without sleep, as many sleep related crashes in the United Kingdom involved men under 30. And he was worried that Shattered might pander to the idea of a 24 hour society. “This in no way reflects what would normally happen. Going without sleep in a group, under bright lights and television cameras with constant stimulus, is a long way from reality.” If the contestants had been deprived of sleep completely they would not have been able to get beyond Wednesday, he added.
The Liberal Democrats' culture spokesman, Don Foster, said: “This is reality TV gone mad, reminiscent of the degrading American dance marathons of the Depression.” He accused the programme of encouraging “voyeurism of pain.” Viewers saw some contestants having hallucinations, slurring their speech, and causing muscle spasms in their feet to keep themselves awake.
Dr Trish McNair, another member of the ethics panel advising Shattered, said the programme makers had been responsive to many of the panel's suggestions, apart from ignoring its recommended ban on electric shocks. But, unlike a hospital ethics committee, this one had no power of veto, she said. And its role was different: “We had to examine how far the producers could be allowed to torture their participants in the name of entertainment.”
Tim Hinks, creative director at Endemol UK, refuted criticism that Shattered exploited participants: “They were all adults and free to leave at any time. We carried out careful checks to make sure they had no medical problems and we do not accept that they were victimised in some way,” he said.
Shattered might not improve public health, he said: “The aim was to make a show that would entertain and be watched.” But at the same time he believed that television audiences were too sophisticated to take it as proof that going without sleep was safe.
Shattered was won by a 19 year old who is training to be a police officer. She was the youngest of the contestants and stayed awake 178 hours, beating a 30 year old psychiatrist to the prize of £97 000.