Changes In Sleep

This investigation examines is it possible for light pulses to alter the motor skills, and cardiac movements of biological life forms. Is it possible to change how biological lifeforms functions if we were to shine a light on them every hour at night? Knowing how most animals work, and from that of human experience I can say that light is what makes us stay awake; therefore if we have a light shined on us every hour would we lose sleep? These are the type of questions I will be answering throughout my extended essay. I will talk about how our sleep is affected by light, and monitor this so I can then record the data. I will also be discussing why we sleep. Which you may be wondering how this ties into light, however light does damage our skin

Many times people think they can accomplish more if they could eliminate so much sleeping time.  However, they are only hurting their productivity if they lose sleep.  Two articles deal with the issue of sleep deprivation.  The College Student Journal published an article about the grade-point average of college students and sleep length, while U.S. News & World Report produced an article dealing with the lack of

Sleep loss can take a devastating toll on the mind and body at any stage of life from early childhood to older adulthood. But, for teenagers, who are at a critical stage of development, skipping out on sleep can be particularly dangerous. One standout finding is that a lack of sleep affects the body the same way that drinking alcohol does. And like alcohol an insufficient amount of sleep can lead to impairments of mood, affect regulation, attention, memory, behavior control, executive function, and quality of life. In a study of nearly 28,000 suburban high school students, published earlier this year in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, found that each hour of lost sleep is associated with a 38 percent risk of feeling sad or hopeless and a 58 percent increase in suicide attempts. As well teens who sleep an average of six hours per night are also three times more likely to suffer from depression, a 2010 study found. Thus, the correlation between sleep deprivation and depression go hand in hand among teenagers. Also, losing sleep can also have a long-term negative effect on a teens physical health with poor sleep quality being linked to diabetes and obesity risk for teens. Sleep correlates with the well-being of teens, but it also closely relates with academic

Sleep disturbance among the older adult population is known to be a prevalent issue (Gooneratne, Pack, Staley, Schutte-Rodin, Dinges, & Pack, 2011). Much study has

Imagine: a world where a biological necessity is not seen as a priority, and adolescent’s educations are suffering. This is how schools’ think about sleep.What all human beings need to survive is being put on the back burner by most schools in America- sleep(11a). It has been proven through the process of scientific research that sleep is necessary on the same level as food or activity. Unfortunately, sleep deprivation is a chronic health problem that many youths suffer from today. Teens are naturally predisposed to go to sleep around 11 pm, but are forced to wake up around 6:15, not allowing any time for adequate sleep (“Backgrounder: Later school start Times” 1). Irregular sleep patterns during teenage years can cause long-term

Morgan Manella in the article “Study: A Third of U.S. Adults Don’t Get Enough Sleep” argues that sleep deprivation can have a negative effect in someone’s health. Manella supports her argument by presenting statistics that shows how adults that don’t enough sleep have chronic conditions. The author’s purpose is to raise awareness so that people will sleep more often and have a better health condition.

Sleep is a vital component to sustaining life in humans. Even though everyone participates in sleeping, many individuals do not understand the true significance of sleeping, and what benefits and consequences come with too much or too little sleep. Sleep comes in different stages throughout the period of rest, with some stages being more important than others. By interrupting various stages, different types of problems can arise from which stage is being affected. In particular, elder adults are affected in larger numbers to a more extensive depth of issues. “However, aging does not mean elders should encounter sleep disorders; it merely increases the possibility that more elders will seek help to manage the problem” (Song, Hollenbeck, Blair, Schatzkin, Chen. 2012. p.316) By understanding possible causes for sleep disorders, what kinds of physiological effects this has on the aged anatomy, and the types of problems that appear in the psychological aspect, it becomes achievable to begin working towards reversing complications and promoting elder sleep health.

Sufficient sleep is a biological necessity for the normal functioning of humans, it allows the body to rest and to replenish itself so that it is able to serve its function of living. In addition, mental and physical health depend on the amount of sleep we get. Most adults and students value work and college much more than sleep, this is due to the academic, career, and materialistic demands. Researchers have noted a positive correlation between lack of sleep and decreased physical health, mental health, and academic performance. Sleep consists of two cycles: non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and rapid eye movement (REM), which are sleep patterns that alternate throughout the night. Firstly, sleep begins with non-REM sleep lasting about 90 minutes followed by REM sleep lasting 10-30 minutes, then the cycle repeats itself. REM sleep is the most important phase of sleep because the body is internally awake, with waking-like brain activity, yet asleep and externally calm. Thus, an uninterrupted REM phase of sleep is necessary for integrating previously learned material, and giving the individual a feeling of being well rested and refreshed. Many individuals will put sleep off so that more work hours, and school work can be fit into the day in order to get a better outcome such as job promotions or better academic grades, but I believe that sleep deprived people show a low performance in daily tasks due to suffering from mental, and physical health disorders.

Lack of sleep is becoming an increasing concern in adolescents and its effect on their lifestyle. Mainly, their attitudes in school and outcomes in their test scores. Less than half of American children get at least nine hours of sleep each night, and 58 percent of 15- to 17-year-olds regularly sleep fewer than seven hours each night (The Atlantic). In this essay I’m going to explain the problem of lack of sleep, the solution to the problem, discard refutations, give a visualization of a correct sleep schedule, and do my best to convince you of the importance of a correct sleep schedule.

You often hear of the elderly complaining about their sleep quality. Why do older people sleep worse than younger? Generally, a person’s health determines their quality of sleep. Older people who have health problems experience a harder time falling asleep compared to healthy elders. Health issues like back problems, for example, will cause a person’s back to hurt and when they sleep they will be quite uncomfortable. To find out how aging affects sleep, Dr. Vitilleo, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington, and other investigators started a study. This study included a large group with about half of the participants over 65 years old. They observed that sleep older people compared to young adults was

During night sleep, the mean of blood pressure have a decrease of 10-20% compared to the one in daytime. Sleep plays a main part of circadian blood pressure variations with lowest BP during slow-wave sleep (SWS) and relatively higher BP during light and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.

Sleep is a state of unconsciousness which is fundamental to maintain the body and mind and stay healthy. Typically, it recurs every night for several hours where eyes are closed, postural muscles are relaxed and responsiveness to external stimuli is reduced (Harvard Medical School 2007). The amount of sleep a person gets is significant to their mental health and emotional well-being. For an adult, the average amount of sleep recommended is 7-8 hours but this varies with each individual, gender and age as everyone has different requirements for their health and body. Some may argue too much is also bad for the health as it disrupts the natural body clock. To sustain the body clock would be an ideal way to remain healthy and get the right amount

Research indicates that America’s sleep problems have increased and might be the number one health problem. The average amount of sleep that people get per night can range anywhere from three to twelve hours. According to Dr. David Dinges at the University of Pennsylvania, it is a fact that people who get fewer than six hours of sleep a night do not live as long as people who get seven hours or more. Most people do not realize the importance of sleep or even realize that it is needed to survive. Many people experience sleep deprivation; however it is commonly seen in college students. Irregular sleeping patterns tend to occur in students, which can later lead to long-term effects.

As life goes on it is known that we spend less time sleeping. In comparison – newborns sleep from 16 to 20 hours a day, between the ages of one and four this decreases to around eleven to twelve hours. In this way it continues and finally an adolescent doesn’t need more than about nine hours of sleep per night. Middle-aged adults require up to eight hours of sleep and when it comes to the elderly they may still need these same hours but they might sleep in spurts waking up now and then. As time goes on sleep patterns tend to change and older infants and young children will be able to sleep through an entire night and also have daytime naps. By the age of six or seven children no longer require the naps. Finally as adults they tend to sleep only during the night rarely having any afternoon naps.

The first three years of life is extremely important in the development and equilibrium of psychological functions including the sleep-wake cycle. The structure of sleep is viewed as a compilation and product of a broad range of stimuli from biological and external factors. It is evident that nighttime sleep patterns are developed in infancy (E. Fazzi et al., 2006) and excessive sleep awakenings decrease (Weinraub et al., 2012). Not all infants demonstrate this decline, 30% of infants and toddlers continue to experience multiple and prolonged nocturnal awakenings. Disruptive sleep-wake cycles may indicate future problems with physiological, emotional, and behavioral self-regulation (Weinraub et al., 2012).