What are The Effects of Sleep Deprivation?

Why do we need to sleep? Are there negative effects if we do not sleep? Being unknowing the serious affects of sleepless, leads many people to not sleep enough. Sleeping is an important part of our daily lives and everyone can not live without it. In fact, one third of our lives are spent in sleep (Crider et al., 1986). Without sleeping, we would not be able to perform well and concentrate. However, many people, especially students do not get enough of it. They continue to sleep less than they need to. Having many important tasks leads them to stay up late. As a result, most students struggle to stay awake because they did not get enough sleep the night before or have deprived themselves of sleep for a while. They do not think about the negative effects of sleep deprivation. In addition, sleep deprivation is called as insufficient amount of sleep (Wikipedia, 2005). Many people do not get enough sleep to feel healthy during the day. Sleep deprivation is a huge problem all over the world because sleep is a basic necessity of life. Unfortunately, due to too much work or too much studying, many people do not get the necessary amount of sleep that they need each night to be fully rested for the next day. When they feel drowsy, they cope with sleep deprivation by drinking coffee and tea in the morning to wake them up. Even though many people are awake, how will they expect a good performance during the day? Recent studies have shown that 47 million adults are badly affected by sleep deprivation in USA (Wikipedia, 2005). The issue of sleep deprivation is not a new one. Since ancient time, people were wondering about sleep and sleepless. Also, before Aristotle’s time people considered the effects of sleep deprivation, Tiredness, headache, burning eyes and joint pain and reducing the desire to have sex were the symptoms of sleep deprivation in that time. Aristotle people believed that sleep helps to get rid of fatigue produced accumulating during the day. This paper will focus on the effects of sleep deprivation and give some advices in order to get a good night’s sleep. Sleep deprivation may affect performance, mood and an immune system (Kushida, 1996, p.31).

First of all, sleep deprivation has significant affects performance because the ability of brain needs a rest. When a person counter sleep deprivation by drinking coffee or tea, his/ her brain will need to concentrate and work more than usual. Also, being sleep deprived leads to impair our thinking, memory, speech and concentrating. Moreover, the ability to solve a problem can be affected by lack of sleep. Everyday people are faced with simple problems that need to be solved, but sleep deprivation makes it much more difficult for people (Medical Editorial Board, 2005). Indeed, the brain is not working correctly without sufficient sleep. While doing even simple tasks without enough sleep, we will feel that different parts of our brain are not being activated. Furthermore, most recent studies show that total sleep deprivation impairs and damages memory. People having sleep deprivation find it difficult to be able to learn or speak (Kushida, 1996, p.207). On the other hand, when a person does not get enough sleep, it becomes more difficult to communicate to others. Also, when a person does not get sleep enough, he/she will find it is hard to get the right words to speak or say what he/she is thinking. Accessing to long term memory and being able to concentrate is impaired by sleep deprivation. Consequently, there is a direct relation between a memory and sleep deprivation (Kushida, 1996, p.194:213). In addition, the study states that the percentage of accidents involved sleep deprivation is 16 to 60 (Wikipedia, 2005). According to researchers in Australia and New Zealand, being drunk is the same effects as having sleep deprivation. When a person does not sleep enough, he/she is as a person who is affected by 0.5 percentage of alcohol. Therefore, being sleep deprived may lead to have a serious accident. And people driving without enough sleep are taking unnecessary risk (Wikipedia, 2005).
Second, sleep deprivation also has a strong effect on mood. People having sleep deprivation will go from feeling tired to feeling a heavy sense of exhaustion. Without enough sleep, people will feel bad-tempered (Rock & Kat, 2001) Also, they can not control their emotion and their mood are getting worse. For example, we observe that most students who had not sleep enough are less participate in class than who had enough sleep. Sleep deprivation helps to increase stress and fatigue which leads to bad temper (Medical Editorial Board, 2005). Therefore, sleep deprivation changes our behavior and makes it worse. for instance, most students who are in bad mood and not active in class are not sleep enough.

Confusion, irritability, exhaustion, difficulty concentrating, increased sleepiness and decreased motivation are symptoms of mood changes. With enough sleep deprivation, it has been found that some begin to hallucinate because a brain needs to a rest and without the rest many cells in brain are killed by sleep deprivation. (Medical Editorial Board, 2005). Also, we feel drowsy and are unable to concentrate after not getting enough sleep. Without a sufficient amount of sleep, our behaviour and our ability to do things are impaired. For instance, many police officers who work at night behave improperly. Also, some of them act and use the force inappropriately (Cochrane, 2001)

Not only does sleep deprivation affect on mood and behaviour but it also affects an immune system. Sleep and the immune system have a strong relationship (Medical Editorial Board, 2005). For example, when a person stays awake, his/ her body’s defenses are lowered because an immune system has to focus on staying awake and keeping up with the person who refuses to give in and sleep. This leads the individual to be more susceptible to illness, and to get sicker and for a longer period of time when an illness is contracted. Moreover, early studies show that increasing of lethal bacteria which leads to death, is a result from total sleep deprivation. Because when a person does not sleep enough, his/ her immune system can not fight the bacteria or virus in the body (Kushida, 1996, p.360-381). Additionally, at the University of Chicago, experts deprived a rat from sleeping and after two and half weeks it died (Springen, 1998). Therefore, lack of sleep can decrease the function of our immune system and sleep seems to be important in order for this system to work properly.

In summary, according to researchers, sleep deprivation has a big impact on our health and well being. Not only that, but it also may affect our brain and memory. Also, when we do not get enough sleep, it becomes difficult to communicate and concentrate. Sleep deprivation can change our mood and makes us act improperly. An Immune system, which is fighting bacteria in our bodies, can be affected by sleep deprivation. According to Peter et al, there is some advice to get a good night’s sleep. Avoiding caffeine, nicotine and alcohol can help to get a good rest. Also, we should have a light snack before going to a bed. The bedroom should be kept cool, dark and quiet in order to sleep well. Finally we should avoid all sleeping pills except if a doctor prescribes them.