Written by: Simon Sangat - 22019, Grade XI
Posted on: 25 January, 2021
It is found that an average person spends about 26 years sleeping throughout their life which means that we spend ⅓ of our lives sleeping. Astonishingly, we also spent 7 years trying to sleep. We all know how sleep affects our wellbeing and its significance in our lives, but still, nowadays, sleep deprivation is a way of life for many college students and other adults. Sleep deprivation can affect one’s behavior and can hamper brain functioning vigorously. People who are sleep deprived usually suffer from lower cognitive and then physical performance. They tend to have poor critical thinking but also people underestimate the negative impacts of sleep loss. A question might arise, “why do we sleep?”, given that we spend almost one-third of our lives sleeping, it must serve an important purpose, so what might that purpose be? The main purpose of sleep is to rest our body and mind so that it can function properly. During sleep, it may not seem like we are doing much but actually while sleeping our memories get stored in our subconscious mind. The most promising theory of sleep so far is that it plays a major role in the brain's connectivity and plasticity. People who are sleep deprived struggle with focusing on one thing and regulating their emotions. If sleep deprivation continues, it can affect one’s overall health and makes them prone to serious medical conditions such as obesity, heart diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes, insomnia, etc. Moreover, people who are sleep-deprived go through fatigue, lack concentrating power, headache, irritability, and constant mood swings. After only 3 or 4 nights without sleep, one can start to hallucinate, which is a very terrifying disorder. Medical conditions or mental disorders such as anxiety and depression might be caused due to a lack of sleep. For an average young person, 7-8 hours of sleep is a necessity and doctors also advise not to compromise on sleep as it may lead to various other mental and physical illnesses. In order to enhance long-term memory and cognitive abilities, one must not disrupt one circadian rhythm and should attain a quality sleep cycle. Hence, prolonged sleep deprivation can cause serious mental, physical and psychological disorders. For attaining a healthy lifestyle and wellbeing one’s body and mind must function properly, we can now conclude that sleep is extremely important to us, and sleep deprivation affects our mental abilities and emotional state.
References:
Micheal W. Passer & Ronald E. Smith, “ PSYCHOLOGY, the science of mind and behavior”, 3rd edition.2007.
