The Effects of Sleep Deprivation Towards Depression

The Effects of Sleep Deprivation Towards Depression

The Effects Of Sleep Deprivation Towards Depression

"It's bedtime, Honey." We have all heard that horrid phrase when we were little. We tried every excuse in the book to stay awake. As we grew older, though, we realized that we need sleep to live normal lives. Sleep is essential to life. According to Colliers Encyclopedia sleep is, "a state of suspended sensory and motor activity known to occur periodically in humans and other warm-blooded animals"(78). If you don't get enough rest you can experience something called sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation can have many negative outcomes. Some of these outcomes of sleeping only a few hours a night are lessening of your attention span, irritability, and fatigue. We know sleep deprivation is not good for our health but could it have positive outcomes?

Everybody needs sleep; it is the one thing in the world that is universal to everyone. As Sleep is common aspect to life, sleep deprivation is becoming more prevalent in today's society. Why wouldn't it be more common since stress is more abundant and the environment runs at a faster pace than it did fifty years ago? Just think of how many people have sleep disorders like insomnia (a disorder in which you can't sleep), sleep apnea (a disorder in which you stop breathing momentarily during sleep), or even narcolepsy (a disorder where a person can fall asleep at any moment). Sleep is the key to preventing these disorders. If you deprive a normal human being of sleep what happens? According to The Psychology of Sleep, "the effects of prolonged sleep deprivation are well known: a loss of efficiency in mental and physical functioning, irritability, and tendencies toward perceptual distortion and ideational confusion"(Foulkes 10). Sleep deprivation could end up in serious health problems; therefore it is recommended that a person get their required sleep each night. Britannica encyclopedia suggests, "that an adolescent get six to nine hours of sleep a night"(876). If...

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