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Natalie Stallard

Professor Cassel

ENG 1201

27 March 2022

Sleep Deprivation

Sleep is a very important part of one’s life. Everyone sleeps and their day is affected by

how well or much sleep they get. There are many different factors that might affect someone’s

sleep. However, the result of having inadequate, or even too much sleep, are countless. The

effects of sleep deprivation can include emotional management difficulties, a decrease in

physical performance, and poor mental health. Sleep is so important that some people who go

too long without it can suffer long term effects on their mental health. For many people sleep

deprivation can be an issue that prevents them from achieving their daily goals or participating

in physical activities. Overall, sleep has a very large effect on the mental, physical, and

emotional health of people. Additionally, sleep affects muscle growth and performance in school,

sports, and work.

The history of sleep goes way back into the 1700s. When sleep first started being

studied, the main focus was dreams. It took a long time for researchers to begin looking into the

correlation between sleep and health. The 1920’s was when sleep and health started being

directly studied by scientists. Nathanie Kleitman Began this journey by opening a sleep lab to

conduct studies On circadian rhythm and all of the effects that can be caused by chronic sleep

deprivation. To investigate these topics, Nathaniel and one of his students looked into different

points during one's sleep. The main information that was obtained from the study was REM

sleep. During this time, REM sleep was conceived as a lighter. Of sleep and which one dreams.

Later on, a scientist named William Dement Went into further research on REM sleep. Studying

this stage of sleep helped him learn about sleep disorders and gave him lots of knowledge on

the many effects of sleep deprivation. In 1845, the correlation between body temperatures and
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sleep began to be studied. In the following years, sleep studies sky-rocketed. Why most of the

information obtained during this time was correct, a simple misconception of REM sleep being a

lighter sleeping stage was incorrect. REM sleep is now known to be the deepest stage of sleep.

In recent years, lots of knowledge has been obtained about sleep.

To start off in the physical area relating to sleep, a lot of important things happen during

sleep that help with physical performance/muscle growth by aiding in recovery. Protein

synthesis is the main factor that helps aid in the recovery process. However, without the proper

time for this, muscles cannot recover fully. Additionally, glucose is what the body uses as a

primary energy source. This is what fuels the body for physical exercise and it is very important

to have in the body for proper functioning. During sleep, the glucose in the body gets stored in

the muscles to maximize the amount of energy produced from it. Lack of proper sleep prevents

this from happening. Therefore, lower muscle glycogen results in lower energy supplied for the

muscles leading to decreased performance and fatigue. As far as muscle recovery and growth

go, HGH or human growth hormone is responsible. As many people know, protein contains

amino acids that our bodies utilize. This hormone is necessary to actually put those amino acids

to use. This hormone (HGH) is only produced to enter the bloodstream during sleep. So, without

proper sleep, this hormone can’t be produced to the level it is supposed to, which leads to a less

effective use of the nutrients provided from food during the day. In 2011, a study was done that

looked into the effects of muscle growth based on different amounts of sleep. One group was

given three more hours of sleep per day in comparison to the other group. As expected, the

group with less sleep had 60% less muscle mass than the group with more sleep. In conclusion,

sleep is a very vital factor when it comes to muscle growth, recovery, and athletic performance.

To continue, Christina Lorea Dixon discusses in her article, “Sleep Deprivation and

Pregnancy Related Risks,” the effects of sleep on mental and physical health. The purpose is to

discuss the risks of lack of sleep and the audience is pregnant women or anyone struggling to

get proper sleep. The key points in this article are that sleep deprivation can create issues
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relating to the neurological, behavioral, and biological systems. Additionally, sleep deprivation

can “ increase inflammation, cause memory and cognitive impairments, decrease alertness, and

increase the risk for premature labor.” Overall, this article points out that lack of sleep causes a

long list of physical and mental issues. To continue, Joan Esherick talks about sleep deprivation

in teens in her article, “Sleep Deprivation and its Consequences.” The purpose is to encourage

proper sleep and this article aims for an audience of teens. The author starts out by stating that

“Tired teens can hurt themselves or others simply because they are too tired to do their jobs

safely.” She then goes on to point out that activities like skiing, weight lifting, bicycling, skating,

or going to a playground can all be dangerous for those who do not get proper sleep. Other

effects include grogginess, memory difficulties, the inability to focus, pay attention and

concentrate, and decrease in school performance. The main point of the article is that lack of

sleep has a large negative impact on teens.

Moving forward, Gail Johnson covers the effects of sleep deprivation in his article, “Sleep

Deprivation can be a Nightmare.” The purpose of this article is to make people aware of how

important sleep is. The audience is anyone of any age who lacks sleep or knows someone who

lacks sleep. The key points of this article are that sleep deprivation leads to fatigue, negative

cognitive effects, health consequences, workplace disturbances, and negative mental health.

Sleep also has a huge effect on one's immune system. Therefore, somebody who's not getting

adequate sleep may get sick often with things like the common cold or other general viruses.

Although serious health issues can be caused as well, one may simply experience more minor

illnesses. As far as safety goes, sleep loss can also cause somebody to have lessened

judgment on making good decisions. This basically means somebody experiencing sleep loss

is more prone to doing unsafe and risky things. The author even goes on to say that the fatigue

caused by lack of sleep can be equivalent to the effects of high alcohol blood level in terms of

reaction time and awareness. The key points in this article are that sleep deprivation causes

fatigue and multiple mental and physical consequences on health. In a different source, Shih-Yu
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Lee discusses different disorders and emotionally related issues in her article, “Stress and Sleep

Disturbances in Female College Students.” The main purpose is to make people aware of the

importance of sleep. The audience is college students or students in general. The topic mainly

covers the fact that lack of sleep can cause PTSD symptoms and emotion regulation difficulties.

The article puts a huge emphasis on how loss of sleep may increase stress levels and therefore

cause symptoms as if a person had PTSD or a different related trauma disorder. To finish off the

sources, Ahnaou Drinkenburg covers chronic disease that can be caused by sleep loss in her

article, “How Sleep Deprivation leads to Chronic Disease.” The purpose is to discuss the largest

impacts that sleep deprivation can have on physical health. The audience is mainly middle aged

people to warn them of the diseases that can be developed at older age. The main points of the

article are that diseases like Alzheimer’s and other memory related conditions can develop at

older ages as a result of chronic sleep loss.

This graph shows that the academic performance of students is lessened greatly by the amount

of sleep one gets. Overall, sleep deprivation is one of the biggest causes of negative

performances.

Moving into a different area, too much sleep can also have negative effects as well.

Although oversleeping can be done by anyone, those who have diseases like hypersomnia (a

disease causing extreme tiredness that is difficult to relieve) struggle especially with getting the
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right amount of sleep. The list of diseases that can be caused by too much sleep include

diabetes, obesity, headaches, back pain, depression, cognitive issues, and degenerative

diseases. More specifically, oversleeping is a very important warning of depression. While it has

shown that oversleeping is not directly related two depression, oversleeping May worsen those

who already have depression. When somebody is depressed, their brain is not functioning

properly and they lack the energy to do normal things that someone would do during the day. As

a result, somebody who's depressed May constantly sleep an unhealthy amount. This worse is

depression by making somebody feel like they have missed out on the day or regular activities.

They may feel behind or left out of certain social situations. Often, social media can worsen this

as well. When somebody ever sleeps and wakes up to see that there are all kinds of social

events happening without them, they may feel more helpless and therefore more depressed.

Researchers found that the cognitive performance of one is maximized around seven hours of

sleep. As the amount of sleep increased or decreased, the performance decreased as well. A

Spanish study found that degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s could be developed due to

oversleeping. Chronic inflammation was also found as a huge factor that results from too much

sleep. Inflammation in the body is caused by cytokines which vary depending on how much

sleep someone gets.

A huge aspect of sleep loss that people often don't consider is the effect of sleep

deprivation on their relationships. This includes all relationships such as friendships or romantic

ones. The reason that sleep loss may affect these relationships is because sleep helps

somebody process their emotions. Getting a proper amount of sleep can allow somebody to

wake up refreshed and ready to experience a day full of social interactions and events. However

when somebody is losing lots of sleep their body goes into survival mode. This means that their

brain will stop prioritizing unnecessary things like social events or relationships. Therefore, the

most important things to somebody will become basic survival needs such as food and shelter.

This will make relationships become much less of a priority and therefore likely cause lots of
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issues between somebody and their partner or friend. An Important issue that can often be

caused by a lack of sleep is the emotion of anger. There's a study conducted specifically on how

sleep deprivation can promote this emotion and how it can lead to other things such as mood

swings as well. It is a commonly known concept that the lack of sleep will cause emotional

issues. Therefore mood swings are very likely and emotions such as anger, irritability, and

frustration are very likely to occur. Not only this but sleep can cause a decrease in brain

performance and cognitive abilities. Moving forward with how sleep can cause anger, a study

was conducted in which high school juniors and seniors were to take a survey that asked them

questions about their personal life. One of the main questions was how much sleep they got

and how they felt throughout the school day or end General. As expected, the students were

reported getting less sleep than others reported having more emotional related issues during

the day or struggling in school. In addition to consistent lack of sleep causing all kinds of issues,

it was found that even one night of extreme sleep loss can result in any generalized issues

caused by persistent sleep loss. Moving forward, a different study was conducted that looked at

the personal lives of kids ages 12 to 16. And the survey they were asked to report how much

sleep they got and what types of emotions they felt throughout the day. The overall point was to

find out the amount of sleep each child got and how their emotional stability was doing. It was

found that those with less sleep reported symptoms such as anxiety, depression, and irritability.

to get more into the scientific reasoning for why these factors occur due to sleep loss oh, there's

a very real explanation that explains brain functions. The Amygdala and the ventral anterior

cingulate cortex Each function off of each other. However, the amygdala is known as the main

part of the brain that controls emotions. In addition, this is also very important for how well one

can sleep. When somebody struggles to get the proper amount of sleep there is a disturbance

between the natural functioning of the amygdala and the ventral anterior cingulate cortex. When

this disturbance occurs, the body's reaction is to have more exaggerated responses to negative

stimuli. To go even deeper, there is a part of the brain that helps suppress the functions and
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responses created from the amygdala. This part of the brain is known as The medial prefrontal

cortex. This is what helps keep emotions stable and overall prevent the amygdala from

producing over-exaggerated responses to stimulus. Unfortunately, sleep loss also affects this

part of the brain by Decreasing its ability to do its main job. Therefore not only is there a

disturbance in the main emotional control part of the brain, but there is also a disruption caused

in the part of the brain that helps suppress heightened emotions. Circling back to the

conversation about sleep and relationships, without a properly functioning brain somebody May

overreact to little things that happen in our lives. These would be things that somebody would

not normally react to. This means that somebody who is in a relationship may get mad at their

partner over something little when they normally wouldn't simply because of sleep loss.

Therefore lots of conflicts are going to occur and there may be more fights.In conclusion, sleep

loss has a very negative effect on many parts of the brain that control things like emotional

stability and overall mood. Therefore losing sleep causes all kinds of issues in one's daily life.

Somebody who experiences constant sleep loss may come off as very rude or be unwilling to

have regular social interactions. Overall, sleep is extremely important and is very necessary

especially for younger people as it affects how they function in their daily lives.

Another huge effect that is correlated to sleep is the process of learning and

memorization. It has been found that the amount of sleep somebody gets affects their ability to

obtain information, process it correctly, and actually keep it in their brain long-term. The first

main reason for this is that when somebody is tired, they lack the ability to properly pay attention

and therefore cannot learn new information effectively. However, it is also found that sleep loss

scientifically affects the brain's ability to obtain information even if somebody was able to fully

pay attention when tired. There are three main steps that go along with the process of learning

and memorizing new information. The first step is acquisition, which is simply the introduction of

new information to the brain. The next step is consolidation which refers to the brain's process

of making this information stable. The third step is recalling the information which simply refers
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to being able to access and memorize this new information. Scientists believe that consolidation

occurs during sleep. This happens because the brain is able to strengthen the neural

connections of memories. This is because of the brain waves that are produced during sleep.

For example, this information specifically relates to declarative memory. This is simply the

knowledge of commonly known facts. This could be things like the day of a holiday or the name

of a family member. A study found that those who were learning a new language experienced

more REM sleep which is the stage of sleep and which dreaming occurs the most. Therefore it

was assumed that REM sleep as a time and which a brain can process newly provided

information. In conclusion there are multiple parts of brain function related to memory that

correlate to the amount of sleep somebody gets. Certain parts of the brain are specifically

affected during different stages of sleep. When the stages of sleep are reached due to lack of

quantity and quality of sleep, a decrease in memory function results.

Continuing on to the misconceptions about sleeping, there are many. One of the biggest

misconceptions about sleep is that napping can make up for lost sleeping time. While napping

for the right time can help with sleepiness, it will not get rid of the long term effects that might be

caused by consistent sleep deprivation. Another huge one is that someone’s body can get used

to constant lack of sleep and its effects. As explained, sleep deprivation causes tiredness and

feeling this everyday does not make your body immune. While one may notice the effects of

sleep loss less, it does not mean that the effects are gone. Someone may lose sleep

persistently and start to notice their symptoms less but they will still be experiencing the same

amount, if not more. The symptoms may be daytime performance, decision-making skills,

memory abilities, and creativity. As time goes on, this persistent sleep loss may cause issues

like problems with metabolism, the cardiovascular system, hormone production, mental health,

or the immune system. To continue, yet another misconception is that it doesn’t matter what

time you sleep as long it is the same amount of sleep you would normally get. This is very false.

Circadian rhythm (the body’s clock system that keeps it in tune with the time of day) is the
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reason why the timing of sleep can be so important. The body is aware of what time of day it is

due to circadian rhythm. Because humans are naturally meant to sleep at night, the failure to

achieve this can have negative side effects. This is because it messes with the body’s natural

circadian timing. Lastly, another large misconception is that the amount of sleep achieved is all

that matters. For example, this is like saying that someone who sleeps for ten hours with many

interruptions (A total of 7 hours of sleep), is equal in quality to someone who sleeps seven hours

straight with no interruptions. This idea is very incorrect as the body goes through cycles during

sleep to achieve maximum rest. In other words, in order to allow one’s body to reach all four

stages of sleep, enough consecutive time needs to be allowed. If someone sleeps for an hour

and continuously wakes up after each one, the body will simply be going through the earlier

stages of sleep over and over without reaching the peak relaxation also known as REM sleep.

This results in awful sleep quality. To sum it up, there are many misconceptions about sleep but

in reality, there are many factors that go into quality sleep. When these factors aren’t

considered, one may experience negative side effects.

Overall, sleep is a very vital part of one’s life. It is necessary for proper muscle recovery

and growth, it affects mental, physical, and emotional health, physical performance, and things

like memory, cognitive functions, and decision making. Additionally sleep can affect things like

relationships, depression, and someone's ability to have energy for social interactions. Multiple

Studies have been shown to prove all of these things and there are countless effects that can be

caused by sleep. The amount of effects listed show how truly vital sleep is to one’s life. Sleep

can affect pretty much everything. Unfortunately, sleep is often overlooked by many people and

especially students. Sleep loss could be a reason why students struggle in school or can't seem

to find the motivation to do work for school.Too little sleep may lead to this as well as too much

sleep. Effects can even go as far as diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular issues, or

Alzheimer’s. Sleep quality is also determined by many factors which have many misconceptions

around them. Overall, sleep has a very large effect on the mental, physical, and emotional
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health of people. Additionally, sleep affects muscle growth and performance in school, sports,

and work.
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References

Dixon, Christina Lorea. “Sleep Deprivation & Pregnancy Related Risks.” International journal of

Childbirth Education, vol. 29, no. 3, July 2014, pp. 62-65. EBSCOhost,

https://searchebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=awh&AN=99881920&site=ehos

t-live.

Esherick, Joan. Sleep Deprivation & Its Consequences. Mason Crest, 2014.

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Sleep-Deprivation-Its-Consequences/Joan-Es

herick/Young-Adults-Guide-to-the-Science-of-He/9781422290118

Johnson, Gail. “Sleep Deprivation Can Be a NIGHTMARE.” Alive: Canada’s Natural Health &

Wellness Magazine, no. 396, Oct. 2015, pp. 51-55. EBSCOhost,

https://search.ebscohost.co/login.aspx?Direct=true&db=awh&AN=110306156&sit=ehost-

live. Date Accessed, March 6, 2022.

Lee, Shih-Yu, et al. “Stress and Sleep Disturbances in Female College Students. “ American

Journal of Health Behavior, vol. 37, no. 6, Nov. 2013, pp. 851-58. EBSCOhost,

https://doi.org/10.5993/AJHB.37.6.14.

“And to All a Good Night: How Sleep Deprivation May Lead to Chronic Disease.” Tufts

University Health & Nutrition Letter, vol. 22, no. 8, Oct. 2004, pp. 8-11. EBSCOhost,

https://search.ebscohost.com.login.aspx?direct=true&db=awh&AN=14749579=ehost-live
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