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The effects of sleep deprivation essay
Sleep deprication essay
Effects of sleep deprivation thesis
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In today’s society, many college students do not get enough hours of sleep to function at their fullest potential the following day. Personally, I will not get enough sleep during the school week due to studying too late, watching television or using my phone for too long, choosing to go out, or etc. Sometimes, I find myself getting in bed early but not actually being able to fall asleep until many hours later. As a result, this causes me to excessively sleep on the weekends to try and makeup for the past week. This behavior indicates signs of sleep deprivation. Other signs include: continually not getting the recommended hours of sleep, always hungry the next day, gaining weight, acting more impulsively, memory decreasing, having difficulty making decisions, decrease in motor skills, emotional exhaustion, poor immune system, difficulty seeing, increased irritability, and skin breakouts (Swalin n.pag.). Sleep deprivation is extremely bad for your health, which many people do not realize:
Studies show an increased mortality risk for those reporting less than either six or
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In 2009, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development compiled data from each nation. China recorded the most sleep with more than 9 hours, where as, Japan has the least amount of sleep with 7 hours and 14 minutes. Spain takes the most naps in the middle of the day (Klein n.pag.). A study by Study by Philips Center for Health and Well-Being found that the main cause of lack of sleep for people is due to stress and/or staying up late, “The majority of Americans (49%), Indians (54%) and Singaporeans (43%) reported not getting enough z’s because they were too worried or stressed out to sleep (Helena n.pag.).” However, the Brazialians at 41 percent, the Taiwanese at 63 percent, and the Germans at 55 percent are sleep deprived because they stay up late and then must wake up
It is true that sleep deprivation is a widespread issue, generally resulting from early start times. It is also a serious one; according to a study by Harvard Medical School, sleep deprivation can lead to issues such as obesity, heart disease, difficulty learning, and can genuinely shorten a person’s lifespan. As Robbins explains, teenagers have a different internal sleep clock than other age groups. It is most healthy for students in high school to go to bed around 11 and wake up around 9. Since school often begins as early as 7, students are told they simply need to go to bed early, around 8 or 9 PM. This contention does not take into account the fact that humans are biologically not wired this way, and it's virtually impossible for most teens to fall asleep this early. It also doesn't take into account that with clubs, sports, church, volunteering, other extracurriculars and hours of homework, students often struggle to start their homework before their suggested “bedtime”. It is contended that students can control their own schedules so that they can get more sleep. However, pressure from parents and peers to get into a “good” college can cloud students’ perceptions of what is right for them, making them choose to overwork themselves in order to build impressive resumes. I myself can identify with this phenomenon. During the weekdays alone, I volunteer two nights a
Each year at least 40 million Americans suffer from long term, persistent sleep disorders, and an additional 20 million experience occasional sleeping problems. About 60 million Americans a year have insomnia and it tends to increase with age and affects about 40 percent of women and 30 percent of men. It is estimated that 18 million Americas are suffering from sleep apnea, 12 million have RLS, and 250,000 are affected by narcolepsy. Adults typically need between 6 and 10 hours of sleep per 24 hour period, and most people need approximately 8 hours of sleep per day. Infants generally need about 16 hours per day; whereas, teenagers require 9 hours on average. In the first 3 months of...
Sleep deprivation is often associated with the development of medical conditions, especially cardiovascular disease (CVD). As disturbance in sleep could cause deprivation and shorten one’s sleep duration, it is often taken into account when carrying out related studies. Short-term sleep deprivation not only raises blood pressure and produces stress hormones, but also leads to irregular heartbeats [1]. These major risk factors are precursors to coronary disease. In this essay, I will summarize the findings of five studies in relation to sleep deprivation and the increased risk of CVD.
sleep in America and its effects on performance. The articles gave different types of results from different kinds of data with different degrees of definiteness. In spite of their differences, both articles showed that lack of sleep is a cause for decreased performance and a detriment to a productive and healthy lifestyle.
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
The public health problem that I am addressing is the lack of sleep. The target population will be adolescents and college students in America. Sleep is important to health because the timing, quality, and duration are essential. Sleep plays a big role in good health and well-being throughout your life. How you feel when you are awake comes from how well you slept at night. Sleep has a direct correlation with metabolic regulation, emotional regulation, performance, memory consolidation, learning, and brain recuperation process. Because of these factors it should be viewed as just as important
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).
Many college students suffer from sleep deprivation; only a few students would say that they are getting enough rest at night. Sleep deprivation is caused by not receiving the amount of sleep that the human body needs to function properly throughout the day. Sleep deprivation has many causes and effects that most often lead to depression, physical illness, learning problems, and irregular sleep patterns; Elizabeth Austin offers two solutions to help college students cope with sleep deprivation.
Have you ever gone to bed and wondered what does sleep do to your physical and mental health? Sleeping has effects on our physical heart as well as our mental health (disorders, etc.)
Sleep deprivation is a commonplace occurrence in modern culture. Every day there seems to be twice as much work and half as much time to complete it in. This results in either extended periods of wakefulness or a decrease in sleep over an extended period of time. While some people may like to believe that they can train their bodies to not require as much sleep as they once did this belief is false (1). Sleep is needed to regenerate certain parts of the body, especially the brain, so that it may continue to function optimally. After periods of extended wakefulness or reduced sleep neurons may begin to malfunction, visibly effecting a person's behavior. Some organs, such as muscles, are able to regenerate even when a person is not sleeping so long as they are resting. This could involve lying awake but relaxed within a quite environment. Even though cognitive functions might not seem necessary in this scenario the brain, especially the cerebral cortex, is not able to rest but rather remains semi-alert in a state of "quiet readiness" (2). Certain stages of sleep are needed for the regeneration of neurons within the cerebral cortex while other stages of sleep seem to be used for forming new memories and generating new synaptic connections. The effects of sleep deprivation on behavior have been tested with relation to the presence of activity in different sections of the cerebral cortex.
College students are no exception to the rule and are often at a greater risk of suffering from conditions that accompany sleep deprivation. Regardless of the time period, a college student must be well rested in order to perform at his or her best in terms of physical performance, memorization capabilities, and test-taking abilities. Also, without adequate sleep, the person will be more susceptible to illnesses, both mental and physical. In conclusion, I believe that sleep deprivation among college students is extremely common and has a direct effect on how well that student performs or feels.
In the world of higher education, students at the collegiate level are highly likely to be overwhelmed with course load, in addition to sports and extra-curricular activities (Jacobs & Dodd, 2003). These factors have the potential to lead to various amounts of sleep deprivation, and as the research of Nilsson, Sunderstrom, Karlsson et al. (2004) has shown, sleep deprivation is correlated with higher levels of fatigue, impairments in speed and accuracy as well as limitations in cognitive and physical performances. One way to cope with this fatigue that has shown to have very positive results on people of all ages is taking naps. In addition to reducing sleepiness, Milner & Cote (2008) have determined that “napping may lead to considerable benefits in terms of mood, alertness and cognitive performances”. It is these benefits that nappers seek when engaging in napping activities.
Important public policy issues have arisen in our modern 24-hour society, where it is crucial to weigh the value of sleep versus wakefulness. Scientific knowledge about sleep is currently insufficient to resolve the political and academic debates raging about how much and when people should sleep. These issues affect almost everybody, from the shift worker to the international traveler, from the physician to the policy maker, from the anthropologist to the student preparing for an exam.
Preliminary Thesis Statement: Sleep deprivation has detrimental effects on the health and academic performance of students.
Suen, L.K., Hon, K.L. & Tam, W.W. (2008). Association between sleep behavior and sleep-related factors among university students in Hong Kong. Chronobiology International, 25, 760-775.