Essay on Who Needs Sleep?

“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.

We then began thinking more specifically by looking at how much sleep on average freshmen, sophomore, junior and seniors get per night

Sleep is a beneficial necessity, both from a scientific and psychological standpoint, improving both mental and physical health. It plays an essential role in our growth and development as human beings. During sleep, our brains are growing and preparing for the day ahead so that we may be productive and attentive in every daily task. Without the recommended minimum of eight hours of sleep each night, people get agitated, distracted easily, gain health problems, make bad decisions, and acquire feelings of sadness and depression. Sleep deprivation is harmful and can cause a large amount of irreversible damage to ones brain, increasing the risk of diseases, strokes, and even diabetes. Throughout history, many authors have written about characters

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.

This essay focuses on evaluating three functions of sleep. These functions include mental health (Jackowska et al, 2011), cardiovascular disease (Kronholm et al, 2011) and memory (Hu et al, 2006). The key aspects are explained in detail with regards to studies. The findings from the studies will help justify the function and it’s involvement with sleep. Sleep is important for an individual’s well being, survival, brain development, emotional regulation, cognitive function, memory, and in order to protect mental and cardiovascular health. An individual should sleep for 6-8 hours. A recent suggestion by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommended that an individual should sleep for minimum 7 hours. The quality of sleep is significant to maintain healthy brain functions. Evidence, indicating that good sleep quality is essential for mood and health then duration (Chandola et al, 2010). The researches implied will enable the understanding of the functions of sleep and evaluate the evidence of each of the functions, including advantages and limitations. Furthermore ethical issues are discussed, and an overall summary of the essay is briefed.

Success in life is typically measured by the result of what is accomplished during the waking hours. The degree of effectiveness of those hours however, depend on effective rest. “Sleep is integral to the health and well-being of all people” (Wells 233). Sleep is simply defined as the body’s rest cycle – a time to recharge. The widely accepted metric for normal or sufficient sleep is about 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep. When this metric is not met, either through total sleep loss or accumulated sleep debt, the effect can be dire, “Sleep deprivation results in poor memorizing, schematic thinking, which yields wrong decisions, and emotional disturbances such as deteriorated interpersonal responses and increased aggressiveness” (Orzeł-Gryglewska 95). Sleep deprivation hinders the abilities of the mind, harms the body, and shortens length of life.

Lack of sleep has become a major problem in the United States since many people haven’t realized how healthy sleeping habits affect their health, life, study and work. When people have a sleep disorder or lack sleep for a long period, there will be a high possibility that they will have a health concern, including heart disease, high blood pressure, and stroke. At the same time, lack of sleep would affect people’s brain in terms of processing information so that people cannot think, learn efficiently, or make a good decision. When people are feeling drowsy during their daily activities due to lack of sleep, their or other people’s lives can be threatened if they are driving or doing something that needs full attention to avoid an accident.

Despite having slept for only four hours, the man claimed to have felt alert when he left home, but had entered microsleep when he drove off the road and into the victims (“Driver who killed mother, injured baby is jailed for two years,” 2016). Across the U.S., state governments are raising awareness around the dangers of driving while drowsy, mostly with “Prevention Weeks”, but sometimes with punitive laws. For example, in New Jersey it is illegal to drive if you have been without sleep for 24 hours (“Summaries of Current Drowsy Driving Laws,”2015). While it should be obvious to most that it would be irresponsible to drive under such acute sleep deprivation, cognitive deficiencies can occur in those who are chronically sleep deprived. In fact, losing just a couple of hours of sleep on a consecutive basis can be harmful. Studies show the that the effects of sleep deprivation accumulates over time and that as a “slept debt” increases, reaction time decreases (Dinges DF, Pack F, Williams K et al., 1997, as cited in Bonnet & Arand, 2003). Since the CDC estimates that up to one third of Americans between 18-60 get less than 7 hours of sleep each night (Liu et al., 2016), this is an issue many of us should be concerned

Sleep effects every living organism on the world, whether it is positive or negative it has an impact on everyone. There are many different stages of sleep and each containing its own purpose. Sleep isn’t as simple and unnecessary as many believe it to be; sleep has the power to cause many different disorders and can even cause death if a person is deprived from sleep for too long. Sleep can also effect the brain and how the brain functions on a daily basis. Sleep is an important factor of life that should not be over looked. If enough sleep occurs there are many advantages that can make one’s life more healthy and beneficial.

In the prospect of this article, sleep disorder can play a major role in your life. When there becomes a lack of sleep, there are many things that could occur to your body. There could be a risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, infections, or Alzheimer’s disease. For example a man by the name of Michael Arnott had trouble sleeping in his fifty’s, but he didn't know the reason behind this. His wife, Mary White stated, “All of a sudden there'd be a change in the speed and I'd look over, and his eyes would be starting to close,” she remembers (White). Now, Arnold was in denial when it came to his problems of sleeping because he thought that he was in good condition. After getting an analysis from the doctor saying that he has moderate obstructive

Day by day, if one were to consistently voluntarily restrict their sleeping hours, he or she would gradually build up what is referred to as “sleep debt”. Sleep debt defines the cumulative effect of reduced sleep hours. (Dinges et al., 1997) The more and more the sleep debt grows from not getting a single good night’s rest, the more moody, irritable, and incoherent a person can get. While there are no limits to the extent of how moody, irritable, and incoherent someone can become, there gets to a certain point where a person’s awareness of how tired or sleepy he or she is goes down. In addition to that, increased sleep debt has also resulted in a decrease in the responsiveness of cognitive brain functions. This phenomena is what is being described and what occurred in the introductory anecdote above. It was not because of the body genuinely feeling less tired and drowsy more so was it that the awareness of the hypothetical person to recognize how tired he/she was has gone down. In reality, it will take more than a few hours to fully recover from sleep deprivation. Based on a study focusing on the effects of cumulative sleep debt, a sample size of 16 adults were chosen and were forced to sleep approximately 5 hours each night, well under the recommended average. (Dinges et al., 1997) The results of this study show that there is

While much research has been conducted regarding sleep deprivation Tatar J, et al. 2006 demonstrates the results of sleep

Many disorders and diseases can result from abnormal sleeping patterns that are triggered from sleep deprivation. The most common forms of sleep disorders include insomnia, sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, and narcolepsy (NINDS 10). All of these sleep disorders begin from sleep deprivation and can be managed once they are diagnosed correctly. According to Urban, “Nervousness, dizziness, and sleeplessness may occur”, as a result of sleep deprivation (1). This proves that the slightest health changes can occur if sleep deprivation becomes a problem. According to NINDS, “The disorders and the resulting sleep deprivation interfere with work, driving, and social activities” (10). This shows that the effects of being sleep deprived can drastically change one’s everyday

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.

Sleep is the time when people’s brain is very active. Sleep takes more effects to the brain in infancy through childhood. During these periods of the life span the brain develops a lot while sleeping, which is why they fall into deeper sleep.