“The Function of Sleep”

• What is the function of sleep? How does it change over the lifespan (discuss the purpose of sleep in babies, childhood, and adulthood)?
• What are the consequences of sleep disturbances to your emotional regulation? Studying?
• How do you think your life could be improved by changing your own sleep habits (when and/or how long)? Make sure to share both the possible positive and/or negative effects that could come from this change.
• APA format and 1 reference/ citation

Replies

Gabriella- As learned in class, humans are required to sleep primary to conserve energy. Putting it in simpler words, sleep is simply the process of resting. Just as cellphones need to charge, we as humans also need time to take a break from our daily duties. If we think about ourselves as machines, it would not be good for us to be continuously working, we will most likely end up damaged or broken. Sleep is essential to all of us during our lifespan. It is highly important that babies, children, and adults get enough sleep. This is because sleeping has a purpose during each stage. As for babies, sleeping promotes their development. Babies that get enough sleep, wake up the next morning ready to learn new things and experiences (Dawkins, n.d). As for children, getting enough rest will allow them to improve their learning skills, their attention, behavior, and last, but not least important, their memory and psychical health (de Almondes, Agudelo, and Correa, n.d). Lastly, the purpose of sleeping during adulthood is to improve their cognitive and behavioral functions (NHS, n.d). According to the National Sleep Foundation, newborns (0-3months) should sleep from 14-17 hours; infants (4-11months) should sleep 12-15 hours; toddlers (1-2yrs) 11-14hrs; preschoolers (3-5yrs) 10-13hrs; school-age (6-13yrs) 9-11hrs; teenagers (14-17yrs) 8-10hrs; adults (18+) from 7-9hrs. As mentioned above, sleeping is crucial during all stages of a human. Therefore, if the recommended hours of sleep are not met, consequences are to be suffered such as sleep deprivation, chronic insomnia, stress-related sleep disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder (Sleep Foundation, 2022). All of these sleep alterations affect the ability to regulate positive and negative emotions. As for students who suffer from sleep disturbances, they will mostly likely lower their GPA because they won’t be able to properly focus or pay attention during class. In my personal experience as an on-campus student a few years ago, getting enough sleep was very difficult. I used to dedicate my time to my classes, go to the gym, practice volleyball and even attend to the events on and off campus. At the beginning I felt it was okay, but after some weeks, I began to feel different, like fatigued and required more sleep. I began to take naps in the afternoons to makeup the sleep hours that I didn’t get during the night. This was very helpful.After my experience of when I used to be an on-campus student, I tried changing my sleep habits and I’ve seen the results. I was able to wisely manage my time in order to get my 7-8hrs sleep. A positive effect of having changed my sleep habits is the fact that I wake up with more energy every morning, willing to perform all my day-to-day tasks in a timely manner. A negative effect I experienced is that I had to give up certain extracurricular activities such as late-night dates.

Cristina – The main purpose of sleep is for the body to regenerate, repair heart vessels, hormones, and blood. However during childhood, the main function of sleep is for neural development. Sleep patterns change drastically from infancy to adulthood. For example, infants stay in the REM phase of sleep 50% of the time and the REM continues to decline as children grow into the adolescent phase. If you’re not sleeping your body is unable to start or finish the healing process necessary for our bodies to properly function. Thus causing Issues with your immune system which results in more infections, diseases, illnesses and prolonged healing. There are also many other affects such as weight gain, damaged cardiovascular system, poor infertility, unstable hormone levels, and lack of brain function according to medical news today (Davis et al., 2020). Having a lack of sleep also has long term affects on the body. It can give you high blood pressure, diabetes or make you insulant resistant. It also can cause sleep apnea, heart attack, stroke, depression and anxiety, and last but not least psychosis. Your body needs to heal and regenerate when you’re sleeping in order to function properly long term and short term. Fun fact, Sleep deprivation is also used as a form of torture as means for interrogation in the military in order to extract information from a detainee according to the NY Times. There are no negative effects of getting more sleep except for maybe sacrificing TV or social time. Changing my sleep habits from 6 to 7 hours of sleep can improve overall brain and body function. My risk of having a heart attack decreases and my cognitive functions will increase. Giving me more energy and alertness.