Research why sleep is so important to health, learning, and memory formation. Include details and statistics about why you should make it a priority in your daily life.
Sleep is a very large part of a person’s life. As humans, we each need around seven to eight hours of sleep a day to be able to function to the best standard, which is what everyone wants to be able to do. Many studies have been done that have come to the conclusion that sleep deprivation can possibly lead to many health problems and the harming of bodily functions. These harming of bodily functions can include: the heart, lungs or kidneys; appetite, metabolism and weight control; immune function and disease resistance; sensitivity to pain; reaction time; mood; and brain function. Everyone needs sleep, no matter what age. One can still have the previously mentioned harms if they are young or old, or if they are male or female. [Brody, Jane E., June 17, 2013]1 Many studies have been conducted on men and women both related to sleep. One of these experiments was done on young healthy men. They were not allowed any more than four hours of sleep a night for six nights. The results were disturbing. The men had insulin and blood sugar like those of people who were said to be pre-diabetic. Additionally, the experiment reviled that people who slept less than six hours a night have a higher risk of cardiovascular diseases and strokes. [Brody, Jane E., June 17, 2013]1 Another study, which was done in Japan, found out interesting results. This experiment used 24,000 women between the ages of forty to seventy-nine. Some were only permitted no more than six hours of sleep a day (just like in the last experiment), but others could sleep longer. The results were women who slept less than six hours of sleep a night were more likely to have breast cancer. One possible reason for this could possibly be from not having enough of the sleep hormone melatonin. [Brody, Jane E., June 17, 2013]1 Sleep deficiency does not only affect adults. It affects children just as much. When children are in a deep sleep, a growth hormone is released. This helps children to grow and it also increases muscle mass, and repairs damaged cells and tissues. [Brody, Jane E., June 17, 2013]1 According to this study, not obtaining enough sleep does not only result in health problems. It also results in memory loss. Take for instance: a student (Tom) has a major test the following day. He stays up till two o’clock in the morning reviewing the information and only gets five hours of sleep. While another student (Marco), with the same class, goes to sleep 3 hours earlier. Marco is able to have around eight hours of sleep. The student that does better on the test is Marco, even though he was not able to study as much as Tom. This is because the brain of Marco was able to process the newly learned information. [N/A, June 4, 2013] From my research, the reason why sleep should be a priority in your life is because sleep affects your mind, body, and soul. Sources: 1. Brody, Jane E. "Cheating Ourselves of Sleep." Well Cheating Ourselves of Sleep Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2013. . 2. "Sleep Deprivation and Memory Loss." WebMD. WebMD, 03 Jan. 0000. Web. 07 Nov. 2013. .
Sleep can make or break your day in many ways, if you get a bad nights’ sleep it can make you groggy, grumpy, and upset. But a lack of sleep can also be a relatively dangerous thing to live without, it can lower your immune system, suppress growth, invite disease, and many other potentially dangerous aftereffects. The optimal amount of sleep is 7-9 hours for adults and 8-9.5 hours for teens, failing to reach these numbers repeatedly can result in sleep debt, a state where you are very mentally, emotionally, and physically fatigued. Sleep debt also results in diminished ability to perform high cognitive functions. (Wikipedia, Nov. 8, 2013)4 Memory processing is affected by the lack of sleep quite extremely. Turner, Drummond, Salamat, and Brown tested a group of men and women that showed that after several nights of sleep deprivation (26 minutes of sleep), memory span was decreased by around 38%. (Wikipedia, Nov. 8, 2013)4 A lack of sleep will cause excess cortisol excretion, one of the primary hormones of stress response. This in turn may lead to the malfunction of the hormone insulin, which can lead to Type 2 Diabetes. Type 2 Diabetes is a mayor factor in chronic diseases like Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease, and cancer. All of these diseases are affected majorly by glucose and if the insulin receptors malfunction then many things can go wrong, starting with Type 2 Diabetes. Insulin malfunctions come about because of a gene that has been turned on or off by the lack of sleep, this gene can be reversed, but it takes a big change in lifestyle, and getting plenty of sleep a night. (Dave Mayo, December 4, 2012)3 Sleep loss can lead to increased DNA methylation and has been linked to several chronic inflammatory health conditions. (Dr. Geoff Lencovin, July 6, 2012)2. Sleep deprivation also puts you at risk of a heart attack, heart failure, an irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure, and a stroke. Another medical issue that is linked to extreme lack of sleep is depression. In a 2005 Sleep in America poll, people diagnosed with depression or anxiety were more likely to sleep less than six hours a night. The most common sleep disorder, insomnia, is very closely linked with depression, in fact anyone with insomnia is five times more likely to develop depression. In fact sometimes insomnia is the first symptom of depression. Sleep and depression play off each other, if you get more sleep you may be less likely to be depressed, but if you are depressed, it is most likely that you don’t get enough sleep. (Camille Peri, Sept 14, 2012)1 Sleep loss also affects your alertness, reaction time, instincts, reasoning, concentration, and many other simple functions of the brain. It also affects sex drive by lowering hormones and libidos, contributing to lack of interest and therefore, no sex. Lack of sleep also ages your skin, affecting it negatively in the long term, lackluster skin and hard cut lines in the face as well as dark bags under the eyes. Losing sleep can also make you gain weight, a lack of sleep leads to increased hunger and appetite, and possibly to obesity. It also stimulates cravings for high fat food and increases you possibilities of becoming obese by 30%, so sleep more to lose more! Lack of sleep also leads to decreased mortality, the less you sleep the more likely you are to die earlier, especially by cardiovascular disease. Finally, sleep impairs your judgment, especially about sleep! So the less you sleep increases the likelihood of not being able to accurately identify what the lack of sleep is doing to them, and because sleep influences judgment so much, if you don’t get sleep you can’t accurately judge your level of functioning. (Camille Peri, Sept 14, 2012)1 Sleep is ridiculously important to your body, mind, sanity, memory, health in general, and so many other things. All you have to do to find the advantages of sleeping well every night is flip each of the dangers and problems from lack of sleep and tah-dah you have the advantages, and there are many of those. So sleep plenty and live plenty!
Sources: 1. “10 things to hate about sleep loss.” WebMD. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Nov. 2013.. http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/excessive-sleepiness-10/10-results-sleep-loss
2. “You are what you eat, sleep and exercise.” Dr. Geoff Lecovin. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Nov. 2013. http://drgeofflecovin.com/?p=534
3. “Epigenetics: Why you should care about sleep, physical activity, and what you eat.” Synergy Health and Wellness. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Nov. 2013 http://synergyhw.blogspot.com/2012/12/epigeneticswhy-you-should-care-about.html
Many high school students get projects and essays as homework from teachers everyday; however, they procrastinate and end up working on homework the night before or even early morning before the assignment is due. We know that not sleeping enough can affect school life in many ways. For example, it makes you tired and not fully awake. Headaches and dizziness may also happen. In recent studies, scientists have found out that while sleeping, our brain metabolic waste products of neural activity are cleared out. The clearing often happens while sleeping because it requires high amounts of energy from the brain and it disturbs thinking. People daze off when they have not had enough sleep. This happens because the brain is processing the clearing out of waste from their brain it was not able to accomplish at night. When people are dazing off and feeling hazy, they seem like they are in another place and unconscious. This is because the brain cannot receive energy for thinking. If that person can keep on dazing off and processing the clearing, it is fine, but most of the time, you can’t. Then the waste gets accumulated, possibly causing Alzheimer disease and many other diseases of the nervous system. (Maiken Nedergaard, 18 October 2013) Why do humans sleep? This question has been a major topic of controversy, but now that we know about the theory of the brain “taking out the trash”, scientists are trying to understand it further and use it to develop a remedy for diseases of the nervous system. The idea that sleeping a lot over the weekend to makeup for the loss of sleep during the week is useless, as the damages the brain suffered cannot be reversed. This can be interpreted after we know about the clearing. This is my interpretation, but probably our brain has to dispose a certain amount of waste every day as a norm. Then, after a few days of not sleeping enough, the waste that has not been cleared and the waste we produce every day by thinking and studying will pile up. This will seriously affect the person’s concentration and, by the time the person, has time to make-up for loss sleep, there will be a serious damage in the brain. The clearing is a very recent study and there should be more information coming. I know many people who aren’t sleeping at all so this is something we all should know.
Source: Sleep Drives Metabolite Clearance from the Adult Brain http://www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6156/373 http://irorio.jp/asteroid-b-612/20131018/82565/
Sleep and health. Sleep is essential to human health. Lack of sleep may affect several key functions of the body, including: brain and nervous system, cardiovascular system, metabolic functions, and the immune system. Poor sleeping habits in early childhood has been found to be linked to later substance abuse. (Why sleep is important and what happens when you don’t get enough, American Psychological Association)Lack of sleep may lead to increased hyper activity and the heightening of the symptoms of ADHD. (ADHD and Sleep, National Sleep Foundation) Sleep and learning. Scientists have been able to precisely quantify brain waves and the location of changed activity of brain activity as people slept. A series of experiments conducted by the Massachusetts General Hospital showed sleep resulted in improved speed and accuracy of subjects performing motor tasks new to them. This was closely associated with the delta wave activity in the top middle part of the brain activated during the sleep. ( New Study Shows How Sleep Helps Improve Learning, Psych Central) Sleep and memory formation. Sleeping helps strengthen memories you gained through the day. It helps link newer memories to older ones. Sleep before formation can help your brain for the formation of memories. The non-REM stages of sleep help prepare for memory formation. Lack of sleep affects the Hippocampus, the part of the brain related to memory formation. REM sleep plays a role in linking new memories to older ones. ( Sleep On It How Snoozing Strengthens Memory, News In Health) 1. http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/08/21/new-study-shows-how-sleep-helps-improve-learning/58708.html 2. http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/issue/apr2013/feature2 3. http://www.sleepfoundation.org/article/sleep-topics/adhd-and-sleep 4. http://www.apa.org/topics/sleep/why.aspx#
Even with the advances of technology, sleep is still not fully understood in the scientific field. Recently, advances have been made that allow scientist to observe how sleep patters can influence genetics in much greater ways than previously thought [Amanda Crocker and Amita Sehgal, May 8, 2013]1. It was already apparent that people with a lack of sleep or that are sleep deprived tend to get obese and suffer cardiovascular problems but it is not until now that we can observe a significant influence on our genetics [Eryn Brown, March 01, 2013]2. A test was preformed with 26 volunteers in which for 8 days, they were given insufficient sleep including an “all-nighter”. Scientists observed how hundreds of genes were expressed differently after this. Stress reaction genes were turned up and others that renew tissue cells were turned down [Eryn Brown, March 01, 2013]2. Sleep is still a mystery in the scientific community. We know it is necessary for survival, yet there is no specific purpose for it. Poor sleep can cause he body to produce more stress hormone, cortisol, and the appetite stimulating hormone ghrelin. This contributes to the well known consequences of a bad sleep pattern. A test was preformed with healthy adults, in which they were given only 6 hours of sleep for 12 days (they usually slept 5.7 hours). After this test, blood was drawn every 3 hours for total of 10 samples. Overall, 711 genes were expressed differently in the people that were not able to get more sleep. They observed that 444 genes were turned down and 267 were amplified. It was apparent that genes involving inflammation, immunity an protein damage were activated. This meant that tissue damage was occurring along with sleep depravation genetics [Eryn Brown, March 01, 2013]2. Scientists can observe how sleep patterns when young, can affect ones overall health in the future. Kids that do not get enough sleep can suffer the consequences in their later years. It is important for people of all ages to get sufficient sleep to be healthy. Kids, need enough sleep to let their body grow physically and mentally. Scientist have found that the average needed sleep time is around 8.5 hour [Genevra Pittman, may 27, 2013]3.
Source: 1. "Genetic Analysis of Sleep." Genetic Analysis of Sleep. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2013.
2. Brown, Eryn. "Sleep Deprivation Has Genetic Consequences, Study Finds." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 01 Mar. 2013. Web. 02 Dec. 2013.
Sleep is a very large part of a person’s life. As humans, we each need around seven to eight hours of sleep a day to be able to function to the best standard, which is what everyone wants to be able to do. Many studies have been done that have come to the conclusion that sleep deprivation can possibly lead to many health problems and the harming of bodily functions. These harming of bodily functions can include: the heart, lungs or kidneys; appetite, metabolism and weight control; immune function and disease resistance; sensitivity to pain; reaction time; mood; and brain function. Everyone needs sleep, no matter what age. One can still have the previously mentioned harms if they are young or old, or if they are male or female. [Brody, Jane E., June 17, 2013]1
ReplyDeleteMany studies have been conducted on men and women both related to sleep. One of these experiments was done on young healthy men. They were not allowed any more than four hours of sleep a night for six nights. The results were disturbing. The men had insulin and blood sugar like those of people who were said to be pre-diabetic. Additionally, the experiment reviled that people who slept less than six hours a night have a higher risk of cardiovascular diseases and strokes. [Brody, Jane E., June 17, 2013]1
Another study, which was done in Japan, found out interesting results. This experiment used 24,000 women between the ages of forty to seventy-nine. Some were only permitted no more than six hours of sleep a day (just like in the last experiment), but others could sleep longer. The results were women who slept less than six hours of sleep a night were more likely to have breast cancer. One possible reason for this could possibly be from not having enough of the sleep hormone melatonin. [Brody, Jane E., June 17, 2013]1
Sleep deficiency does not only affect adults. It affects children just as much. When children are in a deep sleep, a growth hormone is released. This helps children to grow and it also increases muscle mass, and repairs damaged cells and tissues. [Brody, Jane E., June 17, 2013]1
According to this study, not obtaining enough sleep does not only result in health problems. It also results in memory loss. Take for instance: a student (Tom) has a major test the following day. He stays up till two o’clock in the morning reviewing the information and only gets five hours of sleep. While another student (Marco), with the same class, goes to sleep 3 hours earlier. Marco is able to have around eight hours of sleep. The student that does better on the test is Marco, even though he was not able to study as much as Tom. This is because the brain of Marco was able to process the newly learned information. [N/A, June 4, 2013]
From my research, the reason why sleep should be a priority in your life is because sleep affects your mind, body, and soul.
Sources:
1. Brody, Jane E. "Cheating Ourselves of Sleep." Well Cheating Ourselves of Sleep Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2013. .
2. "Sleep Deprivation and Memory Loss." WebMD. WebMD, 03 Jan. 0000. Web. 07 Nov. 2013. .
Sleep can make or break your day in many ways, if you get a bad nights’ sleep it can make you groggy, grumpy, and upset. But a lack of sleep can also be a relatively dangerous thing to live without, it can lower your immune system, suppress growth, invite disease, and many other potentially dangerous aftereffects. The optimal amount of sleep is 7-9 hours for adults and 8-9.5 hours for teens, failing to reach these numbers repeatedly can result in sleep debt, a state where you are very mentally, emotionally, and physically fatigued. Sleep debt also results in diminished ability to perform high cognitive functions. (Wikipedia, Nov. 8, 2013)4
ReplyDeleteMemory processing is affected by the lack of sleep quite extremely. Turner, Drummond, Salamat, and Brown tested a group of men and women that showed that after several nights of sleep deprivation (26 minutes of sleep), memory span was decreased by around 38%. (Wikipedia, Nov. 8, 2013)4
A lack of sleep will cause excess cortisol excretion, one of the primary hormones of stress response. This in turn may lead to the malfunction of the hormone insulin, which can lead to Type 2 Diabetes. Type 2 Diabetes is a mayor factor in chronic diseases like Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease, and cancer. All of these diseases are affected majorly by glucose and if the insulin receptors malfunction then many things can go wrong, starting with Type 2 Diabetes. Insulin malfunctions come about because of a gene that has been turned on or off by the lack of sleep, this gene can be reversed, but it takes a big change in lifestyle, and getting plenty of sleep a night. (Dave Mayo, December 4, 2012)3
Sleep loss can lead to increased DNA methylation and has been linked to several chronic inflammatory health conditions. (Dr. Geoff Lencovin, July 6, 2012)2. Sleep deprivation also puts you at risk of a heart attack, heart failure, an irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure, and a stroke. Another medical issue that is linked to extreme lack of sleep is depression. In a 2005 Sleep in America poll, people diagnosed with depression or anxiety were more likely to sleep less than six hours a night. The most common sleep disorder, insomnia, is very closely linked with depression, in fact anyone with insomnia is five times more likely to develop depression. In fact sometimes insomnia is the first symptom of depression. Sleep and depression play off each other, if you get more sleep you may be less likely to be depressed, but if you are depressed, it is most likely that you don’t get enough sleep. (Camille Peri, Sept 14, 2012)1
Sleep loss also affects your alertness, reaction time, instincts, reasoning, concentration, and many other simple functions of the brain. It also affects sex drive by lowering hormones and libidos, contributing to lack of interest and therefore, no sex. Lack of sleep also ages your skin, affecting it negatively in the long term, lackluster skin and hard cut lines in the face as well as dark bags under the eyes. Losing sleep can also make you gain weight, a lack of sleep leads to increased hunger and appetite, and possibly to obesity. It also stimulates cravings for high fat food and increases you possibilities of becoming obese by 30%, so sleep more to lose more! Lack of sleep also leads to decreased mortality, the less you sleep the more likely you are to die earlier, especially by cardiovascular disease. Finally, sleep impairs your judgment, especially about sleep! So the less you sleep increases the likelihood of not being able to accurately identify what the lack of sleep is doing to them, and because sleep influences judgment so much, if you don’t get sleep you can’t accurately judge your level of functioning. (Camille Peri, Sept 14, 2012)1
Sleep is ridiculously important to your body, mind, sanity, memory, health in general, and so many other things. All you have to do to find the advantages of sleeping well every night is flip each of the dangers and problems from lack of sleep and tah-dah you have the advantages, and there are many of those. So sleep plenty and live plenty!
Sources:
ReplyDelete1. “10 things to hate about sleep loss.” WebMD. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Nov. 2013.. http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/excessive-sleepiness-10/10-results-sleep-loss
2. “You are what you eat, sleep and exercise.” Dr. Geoff Lecovin. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Nov. 2013.
http://drgeofflecovin.com/?p=534
3. “Epigenetics: Why you should care about sleep, physical activity, and what you eat.” Synergy Health and Wellness. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Nov. 2013
http://synergyhw.blogspot.com/2012/12/epigeneticswhy-you-should-care-about.html
4. “Sleep.” Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Nov. 2013
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep
Many high school students get projects and essays as homework from teachers everyday; however, they procrastinate and end up working on homework the night before or even early morning before the assignment is due. We know that not sleeping enough can affect school life in many ways. For example, it makes you tired and not fully awake. Headaches and dizziness may also happen. In recent studies, scientists have found out that while sleeping, our brain metabolic waste products of neural activity are cleared out. The clearing often happens while sleeping because it requires high amounts of energy from the brain and it disturbs thinking. People daze off when they have not had enough sleep. This happens because the brain is processing the clearing out of waste from their brain it was not able to accomplish at night. When people are dazing off and feeling hazy, they seem like they are in another place and unconscious. This is because the brain cannot receive energy for thinking. If that person can keep on dazing off and processing the clearing, it is fine, but most of the time, you can’t. Then the waste gets accumulated, possibly causing Alzheimer disease and many other diseases of the nervous system. (Maiken Nedergaard, 18 October 2013)
ReplyDeleteWhy do humans sleep? This question has been a major topic of controversy, but now that we know about the theory of the brain “taking out the trash”, scientists are trying to understand it further and use it to develop a remedy for diseases of the nervous system. The idea that sleeping a lot over the weekend to makeup for the loss of sleep during the week is useless, as the damages the brain suffered cannot be reversed. This can be interpreted after we know about the clearing. This is my interpretation, but probably our brain has to dispose a certain amount of waste every day as a norm. Then, after a few days of not sleeping enough, the waste that has not been cleared and the waste we produce every day by thinking and studying will pile up. This will seriously affect the person’s concentration and, by the time the person, has time to make-up for loss sleep, there will be a serious damage in the brain. The clearing is a very recent study and there should be more information coming. I know many people who aren’t sleeping at all so this is something we all should know.
Source:
Sleep Drives Metabolite Clearance from the Adult Brain
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6156/373
http://irorio.jp/asteroid-b-612/20131018/82565/
Sleep and health. Sleep is essential to human health. Lack of sleep may affect several key functions of the body, including: brain and nervous system, cardiovascular system, metabolic functions, and the immune system. Poor sleeping habits in early childhood has been found to be linked to later substance abuse. (Why sleep is important and what happens when you don’t get enough, American Psychological Association)Lack of sleep may lead to increased hyper activity and the heightening of the symptoms of ADHD. (ADHD and Sleep, National Sleep Foundation)
ReplyDeleteSleep and learning. Scientists have been able to precisely quantify brain waves and the location of changed activity of brain activity as people slept. A series of experiments conducted by the Massachusetts General Hospital showed sleep resulted in improved speed and accuracy of subjects performing motor tasks new to them. This was closely associated with the delta wave activity in the top middle part of the brain activated during the sleep. ( New Study Shows How Sleep Helps Improve Learning, Psych Central)
Sleep and memory formation. Sleeping helps strengthen memories you gained through the day. It helps link newer memories to older ones. Sleep before formation can help your brain for the formation of memories. The non-REM stages of sleep help prepare for memory formation. Lack of sleep affects the Hippocampus, the part of the brain related to memory formation. REM sleep plays a role in linking new memories to older ones. ( Sleep On It How Snoozing Strengthens Memory, News In Health)
1. http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/08/21/new-study-shows-how-sleep-helps-improve-learning/58708.html
2. http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/issue/apr2013/feature2
3. http://www.sleepfoundation.org/article/sleep-topics/adhd-and-sleep
4. http://www.apa.org/topics/sleep/why.aspx#
Reply
Even with the advances of technology, sleep is still not fully understood in the scientific field. Recently, advances have been made that allow scientist to observe how sleep patters can influence genetics in much greater ways than previously thought [Amanda Crocker and Amita Sehgal, May 8, 2013]1. It was already apparent that people with a lack of sleep or that are sleep deprived tend to get obese and suffer cardiovascular problems but it is not until now that we can observe a significant influence on our genetics [Eryn Brown, March 01, 2013]2. A test was preformed with 26 volunteers in which for 8 days, they were given insufficient sleep including an “all-nighter”. Scientists observed how hundreds of genes were expressed differently after this. Stress reaction genes were turned up and others that renew tissue cells were turned down [Eryn Brown, March 01, 2013]2.
ReplyDeleteSleep is still a mystery in the scientific community. We know it is necessary for survival, yet there is no specific purpose for it. Poor sleep can cause he body to produce more stress hormone, cortisol, and the appetite stimulating hormone ghrelin. This contributes to the well known consequences of a bad sleep pattern. A test was preformed with healthy adults, in which they were given only 6 hours of sleep for 12 days (they usually slept 5.7 hours). After this test, blood was drawn every 3 hours for total of 10 samples. Overall, 711 genes were expressed differently in the people that were not able to get more sleep. They observed that 444 genes were turned down and 267 were amplified. It was apparent that genes involving inflammation, immunity an protein damage were activated. This meant that tissue damage was occurring along with sleep depravation genetics [Eryn Brown, March 01, 2013]2. Scientists can observe how sleep patterns when young, can affect ones overall health in the future. Kids that do not get enough sleep can suffer the consequences in their later years. It is important for people of all ages to get sufficient sleep to be healthy. Kids, need enough sleep to let their body grow physically and mentally. Scientist have found that the average needed sleep time is around 8.5 hour [Genevra Pittman, may 27, 2013]3.
Source:
1. "Genetic Analysis of Sleep." Genetic Analysis of Sleep. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2013.
2. Brown, Eryn. "Sleep Deprivation Has Genetic Consequences, Study Finds." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 01 Mar. 2013. Web. 02 Dec. 2013.
3. Pittman, Genevra. "Kids' Genes, Environment Affect Sleep Differently." Reuters. Thomson Reuters, 27 May 2013. Web. 02 Dec. 2013.