Sleep Deprivation
Sleep deprivation is much too common these days. If you are trying to find more hours in the day, to get everything done, before you start robbing your vital sleep hours, you must read this first.
Much of modern culture is sleep deprived and this is because people think there is too much to do and not enough time to do it in so in an attempt to add more hours to their day they borrow hours from the sleep bank and then never return them.
This results in either extended periods of wakefulness or a decrease in sleep over an extended period of time. The funny thing is that people really try to convince themselves that they can train their bodies to not require a healthy amount of sleep.
No amount of convincing is going to make that true as a matter of fact since sleep is needed to refuel the body, especially the brain, a lack of sleep is going to result in an eventual meltdown of the body and brain. This will cause a malfunction within the body and will visibly affect a person’s behavior.
Certain parts of the body can rejuvenate on just rest alone such as muscles. However, certain stages of sleep are needed for the regeneration of neurons within the brain and further some stages of sleep require a different level of sleep as they form memories and generate 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. Disrupting the sleep cycle can have dangerous effects on the human body. The sleep cycle is very delicate. It begins as soon as the sun begins to set.
This is when the pineal gland starts to release melatonin. Melatonin is a hormone that the body naturally produces when it gets dark and its job is to make people tired. Naturally this is when you would lay down and allows your muscles relax your heart rate and breathing slow down and body temperature drops.
The next phase occurs a moment after phase one and in this stage the sleeper lays still for about 10 to 15 minutes. After phase two is over, the sleeper falls into a deeper sleep. During this stage, the sleeper falls deeper into phase three which lasts about 5 to 15 minutes.
With a maximum of 15 minutes spent within the phase three cycle, the sleeper then falls into yet another relaxed stage called phase four, lasting a half hour or so. In stage four, the eyes move back and forth very quickly in what’s called rapid eye movement, or REM. This is the point at which the first dream occurs.
After this dream has ended, the sleeper then goes right back to phase two and starts the whole process over again. These processes repeat themselves about five times during the night.
Eight hours and fifteen minutes is believed to be the ideal physiological amount of time that the body requires for proper sleep time. When the body does not get this amount of sleep over a consistent basis the result in sleep deprivation which can lead to impaired glucose tolerance the central nervous system becomes more active, something that inhibits the pancreas from producing adequate insulin, the hormone the body needs to digest glucose.
Sleep deprivation throws people’s body’s right out of whack causing slurring speech and impaired judgment. People actually get accustomed to feeling this way and in turn always feel bad. Besides being all-together enjoyable, sleep is necessary for people to lead normal, productive lives. The effects of sleep deprivation are many, such as irritability, lack of concentration, mood swings, emotional and physical deterioration.
The physical and mental health of many Americans is being adversely affected by a lack of sleep. About one in ten are consistently failing to get enough sleep every night. Sleep is essential to health and it influences ones quality of life and their behavior.
Sleep has a massive impact on general and metal health. Sleep affects the ability to function, learn, create, perform jobs and live their lives fully and enjoyably. During sleep the body recuperates and energy is restored. The brain consolidates and organizes information gathered during waking hours, conceiving new ideas and creative thoughts. Sleep deprivation can make one feel unwell, tired, moody and temperamental with emotions disturbed and thoughts unclear. Levels of concentration focus and cognitive function can be seriously reduced, jeopardizing judgment and decision-making abilities. Longer term sleep deprivation can lower natural immunity and ability to fight off many illnesses. It can cause a variety of serious problems with sad consequences.
Consider the people that are always working without getting the required amount of sleep. Doctors and surgeons, especially interns work endless hours with only short catnaps in between.
They are very rarely able to get to a deeper level of sleep. Many other people are finding that with the economy that they have to work extra shifts or sometimes even get an additional job to make ends meet but at what cost to their health? Also, at what cost to their quality of performance?
People need 7 - 9 hours of sleep (8 being the ideal) each night in order for the body to run efficiently. Deprive the body of sleep and one will experience lousy fat loss. One also gets muscle loss which lowers the metabolism. The reason for this is because without enough sleep the body stops producing anabolic hormones.
To top it off, there is research that indicates that sleep deprivation creates cravings and binges in addition to hardening of the arteries which leads to heart attacks. If you don’t think that you have enough time to sleep, then turn off the TV and make the time!