The Dangers Of Sleep Deprivation

781 Words4 Pages

Sleep is one of the most essential part of human lives, however a lot of people received inadequate amount of sleep every night and more are becoming sleep deprived. It is important to understand that people of all ages, and ethnicities are at risk of becoming sleep deprived. More specifically, individuals who have limited time for sleep, such as students, people who work a lot of hours either at either one or more jobs, as well as caregivers. Also, those who have schedules that conflict with circadian rhythms such as; shift workers, first responders and individuals who travel for work can also be at risk of suffering from sleep deprivation. Other individuals that could be included would be those whose life style choices do not allow them to …show more content…

From this definition, sleep deprivation is then a general term used to describe “a state caused by inadequate quantity or quality of sleep, including voluntary or involuntary sleeplessness and circadian rhythm sleep disorders” (Doghramji, 2005). Depending on the brain’s nucleus, the amount of sleep needed by a person vary; adults require eight hours of sleep while younger ones need up to nine hours of sleep for each night. Sleep is definitely NOT a bank. You can’t store it up and then go days on little sleep. Nor can you overdraw without penalty and then make up sleep needs on weekends (Crean, …show more content…

Studies shows that missing two night’s sleep can lead to a problem in concentrating and will begin to make mistakes on normal tasks. Three missed nights, person could hallucinate and lose grasp to reality, with that lack of sleep seems to increase its levels. Clinical depression and melancholic symptoms are associated to sleep debt. It may increase the severity of the chronic problems seen in conjunction with aging. It affects carbohydrate metabolism the same way diabetes does and produces higher levels of stress hormone cortisol. People with sleep debt are at more