Sleep Research Papers

Do you like sleeping? Most people do and it’s a good thing. Some people might say sleeping is an unproductive habit but truly it’s not! Sleeping can be a very important thing. Sleeping can help with mood, improve how alert someone can be, and be a benefit to your heath.

The two general approaches taken by theories of sleep is both restoration and evolutionary theories. Restoration theories suggest that sleep exists in order to repair and restore the body. While the evolutionary theories that relate sleep ability to survive in a hostile environment.

The average human spends about 25 years of their life sleeping. That is equal to one-third of a person’s life. So if sleep is vital and common among every single human, what do you know about it? What happens when we sleep (Attention Grabber)? Before the 1950s, scientists believed that the brain would just “shut off” when we would go to sleep. It wasn’t until the discovery of the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) state that scientists really looked into what happens in the brain while we are asleep. Studies have found that we go through a cycle of stages during sleep, and it is important for our health (Orientation to Topic). Today, I am going to inform you about what really happens when we sleep, and some issues that are found among it (Specific Purpose). In order to really understand this worldwide commonality, you need to know some background on sleep, the stages in the cycle, and some common disorders (Central Idea). I have taken a year long psychology course that went into depth on sleep psychology, and I have done extensive research on the topic to better grasp it (Statement of Credibility). I want to inform you on sleep so you can understand what happens when you close your eyes every night, and so you can detect any irregularities in your sleep pattern (Statement of Goodwill). First, I will give a background of why and how we know to sleep, then I will explain the stages in the sleep cycle, and finally I will tell you about some common disorders (Preview).

There are four main reasons why we sleep. The first is for cardiovascular relaxation which lower blood pressure, lowers heart rate, and lowers metabolic rate. The second reason is for mental and physical restorative properties. Lack of sleep will then manifest itself with physical and cognitive side effects such as fatigue, difficulty focusing, slower response times, memory problems, decreased balance, and decreased ability to perform tasks. The third reason we sleep is to help with learning. Studies have shown that good sleep prior to taking tests increases performance. Finally sleep is the only cure for sleepiness. Daytime sleepiness can cause a person to fall asleep while reading, watching television, talking to others, or even driving. Not getting enough sleep puts people at risk for hypertension and coronary events. It also increases morbidity and mortality.

Why this theory is relevant to why humans sleep is because humans could have been using it for means of survival which was then utilized so greatly it soon developed into what is famously know as sleep. The next theory is the Energy Conservation Theory the purpose of this theory is that sleeping slows down the energy consumption of an individual and preservers energy for times when there is no resources around to consume. Research studies from Sunil Sharma and Mani Kavuru said that “Energy expenditure is reduced during sleep and sleep deprivation appears to increase energy expenditure.” this confirmed that there is less energy consumption when asleep which leads to be

Sleep is known as one of the most important things we as living organisms go through throughout our lives. Sleep is broken down into five stages four of which are in the NREM “nonREM sleep period” and one which is in the REM “Rapid eye movement” period (Huffman & Dowdell, 2015). There are four theories that are considered to be the reasons for why we sleep and dream those being theories are adaptation/protection, repair/restoration, growth/development for sleep and learning/memory for why we dream (Huffman & Dowdell, 2015). Sleep is important to our bodies because it helps our heart, brain, and immune system to recuperate and to rebuild after a long hard day. It is also important to us if we want to have a long lifespan (“How Important Is

Sleep is a curious function in almost all living things, however, some animals don’t sleep, some hibernate, and others have a constant cycle of sleep. The field of evolutionary psychology tries to explain this phenomenon. There are several hypotheses concerning the human sleep cycle. Some suggested adaptive reason from Psychology are the following: like bears in hibernation, we sleep to save and replenish resources; we sleep in safe places to reduce risk from predators in the night; finally, we may sleep to increase cognitive function. (Psychology, 2014) However, humans are not the only species adaptions seem to evolve for adaptive reasons.

Sleep is one of our body’s ways of recharging and repairing itself. Sleep affects every part of our day through cognitive, physical, and creativity performance. Sleep is a way to store our memories. Every day our brain takes in a lot of information and we need a way to solidify those new memories. We do this through sleep. According to The Sleep Foundation, “Overnight, bits and pieces of information are transferred from more tentative, short-term memory to stronger, long-term memory – a process called ‘consolidation.’” Our bodies restore at night by growing muscle, tissue, and synthesizing hormones (Why, 2). This is part of the reason why children, who are still growing, need more sleep than adults. Adults need an average of eight hours of sleep but one year olds need about thirteen hours. And teenagers, or college students, need a little over nine

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

There are many theories as to why we sleep. Of the three most popular theories, I disregarded the first two. The final theory was that humans use sleep to regenerate our bodies. The body uses the time that we are stationary to renovate our bodies. Things like muscle growth, tissue repair, and protein synthesis occur at an elevated rate while we sleep. This is important and, on the evolutionary side, it could be worth it to keep ourselves healthy.

There have been countless numbers of studies investigating the function of sleep leading to various theories,

First, let’s review some reasons why people need sleep. People need sleep for multiple reasons. The general reason is that sleep helps our physical and mental help. It does this by resorting our body tissues, encouraging body growth, and increasing our immune system. It also helps to keep our mind sharp, enhance our moods, and helping learning and memory (Pastorino & Doyle-Portillo, 2013, p. 4-1a). There are five stages or sleep, the four stages of Non-rem sleep and the single stage of Rem Sleep. Stage I of

I must admit I would have also thought, why study sleep? I find it interesting that scientists have been researching the biology of sleep for 50 plus years. It does not surprise me that anthropologists have rarely looked into the sleep patterns and practices of different cultures, classes and ethnic groups here or worldwide. It doesn’t strike me as something they would find pertinent to identifying their finds. I would like to someday know why people sleep and dream.

It is a way to conserve the energy that we already have. If we stay up all night without sleeping, our bodies use up all that energy very quickly. According to the same Harvard website, “Research has shown that energy metabolism is significantly reduced during sleep (by as much as 10 percent in humans and even more in other species). For example, both body temperature and caloric demand decrease during sleep, as compared to wakefulness. Such evidence supports the proposition that one of the primary functions of sleep is to help organisms conserve their energy resources. Many scientists consider this theory to be related to, and part of, the inactivity theory” (Harvard). The inactivity theory, is another theory on why we sleep, however, it one of the less popular theories. It has less to do with people and more to do with animals and other organisms. It suggests that we sleep in order to keep out of danger when normally be in harm’s way. The theory explains that the organisms that was in a calm state would be safer compared to one that was active. The theories are said to be similar because when sleeping, you are able to conserve your energy that way when in a dangerous situation, you will be able to function properly so that you can get out of the way of the

Sleep is extremely important for numerous reasons. First of all, sleep provides the body with necessary time to rest and repair damaged muscles and cells. Research shows that the human brain sorts through the day’s events, stores information, and solves problems while people are asleep. Lastly, getting a good night’s sleep helps people have sufficient energy for the next day’s activities—work, school, or recreation.