Essay #3 - Sleep Deprivation

Student name: Luis Murillo Garcia

Course: English III

Essay #3 – Sleep Deprivation

Date: 23/10/12

 

Introduction

What is sleep deprivation?  Sleep deprivation is the condition of not having enough sleep; it can be either chronic or acute. Part of physical consequences of sleep deprivation, deficits in attention and working memory are perhaps the most important. Sleep deprivation can sometimes be self-imposed due to a lack of desire to sleep or the habitual use of stimulant drugs. A chronic sleep-restricted state can cause visual memory capacity, daytime sleepiness and weight gain.

 

Sleep deprivation has adverse consequences for a variety of cognitive functions. The exact effects of sleep deprivation, though, are dependent upon the cognitive process examined. Within working memory, for example, some component processes are more vulnerable to sleep deprivation than others. Additionally, the differential impacts on cognition of different types of sleep deprivation have not been well studied. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of one night of total sleep deprivation and 4 nights of partial sleep deprivation (4 hours in bed/night) on two components of visual working memory: capacity and filtering efficiency. Forty-four healthy young adults were randomly assigned to one of the two sleep deprivation conditions. All participants were studied: 1) in a well-rested condition (following 6 nights of 9 hours in bed/night); and 2) following sleep deprivation, in a counter-balanced order. Visual working memory testing consisted of two related tasks. The first measured visual working memory capacity and the second measured the ability to ignore distractor stimuli in a visual scene (filtering efficiency). Results showed neither type of sleep deprivation reduced visual working memory capacity. Total sleep deprivation, on the other hand, did impair performance in the filtering task. These results suggest components of visual working memory are differentially vulnerable to the effects of sleep deprivation, and different types of sleep deprivation impact visual working memory to different degrees. Such findings have implications for operational settings where individuals may need to perform with inadequate sleep and whose jobs involve receiving an array of visual information and discriminating the relevant from the irrelevant prior to making decisions or taking actions (e.g., baggage screeners, air traffic controllers, military personnel, health care providers). (Drummond, Apr2012,)[1]

 

Nowadays some  people has days when they feel sleepy. But for some people, excessive sleepiness actually gets in the way of daily work. The problem of daytime sleepiness usually starts at night. Even missing just a few nights  sleep, or not getting enough uninterrupted sleep. Poor sleep habits are often the cause of daytime sleepiness.  Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) is a common complaint encountered in neurological practice. Neurologists are likely to encounter patients with EDS, not only because of the neurological nature of the symptom itself, but also because many primary neurological disorders are associated with disordered sleep, including Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia, Parkinson's disease, other neurodegenerative conditions, peripheral neuropathy, neuromuscular disorders, epilepsy and chronic pain syndromes.

[2] (Brooks, 2000).

In this era, a lot of people ignore their quality and quantity of sleep. For them, sleeping is only an activity which must be done to run away from their hustle and bustle schedule. Each person need to take serious and think in your eating habits because the hustle of day to day activities are very frequently and no have good habits to eat only eat in a fast food restaurants. They should know that eating at fast food restaurants; you will gain weight very fast because it does not have a proper nutritional management.

 

Conclusion

Little sleep can affect our intellectual capabilities, emotions, and motor performances. To reduce our behavior in sleep deprivation, we can manage our activity so that we have time to sleep. We need to change the attitude that to be more productive. We must be aware that one-third of our life in this world is spent for sleeping and taking rest, which indirectly, are very important to the success of two-third others in our life. Some tips to improve sleep Go to bed and get up at the same time every day, don't go to bed either hungry or stuffed and

Create a room that's ideal for sleeping.

---

[1] (Drummond, Apr2012,)[1]  PLoS ONE; Apr2012, Vol. 7 Issue 4, p1-8, 8p

 

[2] (Brooks, 2000) Excessive daytime sleepiness, 2000