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The Effects Of Sleep On Children And Adults

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Felicity Mensah-Bonsu Health Psychology February 28th, 2016 Since the semester started sleep has been something that has alluded me several times. I can’t remember the last time I had a full 7 or 8 hour sleep. My sleep pattern now seems to consist of barely any naps and close to 4 or 5 hours of sleep. For this project i want to look at how i can improve my sleep patterns so that i’m getting more than 4 to 5 hours of sleep a day and if it’ll improve my work ethic as well as my health. Sleep is a concept that many students and adults hold dearly. There is nothing better than a good nap or a full hour or so of sleep, however, how much sleep we are expected to have daily is sometimes unknown and we may not be getting the recommended hours …show more content…

Another set of researchers have come to the conclusion that a big part of college students sleep patterns has to do with their sleep variability. Sleep variability can affect a person’s cognitive performance. One of the ways you can define this is that sleep variability is the “ irregular sleep durations across several days” (Whiting & Murdock, 2016). Sleep variability can also be defined “in terms of bedtime and wake time shifts across school and non-school nights” (Whiting & Murdock, 2016). No matter how you look at it sleep variability is focusing on a person’s sleep patterns. In terms of college students like myself this would be the inadequate amount of sleep that I am receiving that can affect my “psychological functioning, mood, as well as cognitive and academic performance that has to do with attentional functioning” (Whiting & Murdock, 2016). As I was looking into interventions and monitoring plans for my study that i would be conducting i came across a few that I thought would be interesting to try out. One intervention focused around sleep disturbances in adolescents. The article covers the idea that sleep deprivation can “worsen emotion regulation, increase irritability, anxiousness, hostility, and even fatigue” (Paavonen, Huurre, Tilli, Kiviruusu, & Partonen, 2015). Other problems also include cognitive problems, low attendance, poor school performance, and even symptoms that can mimic

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