Why Do We Sleep? There are twenty-four hours in a day, yet a substantial amount of this time is spent sleeping. Some people wish they could be active and productive without needing to sleep; however, sleep is necessary. Studies show that on average Americans sleep approximately 6.8 hours per night, while seven to nine hours is recommended (Jones, 2013). According to the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School (2007), if one does not receive an adequate amount of sleep one may become sleep deprived, one’s health may decline, the immune system may be compromised, and the ability to learn or complete tasks may become impaired. The question evoked from this necessity is, why do we sleep? Psychologists typically take two stances concerning this controversy: an adaptive stance or a restorative stance. While psychologists are still not certain on the answer, both the restorative and adaptive approaches have strong evidence of truth and actuality. Supporters of the adaptive theory of sleep believe that sleep is a result of evolution (Ciccarelli, 2015, p. 141). Sleep is perceived as a way to continue the belief of survival of the fittest. Animals and humans used sleep as a form of protection from predators. Sleep was used as a way to hide; sleeping at night presented a way to remain hidden from predators during their hunting hours. An example …show more content…
The adaptive theory claims that organisms sleep to protect themselves from predators; however, it seems illogical if a predator approaches and the organism is unconscious (Klein, 2013). Critics of the restorative theory point out that an active person would need more sleep due to their body using more energy. Active people do not necessarily need more sleep than inactive people, giving critics the chance to oppose this theory. With its critics and strong support for both sides, it is unlikely that one theory will be proven correctly over the
Veronique Greenwood’s article, “Why Do We Need to Sleep?” was written in early January for The Atlantic. The studies for the article were located in Tsukuba, Japan. In Tsukuba, there is a new institution, the International Institute for Integrative Sleep Medicine. The institution was built for researchers to be able to do more in depth studies of sleep. The benefits of sleep are still mysterious, however, there is still hope in uncovering these sleepy mysteries. The man behind the institution is the director, Masashi Yanagisawa; who created it to learn more about the basic biology of sleep, rather than the causes and treatment of sleep problems. If there is someone or thing that is awake for a long period of time they will eventually have a
Title + Author: Why We Sleep by: Matthew Walker, PhD. Summary: The book “Why We Sleep” takes a neuroscientific view on everything related to sleep, from why we struggle to fall asleep, to the benefits of sleep, dreaming and its purpose, and the stigma associated with sleep and work. The book discusses sleep in relation to the body, like the brain (memory, emotions, and reaction times), the immune system, appetite/metabolism, and overall health. Through various studies all around the world, Matthew Walker discusses the importance of sleep in all aspects of life such as school, work, and well-being, and why the lack of sleep can be dangerous and even deadly for yourself and others. He emphasizes the need for change around the stigma that sleep equals being lazy, especially for teenagers, but also for employers
Matthew Walker's Why We Sleep reveals the profound social consequences of sleep deprivation, demonstrating how insufficient sleep has detrimental effects on our physical health, cognitive abilities and emotional stability, underscoring the urgent need for societal recognition and action to prioritize sleep for the collective well being. In Why We Sleep, Matthew Walker employs vivid imagery to illustrate the dire consequences of sleep deprivation, urging us to recognize its societal
According to the evolution theory, sleep is adaptive because it is useful survival. Webb also proposed that the main function of sleep is to conserve energy, like mammals which use lots of energy to keep their body temperature constant to look for food and avoid predators. Also, animals in higher level of the food chain spend more time to sleep than animal in lower level of the food chain in order to conserve energy for preying. Furthermore, animals with high metabolic rate such as small rodent use more energy than animals with low metabolic rate, as the theory suggest, they will sleep longer in order to save energy.
Sleep is a beneficial necessity, both from a scientific and psychological standpoint, improving both mental and physical health. It plays an essential role in our growth and development as human beings. During sleep, our brains are growing and preparing for the day ahead so that we may be productive and attentive in every daily task. Without the recommended minimum of eight hours of sleep each night, people get agitated, distracted easily, gain health problems, make bad decisions, and acquire feelings of sadness and depression. Sleep deprivation is harmful and can cause a large amount of irreversible damage to ones brain, increasing the risk of diseases, strokes, and even diabetes. Throughout history, many authors have written about characters
Sleep is undoubtedly one of the most essential requirements for the human body to function properly. It plays a very important role in ensuring the wellness of the human body both physically as well as mentally. In fact, the importance of sleep is clear from the fact that it helps you in maintaining a good lifestyle throughout our entire lifetime. Not only does it help maintain our physical and mental health; rather it also helps in maintaining a decent and healthy lifestyle along with ensuring safety from a number of fatal diseases. It is usually said that the mood in which you wake up is largely dependent on the type of sleep you have been in. This in itself is a big proof of the importance of sleep in our lives. While sleeping, our body finally gets its share of rest and it also gets ample time in rejuvenating from all the wear and tear that it went through during the entire day. Not only this, the body is in its own working condition when we are sleeping as this is the time when it supports the healthy functioning of the brain as well as physical attributes of our body.
The relevance of sleep to the human body cannot be over emphasised. From this study we can learn that sleep is important and with out it we could not properly function in our day to day lives. Sleep deprivation studies has taught as these important factors.
Not many courses introduce the idea of sleep, so it had only been a side interest. I was unaware of the seriousness of the problem and only wanted to understand sleep disorders because I’ve dealt with insomnia myself. Not until college did it occur to me that sleep was serious enough that studying sleep was a profession. However, school has only taught me the minimal basics of sleep. I wanted to understand the mechanism, the consequences, and the treatments for sleep. Unable to get a better idea of sleep, I aimed to learn more about sleep research. Eventually through graduate research, I would like to focus on understanding sleep and its application in improving health.
Sleep deprivation is prevalent in industrialized societies and has been linked to serious health issues and traffic accidents. This essay views sleep and sleep deprivation from five different motivational perspectives in order to gain a holistic understanding of the phenomena. From evolutionary, psychodynamic, behaviourist, cognitive, and hierarchy of needs perspectives, it is inferred that the cognitive and behaviourist perspectives uphold the most merit for gaining understanding into sleep and sleep deprivation. However, it is
Three theories of why we sleep are the Restorative Theory, Adaptive Theory, and the Energy Conservation Theory. The Restorative Theory states that while we sleep our body restores tissues and “heals” our body so we are ready for the next day. The Adaptive Theory states that we adapted to sleeping for the amount of time we sleep. We also sleep as a way of adapting to our environment this came from the idea that how long and how many times a day animals sleep is a way they adapt to their environment. The Energy Conservation Theory states that we sleep as a way to save energy and build our energy back up and prepare us for the next
Why do we sleep? We all sleep to get rest but is that the only reason why we sleep? Since we sleep every single night it has to do more than give us energy, cool dreams, and scary nightmares. Sleep is something we do nightly and there's more to it than what meets the eye.
Sleep is a curious thing. Humans sleep for almost a third of their entire life; according to the current United States life expectancy, which is in the ballpark of 76 years of age, that’s approximately 26 years of your life that you would spend sleeping. This baffles scientists
“Why do we sleep?” is a very popular questions that many humans ask today. Sleep is very sufficient to the human body. If it was not important, then God would not have designed for a third of our life to be occupied by sleep. During this time period, many people are interested to know what is a good amount of sleep and what are the harmful effects to not getting enough sleep.
Importance of Sleep It has been proposed, by some, that humans do not really need to sleep, and that we do so only out of habit. However, much research would suggest otherwise. It is true that some individuals (e.g. those suffering from insomnia) are able to live on very small amounts of sleep, but nevertheless, they do need some. Studies of sleep deprivation have found that there may be severe consequences of not sleeping at. Randy Gardner, for example, went without sleep for 11 nights.
Not getting enough sleep causes a “sleep dept” which eventually needs to be repaid. The lack of sleep and the damages it causes is still being studied but there is enough information to support the need of sleep. In 1953 after the REM pattern was discovered in infant’s researchers finally understood that sleep was not just a dormant part of our lives. Researchers learned our brains were very active during sleep and what age a person was determined how much sleep