The Importance of Sleep for Good Emotional Health

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The Importance of Sleep
Research Question:
Why do we sleep?
Review of Literature:
Although it never crosses anyone’s minds why we actually sleep, we at some point know that without sleep we would be angry, weak, irritated, and a number of other negative emotions. There are many theories based on facts that explain in some way why we sleep, but none of those theories are yet to be proven true.
According to Harvard Medical School (2008) sleep makes everyone feel better. Their theories about why we sleep are what they call the “Inactive Theory”. This theory stated that the reason why we sleep is because of Evolution. That overtime we have all grown to sleep because it served as a survival function. Another theory is the “Energy Conservation Theory.” This theory stated that we sleep because we need to conserve our energy resources. The last theory ‘The Restorative Theory”, stated that we sleep because we need to restore what is lost in the body while we were awake. In conclusion, Harvard Medical School says that there are more than one reason why we might sleep. It could be because of brain development, restoration, to conserve energy, or because of natural selection, but none of these theories are yet to be prove true.
Another idea, by Marcus Woo (2011) is that we cannot abstain from sleep like we can food and a number of other things. As organism evolve we develop additional uses for sleep. “We spend so much time sleeping that it must be doing something important” says, David Prober. There are 4 main hypothesis that Marcus Woo says are the reason why we sleep. These are in some way the same, and they are also different. His hypothesis include reasons for brain development and brain restoration. His hypothesis are different be...

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...ep Disorders, and Biological Rhythms. National Institutes of Health, 2003. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
< http://science.education.nih.gov/supplements/nih3/sleep/guide/info-sleep.htm>.
Dewar, Gwen. "Sleep requirements in children." Parenting Science. Parenting Science, 2008-2014. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
.
Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard, . "Why do we sleep anyway?" Healthy Sleep. WGBH Educational Foundation, 2008. Web. 10 Apr. 2014. .
Spencer, Ben. "Switch in the brain that tells us when to go to sleep." Daily Mail [Ipswich, MA]. Newspaper Source Plus, 20 Feb. 2014. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
Woo, Marcus. "Why do we sleep?" PHYS.ORG. Science X network, 3 Feb. 2011. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
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