Who are the experts of Sleep Deprivation?
Doctors are the experts on Sleep Deprivation, but not all doctors. Some doctors specialise in treating people who have trouble sleeping as well as researching the effects of different sleeping patterns and how the lack of sleep will effect a person in the long or short term. The term used for these doctors would be Sleep Specialist. Sleep specialists are medical doctors who have followed out in doing extra education into the field of sleep medicine. Sleep specialists are trained to stop early sighs of sleep lost before it becomes too damaging that it could cause permeant damage. The fields that they speicalise in are neurology, (the section from biology that focuses on organic disorders of nerves and the nervous system) Plumomology, (the medical treatment for dealing with disease involving the respiratory tract) Internal Medicine and Psychiatry (the study of mental illnesses and abnormal emotional and performative behaviour)It turns out that the sleep experts do not focus on lack of sleep that problems that happen during sleep but they should still have a very wide knowledge of how lack of sleep effects people. One reason this would be true is that they have to help patients that suffer from a sleeping illness call Insomnia. Insomnia is a term use for people who have a hard time to get to sleep or get the amount of sleep they need to feel fully rested. Insomnia is the root of the disorder as there are multiple types of insomnia from having insomnia due to drugs and products that keep people awake, to having insomnia due to mental reasons that are not a choice. Because they would have a vast knowledge of helping people who have a lack of sleep they would know the risks and know how to fix them.
Why do we need Sleep?
The short answer to this question is to restore energy by resting and allowing our bodies to recover from a day of constant work. But the reason that the body cannot recharge while awake as efficiently is because the brain is much more active while awake. This is not proven but is the most agreeable reason why we need sleep. No scientist has giving a solid reason for sleep but we do know what happens without sleep and what benefits we get from sleep, such as being more alert, more athletic and the brain works more efficiently, making us smarter. Some experts has made theories to why we need sleep and have been labeled as so.
Inactivity Theory- This theory is one of the oldest theories of sleep that suggests that the reason animals sleep during the night time and why we do is primal to stay out of harms way when we are most venerable (in the dark) This theory does not fit into todays society as we sleep in places we know we are safe there for sleeping to keep silent and motionless to make predators not notice us is mostly disproved.
The next theory is the Energy Conservation Theory, one of the more logical theories. This theory states that people and animals sleep due to reserving the energy the gain from eating and drinking, taking up less energy would allow them to have more chance to live longer. This is said to be less apparent to developed countries but in polity it would make more sense as they would have limited livestock with food therefor sleeping will use less energy than if they were awake, saving the little energy consumption they have.
The third theory is called the Restorative Theory. This theory believes that we sleep to restore ourselves from what we had lost during the period of time we where awake. This theory does not specify on how we restore as this is still unknown but it is believed that by sleeping in some way the body repairs itself quicker than awake due to the rest that reduces our bodes actions against itself drastically.
The final reason for sleep in a cognitive idea called the Brain Plasticity theory. This theory focuses on the brain and believe that by sleeping it changes the organisation of the brain. This organisation is know as Brain Plasticity. The concept is still not fully understood but studies show that that during sleep the brains patterning changing and could help us understand why we need sleep. The parts of the brain that focus on learning and manual tasks seem to enhance after sleep has occurred making them more equipped for a days work.
In a overview of all the different theories behind sleep there is no solid answer to the question but the ideas can be combined to give a overall view of what sleep does to us and why we may need it during different situations.
Inactivity Theory- This theory is one of the oldest theories of sleep that suggests that the reason animals sleep during the night time and why we do is primal to stay out of harms way when we are most venerable (in the dark) This theory does not fit into todays society as we sleep in places we know we are safe there for sleeping to keep silent and motionless to make predators not notice us is mostly disproved.
The next theory is the Energy Conservation Theory, one of the more logical theories. This theory states that people and animals sleep due to reserving the energy the gain from eating and drinking, taking up less energy would allow them to have more chance to live longer. This is said to be less apparent to developed countries but in polity it would make more sense as they would have limited livestock with food therefor sleeping will use less energy than if they were awake, saving the little energy consumption they have.
The third theory is called the Restorative Theory. This theory believes that we sleep to restore ourselves from what we had lost during the period of time we where awake. This theory does not specify on how we restore as this is still unknown but it is believed that by sleeping in some way the body repairs itself quicker than awake due to the rest that reduces our bodes actions against itself drastically.
The final reason for sleep in a cognitive idea called the Brain Plasticity theory. This theory focuses on the brain and believe that by sleeping it changes the organisation of the brain. This organisation is know as Brain Plasticity. The concept is still not fully understood but studies show that that during sleep the brains patterning changing and could help us understand why we need sleep. The parts of the brain that focus on learning and manual tasks seem to enhance after sleep has occurred making them more equipped for a days work.
In a overview of all the different theories behind sleep there is no solid answer to the question but the ideas can be combined to give a overall view of what sleep does to us and why we may need it during different situations.
What studies have been carried out already about Sleep Deprivation?
There has been several famous studies and personal challages and test to see how long people can stay up without going to sleep.
The first one is about a radio reporter called peter Tripp who sat in town square for 201hours and 10minites in a glass performing a radio show. At first he was fine and when he started to doze off the nurses and doctors would shake him to wake him up and interact with him to keep him occupied. After a few days he started to hallucinate, seeing mice and kittens that were not actually there. The last 66 hours of the experiment they doctors had to keep him on drugs to keep him from falling asleep. This experiment did massive damage to his well being during and after the test as later on in his carrier he admits that he blames for the 1960's payola scandal as he had never felt quite right since he did the study.
Counteracting this tragic radio attempt of sleep deprivation, a world record holder in 1965 stayed awake for the incredible time of 11night without any resting. This was done by a school boy called Randy Gradner, age 17. During the time he stayed awake he reported as well as the scientist studying him that he began to have slurred speech, blurred vision and mild paranoia. He became weary of the scientist and thought that they thought he was stupid. Once the study was over he only made up for 11hours of lost sleep out of the 90hours he lost. He did not seem to show any side effects after the experiment that questioned the effects of sleep deprivation.
Overall during the studies the short term effects are clearly shown and become horrific but can be fixed in the long term if the person is able to get the sleep they need in the time they can withstand. Pushing over someones personal limits could cause massive long term damage that could rewin someones life, just like Peter Tripp.
 |
| Peter Tripp during the experiment |
Counteracting this tragic radio attempt of sleep deprivation, a world record holder in 1965 stayed awake for the incredible time of 11night without any resting. This was done by a school boy called Randy Gradner, age 17. During the time he stayed awake he reported as well as the scientist studying him that he began to have slurred speech, blurred vision and mild paranoia. He became weary of the scientist and thought that they thought he was stupid. Once the study was over he only made up for 11hours of lost sleep out of the 90hours he lost. He did not seem to show any side effects after the experiment that questioned the effects of sleep deprivation.
Overall during the studies the short term effects are clearly shown and become horrific but can be fixed in the long term if the person is able to get the sleep they need in the time they can withstand. Pushing over someones personal limits could cause massive long term damage that could rewin someones life, just like Peter Tripp.
What effects does lack of sleep have during Sleep Deprivation? (short term effects)
There are many different symptoms of sleep deprivation that varies depended on the length the person has be deprived of sleep. The lack of sleep has been shown to effect people in physical, metal and emotional level. A quote from Sleepio.com states, "In fact, 88% poor sleepers struggled with reduced energy compared to only 29% 'good' sleepers." This means that the lack of sleep will give you a reduced level in energy that is needed to function the body. The main short term effects are as listed, Anxiety, Drowsiness that can lead to drowsy driving, Forgetfulness, Distractibility making it hard to focus on any given task, Decreased performance and alertness meaning the reaction time is decreased dramatically, Memory and cognitive impairment and Stressed relationships making your emotions get the better of you and more cranky over little things that would usually not be a big deal.What effects happen after going though Sleep Deprivation? (Long term effects)
The average person can go without sleep for approximately 48hours before it becomes dangerous to a persons health. But soon after the 48hour mark small effects could start that leads on to long term effect the could permanently effect the persons well being. Metal and physical effects can become long term and even create effects that will not be noticeable until much later in life. The most common side effects and the most noticeable side effects are the following. High blood pressure, higher rate of having a Heart attack, a higher chance of having a Stroke during the persons lifetime, Obesity due to eating more from being awake and having a higher metabolism, Psychiatric problems, including depression and other mood disorders, unstable sleeping pattens and overall a Poor quality of life.
How the research as help me in developing my documentary.
The first question i searched information for is who are the experts of sleep deprivation. The results of this question led me to what i though would be the answer but i found out that it specifies on what type of doctor instead of all doctors. This will allow me to try find and interview the sleep specialist doctors instead, giving me a more reliable, trustworthy and legitimate answer to for the start of my documentary where i would tell them about my experiment and they can give me professional feedback and comments that i should take in consideration, this would be recommendation on when i should stop. Also knowing what fields of research they specialise in will give me more understanding on what they will discuss with me during the interview so i don't seem clueless when it comes to them giving me advice. Overall all i really needed from is research was to know who the expert was and i found that out as well as extra information on what they specialise in and what types of treatment they give to different types of problems like insomnia. This question therefore reached my target for the answer as well as giving me useful information that i can use during an interview with a expert. From finding out why we need sleep i did not get any solid answer that is quite annoying but i did find out a lot of theories experts have about why we need sleep and what sleep gives us. The information itself is fairly useful and will help me once again explain during the documentary why sleep is important and what aspects of the behaviour of the participants in my own study will be effected and why. This information links all of the different theories together as well as helping understand some of the side effects i had researched in the later questions. An example of this is with short term effects of needing to eat more and gaining weight this way would be to do with the Energy Conservation Theory where sleeping preserves the eaten food as it doesn't burn off as fast during the period of time you are asleep. Studies have not really given a solid answer to what could happen during my study that i personally think is good sign as the results are unpredictable but i am aware of the dangers of the test and the limits i should discontinue the test.
List of Sources used to find information:
- http://www.sleepio.com/articles/sleep-science/sleep-deprivation-symptoms/
- http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-03-27/health/ct-x-0327-expert-sleep-20130327_1_deprivation-sleep-associates-nightmares-and-night-terrors
- http://www.healthcommunities.com/sleep-disorders/what-is-a-sleep-specialist.shtml
- http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/excessive-sleepiness-10/10-results-sleep-loss
- http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20460833,00.html#
- http://www.pamf.org/sleep/about/healtheffects.html
- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/08/sleep-deprivation_n_4557142.html
- http://psychology4a.com/sleep8.htm
- http://wyrk.com/how-long-can-you-go-without-sleep-before-its-fatal/
- http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/matters/benefits-of-sleep/why-do-we-sleep
No comments:
Post a Comment