The Effects Of Sleep On The Human Body And Mind Requires A Regulated Sleep And Wake Cycle

Everyone knows the human body needs sleep. For some people, sleep is what they enjoy most, but why do human beings need sleep? Why is the urge to collapse into the warm safety of our beds so tempting? Why are we so grumpy when we don’t get enough sleep?

The skirmish between traditional aristocracies and new democracies in Sicily was damaging to the Sicilian people, particularly people who were from conservative family backgrounds. The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa portrays the battle of old vs. new through following the life of an old Sicilian aristocrat, Don Fabrizio, commonly known as The Prince. Giuseppe uses The Prince to highlight the outmoded side of Sicily and the struggle to deal with the Risorgimento (Italian unification). Although many people during this time were accepting change, The Prince tried to ignore the change which is portrayed through the motif of sleep.

Coming from a teenager, sleep is a beautiful thing that when I wake up at noon it allows me to feel fully revived and ready to seize what is left of the day. The great historic, Benjamin Franklin, once said of sleep, “Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” Nobody every really needed to prove the healthy part of his saying because most people know that after sleeping the body seems to gain energy. The second part to his statement probably could use a bit of proving because whenever I try that I never see a paycheck. The last part though is the part that I am most interested in, could having a better night’s sleep really make me a more intelligent individual? I didn’t know, the question nagged at my brain for a

Sleep is composed of five different cycles, each cycle lasts for about 90 minutes. It is consists of two main broad stages, the first four cycles is known as non- rapid eye movement (NREM) and the last stage of the cycle is denoted by rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.

Sleep is vital to give the cerebral cortex (the brain's "thinking" part) a rest. When we’re in a deep sleep, rapid eye movement (REM) occurs when your eyes move rapidly up for 30 minutes at a time, it continues every 90 minutes. Most of our dreaming happens during REM and our eyes moving forcefully, our bodies are very relaxed and that’s what make us continue to sleep. “One of the most recent and compelling explanations for why we sleep is based on findings that sleep is correlated to changes in the structure and organization of the brain. this phenomenon, known as brain plasticity, is not connection to sleep has several plays a critical implications. it is becoming clear, that sleep plays a critical role in brain development in infants and

During sleep research, psychologists observed changes in people as they slept. Different eye movements were observed. During a certain stage of sleep a person’s eye suddenly began to move rapidly back and forth when people were awakened during rapid eye movement or REM they mentioned they were dreaming. Even though our eyes move during dream sleep our muscles become paralyzed during this stage. Which prevent us from moving other areas of our body such as legs, arms. Consciousness is different levels of awareness of one’s thoughts and feelings. We enter an altered state of consciousness every night when we go to sleep. Sleep consists of five different stages that involve different levels of awareness, consciousness and

Ever since, human sleep has been described as a succession of five recurring stages four non-REM

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

The general rule of thumb is that to be healthy individuals need to get a minimum of eight hours of sleep a night. Some people get more, and some people get along well with less, but everyone needs to get enough sleep or else they cannot function effectively in their everyday activities. In their work, Your Guide to a Healthy Sleep, National Institutes of Health pointed out that sleep is very important to human existence, so important that one-third of a person’s life is spent doing it (1). In Sleep, Sleep Disorders, and Biological Rhythms, Amlaner said, “Sleep is a required activity, not an option” (19). During sleep the human body has an opportunity to recuperate from the activities of the day. The recuperation goes beyond that

There actually isn’t any known facts on why we actually need sleep, but there is many theories.

What is sleep? The dictionary definition of sleep is as follows, “a condition of body and mind such as that which typically recurs for several hours every night, in which the nervous system is relatively inactive, the eyes closed, the postural muscles relaxed, and consciousness practically suspended,” (Definition). While this is undoubtedly true, there is so much more on the mystery of sleep. For many years people have wondered and debated on why humans sleep. There used to be many theories on why humans slept. With more advanced technology and stronger research many have been ruled out. In today’s society there are three commonly accepted, but debated, theories on why we sleep. One is the theory of sleep for restoration, which is essentially sleeping to rebuild everything we use during the day. The next theory is the conservation of energy theory. This theory is that humans sleep in order to save energy and have enough for the next day’s activities. The third is the brain function theory. This theory is based on the idea that humans sleep in order to use our brain to the fullest of its capabilities, and in a sense have stronger brain functions. With all these theories it is obvious to say that sleep in itself is a confusing subject. It is one of life’s greatest mysteries and more is likely to be revealed with more research on it.

Sleep is needed in everyone’s life because the body and mind need to rest in order for you to function fully. Sleeping disorders are common in many people life, according to the book “there are about 81 different types of sleeping disorders” (Engdahl, 18). Most people do not get the recommended eight hours of sleep because their schedule does not allow them to sleep, it is recommended to create a sleep cycle so that your body can adapt to the time you are awake and shut down for the hours that you are sleeping. Studies have shown that not getting enough sleep can cause obesity, depression and even heart disease. This disorder is uncontrollable because it can come from genetics. Another reason why it is uncontrollable, some people have night terrors which occur while you are asleep. Not controlling your thoughts and waking up to a scary dream or thought, depending on their reaction it can cause them a stroke, heart attack or they might pass out. When you hear someone snoring you often take it as a joke and you laugh at the person because of the obnoxious sound coming from them, while they don’t know that they are snoring. Snoring is a common symptom in some sleep disorders, snoring can have risks on a persons sleep because it can clog your throat and nose and you could choke in your sleep and never wake up. Some sleep disorders can be treated, some people don 't ever realize that they have a sleep disorder. This disorder has many effects some which can change a person

In recent years, a lot of progress has been made into the field of sleep research. However, these discoveries are still far from being complete. Considering that an individual spends about one-third of their life sleeping, there is much more that still needs to be discovered concerning this topic.

The need for sleep is one of the strongest biological urges we have. One of the few that we really can’t control. And the fact is, we can die faster from sleep deprivation than food deprivation. Even though the average person will sleep for 25 years of their lives, there is no scientific consensus as to why exactly we do it. One thing we know for sure is that our brains definitely think that sleep is important. Deep in the hypothalamus, the tiny nut sized region at the base of the brain, there is a little cluster of cells that act like a timer called, the supra-chiasmatic nucleus. When we are exposed to light, this little cluster busily releases awake hormones like cortisol, and suppresses the release of sleepy hormones like melatonin. When it’s dark, it does the opposite. A second trigger for sleep is believed to be the build up of the compound adenosine in the brain. Adenosine is a by product of the neutrons and other cells when they burn up adenosine triphosphate, the main molecule that our bodies use to store energy. Research suggests that when a bunch of left over adenosine accumulates in the brain we get sleepy. Caffeine works by bonding to the same receptors as adenosine and tricking the body into thinking it’s not tired. But when we do sleep, those adenosine levels drop as it’s gradually reabsorbed by the neurons. This is why we feel rested when we wake up for the most part. Although there are a lot of theories out there of why we sleep, there isn’t one single

Sleep is not as simple as it may seem. Many things happen during sleep cycles that are crucial to the harmonious functions of the human body. In Robinson’s (2014) article about the two types of sleep, REM (rapid eye movement) and Non-REM sleep are