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Jessica Ott

Professor Stanard

ENG 1201

15 July 2021

How is a Person's sleep affected and how does sleep affect a person's overall health?

Sleep is important when it comes to a person’s everyday life. The quality and quantity of

sleep that a person receives varies from person to person. There are many factors that can affect a

person’s sleep, which is why it is important to understand what these factors may be and how to

avoid them, if necessary. Understanding how a lack of sleep can affect a person’s mind and

body, will allow people to acknowledge just how important sleep is for their overall health. It is

often common knowledge that sleep plays a big part in a human's functioning, but still, the

importance of sleep is sometimes overlooked. Overall, figuring out what affects a person’s sleep

and how this sleep affects a person’s overall health, will help people to understand the

importance of sleep.

Common and recurring factors, found from the sources, that affect a person’s quality and

quantity of sleep include work, school, unexpected life events, smoking or drinking, and

smartphone dependence. While there are many different factors, with many of these factor’s

stress is an effect that comes from them. This stress is what often leads to sleep deprivation. For

example, the article, “The Effect of Stress Perceived by Adults Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic

on Their Sleep Quality” by Sebahat Baskan and Demet Gunes, informs the reader that there is a
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link between poor sleep and high stress levels caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which is an

unexpected life event (Baskan et al. p.64). This information by Baskan and Gunes is important

because it shows how a factor such as an unexpected life event causes stress, which in turn

affects a person’s quality of sleep. All this information is credible because Baskan is a part of the

faculty of health sciences at Erzincan Binali Yildirim University.

While Baskan discusses how stress leads to poor sleep, the article, "Relationship of sleep

quality, smartphone dependence, and health-related behaviors in female junior college students”

by Po-Yu Wang discusses how a person’s smartphone usage impacts sleep quality in a negative

way. This article is reliable because it comes from the Sinclair database and is peer reviewed.

Both sources use credible evidence and seem to be reliable. Furthermore, their purposes for

conducting research are similar because both are informing people on what factors can lead to

sleep deprivation. It is important to realize that there are many factors that affect a person’s

quality and quantity of sleep and there have been numerous studies done on these factors.

Moving on, a lack of sleep can have effects on a person’s overall health. When it comes

to a person’s mental health some common and recurring effects, found from the sources, include

a decline in decision-making, a decrease in cognitive performance, and an increase in a negative

mood. The book, Sleep Deprivation: Global Prevalence, Dangers and Impacts on Cognitive

Performance by Larry Williams, informs the reader that following extensive research on sleep’s

effect on a person’s cognitive function, the data collected often varies. That being said, Williams

informs the reader that it is always possible to see some kind of significant changes in

neurological responses (Williams, p.8). Furthermore, when it comes to a person’s working

memory, people who have experienced sleep deprivation show a reduction in accuracy of
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responses and show a slower response time (Williams, p. 7). This information from Williams is

important because it shows how a lack of sleep affects a person’s mental health.

While Williams discusses how a lack of sleep can affect a person’s cognitive

performance, the article, “Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Executive Functioning, Cognitive

Abilities, Metacognitive Confidence, and Decision Making” by Eugene Aidman discusses how a

lack of sleep does not completely take away a person’s cognitive functions, instead a lack of

sleep influences clear levels of cognitive performances (Aidman, p. 198). This information is

important because it shows that just because a person loses some sleep, does not mean that they

will be unable to use their cognitive functions entirely. Both sources use credible evidence and

seem to be reliable because they can be found through the Sinclair library. Their purposes for

conducting research are similar because they are both informing the reader on how sleep

deprivation affects a person’s mental health.

Furthermore, when it comes to a person’s physical health some common and recurring

effects, found from the sources, include an increased risk for diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular

problems, and a decreased immune system. The article, “Physical Health and Sleep: How Are

They Connected?” by Danielle Pacheco informs the reader that a lack of sleep can increase a

person’s risk of diseases and health problems. Furthermore, she informs her readers that a person

has less time to recover at night when they experience low-quality sleep (Pacheco, 2021). The

information provided by Pacheco is reliable because she has a degree in psychology at the

University of British Columbia and she studied the science of sleep. This article differs from the

others because it focuses on the effects a lack of sleep has on a person’s physical health, unlike

the articles by Aidman and Williams, who focused on a person’s mental health. It is important to
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look at physical and mental health when it comes to sleep deprivation because this allows people

to understand the full picture.

The main misconception is that a lack of sleep will cause little to no damage to a person’s

overall health. Furthermore, people do not realize how some of their everyday routines are

affecting their sleep. Some people may be able to “run” on little sleep, but they may not be

realizing how this lack of sleep is affecting their overall health. There are a couple of possible

answers for the question, ‘How is a Person's sleep affected and how does sleep affect a person's

overall health?’. To begin, stress would be one of the main answers when it comes to how a

person’s sleep is affected. Through multiple research studies stress seems to lead to sleep

deprivation the most. Moving on, the answer for how sleep affects a person’s overall health

would be, in most cases, in a negative way. There is rarely, if ever, a time when a lack of sleep

leads to positive health outcomes. Overall, more research could be done when it comes to

investigating just how stress leads to these negative health outcomes for a person’s overall

health. Further, it may be interesting to see if there are any positive outcomes from a lack of

sleep. There are many answers to the research question, figuring out which is the most important

is the challenge.
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Works Cited

Aidman, Eugene, et al. “Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Executive Functioning, Cognitive

Abilities, Metacognitive Confidence, and Decision Making.” Applied Cognitive

Psychology, vol . 33, no. 2, Jan. 2019, pp.188-200. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric7AN=EJ1262969&site=eds-live.

Baskan, Sebahat Atalikoglu, and Demet Gunes. “The Effect of Stress Perceived by Adults Due

to the COVID-19 Pandemic on Their Sleep Quality/Yetiskinlerin COVID-19 Pandemisi

Nedeni Ile Algiladiklari Stresin Uyku Kalitesine Etkisi.” Journal of Turkish Sleep

Medicine, vol. 8, no. 1, Mar. 2021, p. 57. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.4274/jtsm.galenos.2021.02996

Pacheco, Danielle. “Physical Health and Sleep: How Are They Connected?” Sleep Foundation,

OneCare Media, 24 June 2021, www.sleepfoundation.org/physical-health.

Wang, Po-Yu, et al. "Relationship of sleep quality, smartphone dependence, and health-related

behaviors in female junior college students." PLoS ONE, vol. 14, no. 4, 2019, p.

e0214769. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints,

link.gale.com/apps/doc/A581128092/OVIC?u=dayt30401&sid=bookmark-

OVIC&xid=6d2e928e. Accessed 6 July 2021.

Williams, Larry. Sleep Deprivation: Global Prevalence, Dangers and Impacts on Cognitive

Performance. Nova Science Publishers, Inc, 2017. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1453454&site=ehost-live.