Preview

Should We Sleep Research Paper

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
261 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Should We Sleep Research Paper
According to science, we need sleep. We need sleep just like how we need food, water, and air. We need it in order to survive, but why?
There has been research that has shown that as much as 10% of our energy metabolism goes down while we sleep. Other things that decrease while we sleep are things such as the temperature of our body and the need for caloric intake. As of now, no one really knows why we sleep, but there are many, many theories for it, to try to explain what we don't understand yet.
The main theory that is most commonly believed is that when we sleep, its because our body needs time to process, strengthen, and restore everything it needs in order for us to be our best.
One of the main parts about sleep is helping us reinforce and consolidate our memories, because throughout the days, we collect a very heavy amount of information and we really need time to process it.
…show more content…
So the conclusion here is that the only real solid piece of evidence that we have that we need to sleep is that we get sleepy and would eventually pass out anyway. This has been: Why do we need

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    sleep is essential for our health and wellbeing. It allows our body to rejuvenate and restore itself. It helps the body to create new cells. Sleep deprivation is one of the biggest causes of premature aging. Tiredness can significantly affect your mood and how you feel. Sleep can help lower blood pressure and elevated levels of stress hormones. Your cardiovascular system is constantly under pressure and sleep helps to reduce the levels of stress and inflammation in your body. High levels of "inflammatory markers" are linked to heart disease and strokes. Sleep can also help keep blood pressure and cholesterol levels (which play a role in heart disease) in check.…

    • 1285 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    MPS4 Fall 2014

    • 513 Words
    • 2 Pages

    1. Let me suggest an idea about the adaptive function of sleep: It did not originally evolve for rest and repair (though those functions may have been layered on later, at least in some species). Instead, I’ll propose that its primary function is to keep the organism out of harm’s way during phases to which it is poorly adapted. For example, day and night can differ dramatically in lighting, temperature, humidity, abundance and type of predators and prey, etc., so an organism that was well adapted to one set of conditions would be relatively poorly adapted to the other. According to this hypothesis, sleep helps organisms avoid temporal regions of lower fitness.…

    • 513 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sleep is believed to function as a means of restoring the biological system to a better working order this is the basis of the restoration theory, Sleep is divided into several different stages such as SWS, and REM sleep, Oswald proposed that each of these sleep stages has a different restorative function. SWS enables the body to repair itself and REM enables brain recovery and memory consolidation.…

    • 733 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    ee3031 report draft

    • 316 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Sleep recharges and rejuvenates us, allowing our body to repair damaged tissues. Owing to stress accompanied by our hectic lifestyles, a lack of sleep could result in major health problems as we age.…

    • 316 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Sleep is very important to the regulation of the body 's functions. Sleep is regulated by circadian rhythms. The circadian rhythm is controlled in the brain by an area called the suprachiasmatic nucleus which controlls around 20,000 neurons. These rhythms determine the ideal times for structured and restorative sleep and are generlly in 24 hour cycles. The exact functions of sleep are not exactly known however, those who are sleep deprived have been found to have weakened immune systems and poor brain function. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (2007), sleep gives neurons used while we are awake time to repair and that without this shutdown time they become depleted of energy and begin to malfunction. Sleep is also believed to give the brain a chance to exercise important connections that might otherwise deteriorate due to inactivity.…

    • 515 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Science has proven that sleep is one of the most essential things needed to keep the average individual healthy and stable. Without the “healing” powers of sleep, our minds and our bodies can be easily affected because of the constant feeling of fatigue. The human body thrives on the energy that sleep ensues in our bodies every night. While the average individual is to sleep approximately eight hours a night, realistically speaking, getting that much sleep on a regular basis is something to strive for. And while the amount of sleep we get per night might waver around the average, sleep deprivation is a far cry from being sluggish the next morning. Sleep deprivation has an extreme affect of the mind and body because of the lack of energy that your body may have stored up. However, the biggest affect it might have on your body is the brain. It has been proven the lack of…

    • 1566 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Regulatory Behavior Paper

    • 1403 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The nervous system is an extremely elaborate biological machine. Without question, the nervous system is a system so intricate and comprehensive that professionals in the field of medicine to this day do not have a “complete picture” of each of the working details of the human nervous system. Of these different mechanisms, perhaps the one most riddled with speculation, is the mechanism of sleep. In discussing regulatory process, sleep is perhaps one of the most essential to the healthy upkeep of the human nervous system. This process is such a necessary behavior that without it, the nervous system, and the overall health of the individual in question can become compromised (to the point of fatality) without it.…

    • 1403 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Getting enough sleep is extremely important. Sleep restores and repairs the brain and body, builds and strengthens memories, and facilitates creative problem solving. Sleep also is the time when your growth hormones are active. Loss of sleep can be harmful to you and the people around you. It can make you feel old, be irritable, get sick, gain weight, or even lose brainpower. I would strongly encourage people to try timing their sleep and sleeping through their cycles.…

    • 323 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are many things that have been assumed about sleep over thousands of years. There have been many changing ideas on the reasons that we sleep. There have also been many assumptions made about what happens during sleep. Titas Lucretius Carus had a very interesting view on sleep. Lucretius was a poet who wrote on ideas of science topics as well. To understand what Lucretius says in his writing “The Nature of Sleep”, one must understand the time that this was written. This selection came from a book called “On the Nature of Things”, which was written in 50 b.c. Lucretius had some similar viewpoints that people today find true and some that may seem very strange and hard…

    • 1043 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Why do we sleep? What governs when or how long we sleep? This activity will assist you in understanding two common sleep theories, recuperation and circadian, which provide different answers to these questions. Depending on which one you support, it may change your outlook on sleep and your current sleeping habits.…

    • 451 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Essay On Weight Loss

    • 427 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Sleep deprivation can be a main course of fluctuation in body hormones, which in most cases cause the body to store fats. Under normal circumstances, one should sleep for at least 8 hours in a day, daily. Sleeping also helps rejuvenate the body cells, which help them function properly to filter free radicals from the body. To help you sleep better, always ensure that you take a glassful of water before going to bed. This helps keep body cells rigid and takes care of cell cleansing too.…

    • 427 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Sleep Deprivation

    • 2591 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Sleep is one of the most fundamental components of a healthy existence. The phenomenon of sleep deprivation, resulting either from lifestyle choices or the undertreatment of sleep related illnesses, could be a factor for a multitude of health disorders prevalent in today’s society (Nature, 2005). It is suggested that people of industrialized countries obtain about 20% less sleep today than they did a century ago. Sleep deprivation has been linked to Type 2 diabetes, obesity, and has also been found to significantly increase the chance of a motor-vehicle accident (Wilson, 2005). In order to address the problem of sleep deprivation, it is imperative that the motivation behind sleep and sleep deprivation is understood. This essay will look at sleep and sleep deprivation through five different perspectives of motivation: evolutionary, psychodynamic, behaviourist, cognitive, and hierarchy of needs. This essay will then argue that by viewing sleep and sleep deprivation from a multitude of perspectives, a holistic understanding of the phenomena might be achieve.…

    • 2591 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The first belief is more from an evolutionary standpoint. Sleep helps protect us as with our ancient ancestors trying to hunt and gather at night is much more perilous than during the day. Some believe that sleep is ameliorating, restoring, and repairing brain tissues. It is also possible sleep helps us restore and rebuild memories, or aid in our creative thinking process. The final theory is simply that we need sleep to properly grow and develop (Myers, p.g. 185). The most likely reason for sleep is a combination of these theories. Sleep is broken down into five different stages, stages 1 and 2 are characterized as light sleep, 3 and 4 as deep sleep, and stage 5 is Rapid Eye movement sleep (REM sleep). In REM sleep, brain wave activity is almost the same as consciousness, and the most vivid dreams occur here (Myers, p.g. 185). During REM sleep the body releases a combination of the hormone glycine and the neurotransmitter GABA to paralyze the body (Pappas, 2012). The purpose of paralysis during REM sleep is because the dreams are so vivid, without paralysis it is most likely that the body will try and reenact the events occurring. This could cause damage to the body and to those around so humans have adapted to having sleep…

    • 2189 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sleep plays an important role in our lives. From tiny insects to humongus grizzly bears, every living thing needs sleep. We need it to carry out our daily activities and to live a long and healthy life. Many people fail to realize that sleep is as equally important as breathing, and because of this their bodys are not functioning to their full potentials. Not getting the amount of sleep your body needs can lead to mental and physical health problems. Lack of sleep impairs the mind's way of thinking, can cause health issues and affect your judgment and mood. Sleep is a vital part of life.…

    • 567 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Frank, MG & Benington, J, 2006, “The role of sleep in memory consolidation and brain plasticity: dream or reality?’, The Neuroscientist, vol. 12, no.6, pp. 1 – 12.…

    • 4509 Words
    • 19 Pages
    Powerful Essays