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Natasha Boahen
Mr. Ring
Psychology
21 September 2015

Reality of Sleeping
Have you ever wondered why we sleep, how we dream and what happens to our body
and mind during our sleep? Sleep is a condition from our body and minds in which our nervous
system stops working, eyes are shut, bodies are relaxed and consciousness are stopped for the
temporarily. As we all know, sleep is very essential to human life. We spend one third of our
lives sleeping but there isnt a scientific reason to why we sleep but it is important that we do so..
It promotes growth, health, improves memory, and helps bring out our creativity. Theres no one
on this earth that can live without sleeping. Sleep might be very important, yet people dont get
enough of it and may suffer from lack of it.

Believe it or not, during our sleep we go through stages. What determines those stages ?
Neurotransmitters control whether we are asleep or awake by acting on different groups of our
brains. There are four stages we go through considered as stage 1, 2, 3, 4 and REM sleep. During
the first stage, we are usually light sleeping in which we shift from in and out of sleep and our
eyes may tend to open from time to time. As we transform into stage 2, eye movements stop and
brain waves becomes slower. In stage 3, delta waves, which is very slow brain waves begin to
appear. In stage 4 our brains begin produce abundantly. During stages 3 and 4, it may be very
hard to wake that person up because they are in what we call deep sleep. During these stages
they have no type of eye movement and muscle movement. So if youve ever woken someone

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from their deep sleep, you notice that they dont instantly adjust which causes them to be weak at
the moment. The final stage is called the REM stage.Not everyone goes through this stage but
when they do, its quite terrifying. During this stage, heart rate increases, limb muscles become
paralyzed, breathing becomes faster and irregular. Rem sleep becomes as serious as people
actually acting out their dream. This could be very dangerous because they might think they are
dreaming but they are physically acting out their dream which could hurt them.

You may often ask yourself why you dream at night and what dreams tell you about
yourselves. Well to begin with, dreaming could be images, ideas, or even emotions that happen
in our minds during our sleep. We all dream, infact we dreams several times in one night. Since
dreams happens when a person is in a deep sleep, a person who moves around alot during their
sleep might not to able to dream. Dreaming tells us about our current awareness.Whatever that
have been happening in our real lives shapes what we dream about. It is very important that we
dream because it gives us wisdom. For an example if someone dreams about going to a party in
which a shooting occurred, they gain knowledge not to go to a party next time because dreams
sometimes do come true.

In this generation, many people lack sleep and expect to drink caffeine to help them stay
awake during the day. The easier and healthier way in helping stay awake and energized during
the day is to get the recommended amount of sleep during the night. Reports states that 70
percent of people lack this. Lack of sleep could impact us severely by affecting our mood, energy
and coordination. If you're an athlete, sleep is very important because it could boost up your
sprint time, endurance and a higher level of energy. Most of the time lack of sleep is from being
on social media during the night. There are various amount of sleep disorders that people often

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get. The most common sleep disorder is Insomnia which is having problems falling asleep or
staying asleep. Everyone has had those days when they wish to go to sleep but instead, they're
staring at the ceiling. There are so many symptoms that coming with insomnia such as
disturbance of sleep, behavior problems, difficulty at school, and low energy. The solution to
Insomnia is making adjustments to one's sleep routine. Another sleep disorder is Narcolepsy
which is the exact opposite of insomnia. Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder that is sometimes made
from uncontrollable sleep attacks. Narcolepsy can cause brain trauma, infection and disease.
Another sleep disorder is sleep apnea causes sleepers to stop breathing while sleeping.
Sleepwalking and sleeptalking happen during the end of Rem 3. As said before, REM sleep can
be very scary because one could easily get hurt while sleepwalking. Sleep talking isn't really as
deep as sleepwalking because you're still in the same position but instead you are talking to
yourself out loud, which could be very funny. As you can see, not getting sleep is bad for
humans. When people get the right amount of sleep, they will notice social , professional and
physical challenges that are advantages to the body and mind. Overall, good amount of sleep
equals excellent performance.

Now that we know how sleep can affect us physically, let's move on to the mental sleeps
on sleep. Sleep and mood have a connection in our lives. Poor amount of sleep can cause stress
while healthy sleep can cause a persons well being . Researchers have found out that even if you
get half the amount of sleep recommended for a whole week, people tend to feel more stressed,
angry and sad . Its also been predicted that lack of sleep causes weight gain, sleep deprivation
and depression. When the person gets back to their normal ways, a drastic improvement
appears.On the other side, mood can also affect sleep. If a person is thinking too much of
something and is depressed, they stay awake which connects to getting sleeping disorders.

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In conclusion, let's make sure we all get the recommended amount of sleep because it's
only going to help us for the better. When people are weak and tired, they perform poorly which
intervenes in their lives and education. We should keep our bodies healthy by not stressing out a
lot. Meaning avoiding things that makes us think too much that we aren't able to sleep. Theres
many ways we can get our minds off negative things such as yoga or meditation. These are both
exercises in which the body and mind become relaxed and are cleared. Lets all make a change in
the world by having a positive attitude and it all tied to the importance of sleep.

Work Cited
"Why Do We Dream?" Dreams. School of Metaphysics, n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2015.

APA. "Why Sleep Is Important and What Happens When We Dont Get Sleep." American
Physiological Association. APA, n.d. Web. 20 Sept. 2015.

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Of Health, National Institution. "Brain Basics: Understanding Sleep." : National Institute
of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). NIH Publication, 25 July 2014. Web. 20 Sept.
2015.

"Physical Performance & Sleep." Physical Performance & Sleep. Better Sleep Council,
n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2015.

"Sleep and Mood." Sleep and Mood. Havard Medical School, 15 Dec. 2008. Web. 22 Sept.
2015.

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