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Negative Effects of Sleep Deprivation

Page history last edited by Kelly Teague 15 years, 4 months ago

 Sleep Deprived?

How it effects your health, grades, weight, and so much more!

 

 

 

What is Sleep Deprivation?

"The condition of being deprived of sleep either under experimental or under unusual real life conditions, as distinguished from being unable to sleep. The effects of sleep deprivation lead to impaired hearing, sight, brain function, mental alertness, as well as physical ability, meaning slow reflexes and clumsiness. Sleep deprivation is bad for health, leaving one prone to get sick."[1]

 

 

5 Stages of Sleep

  1. Light Sleep; muscle activity slows down
  2. Heart rate and breathing slow down
  3. Deep Sleep Begins
  4. Deep Sleep; Rhythmic breathing, little muscles activity
  5. Rapid eye movement, muscles relax and heart rate increases. Dreaming occurs. 

 

 

 

 

America's Top Reasons for Lack of Sleep

  1. Late Night Eating
  2. Worrying
  3. Sleep Disorder
  4. Too Busy
  5. Anxiety
  6. Medication
  7. Where you live
  8. Napping during the day
  9. Lying in bed when you ARENT tired
  10. Sleeping In

 

 

There are several ways that we are able to become sleep deprived. Some of the reasons, such as marriage conflicts and a new born baby would not apply to the average college student who are full-time students. I am going to select a few of the reasons that will target college students in particular and go over those.

 

Causes of Sleep Deprivation

 

 

Late Night Eating                 

 

  • The 3rd stage of sleep, deep sleep, is missed when people eat a large amount before bedtime. 
  • During a deep sleep a body is unable to repair and rest itself, if is to worried about digesting the food taken in.
  • Even if you get the recommended amount of hours, your body will not be able to rest causing you to toss and turn in the night. Basically meaning you never reached the 3rd of Sleep.
  • Overall this can cause your body to not digest all food and store it properly. Meaning, it is more likely to turn into fat.[2] 

 

 

Late Night Cramming & Studying![3] 

 

  • We all know going to college and never pulling an all-nighter is impossible. But it is proven that if you do get enough sleep you will do better on a test than if you stay up and study all night making it more likely you will do worse!
  • Sleeping helps you to better concentrate.
  • Sleeping helps you better perform.

 

Where You Live

  • Living in a dorm with a roommate and constantly being surrounded by neighbors diminishes your chances of a goodnights sleep.
  • There is always someone up making noise, your roommate staying up late with the lights on, or something going on that seems better or more fun the sleep. 

 

 

So What does this cause overall?

 

Weight gain

 Doing poor in school

Totaling into more stress

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Few Tips on How to get More Sleep:

  • Set a regular bedtime hour
    • Mom & Dad were right not letting you stay up late or sleep in too late during the weekends. Going to bed around the same time every night lets your body began to get in a habit of  knowing it is time for bed. Getting up ( you can allow a 2-3 hour flucuation) at a certain time in the morning lets you establish this sleep pattern.
  • Exercise! 
    • Yes, exercising does help you sleep, as long as its not before bedtime!
  • Avoid Stimulates
    • Drinking caffeine, aka. coffee, soda, ect., will make it harder to fall asleep.
    • Quit Smoking
    • Drinking Alcohol will also increase your chances of not reaching Stage 4 of Sleep.
  • No long naps
    • The longer you nap during the day, the less likely you will need to sleep at night, leaving you tossing and turning.
  • Don't procrastinate for test and pull all-nighters
    • Its proven to cause you to do worse on your test, then actually sleeping and studying less. 
  • Create the right environment to sleep in
    • Turn off all lights
    • The cooler your room is the better you sleep. Just pile on blankets and wear real PJ's if it get to cold
    •  This can be especially hard if you live in a dorm on campus, sorority/ fraternity house. Buy some ear plugs and a sleep mask to help block out unwanted noise and/or light.

Footnotes

  1. http://www.biology-online.org/dictionary/Sleep_deprivation
  2. http://health.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=230695
  3. http://www.education.com/magazine/article/Teen_Naps/

Comments (10)

Nikki Crocco said

at 2:28 pm on Nov 13, 2008

Very well done! Makes me really realize that i need get more organized so i can get enough sleep

Katie Baum said

at 10:48 pm on Nov 18, 2008

Good job! Looks like a lot of time was put into this page! I need to start getting more sleep so I can have a more productive day!

Monique said

at 4:27 pm on Dec 2, 2008

I leared the 5 stages of sleep, and the causes of sleep derivation were very informative. This is a really colorful and interesting article, you did a great good job.

Shea Gibbs said

at 5:01 pm on Dec 2, 2008

This article was very interesting. I def. don't get enough sleep, now i know what to do to help!

Andrea M said

at 9:03 pm on Dec 2, 2008

I definitely don'tget enough sleep! I didn't know that eating before you go to bed could make you not sleep.

Jessica Scott said

at 2:58 am on Dec 3, 2008

very nice page! this article relates directly to me and not getting enough sleep! with this page I learned some tips to get a better sleep such as exercising and turning off all the lights!

Whitney Jones said

at 11:57 am on Dec 3, 2008

I really enjoyed this article! It is very informative and it definitely hit home. Great Job!!

Shona Feistner said

at 4:47 pm on Dec 3, 2008

I loved this article! I try to get enough sleep each night, but it doesn't always happen. I didn't know that late night eating kept an individual from reaching the 3rd stage of sleep. Very interesting!

Samantha Ramirez said

at 7:24 pm on Dec 4, 2008

Good job! Now I can blame my roommates for my sleep deprivation

jriddel said

at 3:27 am on Dec 8, 2008

I'm really hoping that next semester I can get on a much better schedule. Also sleeping in is a reason for lack of sleep? That's interesting!

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