Sleep Deprivation

For the research question, I have chosen How Sleep Deprivation affects the body and its

functions from when you first wake up to when you go to sleep. The main areas I want to go

more in-depth about are the motor functions of the body, the effect on your brain activity, and its

awareness, the physical changes in your reaction time and etc, to name a few. These areas are I

feel are the most impacted by sleep and sleep deprivation. Whether it be the lack thereof or the

refreshing effect that sleep has on these functions, each one has its own cutoff point and how

they are affected by no sleep.

Originally sleep was thought to be brought on by the lack of blood flow through the

body. Also, it had been seen as an arrest of consciousness by the heart in order to detoxify the

body. It was in 162 AD that Galen identified the brain, rather than the heart, as the seat of

consciousness. Over the next 1600 years, however, little progress was made in understanding the

nature of sleep. In the 1900s, neurons were discovered to be the individual units of the nervous

system. The year 1903 marked the formulation of the first sleeping pill, barbital. Within 30

years, it had become one of the most abused drugs in the United States.

Throughout my sources, many key points and or topics have arisen surrounding sleep

deprivation. One, in particular, is memory and learning ability. Throughout the day it seems the

best time for learning and memorization is right around halfway through your day. While

knowing that, when the lack of sleep starts to take over and you become groggy, your

memorization skills and learning ability actually begin to increase. Your brain is trying to

compensate for the lack of motor abilities in turn hyper-focusing on the subject itself. Of course,
there is always a limit to the human body and after a certain point, it drops off and becomes

effective.

Another effect of sleep deprivation is killed reaction times. Going along with what I have

said above, sleep deprivation affects the mind and its functions impairing you. A similar state of

the brain can be compared to if you were driving under the influence of alcohol. You would be

slower all around not being able to react in time to something that may have wandered into the

road by accident. Or if you started to drift, you wouldn't be able to react in time to the oncoming

cars and instead of getting back into your lane, you would most likely hit them. Also if you are

very tired the mind goes into a state called Microsleep. Microsleep is a short burst of

unconsciousness that takes over your brain for a third of a second on average.

Sleep deprivation is also known for increasing the effects of Depression and Anxiety.

Sleep is a way for the brain to heal, detoxify itself, and overal heal the body. Once a day's work

for the brain has come to an end it has been engraved in your life that it will get some sort of rest

before it goes to work again. If it does not get its rest its flaws and abnormalities come into the

light more. Increasing the effects of depression, anxiety, and a multitude of other issues that are a

part of the brain.

One last thing that I will mention here is the lack of sleep’s ability to take a toll on your

physical health as well. What I am referring to is the state of your immune system its ability to

combat infections and diseases. These effects have been observed in many medical studies and

have been known to be very harsh on the body. The main functions of the immune system are

critical to the body and if they are impaired there is no telling what effects the body will take on.

Sleep is very important no matter what happens or is occurring in the body especially when it

comes to the immune system and how it functions.

 Many people believe that sleep deprivation just makes your reaction time slower and that

you feel tired overal. While that is true, the effects go deeper than just that. The lack of sleep

attacks almost every part of your body to get its ways and the brain to reset. If you do go for a

long period of time without sleeping, in order to regain your internal clock, it is said to add an

hour to the end of your sleep schedule to slowly get it back and into a set time again. The body is

very intricate so even just one late night staying up for 24 plus hours at a time can really affect

your body and destroy you if not addressed.

Works Cited

Watson, Stephanie. “11 Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Your Body.” Healthline, Healthline

Media, 15 Dec. 2021, https://www.healthline.com/health/sleep-deprivation/effects-on-

body#Digestive-system.

Mallorie Stallings. “Benefits of Sleep on Mental and Physical Health.” Sleep.org, 11 Mar. 2021,

https://www.sleep.org/how-sleep-works/how-losing-sleep-affects-your-body-mind/.
McKay, Tom. “10 Ways Sleep Deprivation Affects Your Body and Mind.” Business Insider

, Business Insider, 4 Dec. 2014, https://www.businessinsider.com/10-ways-sleep-

deprivation-affects-your-body-and-mind-2014-12. Sleep. [Electronic Resource]. National

Geographic Television & Film, 2015. EBSCOhost

https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=cat01128a&AN=scc.b1748640&

site=eds-live.

Thomas, Dr. Liji. “History of Sleep.” News, 12 May 2021,

https://www.news-medical.net/health/History-of-Sleep.aspx#:~:text=Around%20450%2

BC%2C%20a%20Greek,draining%20from%20the%20body%20surface.