What Is Sleep and Why Is It So Important In Our Lives Rene Compean II 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. Introduction Scientist are starting to understand how sleep affects us in many ways, they include; our daily functioning, physical, and mental health. (Stein 2005) A group of chemicals called neurotransmitters control whether we are asleep or awake. They do this by acting on
“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.
Sleep is a beautiful thing, but people do not get enough of it. It is a time for the body to rejuvenate and process the events of the day. Sleeping is something that we seek out. Getting the recommended amount of sleep allows our body to function properly the next day. Without it, there could be detrimental consequences. The National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke says that without sleep, neurons could be “polluted with byproducts”. In severe cases, people who get very little sleep often experience mood swings, hallucinations and cells do not continue to reproduce.
When asleep, the brain commits new info for learning and memory. Also, metabolism and weight is regulated. It helps with cardiovascular health and fighting diseases as well. Mood and Safety is increased with sleep. The body is rejuvenated and ready to take on everyday tasks. It is also very important that a person gets a good amount of sleep. Most adults need seven to eight hours of sleep a day. Sleep deprivation and oversleeping can have serious consequences. Not getting enough sleep can lead to depression, stress, laziness, high blood pressure, and an increased risk for heart disease and stroke. It can also cause drowsiness and a craving for unhealthy food; potentially leading to weight gain. If a person gets too much sleep, there is an increased risk for diabetes, stroke, and even death. Therefore, a person should make sure to get a reasonable amount of
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 one of the unavoidable daily-living activities and it is one of the most important factors contributing to a person’s health. A quality sleep is essential for the physical, cognitive and psychological well-being of a person. Learning, memory processing and maintenance of the brain are among the most important functions of sleep. In addition to maintaining the brain, sleep has important roles in controlling the
We know that brain is the part of our body that never sleeps. We know that when we sleep our brain is very active. Sleep affects our daily activities. Our functional abilities, physical and our mental state affected in many ways from our sleep. There are still many unexplored areas now science is beginning to understand and relevant to the effects of sleep in our lives. Sleep is controlled by groups of neurons found in the brain stem. These neurons produce chemicals, such as serotonin and norepinephrine, which belong to the class of neurotransmitters. Whether you sleep or awake, controlled by neurotransmitters. The same substances regulate and which parts of the brain will operate continuously while you sleep. Another substance called adenosine
Sleep serves many functions throughout the body such as rejuvenating cells, restoring energy, protein synthesis, as well as it regulates the body's homeostasis. Sleep is a time that also allows our memories, and information processing to be restored organized, thus it allows us to be concentrated and it balances our cognitive and psychological functions. Several important hormones are also produced and secreted while asleep, this includes; cortisol, human growth hormone, testosterone and prolactin. Circadian rhythms function by regulating the body's internal clock. The internal clock is a very small region within the hypothalamus, called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). SCN is affected by light and dark, when it is light photoreceptors in the retina send a impulse to the pineal gland to stop producing melatonin, allowing the rest of the brain to wake up. Sleep is composed of 2 main types REM sleep and NREM sleep. NREM sleep is composed of four separate stages leading to the final stage REM, each stage has physiological differences. Sleep related disorder such as narcolepsy, sleep related eating disorder, insomnia, and restless leg syndrome. Sleep plays an extremely important role in many functions in the body. Sleep deprivation can be deadly as it disrupts the body's
If physiologists devoted the most research time to behaviors humans engaged in the most, we would probably have a full understanding of the biological purpose of sleep. After all, humans, with the exception of most college students, spend one third of their lives in a somnolent state. Despite its fundamental role in human and animal life, sleep is, even in an age when neuroscience has reduced many behaviors to neurological mechanisms, still quite mysterious. What processes are taking place during sleep that benefit the organism? Why spend so much time in an unresponsive and vulnerable state? That these questions haven't been definitively answered is really not a function of a lack of effort on
Sleep is a requirement needed by every individual. It is believed by some that sleep allows the body to recuperate, but it is important for much more than recuperation. The reason why we sleep is so that we can have normal cognitive brain activity. "Nerve-signaling chemicals called neurotransmitters control whether we are asleep or awake by acting on different groups of nerve cells, or neurons, in
Sleep deprivation is a worldwide epidemic. The increasingly rapid pace of society and round-the-clock access to technology are two factors that play a central role in sleep deprivation (Centers for Disease Control, 2015). Short-term effects of temporary sleep disturbance are typically limited, associated with only minor physiological consequences. However, long-term sleep deprivation (i.e., more than 24 hours) is associated with many harmful consequences (Meerlo, Mistlberger, Jacobs, Heller, & McGinty, 2009). Meerlo et al. (2009) found that sleep disruption leads to reduced neurological functioning, which can have a devastating impact on learning, concentration, and memory. It also increases susceptibility to neurological disorders such as
I would argue that sleep is required for survival depending on how you look at it. Even though there is no documented proof that a healthy human being has died from sleep, there are many other ways on why it is needed for survival. It has been proven in the lab that pulling an all nighter for just one night is the equivalent to being drunk. That being said, reckless driving will most likely occur, and if you're not paying attention and being alert, you will most likely get into a car crash and injure yourself or even die. The typical person needs to go out (and drive) to get food so that they can survive. If they can't do this, or they can but it's dangerous, I'd say sleep is required for survival in this area unless you want to get in a car
Sleep can affect how anyone acts in a negative and very severe way if they don’t get enough of it at night. Lack of sleep most hugely affects teenagers in the society today, because the biological clocks of teenagers are reset during puberty so it’s normal to not be able to fall asleep early. School however starts early, so teenagers lose a lot of sleep and so teenagers are the most vulnerable to lack of sleep. “Lack of sleep has been linked in other studies to high cholesterol, obesity, and depression” (How Much Do Teenagers Sleep). Lack of sleep can cause some very serious problems if people don’t get enough sleep every night for a long period of time. However, lack of sleep can still affect people even if they don’t get enough sleep for one night. Even if anyone loses a couple hours of sleep in one night, the side effects and consequences can be severe. “When teens don’t get enough sleep it can affect their daily life, such as performance in school, how they treat their friends, and how they look and act” (DiLonardo). Lack of sleep is a huge problem in the current society americans
Sleep is a very important aspect of our lives and people rely on it to re-energize them so they can continue onto the next day. Although sleep is thought to conserve energy it actually drains your metabolism by 5-10%. However, sleep is very beneficial to humans. Sleeping progresses the bodies’ growth and rejuvenates the immune, skeletal, nervous and muscular systems. Sleep also improves short-term memory, mood, efficiency, concentration, and it is actually believed that sleep also helps wound healing. Scientists proved this by doing a test on mice. Mice were deprived of sleep for 24 hours and compared to a control group; the sleep deprived rats ended up having a 20% decrease in white
As we all know, sleep is an important part of our lives. Without the proper amounts and type of sleep, fatigue and other problems can arise. Generally, we can clearly distinguish between a sleeping person and a person that is awake. With sleeping disorders, the distinction between an awake person and a sleeping person becomes more intriguing. What is the difference, how does it relate to the I-function and consciousness? Each sleeping disorder has its own unique answer to this question. It is essential to understand sleep to fully appreciate it. However, many aspects of it remain a mystery. We do have some degree of understanding of sleep. Within our sleep cycle a type of unusual sleep occurs, REM sleep. During this cycle the periods of
Sleep is the unsung hero of our lives. We simply cannot function without it. We make it extremely difficult on ourselves when we decide to play on our electronic devices rather than sleep. The blue light emitted from the device tricks our brains into thinking its daytime making it harder to fall asleep. Lack of sleep decreases your ability to learn, focus, have a positive attitude and it puts you at risk for diseases such as depression and A.D.D. The problem presented was that if electronics are used for an hour before bed will it affect your sleep patterns. The hypothesis was if electronics are used for an hour before bed then the person’s sleep pattern will change because the blue light emitted from an electronic device alters the amount of melatonin in your body which allows your body to know when to fall asleep. The hypothesis was correct. Those who didn’t use electronics an hour before bed got at least one more hour of sleep than those who did.