Chapter 1

The Problem
Introduction

“A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor’s book.” —
Irish Proverb.
Sleep is very important to human being’s healt. Sleep loss not only makes
people feel sleepy in daytime it is even a pssible factor for Alzheimer’s Disease
(Slats, Claassen, Verbeek, & Overeem, 2013).
The effects of sleep manifest both health and performance. The relationship
between sleep and performance have been studied in many different fields including
human science,psychology,education, and business.
Sleep related variables (e.g. sleep deficiency,sleep quality, and sleep habits)
have been shown to influence performance of students (Lack, 1986; Mulgrew et al.,
2007; National Sleep Foundation, 2008; Pilcher & Huffcut, 1996; Rosekind et
al., 2010).
Most of us will spend approximately one-third of our lives asleep. Despite the
large proportion of our existence that it consumes, there remains little scientific
consensus regarding the actual function that sleep provides. Scientific debate aside,
even most non-experts would agree that without adequate sleep, nearly every
aspect of waking life becomes more effortful, laboured and emotionally less fulfilling.
Nothing seems to bring as much clarity to the function of sleep as spending a night
without it. When deprived of sufficient sleep, most of us feel sleepy and physically
drained, our mood is noticeably flattened if not somewhat dour, and our thinking
feels sluggish and unfocused. Even to the non-expert, sleep has obvious importance
for sustaining normal functioning at several levels, including basic alertness,
emotional experience and a host of complex cognitive processes.
Sleep is an important time for the brain. Levels of brain activity change in
each stage of sleep — including both rapid eye movement (REM) and non-REM
(NREM) sleep — and evidence increasingly suggests that sleep enhances most
types of cognitive function.