Sleep Debt Score

This paper is an assessment of my individual sleeping habits and how they equate to a quantized sleep debt score. This score analyzes the extent to which sleep deprivation affects my productivity and performance in daily activities. My sleep debt score is five, which assesses my sleeping habits as mostly adequate and claims I am incapable of efficiently completing my daily activities when sleep deprived (Coren, 1996). Daily activities include academic performance, endurance, and receptivity to socializing. My sleep debt score also predicts my behavior when subjected to tasks that require attention to detail or prolonged periods of focusing. This paper will assess how my sleeping habits can be regulated to avoid sleep deprivation and the liabilities

Most of my time is spent leisurely, and therefore I have the volition of falling asleep and waking up when my body tells me so. My sleeping schedule is usually sacrificed when I am under a significant amount of stress, and my summer has not been at all grueling. Although, I am cognizant of the negative impacts that sleep deprivation has on my performance. I was under a lot of pressure in the last couple years of High School, and I suffered from unstable moods, unproductivity, inattention to detail, and the inability to focus for prolonged lecturing periods. I was also not alone in the struggle to stay well-rested, few of my classmates could stick to a regular sleeping schedule, and my senior class serves as a sample of the struggle among teens against sleep deprivation because “in the U.S., more than two-thirds of teenagers reported that they get less than 7 hours of sleep on school nights” (Hockenbury & Hockenbury, 2010, p. 144). On average, adolescents and young adults require over 8 hours of sleep to maintain immune system function (“Sleep Deprivation”). People are also “prone to strong emotional reactions to negative stimuli” (Hockenbury & Hockenbury, 2010, p. 146) when sleep deprived, which justifies the recurring “moodiness, depression, and lack of enthusiasm” (“Sleep Deprivation”). I have learned from experience that

Naps subtract from the number of hours needed at night and lead to both insomnia and the inability to complete “all five 90 minute cycles of alternating NREM and REM” in one night (Hockenbury & Hockenbury, 2010, p. 144). Whenever I take naps, they rarely become a part of my daily schedule and consequently interrupt my suprachiasmatic nucleus from stabilizing my circadian rhythm and only producing melatonin in the absence of daylight instead of in the afternoon (“Sleep Hygiene”). Maintaining a regulated schedule will ensure I sleep enough hours, and naps impede my suprachiasmatic nucleus from correctly governing the timing of my circadian rhythm to wake and let my body rest at around the same time (“Sleep Hygiene”). The American Sleep Association recommends to never deviate more than twenty minutes from the regular hours of rest to let the body stick to a constant circadian rhythm and keep from desynchronizing “sleep-wake periods, body temperature, and melatonin rhythms” (Hockenbury & Hockenbury, 2010, p. 139). When dyssomnias happen, staying in bed restlessly for more than five to ten minutes prolongs the time spent waiting to enter Stage 1 of NREM Sleep (“Sleep Hygiene”). If I lie awake in bed for minutes upon hours I am usually anxious over being incapable of falling sleep. Letting the mind race while sitting on a chair in the dark, possibly meditating, is a solution for letting the mind slow down and eventually