Alfredo Martinez

English 11
Freestone
Sleep

There is no definite reason on why we sleep but there are many hypotheses on
why we sleep. Some theories are that sleeping restores our body this is called
restoration another theory is that is helps conserve energy and a third theory is that
sleep effects our brain functions. What happens when an individual get too little sleep or
too much sleep. What are some disorders associated with sleep.

The theory that sleep save energy is based of when an individual sleep that
individual metabolism is reduced by ten percent. This theory work with natural selection
since an organism can save energy by sleeping giving them a higher chance of survival
but humans don't have trouble getting food. Russell foster talks about in the video talks
about how if a person stand perfectly still and doesn't move will burn a hundred and
ten more calories than if he goes to sleep. Foster believes that saving energy is not the
reason we sleep

Restoration is another idea. The idea of restoration is that our body heals when
we sleep, This is backed by certain genes in the brain that activate during sleeping
those genes are shown to do stuff with restoration. An example of this is sleeping will
restore the immune system. There have been studies on animal that have sleep
deprivation. These show that the animals immune systems slowly dies from the lack of

sleep then the animal dies. Since it immune system no longer works so it cannot fight
against diseases. But a more reasonable answer would be how sleep effects our brain
function. When an individual goes to sleep certain part of the brain become more active
this is believed to affect our ability to remember thing and how we process information.
It's often thought of sleep will help people concentrate and remember and organize
data. People who don't get enough sleep often have trouble remembering things.

When an individual doesn't get enough sleep they will experience many
downsides some of the most common ones are drowsiness, lack of concentration,
harder time thinking and remembering thing, and a negative mood. There are also many
short term and long term effects to sleep deprivation For example micro sleep. Micro
sleep is when an individual fall asleep for a few seconds and can range to few minutes
without the individual noticing this can be extremely dangerous since people can fall
asleep while driving a vehicle. A long term effect of sleep deprivation would be gaining
weight.Sleep deprivation increases a stress hormone called cortisone this hormone tells
your body that it's still hungry and promotes fat storage.

Sleep deprivation can also lead to death. Sleep deprivation effects you physically
and mentally. With this lack of sleep an individual blood pressure will increase while
having an increased chance for heart disease and strokes. Then they would also suffer
mentally with things like Depression and Insufficient Sleep Syndrome.

There are also symptom linked to oversleeping. Oversleeping has many

symptoms that oversleeping has both increase heart diseases and depression.

Oversleeping. Oversleeping can lead to headaches since sleeping effects

neurotransmitters in your brain.Not as bad as death which is also increased by
oversleeping, Another symptom would be back pain.There is an increased in backed
pain due to the person have less physical activity weakens the spine.
.
There are many sleep disorders there are three main groups that all disorder
fall under. Insomnias, Hypersomnias and Parasomnias. Insomnias are a group of
disorder that involves inability to sleep or stay asleep. Two types of insomnias are
short-term insomnia and chronic Insomnia. Short-term insomnia is the inability to sleep
and stay asleep which leads to a bunch of other problems from before. Just cause a
person gets less sleep doesn't mean he has insomnia they could be a short sleeper. A
short sleeper is a person who gets less sleep than the average person. The difference is
that short sleeper don't suffer from the symptoms of insomnia and work fine in society.

Hypersomnias are disorder that are based of sleeping too much or randomly. The
most known disorder is Narcolepsy. Narcolepsy is being tired all the time and randomly
falling asleep. A person with this disorder always feels tired and like micro sleep fall
asleep randomly and they don't know that they have a disorder. They also cataplexy
with narcolepsy. Cataplexy is when a person has a loss of muscle tone to paralysis
when awake.

Parasomnias are disorders that involve unwanted events or experiences an

example of a disorder from this group is exploding head syndrome. Exploding head
syndrome is when an individual hears a loud noise when they try to sleep or when they

wake up. Another disorder is Sleep Terrors which are when an individual wakes up
screaming often kicking and screaming with them experiencing extreme fear with their
heart beating rapidly they also don't remember on why they scream and will be
confused when they calm down. There are also the common one like Bedwetting,
Sleepwalking, nightmares, and sleep eating disorders.

So why do we sleep, There is no definite reason on why we sleep but the reason
we sleep has to do with how it effects us. We probably sleep since it give a chance for
the body to rest and repair itself and that sleeping helps people remember and think
also promoting creativity and thought. If a person gets to much or too little sleep they
both experience many similar problem so we sleep to not experience these symptoms
but not all people control how they sleep certain people have sleep disorders which
effect them in different ways. Since sleep has disorder and symptoms from lack and
exercise of sleep that proves that sleep is an important just as eating both having
symptoms and disorder.
Work cited

Ann Pietrangelo. "Effects of Sleep Deprivation on the Body." Healthline. N.p., 19 Aug.
2014. Web. <http://www.healthline.com/health/sleep-deprivation/effects-on-body>.

"Brain Basics: Understanding Sleep." : National Institute of Neurological Disorders and

Stroke (NINDS). N.p., 25 July 2014. Web.
<http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/brain_basics/understanding_sleep.htm#for_us>.

Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School. "Sleep, Learning, and Memory."
Sleep, Learning, and Memory. N.p., 18 Dec. 2007. Web.
<http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/matters/benefits-of-sleep/learningmemory>.

Russell Foster. "Why Do We Sleep?" Russell Foster:. N.p., n.d. Web.

<http://www.ted.com/talks/russell_foster_why_do_we_sleep>.

"Sleep Disorders." Sleep Education. Ed. Sleep Educati9on. N.p., n.d. Web. <http%3A
%2F%2Fwww.sleepeducation.com%2Fsleep-disorders-by-category>.

"Oversleeping Side Effects: Is Too Much Sleep Harmful?" WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web.
<http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/guide/physical-side-effects-oversleeping?
page=2>.