Should We Sleep Research Paper

The average human sleeps 229,961 hours, or one third, of his or her lives. Infants sleep about 16 hours a day, teens sleep an average nine hours a day, and adults seven-eight hours a day. We are told sleep makes everything better. Why do humans need sleep? What goes on in our body when we sleep? There are many different reasons why humans need sleep such as to regain our mental conditions, muscle tissue gets restored, and sleep strengthens our memories.

Scientists have found the ultimate sleep pattern. As a human starts to relax, they enter stage one, where the brain waves are somewhat low and fast. This is the stage where you are half asleep-half awake. Normally people who go into this stage bob their head if they are sitting or standing up. Stage two starts to occur right after Stage one. In this short stage, human slow brain waves can last forty to sixty minutes. Next comes REM sleep, which means rapid eye movement. While you are asleep, the eyes start moving around rapidly and uncontrollably.

A person's total muscle tone reduces down to zero during REM sleep. This REM sleep repeats every ninety minutes, until the person wakes up. (Pilcher)
The average human needs at least 8 hours of sleep a night.

Sleep is an important anabolic process. Enough sleep restores energy. Sleep helps people function quicker and helps people be aware and fully energized. During sleep, your muscle tissues are rebuilt. There is also a hormone produced when people sleep that helps children grow, but it’s also important for adults. Sleep also affects someone's mood and personality. Also, while someone sleeps, their memories are strengthened. (Msnbc). Sleep actually spark a change in someone's brain and helps improve the memories, strengthening the cells of that part of the brain. Sleep also helps us be creative with new ideas and can enforce a person to learn something new while they sleep. (Improve). Not getting enough sleep can result in inflammation. Inflammation causes disease, stroke, diabetes, arthritis, and premature aging. People who have less that six hours of sleep a night are more likely to have higher blood levels.

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Children and teens who have sleep disorders, such as apnea and interruptions in breathing, have a higher risk of not paying attention in school and having lower grades. This also happens to college students. The students have lower grades than the ones who do get enough sleep. Getting enough sleep also plays along with keeping a healthy weight. Research shows, those who sleep more, lose at least 56% of their total weight loss. Those who don’t sleep a good amount of time, lose muscle mass. “Sleep and metabolism are controlled by the same sectors of the brain. When you are sleepy, certain hormones go up in your blood, and those same hormones drive appetite," Says Dr. Rapoport. (11)
“People say, 'I'm going to sleep now,' as if it were nothing. But it's really a bizarre activity. For the next several hours, while the sun is gone, I'm going to become unconscious, temporarily losing command over everything I know and understand. When the sun returns, I will resume my life. If you didn't know what sleep was, and you had only seen it in a science fiction movie, you would think it was weird and tell all your friends about the movie you'd seen. They had these people, you know? And they would walk around all day and be OK? And then, once a day, usually after dark, they would lie down on these special platforms and become unconscious. They would stop functioning almost completely, except deep in their minds they would have adventures and experiences that were completely impossible in real life. As they lay there, completely vulnerable to their enemies, their only movements were to occasionally shift from one position to another; or, if one of the 'mind adventures' got too real, they would sit up and scream and be glad they weren't unconscious anymore. Then they would drink a lot of coffee. So, next time you see someone sleeping, make believe you're in a science fiction movie. And whisper, 'The creature is regenerating itself.” - George Carlin