...Sleep Deprivation, Disorders and Drugs Jennifer Mason PSY/240 April 04, 2013 Professor Dugan Sleep Deprivation, Disorders and Drugs There have been many times in my life I did not get enough sleep; in fact it is quite common for this to occur. In my life right now, I have my 3 month old granddaughter and her mother living with us as the baby was recently hospitalized due having reflux disease and is on a very strict eating regiment in order. This means we have to wake her up every two hours to feed her. I also work shifts that can be anywhere from 12-24 hours, needless to say sleep is at the bottom of the list of things to do, and I can definitely feel the effects from the lack of it. Lack of sleep does affect moods, just as your mental state can also affect sleep. Anxiety can increases agitation, which in turn can make it hard to sleep. Stress affects the ability to fall as asleep by making the body wide awake and sensitive to things such as noise. Individuals such as me who are under constant stress or may have exaggerated responses to life stressors will often time have sleep problems. For me lack of sleep makes me cranky, irritable and unable to concentrate or focus on anything. It seems that the more I want to be able to sleep, the less I am able too. I am so focused on not getting sleep, I work myself up to a point I cannot sleep at all. Sleep deprivation, can have significant cognitive risks that are associated with it. One may have trouble performing...
Words: 932 - Pages: 4
...Unfortunately, we usually take away from our time to sleep to make room for other things. Not getting the recommended seven to eight hours of sleep each night is very dangerous. There are significant dangers and risks that come with not getting enough shut eye and we don’t take them seriously. Insufficient sleep causes the inability to assess the safety of an environment, which can lead to accidents in the workplace. Other risks are obesity, poor heart health, poor mental health, lower mortality rates, depression, and anxiety. In addition to these dangers, having lack of sleep puts us at risk for being involved in automobile accidents. When we skimp on sleep, we are putting ourselves in danger of hurting ourselves and others around us. There are only 24 hours in a day, and as we get busier, we make everything but sleep a priority in our day. What we are really doing is setting ourselves up for destruction. When we are tired or under-rested, our brains cannot process things as accurately as they can when we have gotten a sufficient amount of sleep. William Dement expands on this in “Sleep Debt and The Mortgaged Mind”. “Sleep problems affect virtually every aspect of day-to-day living, including mood, mental alertness, work performance and energy level” (Epstein, 472). When we don’t give our bodies the sleep it needs, it cannot function physically or mentally in the capacity that we need it to in order to be safe. In “Sleep Debt and The Mortgaged Mind” written by William Dement...
Words: 1327 - Pages: 6
...Sleep Deprivation Abstract Sleep is one of our basic needs to survive, however in the modern days sleep deprivation in increasing more and more each day, causing accidents and medical problems for the people and the community. This essay will look at the meaning of sleep and sleep deprivation and the basic perspectives on what motivates sleep and sleep deprivation with the five perspectives; evolutionary, psychodynamic, behaviourist, cognitive and the hierarchy of needs. This essay will also evaluate the best perspective to eliminate sleep deprivation with the cases studies discussing the general hypothesis of sleep and sleep deprivation. Basic Perspectives on Motivation: Evaluating Five Accounts for Sleep and Sleep Deprivation Sleep is one of our basic needs to survive and to function in day to day operations, but not everyone needs the same amount of sleep. Some people can survive on very little sleep, i.e. five hours a night, and some people need a lot of sleep, to the extend that they are sleeping up to 10 to sometimes 15 hours a night (Nature, 2005). According to Wilson (2005) the general rule states that most people need from seven to eight hours of sleep. The deprivation of sleep in our society in continually increasing with the demands in society increasing work loads, the myth that a few hours of sleep is only necessary to function properly and that sleep is sometimes considered as killing time (Nature, 2005). Sometimes sleep deprivation is also caused by other...
Words: 3736 - Pages: 15
...Sleep Deprivation Sleep is one of the most important things a person does each day. It allows the body to rest and to replenish itself so that it is better able to serve its function of living. Yet, many people who don't have enough hours in the day to do everything have to cut out sleep before any other activity. This could be due to the fact that the person is suffering from sleep loss which is commonly known as sleep deprivation. WebMD.com defines sleep deprivation as a sufficient lack of restorative sleep over a cumulative period so as to cause physical or psychiatric symptoms and affect routine performances of tasks. Most adults need 7 to 8 hours a night for the best amount of sleep, although some people may need as few as 5 hours or as many as 10 hours of sleep each day. The average human adult needs eight hours of sleep every night. When this number is not met the body starts to show side effects which include irritability, slowed performance, impaired creativity, concentration, and commutation. Sleep deprivation entails difficulty studying, diminished productivity, tendency to make mistakes, and irritability fatigue. Causes of sleep deprivation can be divided into two main broad areas: lifestyle and medication. Fatigue and sleeplessness are often a direct result of lifestyle choices. For example, drinking caffeine or alcohol before bedtime is among the most common causes of sleep deprivation. Medication can interfere with the body's natural rhythms, causing restlessness...
Words: 365 - Pages: 2
...July 20, 2012 Lesson 7 Cause and Effect Essay Rough Draft May 30, 2012 Effects of Sleep Deprivation Getting the proper amount of sleep can be very rewarding. You wake up feeling refreshed and ready to take on the day. Sleep is also required to maintain health and allowing your body time to repair itself from hectic days. The effects of sleep deprivation are many, and the effects can be not only harmful, but deadly. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website on sleep, “insufficient sleep is associated with…diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and depression.” America is already becoming a heavier nation with increasing health problems due to poor eating habits and lack of exercise, and a lack of sleep only exacerbates these already dangerous problems. Even with exercise several times a week and maintaining a healthy diet, sleep deprivation will eventually take a toll on one’s body. It can also advance the aging process, making a person feel and appear much older than they may actually be. Driving when you are drowsy may have the same effect as a person who is under the influence of alcohol or drugs, impairing a driver’s ability to remain aware of their surroundings. However, because they are not technically breaking the law, people may drive even if they have been out or working all night. Many people believe that they can handle the sleepiness and don’t realize the danger they may be facing. This is a simple...
Words: 435 - Pages: 2
...Sleep Deprivation Psy / 240 Alexander Raftice August 23, 2013 I can say that the one time that I have had very little sleep is when I did this project in my high school psychology class where I deprived my body of sleep for four whole days. The way it affected my mood was really unpredictable. One moment I would be fine and happy others I would be irritable to a fault. Anyways the first day I was fine and functioned well the whole next day. On day two I started to slur my speech and had issues staying awake so I was getting irritable because I was tired. The third day I felt completely numb in side and nothing could seem to reach through the haze I was in and on the fourth and final day I was starting to hallucinate which I figured was a bad sign and stopped the experiment. According to the DSM IV, some psychiatric disorders have fatigue as a major symptom. Included are: major depressive disorder (includes postpartum blues), minor depression, diathermia, mixed anxiety-depression, SAD and bipolar disorder. Stress is the number one cause of short-term sleeping difficulties, according to sleep experts. Common triggers include school- or job-related pressures, a family or marriage problem and a serious illness or death in the family. Usually the sleep problem disappears when the stressful situation passes. However, if short-term sleep problems such as insomnia aren't managed properly from the beginning, they can persist long after the original stress...
Words: 788 - Pages: 4
...Sleep Deprivation, Disorder, and Drugs Psy/240 May 29, 2011 Roberto Vado Sleep Deprivation, Disorder, and Drugs Sleep deprivation and disorders are problems that many people deal with every day. As a mother of three small children, two of which are twins, I have many experiences with lack of sleep. My most recent experience with sleep deprivation was in the last month I was so stressed out that it made me physically ill. I had such an awful stomach ache that it kept me up at night. I would fall asleep and be awake an hour later, then fall back to sleep two hours later and be awake again in 45 minutes. It was like this for a month and it did not start getting better until a couple of days ago. My experience does coincide with the effects of sleep deprivation described in the text. “When you sleep substantially less than you are used to, the next day you feel crabby and unable to function as well as you usually do”(Pinel, 2009). Sleep deprivation made me feel very sleepy. If I did not keep myself busy I would fall asleep on the couch, which would scare me because then my children were unsupervised. I also felt very irritable. I would get very angry over small things that normally would not upset me. I also would feel like I could not function normal. When I would try to read school work the words would seem to scramble together. Long-term sleep deprivation has many effects on a person. “One of the most important findings of human sleep deprivation research...
Words: 835 - Pages: 4
...The key terms used throughout this essay are sleep, sleep deprivation, the evolutionary perspective (EP), psychodynamic perspective (PP), and the behaviourist perspective (BP) (see glossary for definitions). Sleep deprivation has a prevalence of about 10% among Australians (Burton, Westen, & Kowalski, 2012 pp. 199). Symptoms of sleep deprivation include difficulty falling and staying asleep, being irritable, feeling tired and fatigued etc. (Burton, Westen, & Kowalski, 2012 pp. 198). The consequences can include weakened immune and motor functions, memory and attention deficits, incapability of tolerating stress and overall bad health among others (Burton, Westen, & Kowalski, 2012 pp. 198/199). The rationale for the essay is to evaluate three psychological perspectives to explain the motivation for sleep and sleep deprivation among Australian adults. The three perspectives that will be evaluate are the evolutionary, psychodynamic and behaviourist perspectives. It will be argued that the BP is the best perspective for understanding sleep and sleep deprivation....
Words: 470 - Pages: 2
...offer insurance (even to their fulltime employees). I started having this horrible toothache and no matter what I used the pain would not subside. My mother ended up sending me some of her medicine after about a month of agonizing pain, the additional stress and discomfort really took a toll on my sleep schedule. I was up when I should’ve been getting precious hours of sleep and I was working at six AM so I was completely drained. I began to forget things both small and important, my energy level was non-existent, I was too exhausted to cook a good meal, I’d get frequent headaches and my patience with my daughter was minimal. When I finally began to feel relief I was still so used to being up late that it took weeks to regain my schedule, I instantly was back into my chipper mood instead of my dreary moody on which I accumulated while sleep deprived. I started to do more things outside of work again (taking walks, family time, visiting friends, going to the movies, playing at the park). When I was sleep deprived I used to get so frustrated that I would just burst out in tears because all I wanted to do was rest. The text book’s description of the side effects of sleep deprivation is exactly as I experienced it. One thing that the textbook stated that I found extremely important was the emphasis of how stress really affects ones sleeping pattern. When an individual is under an overwhelming amount of pressure or there’s confrontation or too many tasks to accomplish our peace...
Words: 774 - Pages: 4
...Sleep Deprivation in the Cockpit Abstract Sleep deprivation has been noted as the primary factor of numerous accidents and near mid-air crashes in the aviation industry for centuries. Pilot’s tend to experience sleep deprivation more frequently than the average human being does, this is due to the long hours of international flights or because of coast to coast type flights. Therefore, establishing an understanding of how sleep deprivation influences a pilot’s performance in the cockpit or an air traffic controller’s judgment is crucial in order to counter fatigue or to develop a strategy to eliminate sleep deprivation all together. The goal of this study will help examine the cause of sleep deprivation as well as focus on techniques that will decrease the chances of sleep deprivation in the cockpit. Sleep deprivation is a common particular occurrence in the aviation community for a variety of reasons. Long-haul flight operations often involve rapid multiple time-zone changes, sleep disturbances, circadian disruptions, and long irregular work schedules. These factors can result in fatigue, cumulative sleep loss, decreases alertness, and decreased performance in long-haul flight crews. Therefore causing operational effectiveness and safety maybe compromised because of pilot and crew fatigue (Crew Factors in Flight Ops). According to the National Transportation Safety...
Words: 1338 - Pages: 6
...Sleep deprivation can lead to numerous health risks. In today’s society there are many factors leading to people being deprived of sleep. Three causes of sleep deprivation are having a newborn child at home, stress, and sleep apnea. When a couple has a baby everyone thinks of how cute and precious it will be. Almost no one thinks of the sleepless nights to come. A newborn child has yet to develop a sleep pattern and so sometimes does not sleep during the normal hours an adult would. As a result, the parents do not get the opportunity to sleep much either. Waking up numerous times throughout the night to answer a baby’s cries disrupts their pattern of sleep and it can be difficult to get back to a nice restful state after having had to get out of bed to tend to the child. Sleep deprivation can also be attributed to stress. It can appear in many forms. It could be a conflict with a coworker, worrying about an upcoming test, or wondering how the bills are going to get paid this month. This is the type of worrisome thinking that can cause people to lose sleep over. They feel that until the problem is resolved, they cannot truly get a good night’s sleep. The end result is tossing and turning all night long in the anguish of whether or not everything will eventually be ok. Another cause of sleep deprivation is sleep apnea. This is a common disorder in which a person has one or more pauses in breathing or shallow breaths while they sleep. Usually a chronic condition...
Words: 394 - Pages: 2
...Event: Sleep Deprivation The article I read was “Letting Them Sleep In: Sleep Deprivation Effects in Teens” by Elise Duge. Sleep deprivation is something that is common amongst many adolescents. Most teens need about 8½ to more than 9 hours of sleep each night. According to Psychologist and Sleep Disorders expert William David Brown, sleep deprivation affects every aspect of performance. In addition to making you tired and grouchy, Dr. Brown says that it can even lead to car accidents, suicide and homicide. “Dr. Brown says that sleep deprivation can lead to homicide and suicide, because the tendency for sleep deprived teens to react emotionally contributes to extreme or illogical reactions and can cause irritability, anger and many of the drama-filled behaviors we see during this developmental age.” “Dr. Brown’s study of teens at driving age discovered that 75% slept less than seven hours each night, and 17% had fallen asleep at the wheel at least once while driving.” In addition, lack of sleep can also lead to obesity and drug abuse. Sleep time is a factor in obesity, and with a lack of sleep, teens are more likely to be overweight. They’ll also have a more difficult time losing weight when compared to others compared to those who get a good amount of sleep at night. If students can’t get up early in time for school, they might be drawn to sleep medications or stimulating meds and drugs to stay alert during the day. Dr. Brown and many others feel that sleep deprivation can be...
Words: 410 - Pages: 2
...The Effects of Sleep Deprivation Aram Saruni ITT Technical Institute Aram Saruni EN 1320; Composition I Mr. Steven Berndt Research Paper Aguste 11, 2014 The Effects of Sleep Deprivation People today have many problems in their life and sleep deprivation is often a silent stressor. Sleep deprivation can affect any age group of people and getting a few extra hours of sleep on the weekend just it not enough. There is no substitution for sleep. Many people overlook the importance of sleep because they do think that there is a big threat to one’s health. However, this can be very dangerous in the long term. As members of a want it now society, people overlook the importance of sleep due to the fact that people are constantly working. Overlooking the amount people sleep will result in negative health effects, reduced alertness, and the use of pharmaceuticals or other substances. What can be done to prevent and break this silent danger? Sleep deprivation is a problem that with many consequences. There is an alarming lack of awareness about sleep deprivation. To understand how serious sleep deprivation can be, what is the cause or causes it, what are the effects and long term consequences, and one must understand why sleep is important. Sleep is the mental and physical resting state of a person. People go through different stages of sleep and need to go through these stages to get their bodies physically to unwind and mentally rest our brains. Sleep is a necessary...
Words: 1876 - Pages: 8
...head: THE IMPAIRED NURSE: SLEEP DEPRIVATION The Impaired Nurse: Sleep Deprivation Amber Nye, SN Our Lady of Lourdes School of Nursing The Impaired Nurse: Sleep Deprivation The impaired nurse is a major subject matter in evidence based research. Healthcare services are available twenty four hours a day, three hundred-sixty five days a year. With that being stated, shift work is a requirement in the healthcare field. Sleep deprivation is the lack of sleep due to an external stimulus preventing the opportunity of sleeping and this is a commonly known result of shift work in nurses. Sleep disorders commonly occur with nurses who work rotating shifts. Sleep quality is important, but sleep is not just about how many hours you get. Night shift workers have to sleep during the day which may interfere with their body’s rhythm telling them it is daytime and this jeopardizes their sleeping. This is where sleep deprivation comes into play. Shift work is a major source of disturbances in the healthcare profession. Most healthcare employees have no say over which shift they work. Chan (2008) studied this by using subjective measurements. The Karolinska Sleep Questionnaire was used to address nurses’ sleep patterns. Chan (2008) found that sleep deprivation causes symptoms such as arousals, exacerbations of gastrointestinal problems, and lowers threshold. This is because the stress system is activated by this sleep situation and neuro-hormonal...
Words: 1175 - Pages: 5
...alarm clock rings in the morning and they crave for 10 minutes more of extra sleep. In a report conducted by Sleep Health Foundation 2016 Sleep Health Survey of Australian Adults It is apparent that employees lack the duration or quality for sleep. The report says that during work, mistakes are very common in Australian adults affecting 33 – 45 percent. The report also says that 17 percent of workers missed a month’s work due to workers being tired and even worse 17 percent have fallen asleep during working hours. The report highlights that in the past three months 29 percent of adults have reported to making errors and mistakes at work due to bad sleeping patterns and employees are not getting enough sleep....
Words: 1533 - Pages: 7
