The Negative Effects Of Sleep Deprivation

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Ever since the late 1800’s, from when the light bulb was invented, adults in the United States cut their sleeping time from around 9 hours to below 7 hours a night.With the increasing levels of stress that humankind encounters in modern times , it is evident that sleep becomes less of a priority compared to other tasks that need to be accomplished, this could lead to various negative effects to the human body, this research will look for the short and long term effects of this practice, the researchers aims to make the readers realize of how much a threat to one’s health sleep deprivation actually is. The effects of sleep deprivation are starting to get recognized and are becoming apparent based on their attention span and cognitive functions. …show more content…

When the person does not get sleep, it is considered as total sleep deprivation, this is usually seen when a person experiences a situation such as studying all night. The other type of sleep deprivation is partial sleep deprivation where it is more likely due to sleep disorder, medical conditions, medications, work, or lifestyle. Therefore, partial sleep deprivation is most likely to be more evident among the medical practitioners. (Weinger & Ancoli-Israel, 2002). Sleep deprivation can have a huge impact on various cognitive abilities, from executive functions to simple alertness. (Killgore et al., 2008). As stated sleep deprivation has a lot of negative effects, but this research is going to focus more of the short term and long term effects of sleep …show more content…

The effects of sleep deprivation can be separated into two parts, the short term and the long term. Mood, learning capacity, making judgement, risk of accidents are affected by the lack of sleep in the short term. The long term effects however, can lead to severe illnesses and even early death.(Harvard Medical School, n.d.) Previous researches already have shown that sleep deprivation, be it in acute total or chronic partial, has a negative impact on attention and working memory. Total sleep deprivation limits cognitive abilities of a person. (Alhola & Polo-Kantola,