Motivation And Synthesis Essay: Why Do We Sleep?

Sleep is a complex mysterious phenomenon that we don’t know much about including why we dream and different actions associated with lack of sleep like yawning or illness, but there are many theories as to why these things occur along with facts. Why do we dream or have nightmares? What is the point to these things and how do they contribute to our health? Scientists are doing their best to research these things but sleep and things related to it are very mysterious and many things are still left unsolved. There are also many disorders and illnesses connected to the need for sleep and sleep itself, including sleepwalking, sleep apnea, snoring, yawning, dreaming, nightmares, and other various things.

Sleep is a state of altered consciousness, characterized by certain patterns of the brains activity and inactivity. An altered state of consciousness is when a person is not completely aware of their surroundings. Some researchers believe that we sleep to clear our minds of useless information. Other people believe that it is a type of primitive hibernation: we sleep to conserve energy.

Humans, like any other animals, sleep. No one fully understands why we have to sleep. But if we are deprived of sleep for too long, we die. It is as true as dreams and dreaming. The longer a person sleeps they will reach an advanced stage in sleep where the body begins to experience rapid eye movement(REM). Humans experience most of their dreams during the REM period. While a person is awake or asleep, the mind consciousness functions as a model of the world that was constructed by our brain. While awake, the mind takes in informations throughout the day that it can remember.

Sleep is a rather peculiar action. Why does the brain and the body basically need to lose connection to the world for a few hours? Insomnia, which is the inability to sleep, can cause many symptoms and they are not delightful whatsoever. Sleep deprivation is not only rough because of obvious reasons, but the consequences that harm the brain and body can be devastating. Even if people know what sort of symptoms are, they do not know why these things happen.

Introduction: I’m sure everyone likes sleep. Everyone needs sleep to keep the least bit active through out there day. Sleep is an important factor for your body to restore energy. Sleeping is a time to rest your body from all the hard work you have done. It is relaxing so deeply that you lose consciousness of your surroundings.

The question “why do we sleep?” is a very difficult question to answer. One way to think about why sleep is important is looking at sleep as if it was food. Food helps us feel better and also helps the human body function properly.There are many different assumptions on why we sleep.The first is that sleeping allows the body to repair cells damaged by metabolic

Humans are very abnormal creatures. We are in a day and age where it is acceptable to become so consumed by work and other activities, that we sometimes deny ourselves of one of the most necessary functions. That function is sleep and it is a very vital component that us humans love to neglect ourselves of.

Sleep is needed for the brain, because during sleep, important body functions and brain activity occurs. Unfortunately today, people are forgetting the reasons why sleep is so important. Wondering about it? Here, let me tell you. The reasons are because, naps can’t replace sleeping, the physical and mental part of your body is getting affected, and not getting enough sleep is called sleep debt. This is why sleeping plays an important role in the success of our life.

Sleep is an altered state of consciousness. Consciousness, modern psychologists believe, is an awareness of our environment and us. Sleep is the tendency to think of rest. When people get tired they want to close their eyes, lie down and sleep. What is the reason we do this? The human body requires long periods of sleep in order to restore and rejuvenate. When the body sleeps it helps to grow muscle, repair tissue, and structure hormones.

The average human spends about 25 years of their life sleeping. That is equal to one-third of a person’s life. So if sleep is vital and common among every single human, what do you know about it? What happens when we sleep (Attention Grabber)? Before the 1950s, scientists believed that the brain would just “shut off” when we would go to sleep. It wasn’t until the discovery of the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) state that scientists really looked into what happens in the brain while we are asleep. Studies have found that we go through a cycle of stages during sleep, and it is important for our health (Orientation to Topic). Today, I am going to inform you about what really happens when we sleep, and some issues that are found among it (Specific Purpose). In order to really understand this worldwide commonality, you need to know some background on sleep, the stages in the cycle, and some common disorders (Central Idea). I have taken a year long psychology course that went into depth on sleep psychology, and I have done extensive research on the topic to better grasp it (Statement of Credibility). I want to inform you on sleep so you can understand what happens when you close your eyes every night, and so you can detect any irregularities in your sleep pattern (Statement of Goodwill). First, I will give a background of why and how we know to sleep, then I will explain the stages in the sleep cycle, and finally I will tell you about some common disorders (Preview).

Why do we sleep is an age-old question. Scientists have studied sleep and its purpose for many years. They have conducted countless amounts of studies and have performed many experiments. Despite scientist’s efforts, there still is no concrete answer to this question. But there are several theories that might shine a light on why we sleep. Some of the possible theories to this are the brain plasticity theory, the restorative theory, and the information consolidation theory.

Sleeping is extremely important for all mammals, but humans especially. Without sleep we are unable to function properly and at our fullest abilities. When we sleep we grow, and it is an opportunity for us to dream which has many benefits. Sleep is also a way for us to relieve ourselves of stress.

 A most popular theory on why we sleep is the restorative theory of sleep:

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

Why is sleep so important to us? There have been studies done that suggest that sleep deprivation can be detrimental to or decrease the function of our immune systems. Just think, how often was it that after many days of continual sleep deprivation did you start to think that you had a cold? Sleep deprivation can also result in a decrease in core body temperature, decrease in the release of growth hormone, and possible cause an increase in heart rate variability. Sleep also seems to be important in order for our nervous system to work properly. Without sufficient amount of sleep, our behavior and our ability to do things are impaired. We feel drowsy and are unable to concentrate after not getting enough sleep. With enough sleep deprivation, it has been found that some begin to hallucinate and develop mood swings. Higher-ordered cognitive task become more difficult to do where it has been shown that tests that require speed and accuracy have lower results compared to those that are not sleep deprived. Judgment is also impaired; it has been tested that riskier behavior is more likely to occur when sleep deprived. (2).This is part of the reason why you should not drive when you are sleep deprived. Aside from the risk of falling asleep at the wheel, since judgment is