How to Manage Sleep and Sleeping Disorders

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The one-third of our lives that we spend sleeping, far from being “unproductive,” plays a direct role in how full, energetic and successful the other two-thirds of our lives can be” (Why Do We).
Sleep: A natural, periodically recurring physiological sate of rest for the mind and body marked by relative physical and nervous inactivity, complete or partial loss of consciousness and lessened responsiveness to external stimuli. (Sleep 1062)

“Sleep seems like a perfectly fine waste of time,” mocks Maria Konnikova, writer for the New York Times. “Why would our bodies evolve to spend close to one-third of our lives completely out of it, when we could instead be doing something useful or exciting” (Konnikova)? Most people view sleep as simply “going to bed,” then “waking up,” and as though there’s no in-between. What about when one is asleep; being aware of what happens within sleep, understanding unhealthy sleep, knowing what can go wrong, and how to be the healthiest sleeper, is all very important. Though some may view sleeping as a waste of time, life is nothing without sleep.
Claudio Stampi, a doctor with a specialized degree in neurology from the University of Bologna in Italy writes in his book “Why We Nap,” that “phasic [phasic sleeping] behavior is divided into two major categories: polyphasic and monophasic” (2). Subcategories of polyphasic sleep are Pure Polyphasic, Quasi-Polyphasic, and Semi Polyphasic sleep. In Pure Polyphasic sleep, episodes of sleep and activity are evenly distributed in contrast to Quasi-Polyphasic sleep which is not evenly distributed throughout a twenty-four hour period. In Semipolyphasic patterns, sleeping consists of one large increment of time, as well as several other small increments. Stampi con...

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...leep Disorders Third Edition." Writing from the Publisher. For Information Contact: Facts On File An Imprint of Infobase Publishing, 2010. Web. 4 Feb. 2014.
Stampi, Claudio. Why We Nap: Evolution, Chronobiology, and Functions of Polyphasic and Ultrashort Sleep. Boston: Birkhäuser, 1992. 2. Print.
"Sleep." Def. 1a. Webster's New College Dictionary. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008. 1062. Print.
“Sleep Terms Definitions." Sleep Terms Definitions. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2014.
"Why Do We Sleep, Anyway?" Healthy Sleep. Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School, 18 Dec. 2007. Web. 22 Jan. 2014.
"What Happens When You Sleep?" What Happens When You Sleep. National Sleep Foundation, 2013. Web. 26 Jan. 2014.
U.S Department of Health and Human Services. In Brief: Your Guide to Healthy Sleep. N.p.: U.S Department of Health and Human Services, 2011. Print.

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