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Research on sleep deprivation effects
Effects of sleep deprivation on various areas of functioning
Causes and effects of sleep deprivation
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Sleep deprivation (SD) is a common phenomenon encountered by many individuals with different professions. [3] These professions include healthcare, security and drivers working at night. [1] The average length of sleep that an individual needs is between 7 and 8.5h per day. [quoted in 1] However, this varies between individuals with different age and gender. Pilcher and Huffcutt found that both total and partial SD give adverse effects on human functioning. [2] Researchers have concluded that sleep deprivation affects cognitive performance [1,2], motor performance and mood of an individual. [2] One of the effects that has been studied is the decrement in cognitive performance. Impairments in cognitive performance can be seen through decreased attention and vigilance. [1,2] This is because prolonged wakefulness affects the functioning of frontal lobes. [1] Similarly, Maddox et al [3] also agreed that the function of prefrontal cortex affects cognitive performance, but they pointed out that the tasks needed to be completed also involve other brain regions. Therefore, it is difficult t...
Williamson, A M, and Anne-Marie Feyer. "Moderate Sleep Deprivation Produces Impairments in Cognitive and Motor Performance Equivalent to Legally Prescribed Levels of Alcohol Intoxication." Occupational and Environmental Medicine - BMJ Journals. BMJ Publishing Group Ltd., 15 June 2000. Web. 09 Dec. 2011. .
Imagine being awake for at least a week straight. In the US military, many actions of suffering are given to their prisoners. These can include punishments such as sleep deprivation are put upon the prisoners until they crack under the pressure. During this punishment the prisoners are not given any food, humiliated, threatened, and mentally tortured. This action mentally and physically “destroys” the person. So, the question is, why are teenage students being treated the same way? All around the world high school are suffering at some point in time of sleep deprivation. They go to school for 8 hours, come home, do some homework, go to extracurricular activities, and then go home and do more homework. Then before they know it, they look at the clock and it is already
Sleep is one of our basic needs to survive and to function in day to day operations, but not everyone needs the same amount of sleep. Some people can survive on very little sleep, i.e. five hours a night, and some people need a lot of sleep, to the extend that they are sleeping up to 10 to sometimes 15 hours a night (Nature, 2005). According to Wilson (2005) the general rule states that most people need from seven to eight hours of sleep. The deprivation of sleep in our society in continually increasing with the demands in society increasing work loads, the myth that a few hours of sleep is only necessary to function properly and that sleep is sometimes considered as killing time (Nature, 2005). Sometimes sleep deprivation is also caused by other situations like sleep disorders, i.e. sleep apnea, chronic insomnia or medical conditions such as stress (Wilson, 2005).
There is a slight correlation with people who are night owls and higher intelligence and/or creativity, proven with studies, along with other findings, such as children having highs and lows on performance, and emotional behaviors. Sleep is an interesting part of human life. Sleep can affect everything in human life. Even knowing someone’s sleep cycle, generalizations about that person can be made, like if they have a tendency to be more intelligent or not.
The authors and scientists from a different study by the U.S National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health on long and short-term sleep deprivation state directly that “in certain jobs, people face sleep restriction. Some professions such as health care… require working at night. In such fields, the effect of acute total sleep deprivation (SD) on performance is crucial” (Alhola & Polo-Kantola, Sleep deprivation: Impact on cognitive performance). Depending on their schedule, nurses can often be susceptible to sleep deprivation and are no exception, especially if they are working long hours. The study performed research on how acute and chronic sleep deprivation can affect the brain and how it can slow down or worsen thought process and rationality throughout the day for working adults. The authors also explain that “motor function, rhythm, receptive and expressive speech, and memory ...deteriorated after one night of SD.” (Alhola and Polo-Kantola, Sleep deprivation: Impact on cognitive performance) Although everybody is affected by a lack of sleep differently, some might have the ability to handle it a lot better than others, but it is fair to say that no one can perform their jobs perfectly if their brains are being affected by sleep deprivation. This organization concludes this study by explaining that there is still much research that needs to be
Even severely sleep deprived people are still able to perform to some degree on a verbal learning test. This implies that some other area of the brain must become active to compensate for the loss of temporal lobe functioning. In fact, activity can be seen in the parietal lobe that is not present during verbal learning tests using rested subjects (5). Greater activity within this region corresponded to better performance by subjects in research studies (7).
Sleeping is something that is an essential part of human nature and is a must in order for one to be a functional human being. Sleep is an idea that is accompanied by many wives’ tales, including the ideas that one needs seven to eight hours of sleep each night and alcohol helps one fall asleep and sleep more soundly. One myth about sleep is that during sleeping, one is in a state of nothingness. In truth, however, it has been discovered that during sleep the brain is active, variations in heartbeat and breathing occur, and the eyes and ears are active throughout the time of sleep. These activities during a person’s sleep are important because they help that person be more aware, awake, and alert during consciousness. If all of these important activities occur during sleep, why is it that people are so willing to short themselves of this vital activity? Although much about sleep still remains a mystery, research and experiments continue to show how important sleep is to each and every person. Throughout this paper, I will discuss sleep and the effects that it has on performance and health, especially in college students. A college student’s sleeping pattern is a reliable indicator to their level of performance in the classroom and other school-affiliated activities, as a lack of sleep leads to decreased performance. Sleep is directly related the level of performance and health in an individual; the more rested a person is, the better that person will perform and feel (Dryer, 2006).
Mednick, S. C., Cai, D. J., Kanady, J., Drummond, S. P. A. (2008). Comparing the benefits of caffeine, naps and placebo on verbal, motor and perceptual memory. Behavioral Brain Research, 193(1), 79-86
In conclusion, the moderately enhanced results leads to think that the naps did have positive effects on all three test results, but not to the extend that was hypothesized. Perhaps a more ordered and organized napping and sleep schedule would allow for greater and more significant improvements. A further analysis in the domain of effects of napping on performance, either cognitive or physical, should strive to measure the impact of tightly arranged schedule to allow for naps to occur at relatively the same time everyday, as well as having a similar length, paired with comparable amount of sleep the night prior to engaging in napping. This would allow assessing the true effects of naps on an individual much more effectively.
It is has been normalized in today’s world. A person that is sleep deprived may experience disruptions in mood, mental abilities, reaction time, perceptual skills, and complex motor skills. Sleep deprivation is a serious issue that is not considered serious because it seems like everyone is experiencing the same. A person suffering from sleep deprivation, may not consider the radical effects it has on the human body because, as aforementioned, it has been normalized in society. The person may not even think they are sleep deprived because it is reoccurring issue that plagues society and it has entered
This paper is an assessment of my individual sleeping habits and how they equate to a quantized sleep debt score. This score analyzes the extent to which sleep deprivation affects my productivity and performance in daily activities. My sleep debt score is five, which assesses my sleeping habits as mostly adequate and claims I am incapable of efficiently completing my daily activities when sleep deprived (Coren, 1996). Daily activities include academic performance, endurance, and receptivity to socializing. My sleep debt score also predicts my behavior when subjected to tasks that require attention to detail or prolonged periods of focusing.
Sleep is a very important factor in the human function. Our body and brain is able to reset itself and rejuvenate while we sleep. When we do not get the required amount of sleep, we start to feel lethargic and foggy minded, because our mind and body wasn’t able to replenish itself. Sleep is imperative that an insignificant rest deficiency or lack of sleep can affect our ability to remember things; decisions and can affect our temperament. Chronic sleep deficiency can get the body to feel agitated and it could lead to serious health problems such as, heart problems, stress, acne, and obesity.
Sleep plays a vital role in a person’s mental well-being. Sleeping affects how well people think, react, work, learn, and get along with others. While a person is sleeping, his brain is preparing to help him learn and remember information. A good night’s sleep enhances learning and problem solving skills. It is very important for the students to have sound sleep as it can improve their concentration, memory and creativity. Furthermore, having enough sleep increases the ability to m...
Sleep deficiency impairs the neurocognitive functioning and prevents proper retention of information by the brain. Moreover, inadequate sleep at night diminishes attention span, alertness, creativity and concentration levels of the students. According to Curcio, Ferrara & De Gennaro (2006) students with more regular sleep-wake cycles are more likely to report a higher GPA (p. 326). Finally, I will explain how sleep-disordered breathing caused due to sleep deprivation, may also be associated with poor academic achievement and neurocognitive impairments such as critical thinking and
Rasch, Björn, and Jan Born. "About Sleep 's Role in Memory." Physiological Reviews. American Physiological Society, n.d. Web. 06 May 2016.