Melatonin Sleep is an important aspect of our daily lives and necessary for good health. In our lifetime we will spend approximately one third of it asleep. This restful time allows the body to rejuvenate vital mental and physical functions. Tissue is repaired, energy restored, communication between various parts of the brain are reestablished, growth occurs, and there is decreased activity with muscle movement, digestion and the sympathetic nervous system (Grossman & Porth, 2014, p. 525). Our normal sleep-wake cycle, also known as the circadian rhythm runs on a 24 hour clock. “The function of the circadian time system is to provide a temporal organization for physiologic processes and behaviors as a means of promoting effective adaptation …show more content…
Without darkness melatonin is produced to lesser extent. The decrease in melatonin production causes a cascade of issues which leads to a decrease in quality of sleep. Our genetic make-up as humans has engineered us for sleep. Preferably, in the dark and at the same time each night. Unfortunately, our fast pace lives, with around the clock stimulation, has made it difficult to go to bed each night at the same time. Shift workers are significantly affected by this considering they work all night and sleep during the day. This goes against how the body was designed and could lead health issues. Many studies have shown that night shift work is dangerous to your health (Eliaz, 2015). One study in France showed night shift workers have a 30 percent greater chance of acquiring breast cancer (Eliaz, 2015). One common misbelief about sleeping is, sleeping during the day is just as good as sleeping at night (Eliaz, 2015). This could not be farther from the truth. Without darkness melatonin is suppressed fostering lack of sleep and/or poor quality sleep, which will hinder the crucial repair processes the body needs to maintain good health (Eliaz, 2015). Furthermore, melatonin production decreases as we age adding to the quandary of poor quality of sleep. It is believed this age related decline in melatonin is associated with an aging suprachiasmatic nuclei or calcification of the penial gland (Wade, Ford, Crawford, McConnachie, Nir, Loudon & Zisapel, 2010). Regardless, maintaining quality sleep is essential to sustaining a healthy life. Knowing this science is looking towards melatonin as the catalyst for ensuring a better quality of
It is generally understood that getting enough sleep plays an important factor as people go through their day to day lives, nevertheless many people do not rank sleep as one of their top priorities. In many cases, people prefer to use the time spent on getting the proper amount of sleep on other activities such as finishing a report for work or doing some last minute studying for a midterm. However, reducing the amount of sleep one gets not only affects one’s academic performance, but their physical health as well.
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).
The body and brain are changing machines, where states of consciousness shift with zealous nature to allow our human anatomy to flourish. Schedules of the circadian rhythm function differently for everyone yet, is an important part of functioning for the human anatomy/mind. For the average person, however, the cycles we go through usually speak for a sleep rotation. But sometimes, even with these measured rituals, we find ourselves at a loss when we realize how fragile our circadian rhythm can be, caused by "insomnia," " jet-lag, " or even "weekend-lag."
Sleep deprivation in hospitalized patients can result in increased morbidity and mortality, and can lower their quality of life. Hospitalized patients require more than the average amount of sleep to aid in recovery, but often get an inadequate amount of sleep or experience poor quality sleep. There are increased frequencies of awakening or being awakened too early in the morning, difficulty falling asleep, an increased need for sleep medications, poor sleep quality, an increase in frequency of napping and nightmares. Sleep-wake cycles contribute to adequate protein synthesis and cellular division that is crucial to sustaining the healing process and maintaining immunity. Sleep deprivation changes normal circadian cycles, resu...
Sleep deprivation is increasingly recognized as a worldwide public health concern as researchers found that lack of sleep impairs human functioning[2]. The majority of individuals was found to be sleep deprived as they are forced to restrain their sleeping hours to compensate increasing working hours, especially individuals whose professions’ is in line with healthcare, security and transportation sectors as they are often required to be on duty even at night [1]. Regardless of whether the individual was totally or partially sleep deprived, it was proven that both had adverse effects on the human body[3]. Further studies revealed that sleep deprivation affected ones’ cognitive and motor performance as well as mood[2].
One of the most common altered states of consciousness that occurs on a daily basis is sleep. Sleep is a circadian rhythm that takes about a day to complete and "is a product of the activity of the hypothalamus, the hormone melatonin, the neurotransmitter serotonin, and body temperature" (Ciccarelli & White, 2011). Sleep is needed on a daily basis because it is one of the natural cycles the body needs to perform in order to function to the best of its ability. Four stages of sleeping consist of a light sleep, sleep spindles, a sleep where delta waves come in and make up thirty to fifty percent of the brain's activity, and delta waves that make up fifty percent or more of the brain's functions. According to the adaptive theory and restorative theory of sleep, sleep is essential in order to conserve energy and accommodate to the needs of the body like restoring chemicals and repairing cell tissue.
Sleep is an extremely interesting phenomenon in which the mind almost completely departs from the usual realm of consciousness. It is distinguished from quiet wakefulness and a decreased ability to react to stimuli where we become less aware of our surroundings. However, it is more easily reversed than being in hibernation or a coma. It is a function that has been extensively researched by many. After all, we would not have evolved a mechanism that forces us to spend one-third of our lives sleeping unless sleep did us some good. What good does it do tough? Over the years, many theories have been proposed as to why we need sleep. The simplest is that it saves energy. An individual’s energy expenditure and demand is reduced during the day, or night, as an animalistic instinct when they are least efficient to search for food. This is also supported by the decrease of body temperature and caloric demand throughout sleep. For example, when NASA sent a robot to mars, it was programmed to shut down at night so exploration would not waste energy. This is like our bodies, as they need time to recuperate and to slow down. In addition, sleep provides an occasion for restorative functions of the brain where the body is allowed sufficient time to repair and rejuvenate itself. For example, animals that are deprived of sleep entirely lose all their immune function and will soon die in a matter of weeks. Other findings have shown that many restorative functions in the body like tissue repair, muscle growth, and growth hormone occur mainly during sleep. When people are deprived of sleep, inhibitory transmitters accumulate in the brain, interfering with attention and learning. People that are well rested will notice when their attention lapses, a...
"Sleep Drive and Your Body Clock." Body Clock & Sleep 2. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 May 2014. .
Sleep is a vital component in human life. It plays a key role in maintaining adequate physical and mental health as well as improving quality of life. Growth and development is also greatly boosted during sleep in children and adolescents as more growth hormones peak production occurs while sleeping (NIH,2017). Adequate sleep makes the body get sufficient rest and readjust in readiness for the activities of the following day.
Sleep is crucial to lead a very happy and healthy life. Without sleep, people can become less focused and are constantly tired during waking life. “Sufficient sleep is increasingly being recognized as an essential aspect of chronic disease prevention and health promotion” (Are You Getting Enough Sleep?). To fight threatening diseases and to maintain a healthy lifestyle, a good night’s sleep is number one on the to-do list. However, most people think they have more important things to do other than lie down and rest, but sleep is essential to a healthy life. Putting down a distraction and going to bed is quite difficult to do, but people need a good quality and quantity amount of sleep each night. “Sleep affects mentality, creativity, physical vitality, and healthy weight. It is also not just the quantity of sleep you get, but the quality of sleep you really have to pay attention to. ” A large amount of people try to sleep as little as possible. There are too many factors at play that people would rather be doing, but sleep is just as important for happiness and good health as exercise and nutrition are (How Much Sleep Do You Need?). Lack of sleep causes mental and physica...
Sleeping is a complex process that greatly affects an individual’s well-being. There exists within each person a natural body clock which allows one to operate at a 24 hour cycle. In relevance, the body clock iswhat instinctively determines the cycle of sleep and awake time of a person. This relates to sleep because the issues that affect one’s body clock has a connection ...
Many phases and function of sleep are still under intense research, however judging from a simple fact - all animals do sleep, it is obvious that its role is indubitable. Nonetheless, many people are still having the mind set of sleep is merely a time-wasting-activity. Even among professionals who perform crucial roles such as doctors, teachers, engineers are willing to compromise their sleep, with a simple excuse, busy. In short, they are experiencing either acute total sleep deprivation or more common, chronic partial sleep restriction[2]. Many effects of both types of sleep deprivation were investigated, in particular health, attention, decision making.
Each night, the average person spends approximately 7-9 hours giving their bodies a restful vacation in the land of dreams. Considering this, we spend 1/3 (or 25 years) of our entire lives engaging in this idle activity. Although these numbers can appear as a waste of time in our every day lives, sleeping and/or napping is the energy that helps fuel our bodies to function correctly. Sleep is a necessary function in our every day routine in order to make our brains function at the most efficient level. As we sleep, the brain helps us to recuperate and regain strength by “restoring and repairing the brain tissue” (Myers, 2010, p 99). Without this reviving process, we would all eventually deteriorate. By impairing the sleep deprived mentally and physically, it can potentially cause serious harm. We must fade our conscious mind, and let our mind relax within subconscious state.
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.
What research has told us is that sleep is relegated by an internal time clock or what the experts call the circadian cycle. First circadian comes from two Latin words circa: about and dia: day. All the various bodily function cycle that occur during the day are related to our circadian cycle. Since the time of Aristotle and Hippocrates these cycles have been recognized. Our sleep/wake cycles is one of the best known bodily functions to show circadian rhythms, and even our vital signs are directly linked to this cycle. As technology advances we gain more precise measurements, allowing researchers to recognize more circadian cycles which in turn teach us how our bodies work and function. On an interesting note it has been found that bone length is linked to and show a circadian cycle.