What Is Sleep Deprivation?

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Hundreds of years ago sleep was perceived as a crucial part of life. Today, people like Shakespeare wrote poems and plays comparing sleep to “the golden chain that ties health and our bodies together” and describe it as “nature’s soft nurse” (citation ted talk). Sleep was thought to be a fundamental element of health and wellness. Now, sleep is descried as a complete waste of time, inessential, and optional. People are sleeping one to two hours less than they have, less than what is necessary. There is not real consensus on why people sleep. However, scientists have come up with three main theories. The body and brain used sleep as a time to restore, conserve, and process. Sleep helps to restore and regulate anything lost during periods of …show more content…

These sleeps are uncontrollable and characterized by sudden spurts of sleeping, forced on by the brain. In the U.S. this type of sleep causes an estimated one hundred thousand accidents every year. Other than micro-sleeps, sleep deprivation causes poor memory and creativity, increased impulsiveness, poor judgement, drug cravings, weight gain, and stress. The body starts to crave caffeine and alcohol to either feel energized or to fall asleep. Many people drink before sleeping due to their belief that alcohol helps you sleep. In reality, alcohol is a sedative with properties that stop crucial processes of the brain, like restoration of hormones or energy. When sleep deprived the production of the neurotransmitter ghrelin, appetite or hunger hormone, increases. This causes an increased craving of carbs and leads to weight gain (TED TALK). Sleep deprivation has many consequences that affect a person’s quality of life and …show more content…

I have a large sleep debt, which causes my work to suffer. At this level of sleep depravity I can suffer from random errors being missed while reviewing my work. I am not that surprised that I scored this high. I find myself in need of several alarms to wake myself up. I also find myself snoozing most of my alarms for a few more minutes of sleep. After watching Russell Foster’s video, I see that I have many behaviours that are causing me to be sleep deprived. I spend my time before I go to sleep either on my phone or computer. I snack before bed and I keep the light on until I want to fall asleep. As a student, it’s hard to get much sleep. There is always a project that needs to be finished or an exam to cram for. I always seem to stay up late, even if I have to wake up early the next day. I need to work on getting to bed earlier and using my computer less before I go to

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