The Effects Of Sleep Deprivation

Sleep is a very important part of our everyday lives, theories state that sleep helps our body recover from all the work it preformed while we were awake. Sleep is the time for healing and growth of our nervous, muscular, skeletal, and immune systems. Experiments have shown that sleep can increase production of certain hormones and brain proteins. More than 40 million Americans experience chronic, long term sleep disorders every year. The result of sleep deprivation cam interfere with work, driving,

Similarly, research has shown that insufficient sleep is a health problem. Sleep is increasingly recognized as important to health issues among workers and the general public. As a matter of fact sleep insufficiency has been linked to motor vehicle accidents, industrial disasters, and medical and other occupational

While being awake, sleep affects a person in a positive or negative way. When getting enough sleep a person will feel refreshed, energized and overall wonderful. The person's body would be in mint condition, and their brain will be fully functioning and not

Sleep deprivation is a major contributing factor to occupational and physiological stress. Firefighters and emergency responders must be ready to respond to the needs of their communities 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and 365 days a year. Adequate rest and sleep periods are essential functions of human life and necessary to perform at an optimal level and live an otherwise healthy life. Sleep deprivation has been linked with increased errors in quick decision making, critical thinking, and poor judgment-skills firefighters need at their disposal at a moment’s notice.  When firefighters and emergency responders work long hours/shifts associated with chronic sleep deprivation, the end result may be an inability to think clearly and to make safe decisions. These conditions typically bring forth feelings of irritability, stress, apathy, and depression. Chronic sleep deprivation is also a contributing factor in higher instances of cardiovascular disease and cancer, obesity, and chronic fatigue.  Acute sleep deprivation is defined as less than four to six hours of sleep in a 24-hour period.  Fatigue is related to the interaction of physiological, cognitive, and emotional factors that result in slowed reactions; poor judgment; reduced cognitive function; and the inability to perform a task at a high, sustained level of accuracy or safety.(Castleman, 2016) Chronic sleep loss can lead to feelings of depression, and the adverse effects on

A person's quality of life can be interrupted due to many different factors. One being loss of sleep. In many jobs, people face sleep restrictions. Some professions such as health care require working nights sometimes pulling double shifts. This often becomes the cause of chronic sleep deprivation. A lack of sleep can produce many issues including but not limited to cognitive dysfunction, higher risks of chronic health problems, depression, and accidental death, it can also be used as a form of torture.

Sleep is very important in a person’s day to day activities. Sleep allows a person to be more aware of their surrounding and allows one to use their minds to the highest potential. Unfortunately, there are plenty of people due to their jobs or even by their own choices are sleep deprived. Sleep deprivation can affect one’s behavior and their cognitive functions in different ways. Goel pointed out that “deteriorate effects have been shown to involve vigilance, executive attention, working memory, language, divergent thinking, and creativity (Maccari 2014).” Much research has been done on how sleep deprivation effects brain functions and behavior. Many are not aware to what extent the brain is effected by sleep deprivation and how one’s behavior can drastically change.

     Sleep deprivation has become a major problem with Americans. Over 100 million Americans today suffer from lack of sleep. This has been an ongoing problem throughout the centuries. People owe their bodies sleep and scientist are calling it a “Sleep debt”. An average American owes their body at least thirty hours of sleep. This lack of sleep is as hazardous as drunk driving.

There have been multiple studies on how people perform when they have little sleep. The article mentions a study by the U.S military who tested the performance of soldiers when they got suboptimal amounts of sleep. Through multiple exercises it was clear

There are many different risk factors that can come up if we do not get the sleep our body needs to function. One serious effect due to the lack of sleep would be sleepiness can cause accidents. According to Camille Peri, sleep deprivation was a factor in some of the biggest disasters in recent history: the 1979 nuclear accident at Three Mile Island, the massive Exxon Valdez oil spill, the 1986 nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl, & many others (Camille, 2005). The first thing that came to my mind when thinking about what happens if we do not get sleep was the safety risks being on the road. Every day I drive 40 minutes to either work or school & while driving on the interstate I have noticed many times people swerving into the other lane. Semi-truck drivers are at a huge risk for these accidents because most of them barely get any sleep so that they are able to make all the trips required to get through the week. My step-father drove a truck Monday through Friday and I remembered him telling me how little sleep he would get just to make sure he got his work done so he could come home on the weekends. Drowsiness can slow reaction time as much as driving drunk can (Camille, 2005). The

According the the website the Gallup “Medical studies have related a lack of sleep to health problems and cognitive impairment. Therefore, experts typically recommend seven to nine hours sleep for adults. Currently, 59% of U.S. adults meet that standard, but in 1942, 84% did. That means four in 10 Americans get less than the recommended amount of nightly sleep, compared with the 11% who did so 70 years ago.” One may feel like sleep deprivation effects just their mood, but it can also affect their mind and their physical performance.

As a result of modern technology, there are many people who every now and then don’t sleep well, but there are several who experience what is called sleep deprivation: “Sleep deprivation is a condition that occurs if you don 't get enough sleep” (“What Are Sleep Deprivation and Deficiency?"). There are several dangers with so many American’s being sleep deprived such as increased chance of falling asleep while driving or even increased work injuries: “Lack of sleep exacts a toll on perception and judgment. In the workplace, its effects can be seen…accidents. Sometimes the effects can even be deadly, as in the case of drowsy driving fatalities” ("Consequences of Insufficient Sleep”). For the purpose of public safety, American’s should be aware of the dangers of sleep deprivation starting with how using electronics late at night effect your sleep.

Sleep has an essential role in health and well-being throughout one’s life. Receiving enough and high-quality sleep can help boost your physical, social, and mental

The purpose of this paper is to research and analyze the negative effects of sleep loss on humans lead to major and minor inefficiency. Every year, sleep loss and sleep disorder affect human performance, safety at work and quality of life. This research will analyze the sleep deprivation both by choice and due to health issue. The data that use in this paper will only limit to the average data so the results would not skew and show any bias based on the differences between the groups. The chosen groups to analyze would be students who stay up late studying or workers who are required to stay awake the whole night such as an ER doctor or pilot. The groups who have medical issues that prevent them to achieve the whole night sleep would benefit from learning of the mental and physical health effects that are associated with sleep deprivation. The question is raised whether loss of sleep every 24 hours results in a cumulative sleep debt, nor sleep can be saved up ahead of time. “Regardless, sleep is not optional, it’s something we need to perform well” (Davenport, 2006). The answer would be included in this paper. In this research, there will be a discussion about the best way to pay back when having sleep debt and way to prevent sleep debt.

Sleep is as essential to the human body as food and water are, but sometimes sleep quality and quantity is inadequate, which is known as sleep deprivation. Sleep deprived people are sleepy and fatigued, making them prone to causing accidents, impairing their judgement, and they are more likely to make mistakes and bad decisions. Not sleeping for 24 hours reduces hand-to-eye coordination, which can be compared to having a blood alcohol content of 0.1 and contributes to road accidents and work injuries. A child’s school performance is negatively affected by the lack of sleep and may cause emotional problems such as depression. Sleep deprived adults suffer from lack concentration, irritability, sleep inertia and a grogginess that lasts all day long as they are constantly yawning and dozing off. 1 All these problems come from not obtaining an adequate amount of sleep hours. There are methods and medications that can help prevent sleep deprivation as well as methods and techniques that utilize sleep deprivation as a tool.

Consequences of sleep deprivation can include; decreased performance and alertness, memory and cognitive impairment, stress, poor quality of life, occupational injury and auto mobile injury