Joseph Mitchell
TR 8:30-9:45
Essay 1
Sleep Deprivation
Being sleep deprived in the adolescent years of life causes many problems. It’s recommended the average young adult needs between seven to eight hours of sleep a night. Not having the proper amount of rest causes problems such as not being able to live up to ones full potential while in school, being a hazard on the road or while operating machinery, and affecting a persons mood or behavior.
First of all, having lack of sleep can be detrimental to ones performance in school. I know from experience if I’m up late before the night I have class, all that’s on my mind when the professor is lecturing is sleep. Study’s show that sleeps a necessity in regenerating parts of the body like the brain, so we can continue to function optimally. When a person is tired and trying to focus on the task at hand it becomes extremely difficult, and most of the time they will start day dreaming about something unrelated. Also if sleep deprived it can cause some short term memory loss due to the fact that you’re not fully aware of what is going on in that moment. I’m actually a little sleep deprived while writing this paper and it just proves that it’s much harder to stay focused and get the work done that needs to be done.
Secondly, while sleep deprivation causes many problems in young adults, is their inability to drive or operate machinery in a safe manner. During a four year period in the ninety’s there was a total of 56,000 crashes on United States highways in which drowsiness and fatigue were the causing factor (Knipling and Wang, 1994). For example, my girlfriend Heather and I were at a party until around four in the morning one night and she was the designated driver so she wasn’t under the influence. She had been up all day working and so we decided to head home. Next thing I realize is that were headed straight onto oncoming...