Chasing Slumber

In a nation chronically wanting for rest, the gravest danger is not merely the molecular impact of sleep
deprivation—but the simple fact that we no longer realize just how tired we are.
By Mark Wolverton, published on September 02, 2013 - last reviewed on September 02, 2013

It was supposed to be another routine trip for the venerable Staten Island Ferry. Instead, the afternoon
crossing on October 15, 2003, led to one of the worst transportation disasters in New York City history.
At about 3:30pm., as the ferry Andrew J. Barberi came in for docking at the St. George terminal, it
crashed into a concrete pier at full speed, killing 10 people and injuring 70 more. The subsequent
investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board found that the main cause of the accident
was the "unexplained incapacitation" of the assistant captain—exhausted, he'd passed out at the
boat's controls.

It was a tragic outcome for a common phenomenon: experiencing fatigue behind the wheel. In a recent
AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety survey, over 40 percent of respondents reported having "fallen
asleep or nodded off" while driving at least once; more than a quarter admitted to having driven while
"so sleepy [they] had a hard time keeping [their] eyes open" within the past month. Studies by the
Centers for Disease Control, NTSB, and other agencies estimate that drowsy driving may play a part
in up to 6,000 fatal auto accidents annually. Those annoying "rumble strips" along the road's shoulder
are there for good reason.

A 2011 CDC analysis found that over 35 percent of adults routinely get less than seven hours of
shuteye nightly. There's no magic number for the perfect amount of sleep, but research suggests that
most of us require more—about eight hours—to perform optimally. (Still, a small percentage of people
experience no adverse effects on performance with just five hours.) Unfortunately, societal exigencies
such as overstuffed work schedules, family stress, and our constantly pinging smart phones conspire
against our getting enough sleep.

Our need for sleep "is fairly inflexible, yet modern social and economic systems provoke it constantly,"
contends David Dinges, who heads the Sleep and Chronobiology laboratory at the University of
Pennsylvania. Rest is too often treated as a disposable option: "It's a badge of courage to stay up all
night to get the job done—we celebrate that in our society," says Mark R. Rosekind, who studies
issues of fatigue and safety at the NTSB.

As a result, everyday sleep deprivation causes cognitive impairments that lead to minor and major
disasters in nearly every occupation: truckers falling asleep on highways, doctors making errors in
treatment, nuclear power plant operators missing alarms. New research reveals that sleep loss affects
the body on a systemic level as well, creating metabolic and immune disruptions that can
cause obesity, heart disease, reduced fertility—even cancer.

Fortunately, while studies increasingly underscore the problematic nature of our national sleep debt,
a new science of sleep suggests critical steps we can take as individuals and a society to achieve that
elusive, all-important shut-eye.
Renz Lyle H. Laguitao Ph B II

Psyc 1 MWF (11:30 – 12:30)

“Chasing Slumber”
By Mark Wolverton
Published on September 02, 2013

According to a dictionary, sleep is a natural state of rest for the mind and body. To

rest in sleep.

As a summary of the article, it dealt with the science of sleeping. Psychology have

a big role of the art of sleeping because having lack or over of sleeping may cause

malfunctions to our daily activity. Sleeping is just tool in order for us to re-energize the

energy that loss during the daytime. According to the article, sleeping is a very important

factor to regulate our being as to what we will be working. If a person lacks sleep, it may

lead to disasters to which we cannot anymore pay attention to what we are doing as in

the case of: truckers falling asleep on highways, doctors making errors in treatment,

nuclear power plant operators missing alarms, etc. New research reveals that sleep loss

affects the body on a systemic level as well, creating metabolic and immune disruptions

that can cause obesity, heart disease, reduced fertility—even cancer. From the said

results stated above, lack of sleep may cause your life unhealthy and thus, it may cause

to some malfunctions of the body.

I am a little bit worried about my sleeping habit, because sometimes I cannot sleep

directly at night which results to sleepiness at the class. Maybe there’s something

bothering me that’s why I cannot sleep, and something is running in my mind. That’s why
during at night when I cannot sleep, it causes me to do other things in order for me to fall

into slumber and when morning comes, I have hard time in waking up. I am really curious

why this phenomena is happening to me even I withdraw all of my energy at daytime.

Sometimes I suspected myself to have an insomnia, because of these events.

At daytime, I can sleep easily, but how come on nighttime I have difficulty in

sleeping. However, this events are not happening all the time. But as a result of having

difficulty in sleeping sometimes, I am afraid of not having asleep again when time to get

to sleep.

As a conclusion, sleeping has a big role in our daily activity, it helps us to regulate

and normalize our well-being. It come up to me to realize that sleeping is not just sleeping,

but it is a very important activity which helps us to energize the energy that loss during

the other activity.