The Importance of Sleep Essay

09-09-2012 Day 1: I went to sleep at 1:00 am and woke up at 6:11 am. The dream was that my grandmother passed away and that I had nobody to confide in. It got to a point where I just went

“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 disorders alter ones sleep pattern and often results in the inability to either sleep or sleep soundly. They often cause you to feel restless, tired, fatigued, and irritable. It is estimated that nearly 75 percent of adult Americans experience sleep disorder symptoms at least a few nights per week. At the same time, sleep disturbances in some form are seen in as many as 25 to 30 percent of infants and children (“Sleep Disorders” 2013). Clearly a huge conundrum in the world, sleep disorders affect an inordinate amount of people. Millions of people suffer or have suffered from a sleep disorder at one point in their lives and if mistreated can impact organ systems functioning negatively. Physical disturbances, medical issues,

There are a few factors that are essential for life such as breathing or eating, but one of the most essential factor is sleep. Even though the amount of sleep people need differs from one individual to another, the fact is that eventually everyone needs to sleep. People know the importance of sleep, but due to the increased workload and the pressure of society people are getting less sleep. As a result, there has been an increase interest on the effects lack of sleep has on the mind especially the memory of a person. Many questions arose about the relationship between sleep and memory due to the fact most high school and college students have become sleep deprived. For example, does more sleep mean higher grades?

Sleep is a vital component to sustaining life in humans. Even though everyone participates in sleeping, many individuals do not understand the true significance of sleeping, and what benefits and consequences come with too much or too little sleep. Sleep comes in different stages throughout the period of rest, with some stages being more important than others. By interrupting various stages, different types of problems can arise from which stage is being affected. In particular, elder adults are affected in larger numbers to a more extensive depth of issues. “However, aging does not mean elders should encounter sleep disorders; it merely increases the possibility that more elders will seek help to manage the problem” (Song, Hollenbeck, Blair, Schatzkin, Chen. 2012. p.316) By understanding possible causes for sleep disorders, what kinds of physiological effects this has on the aged anatomy, and the types of problems that appear in the psychological aspect, it becomes achievable to begin working towards reversing complications and promoting elder sleep health.

Most people joke around about how important sleep is and they say things like: “If I don’t sleep right now I might die!”. But many people don’t know how true that statement can be or how important sleep really is. The amount of sleep you get is important and how much sleep you need varies depending on your age. Even naps can help people that have unusual sleeping schedules. Sleeping and napping give you the energy you need to go through the day, but over sleeping or napping can make you even more tired than you were before. Sleeping and napping is a very important thing you need to do to be healthy, to have enough energy to go through the day, and help you be more focused throughout the day.

Every living organism needs to rest, starting from the animal kingdom to humans. Just like food, sleep is a necessity of life. Sleep is important and necessary for the body’s health and the mind’s ability to engage in intellectual activity and mental fitness. Since humans spend almost half of their lifetime sleeping, they should know how to sleep right. Many physical problems may interfere people’s ability to fall or stay asleep. It is important to sleep well because that helps to boost memory, be active, reduce chronic inflammations, and maintain weight. While there are many disorders that may interfere with a person’s sleep.

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

“The worst thing in the world is to try to sleep and not to, then forcing oneself to stay awake for days on end must surely come a close second.”

What do the effects of sleep deprivation have on people? When a person does not get enough sleep, he or she is depriving his or her body of something that it needs. A delightful sleep is one of the most satisfying human experiences with a role to play in supporting a good mood and cognitive acuity as well as in promoting physiologic balance and resilience (Chittora, Jain and Suhalka). People think because they get an insufficient number of hours of sleep, they will not have an emotional impact by it. Sleep is a required need for peoples’ day to day life to be able to perform and stay healthy emotionally and physically. The effects of sleep deprivation are an issue because it affects mood, performance, and health.

The behavior change I decided to focus on is: getting more sleep every day. For this, the article I chose is: Why Is Sleep Important. Sleeping plays a key role in maintaining a healthy life as it affects our mental activities, as well as physical health. When we sleep, the same as when we are awake, we tend to process information outside our conscious awareness. Whenever we are asleep, we may think our brains turns off but it is always still active because of the biological rhythm that is has. Having enough sleep helps us humans, and living things in general, ameliorate our immune system and gives our neurons time to repair themselves. Another benefit of sleeping enough is the fact that it helps rebuild the memories that may have faded, it reactivates them. Sleeping boosts your creativity. In fact, people who sleep on a task after having worked on it, tend to solve difficult problems more effectively. It also supports growth by releasing a hormone that is necessary for muscle development.

This paper will cover the scientific study of sleep and variables which impact sleep by examining the five different stages of sleep, evaluating dreams and nightmares, assessing the causes and effects of sleep disorders and the various types of treatments, in addition to the effects of food and drugs on sleep.

 Sleep is not uniform activity, but one produced of different brain waves throughout the night.

A typical night’s sleep is much more complicated than just closing your eyes and waking in the morning. As humans, we live our life on a circadian rhythm. This means that changes occur roughly based upon a 24-hour basis. This circadian rhythm plays a major role in when we get tired and decide it’s time to sleep. This rhythm is theorized to have helped us stay safe thousands of years ago. We would fall asleep during the time that their seemed to be threats roaming around in the dark. to Once we finally get to sleep, our brains and bodies are doing much more than laying in complete stillness. There are five distinct stages of sleep that we experience as we sleep. Each is uniquely different and serves a purpose throughout the night. The first stage of sleep is a very light sleep that lasts for 5 to 10 minutes. During this stage of sleep, you may not even realize that you’re sleeping. While in this stage of sleep our brains power down by 50 percent and produce theta waves four to seven times per second. We proceed to stage two after this. During stage two, our brains power down

Sleep deprivation is a common issue among people around the world, and everyone has or will experience it in their life. Not getting enough sleep makes it difficult for the body to function properly. Insomnia is a well-known disorder, mainly known in the United States; one in ten adults suffers from this disorder (Kloc). There are many reasons why people end up with a sleeping disorder, and the most common reason is stress. When people do not have enough sleep they behave differently, and do not make the same choices as if they were fully rested. There are four stages of sleep. The fourth stage, REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep is the most important stage of sleeping. A common side effect of BPD (Borderline Personality Disorder) is sleep