It is often said that our world today is facing an “obesity epidemic”, but is it ever said that instead we are facing a sleep deprivation epidemic? Anne Stein’s article, “Not Enough ZZZZZZ’s?” written for the Orlando Sentinel, supports her claim that sleep deprivation leads to weight gain in both children and adults by using recent studies in sleep research. She first supports her claim by showing the relation between sleep deprivation and obesity from the 1960s to the present, then the alteration of hormone levels when one is sleep deprived, and finally she provides statistics between the number of sleep deprived children and obese children. Stein effectively shows that sleep derivation can and will lead to weight gain in order to convince the reader to value the importance of sleep.
As Stein proved in her article, sleep and weight are bound together through the regulation of the body’s hormone levels, so when sleep is restricted, hormone levels become altered. The hormone ghrelin, which tell the brain that the body is hungry, increases by 28%; while the hormone leptin, which tells the brain that the body has eaten enough, decreases by 18%. According to Dr. Michael Decker, adults sleeping less than six hours a night, even when exercising and eating right, increase their likeliness for being overweight or obese(Stein 2).
Children are not safe from the effects of sleep loss either. In a study of 8,234 children it was discovered that the chances of becoming obese for those obtaining less than ten and a half hours of sleep increased by 50% (Stein 2). Some researchers suggest that this lack of sleep is due to video games, school bus routes, or a parent’s early work schedule. Another study shows that 58% of ob...
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...e a proper, healthy level of sleep. Twelve to fifteen hours is suggested for ages one to three, eleven to thirteen hours for ages three to five, nine to eleven hours for ages five to twelve, nine to ten hours for adolescents, and at least seven to eight hours for adults (Wasowicz 17). A survey of 71 sleep specialists was conducted to collect tips on how to fall asleep and stay asleep. Some of these tips include: avoiding caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol, which suppress deep sleep, within three to six hours of going to bed; avoiding heavy meals within three hours before going to bed; snack on bananas, turkey, peanut butter, and other food that are rich in tryptophan, which produces a natural sedative; putting work aside two to three hours before going to bed; keeping the room quiet, dark, and cool; and dimming the lights two to three hours before bedtime(Wasowicz 3).
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
There is no doubt that obesity has taken its seat as one of the top disease that strikes the world today. In America, obesity has now spread through the country leaving 2 out of 3 adults either overweight or obese, and worldwide 1.5 billion are overweight or obese (Overweight). The cause of this disease stems from multiple reasons such as the increase in modern food production, putting out ample amounts of food causing the prices for meat, groceries, and especially junk food to plummet. Subsequently, Americans especially were more inclined to purchase more food and showed an increase in the average American house hold food intake by 1,000 more calories a day (Dreifus).
The researchers discussed in this article claim that children are further at risk for sleep-related weight gain. They have calculated that a child's risk of obesity is reduced by about 9% per additional hour of sleep per night. The correlation/causation relationship in this article is well explained, however the research only takes into account the number of hours slept with weight gain.... ... middle of paper ...
Sleep is one of our basic needs to survive, however in the modern days sleep deprivation in increasing more and more each day, causing accidents and medical problems for the people and the community. This essay will look at the meaning of sleep and sleep deprivation and the basic perspectives on what motivates sleep and sleep deprivation with the five perspectives; evolutionary, psychodynamic, behaviourist, cognitive and the hierarchy of needs. This essay will also evaluate the best perspective to eliminate sleep deprivation with the cases studies discussing the general hypothesis of sleep and sleep deprivation.
Childhood Obesity Statistics in America. (2011). p. 3. Early Bedtime Prevents Obesity and Maintains Fitness In Teenagers. (2011, September 30). p. 5.
To sleep an individual usually requires relaxed skeletal muscles in their posture (sleep. 2014). Also according to the many research done by United States, United Kingdom and Australia (sleep. 2014) a person usually needs to sleep for a certain amount of time depending on if it is a weekday or weeknight. Adults are supposed to sleep between ‘6 to 9 hours per night’ (sleep. 2014). However, according to sleep polls that had been undertaken by United States in 2009 and in 1998, 6 hours per night sleeping had increased from ‘12 percent in 1998 to 20 percent in 2009’(sleep. 20149. REM decreases after a night of sleep for ‘100 minute’ every night (MARZANO et al, 2010). On the other hand, there had been a decrease during the same period when the poll was created to see the average of individuals sleep for 8 hours’ (sleep.2014). For 8 hours there had decrease from ‘35 percent of people to 28 percent (sleep. 2014). In the United States, United Kingdom and Australia, adults have an average less than 7 hours of sleep per night during weekdays, which is not enough due to the amount of work they have during the day and can lead to disorders.
Sleep deprivation has become a major problem with Americans. Over 100 million Americans today suffer from lack of sleep. This has been an ongoing problem throughout the centuries. People owe their bodies sleep and scientist are calling it a “Sleep debt”. An average American owes their body at least thirty hours of sleep. This lack of sleep is as hazardous as drunk driving.
If all of these important activities occur during sleep, why is it that people are so willing to short themselves of this vital activity? Although much about sleep still remains a mystery, research and experiments continue to show how important sleep is to each and every person. Throughout this paper, I will discuss sleep and the effects that it has on performance and health, especially among college students. A college student’s sleeping pattern is a reliable indicator of their level of performance in the classroom and other school-affiliated activities, as a lack of sleep leads to decreased performance. Sleep is directly related to the level of performance and health of an individual; the more rested a person is, the better that person will perform and feel (Dryer, 2006).
Many times people think they can accomplish more if they could eliminate so much sleeping time. However, they are only hurting their productivity if they lose sleep. Two articles deal with the issue of sleep deprivation. The College Student Journal published an article about the grade-point average of college students and sleep length, while U.S. News & World Report produced an article dealing with the lack of
Carpenter, S. (n.d.). Sleep deprivation may be undermining teen health. http://www.apa.org. Retrieved March 6, 2014, from http://www.apa.org/monitor/oct01/sleepteen.aspx
Obesity: Our weight also depends on our sleep duration. Studies show that people who slept for 9-10 hours are more likely exposed to obesity compared to those who slept between 7-8 hours. Even when food intake and exercise were taken into account, this link between sleep and obesity stayed the same.
"Sleep may reduce teens' Type 2 diabetes risk." The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation [CBC] 20 Sept. 2011. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 18 Mar. 2012.
“Twelve Simple Tips to Improve Your Sleep.” (2009, Dec. 18). The Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Healthy
Sleep is something that we are all familiar with; after all, we each do it at least once a day. Even so, the majority of us remain ignorant of the facts of sleep and few of us understand how important this mundane action is to our personal health. We live in a sleep-sick society where people stay up all night to work, study, or simply to just have fun. So then, what happens when we give-up sleep in order to emulate the 24/7 culture that we live in and is there a “price” for sleep deprivation? More importantly, what effect, if any, does lack of sleep have on one's physical and mental health? In order to answer these questions, one must first understand how sleep works and what causes sleep deprivation. Once armed with some basic knowledge on these subjects, it is important to learn the impact of sleep deprivation on a person’s mental and physical health and
Wells, M., & Vaughn, B. V. (2012). Poor Sleep Challenging the Health of a Nation. Neurodiagnostic Journal,52(3), 233-249.