Sleep deprivation seems to be an increasing problem with people of all different age groups. It is related to many different health concerns. Nearly fifty percent of adults fail to get enough sleep. According to the national sleep foundation, teenagers need at least 9 hours of sleep a night, but 80% get a lot less than that. Due to the lack of sleep at least 28% of high schoolers fall asleep in class, 22% fall asleep while doing their homework and 14% arrive late or miss school entirely because they oversleep. Based on the article It is obvious that school age children need a lot more sleep than they are getting. As sleep continues to depreciate students have a harder time concentrating. Feelings of depression, also starts due to sleep restriction. Due to partial overnight sleep deprivation improving the mood of 50% of depressed patients, that would usually take days or weeks to see mood improvement.(1) The Canadian Medical Association was approved by the Capital District Health Authority Research Ethics Board to study and compare the neurochemical changes in healthy and depressed participants who had partially overnight sleep deprivation. Within a day overnight sleep deprivation can produce antidepressant feelings in some patients. (1) The study asked its participants to keep their regular sleep habits for the week prior to the study. The procedure was to scan two brain regions, which was left dorsal prefrontal area and the Pons. (1) The scans took place at baseline and 24hrs later after a night without sleep to a maximum of 2.5hrs. The study consisted of 12 women with unipolar depression and 15 healthy women using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy acquired at 1.5T. (1) They assessed 3 neurochemical signals(referen... ... middle of paper ... ...k room, a symptom of chronic sleep loss. Another group , who for a period of time, went to bed 60-90 minutes earlier than their regular bedtime. These students felt like they had more energy, and felt more awake. They performed significantly better on test of Psychological and mental acuity(4). The effects of 43 hours of sleep deprivation on executive control functions: event- related potentials in a visual go/no go task. Procedure 40 participants were assigned to either a TSD or a control group(no sleep deprivation; for TSD group). Electroencephalogram(EEG) recording were taken using 32 electrodes while a GO/No go task was administered. The amplitudes of the NO go-N2 and the no go P3 were smaller in tsd grouping terms of prolonged latencies. Conclusion Results shown that executive control functions were recognized as being impaired after 43 hours of TSD.
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).
Those that have a bad sleep pattern most likely suffer from sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation is a significant loss of sleep that results in concentration problems and is detrimental to one's health. The symptoms of sleep deprivatio...
In the field of psychology, the concept of sleep has raised multiple questions over time. Psychologists are constantly doing studies on people while they sleep to diagnose sleep disorders. Using EEG readings, they study and record brain waves and muscle movements that occur while the participant is asleep. Sometimes they even wake the person up so they can observe what happens to the brain when you are woken up in different stages of sleep. In order to diagnose sleep disorders, we must first understand what exactly sleep is. Sleep is generally made up of multiple 90-minute cycles. Every time sleep occurs, we cycle through four stages followed by a fifth stage of REM (Rapid Eye Movement). The final stage proves the brain is functioning even
In this experiment conducted by Turner, T.H. et al (2007), the researchers studied a sample of healthy, young individuals. Forty subjects total eighteen who were women spent six full nights and five days at the University of California, at San Diego General Clinical Research Center’s J Christian Gillin Laboratory of Sleep and Chronobiology. For this experiment participants were excluded for reasons such as having psychiatric history, a significant medical condition, or taking nicotine or any illegal substance. Three days prior to the study, participants were requested to halt consumption of any and all alcohol and caffeine. A polysomnography was completed over the course of the first night to identify or rule out the existence of any intrinsic sleep disorder that a participant may have had prior to the study. Furthermore, those being observed had to maintain a habitual sleep schedule of around seven to nine hours per night. After the second night, the total sleep deprivation (TSD) period began, where participants were to remain awake for the duration of the experiment. During TSD, subjects were able to move but were not allowed to take part in strenuous exercise, sun exposure, using of any type of stimulant, or sleeping. Various continuous recognition tests (CRTs) designed to observe working memory and sleep deprivation were administered to the
It’s seven thirty in the morning, the time that most American high schools begin class. Instead of being chipper and ready to learn, most teenagers, at this time of the morning, can barely remain awake. These puffy eyed pupils are by no means ready to learn. Sixty percent children under 18 reported being sleepy during the day, with another fifteen percent reporting that they had fallen asleep during the school day within the past year (National Sleep Foundation, Dozing). Though adolescents require a larger amount of sleep than younger children, they usually receive much less (Indiana University Center for Adolescent Studies). The amount of sleep a teenager receives affects him or her both physically and mentally. Sleep deprived teenagers are more likely to be irritable, be depressed, not perform up to their capabilities in school, and have a decreased ability to handle complex tasks (National Parent Information Network). Though teenage sleep deprivation is a big problem, some simple solutions such as rescheduling the school day to fit teenagers’ biological needs, setting consistent sleep schedules, and teaching children the importance of proper sleep habits can easily remedy this problem.
Sleep Deprivation and the correlation with depression can cover a range of topics. Stemming from how depression occurs, the symptoms affecting human bodies, treatments, other related sleep disorders. There are several different models used such as the polysomnographic research, (Palagini, 2013) integrative, prospective and retrospective models; along with chronotherapists in a controlled environment stimuli (light and sleep deprivation) seen in Hemmeter’s research was used also in order to conduct the experiments. The literature review critique articles relating to sleep deprivation and correlation with depression.
Sleep deprivation is a commonplace occurrence in modern culture. Every day there seems to be twice as much work and half as much time to complete it in. This results in either extended periods of wakefulness or a decrease in sleep over an extended period of time. While some people may like to believe that they can train their bodies to not require as much sleep as they once did this belief is false (1). Sleep is needed to regenerate certain parts of the body, especially the brain, so that it may continue to function optimally. After periods of extended wakefulness or reduced sleep neurons may begin to malfunction, visibly effecting a person's behavior. Some organs, such as muscles, are able to regenerate even when a person is not sleeping so long as they are resting. This could involve lying awake but relaxed within a quite environment. Even though cognitive functions might not seem necessary in this scenario the brain, especially the cerebral cortex, is not able to rest but rather remains semi-alert in a state of "quiet readiness" (2). Certain stages of sleep are needed for the regeneration of neurons within the cerebral cortex while other stages of sleep seem to be used for forming new memories and generating new synaptic connections. The effects of sleep deprivation on behavior have been tested with relation to the presence of activity in different sections of the cerebral cortex.
Sleeping is something that is an essential part of human nature and is a must in order for one to be a functional human being. Sleep is an idea that is accompanied by many wives’ tales, including the ideas that one needs seven to eight hours of sleep each night and alcohol helps one fall asleep and sleep more soundly. One myth about sleep is that during sleeping, one is in a state of nothingness. In truth, however, it has been discovered that during sleep the brain is active, variations in heartbeat and breathing occur, and the eyes and ears are active throughout the time of sleep. These activities during a person’s sleep are important because they help that person be more aware, awake, and alert during consciousness. 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 in college students. A college student’s sleeping pattern is a reliable indicator to 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 the level of performance and health in an individual; the more rested a person is, the better that person will perform and feel (Dryer, 2006).
The authors and scientists from a different study by the U.S National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health on long and short-term sleep deprivation state directly that “in certain jobs, people face sleep restriction. Some professions such as health care… require working at night. In such fields, the effect of acute total sleep deprivation (SD) on performance is crucial” (Alhola & Polo-Kantola, Sleep deprivation: Impact on cognitive performance). Depending on their schedule, nurses can often be susceptible to sleep deprivation and are no exception, especially if they are working long hours. The study performed research on how acute and chronic sleep deprivation can affect the brain and how it can slow down or worsen thought process and rationality throughout the day for working adults. The authors also explain that “motor function, rhythm, receptive and expressive speech, and memory ...deteriorated after one night of SD.” (Alhola and Polo-Kantola, Sleep deprivation: Impact on cognitive performance) Although everybody is affected by a lack of sleep differently, some might have the ability to handle it a lot better than others, but it is fair to say that no one can perform their jobs perfectly if their brains are being affected by sleep deprivation. This organization concludes this study by explaining that there is still much research that needs to be
In this regard, direct evidence for sleep deprivation in humans has mostly been looked for in indicators of the macro level functioning. Such an approach in solving the problem of the effect of sleep deprivation on neural functioning in humans is incomplete; however, for now, it offers an accessible manner of researching the problem, as well as a possible basis for targeted search for specific mechanisms in human subjects in future
It is a periodic reversible loss of consciousness, in which varying levels of brain activity occur. Despite the multiple stages and cycles experienced in one night of sleep, the average recommended amount of sleep is seven to eight hours. During this lab, we tested the effects of sleep duration on memory. Conducting three trials of sleep, we were able to determine the validity of our hypothesis. Our research results failed to reject our hypothesis, which stated that getting eight hours of sleep would result in the best memory results compared to the other two
Ever since the scientific studies of sleep deprivation among college students has been a problem for many years because of the lack of sleep, the average student receives per night. The lack of a college students good night sleep has been a major issue for college students because it has known that this behavior can cause problems with their well doing in their academics. In recent studies, the average college students get less than seven hours of sleep per night (Porter). Not only have that, but also their own health with risks of sleeping disorders. Sleep deprivation has been a big problem among college students because; it has been able to cause sleep disorders and put their academic career into stress.
In his book, Sleep and Affect: Assessment, Theory, and Clinical Implications, Matthew Felder explains how sleep deprivation affects the brain and specifically the part of the brain that controls emotions (qtd. in Hall). In an interview with the Huffington Post he says, “Current thinking suggests the impact of sleep loss on emotion is likely very complex. One leading idea is that losing sleep impairs functioning of the prefrontal cortex region of the brain. This region of the brain is involved in complex behavior and thinking, including regulating emotional experience. Therefore, it is likely that impaired functioning of the prefrontal cortex plays a critical role in elevated emotionally observed among sleep-deprived people, because our nervous system is less able to reduce emotion once it has been triggered (qtd. in Hall). So besides the lack of focus in class, sleep deprivation can be a serious issue and can cause a lot of harm to everyone
Preliminary Thesis Statement: Sleep deprivation has detrimental effects on the health and academic performance of students.
Swaminathan, Nikhil. "Can a Lack of Sleep Cause Psychiatric Disorders?" Scientific American. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 May 2016.