Sleep Is An Important Part Of Our Lives

Insomnia is the most common sleep disorder. It can have a devastating impact on one’s emotion, physical, occupation and social life. While it occasionally can be seen in the clinical setting as a primary diagnosis, it most often presents as a comorbidity to a medical or psychiatric issue;

Sleep is a complex mysterious phenomenon that we don’t know much about including why we dream and different actions associated with lack of sleep like yawning or illness, but there are many theories as to why these things occur along with facts. Why do we dream or have nightmares? What is the point to these things and how do they contribute to our health? Scientists are doing their best to research these things but sleep and things related to it are very mysterious and many things are still left unsolved. There are also many disorders and illnesses connected to the need for sleep and sleep itself, including sleepwalking, sleep apnea, snoring, yawning, dreaming, nightmares, and other various things.

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.

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.

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.

People who have had an emotional stressful day, will cause an increase in REM sleep. If a person is deprived REM sleep, which can be caused by a very physical demanding day or sleeping pills, the person will experience a REM rebound. REM rebound is needed when someone does not get enough REM sleep the night

Moreover, many of the claims the article makes, as outlined above, have a biological and psychological scientific basis; however, the article fails to mention the sources from which its conclusions was drawn from. That said, in this paper three differing journal articles will be presented that focus on the different processes that take place during sleep. The scientific journal articles will be analyzed and compared to the Cosmopolitan article. as summarized above.

This stage is also the shortest of the stages, lasting around 90 – 120 minutes per night. During REM sleep epinephrine is released and the person’s breathing speeds up and becomes irregular. There is a lot of eye movement during REM sleep, however, there is not a lot of muscle activity because the limb muscles are temporarily paralyzed. A person’s heart rate and blood pressure rise and their brain waves are equal to those of a fully awake and functioning person. Most dreams typically occur during REM sleep due to the fact that the brain is highly active. If a person is waken during REM sleep they are more likely to remember their

Have you ever wondered what is happening while a person is sleeping? “Sleep is the word we use to define both a biological state and a behavioral state in which we are quiet and relatively unresponsive to external stimuli” (Larson 1990). Measured when sleeping, brain waves have been identified into several distinct stages. Everyone experiences four stages of the sleep cycle, including REM (Larson 1990). This topic really interested me because it is something that every human goes through and it cannot be eliminated from a person’s life. This topic really catches my attention because everyone can experience the effects of sleep deprivation and it does not just occur in one specific person. This topic is significant to me because my grandfather has narcolepsy, a sleep disorder.

The second stage of the sleep cycle is the Non-Rapid Eye Movement (NREM 2) sleep. This lasts about 20 minutes and is characterized by decreases in the heart rate and body temperature. In this stage, theta activity is observed. (“Stages of Sleep - Non-REM and REM Sleep Cycles | Tuck Sleep”) Any remaining alpha waves from the previous episode of wakefulness are interrupted by sleep spindles, which are bursts of high frequency activity originating from the reticular nucleus of the thalamus. (Stickgold and Walker) Muscular activity decreases and conscious awareness of the external environment disappears. NREM 1 and NREM 2 together are often referred to as light sleep. (“Stages of Sleep - Non-REM and REM Sleep Cycles | Tuck Sleep”)

These four stages are known as NREM, the deeper of the two main sleep stages, NREM and REM, which alternate through the night. During REM sleep, the brain is active, the eyes rapidly twitch under the eyelids, the muscles are inactive, and a person may have dreams. The alternation of NREM and REM sleep gives the mind time to store memories, prepare for the day ahead, release hormones, wash away toxins, and rejuvenate itself. Without proper NREM and REM sleep, some very harmful things can occur to both the body and mind.

Sleep is basically a state of physical inactivity and mental rest in which conscious awareness, thoughts, and voluntary movements do not occur. During sleep, irregular and unpredictable dreaming also takes place. Sleep is a very active and coordinated process in which the brain busily turns off or moderates wakeful functions while actively turning on sleep mechanisms. There are two stages that sleep is usually divided into. The first stage is the non-rapid eye movement, or NREM stage. The second stage is the rapid eye movement, or REM stage. NREM is the stage of sleep that occurs when one first starts their sleep cycle and it is said to make up 75% of the sleep cycle. One of the distinguishing features of NREM sleep is its lack of dreaming. During the last two stages of the four stage NREM sleep, the deepest and most restorative sleep occurs, followed by various important biological processes. Meanwhile, the REM stage of sleep first occurs approximately 90 minutes after falling sleep and increases over the later part of the night, while occupying only 25% of the sleep cycle. The REM sleep is the stage of sleep that is characterized mainly by the appearance of

Scientist are starting to understand how sleep affects us in many ways, they include; our daily functioning, physical, and mental health. There are usually five stages of sleep. They are referred to stage 1, 2, 3, and 4. The last step is rapid eye movement or REM. There are certain neurotransmitters in the brain that affect sleep. Food and medicines are also things that can affect sleep. Sleep is essential for survival. For instance, a study showed that while rats usually live for two to three years, those deprived of REM sleep live only about 5 weeks on average, and rats deprived of all sleep stages live only about 3 weeks. Lack of sleep can raise levels of free fatty acids in the blood, accompanied by temporary pre-diabetic conditions in healthy young men. Studies have shown when people are tired that they may also find that they are most forgetful and unfocused. A study in the journal Sleep found men who got less than six hours of sleep a night were four times more likely to die over a 14-year period. A number of nights of too little sleep can lead to more than 700 genetic changes that could significantly affect your health.

Nоrmаllу аftеr а day оf work, wе ѕhоuld sleep easily аnd achieve а deep rest thrоughоut thе night. However, mаnу people dо nоt experience this, іnѕtеаd thеу hаvе difficulty falling asleep, thеу dо nоt gеt еnоugh sleep оr thеу wake uр ѕеvеrаl times аt dawn. But dо nоt gеt discouraged, incredibly іf wе mаkе simple adjustments іn оur daily routine, wе саn prepare fоr а bеttеr night's sleep.

I have often had dreams that were so real and vivid, that I was unable to tell if they truly happened or occurred in my dreams. Sleeping is very important to everyone. Without proper sleep, the body’s immune system can begin to fail, and then one will become more susceptible to virus, illnesses, and disease. Even when we are asleep, the human mind does not completely sleep. When we are asleep, we tend to tune out environmental sounds that occur when we sleep. For example, I live near a freeway, yet the sounds of it never wake me. The auditory cortex in our brains respond to stimuli even when we are asleep. For example, I can always wake up when one of my children calls my name while I am in a deep slumber. There have been many studies and observations on individuals while they are asleep. These studies are done on individuals who have sleep disorders. There are four phases of sleep, and when one does not get the proper sleep, physical and mental issues will occur.