Sleep Deprivation Is Caused By Technology

Sleep is a huge part of our lives. On average, we need anywhere from 7-10 of sleep, depending on age. However, few people, especially students, actually get the amount of sleep they should be receiving every night. You might be wondering, its only a couple of hours, why is this a big deal? Actually, sleep deprivation can have a huge impact on your day. According to the article “The Cure for Brain Fog” by Toni Gerber Hope, “lack of sleep has such a profound effect on our brains, making us forgetful, unable to concentrate, grumpy, accident-prone or clumsy”. Anyone who has lost sleep has felt these symptoms and they occur even slightly if one gets less sleep than necessary. There are many diagnoses for sleep deprivation but I believe that the rising issue is technology.

It can be considered a symptom of an undiagnosed sleep disorder or other medical conditions. Those affected by sleep deprivation are known to experience daytime sleepiness, fatigue, clumsiness, and weight gain/loss as well as effects on the brain and cognitive functions. These symptoms negatively affect students who are having to get up early for school (“Sleep Deprivation - Research & Treatments”).

Sleep deprivation can have serious consequences, it can affect not only your physical health but your metal health as well. Some implications of a largely sleep deprived society would be poor work performance, bad moods, and anger or depression. According to the webmd article “The Toll of Sleep Loss in America” it states that “Today, about 20% of Americans report that they get less than 6 hours of sleep on average.” (Davis, 2006). The human body should be getting at least 8 hours of sleep at night on average. Sleep Deprivation can also cause driving accidents because people are out on the road while tired.

According to Kennedy, we blame technology for ruining our sleep. She says that we believe that phones and laptops will scramble our sleep, even though the internet is becoming the place for insomniacs to gather together and figure out what works, and to share insights and help on another. She says now many health professions recommend that we banish all digital devices from our bedrooms. Telling us that people like her who suffer from this disease are to stay from technology or eat healthy when none of that really is any type of solution. She is trying to say that she found something that can help many others in her same situation. She says that when we’re wandering in the wilderness of thought, sometimes we just need to feel that someone,

Sleep deprivation is defined as the situation or condition of suffering from lack of sleep. Sleep deprivation is super common now days. People begin at such a young age. Most people can recall the first time they wanted to stay up super late to watch television, or hang out with their friends at a sleep over. Kids are constantly seeing older sibling and parents staying up and choosing other things over sleep. They’re taught at such a young age that sleep deprivation is an okay thing to do. We aren’t taught in school whether sleep deprivation is a good thing or a bad thing. The long-term effect sleep deprivation is not worth missing out on a few hours of sleep here and there.

Many disorders and diseases can result from abnormal sleeping patterns that are triggered from sleep deprivation. The most common forms of sleep disorders include insomnia, sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, and narcolepsy (NINDS 10). All of these sleep disorders begin from sleep deprivation and can be managed once they are diagnosed correctly. According to Urban, “Nervousness, dizziness, and sleeplessness may occur”, as a result of sleep deprivation (1). This proves that the slightest health changes can occur if sleep deprivation becomes a problem. According to NINDS, “The disorders and the resulting sleep deprivation interfere with work, driving, and social activities” (10). This shows that the effects of being sleep deprived can drastically change one’s everyday

Over the years, electronic media has contributed different ways in the modern society, especially young adults, who has been the largest group among media users. The use of Electronic Media has recently raised a concern regarding to sleeping behaviors that are presented among students around the world. Since the early 21st century, researchers have conducted a study that shows the connection between electronic media and sleeping patterns with young adults (Journal of Sleep Research, 2014, 389). As students increasingly continue their habits of using Electronic Media as personal entertainment purpose, they are at a potential risk of developing insufficient amount of sleep as well as encountering health problems. Even though Electronic Media has given students access to their education and promote social network connection, Electronic Media use should be limited at school because too much exposure to Electronic Media can cause health problems and social isolation among young adults and the use of electronic media interferes with students sleeping habits.

In this world there are many problems, but one specific problem is sleep loss. Sleep loss can cause many problems in our world such as health problems, an unproductive habit, and the scientific reasearch of how much sleep people need.

Sleep deprivation leads to an increase in the rates for; diabetes, obesity, stress, stroke, heart disease and insomnia. The irritation from not being able to sleep can cause anger and depression, leading to unneeded relationship troubles and mental turmoil. Teens who didn't get enough sleep before they drove to school resulted in over 100,000 police reported crashes, with, (roughly) at least 3,000 potentially preventable deaths. For adults, sleep deprivation can attribute to problems getting work done or feeling motivation to do work, all throughout history it can be seen that a tired person is not able to do their job as well as someone who got their 8

What do the effects of sleep deprivation have on people? When a person does not get enough sleep, he or she is depriving his or her body of something that it needs. A delightful sleep is one of the most satisfying human experiences with a role to play in supporting a good mood and cognitive acuity as well as in promoting physiologic balance and resilience (Chittora, Jain and Suhalka). People think because they get an insufficient number of hours of sleep, they will not have an emotional impact by it. Sleep is a required need for peoples’ day to day life to be able to perform and stay healthy emotionally and physically. The effects of sleep deprivation are an issue because it affects mood, performance, and health.

Today, most research done on technology’s effect on sleep has been focused on how technology makes sleeping more difficult. Technology can become a distraction and keep your brain active as a result of using it before going to sleep. The National Sleep Foundation even discovered through a poll that “nine of 10 Americans reported

In today’s technological age, electronic media devices have become ubiquitous in the hands of children. This increase in screen-time is worrisome to children’s sleep patterns, but parents have some ability to mitigate these negative effects. There is a consensus that too much screen time can be dangerous and the effect blue-lights has on melatonin suppression. However, many news outlets inaccurately communicate the related scientific findings on the correlation between electronic media and children’s sleep patterns. The news commonly over emphasizes the effects from light sensitivity, as well as focus on the interactivity of the media content.

Many do not believe that we have a technology problem in today’s society. But, ninety-five percent of people use technology an hour before they go to sleep (How Technology Affects Sleep). This is an alarming amount of people who use technology before they go to sleep. You do not have to be looking directly at the technology to trigger the pineal gland to stop releasing melatonin (Kim). Many also believe that lack of sleep due to technology does not affect how they do their daily jobs. Seventy-five percent of those over 30 that reported not getting enough sleep said that when they were tired that their sleepiness effected their daily work (Tarkan). For a school age kid ten hours of sleep is needed. Teenagers also need about nine to ten

Phones, computers, tablets, and televisions emit a blue light that suppresses the production of melatonin. This hormone controls your sleep/wake cycle. Reducing melatonin makes it harder to sleep and stay asleep. To make sure technology isn’t messing with your sleeping pattern, give yourself 30 minutes of technology free time before sleeping. Also falling asleep to the vision

Many psychologists have given smartphones the nickname “sleep stealers.” This nickname correctly correlates to smartphones due to the vast amount of research that has been done to find that smartphones are the most popular causes for sleep deprivation across all age groups. Many researches performed, just like the one mentioned in the article, had the same results: that students who checker their phone notifications at night had poor sleep quality and numerous amounts of self- reported sleep problems (Weir 2017). Smartphones contribute to sleep loss due to the “blue light” that is given off by the screen. According to Exploring Psychology in Modules, being exposed to light late at night disrupts our twenty-four-hour biological clock because the bright light affects our sleep by activating light-sensitive retinal proteins that will make us stay awake rather than falling asleep (Myers 2016). This signals the brain’s suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) to produce less melatonin, a hormone that induces sleep (Myers 2016). The decrease of melatonin causes the person to stay awake even after they have finished using their smartphone. Sleep is very important to the human body and this lack of sleep alters the sleep cycle drastically. Everyone needs sleep to help them