The idea that most people are sleepwalking through life is a very important aspect in our society. Therefore, it is undeniable that most people who are sleepwalking through life are always unaware of what they are doing. This means that a sleepwalker will not be aware that he is engaging himself in such behavior.
It should be known that there have been a lot of arguments in relation to sleepwalking which needs to be understood. As a matter of fact, some people have treated individuals who are sleepwalking differently yet they need to be understood and supported for the society’s well being.
Most of us are sleepwalking in life which is undisputable. As much as most people are unaware that they are sleepwalking, this is caused by various reasons and aspects. The pressures of modern life have made people to sleepwalk in life which is set to continue as time goes by (Charlie 12).
Discussion
I think that most people are sleepwalking through their life because they are midway their organizational lives. Sleepwalking can be done in different dimensions depending on the activity that an individual is engaged in. When people are asked if they are sleepwalking, they will always say no yet this is not the case. It should be known that there are various symptoms of sleepwalking that can be exhibited by individuals like having no goals and ambitions.
Most things that people do are the ones that are making them to sleepwalk like constant watching of TV, surfing on the internet and others. I think that we are sleepwalking in life because we engage in unproductive activities. This is because of shutting off their brains as a result of these activities (Nowak 16). People who are living their lives in a state of unconsciousness can also be said to be sleepwalking.
This should not be assumed to be physically awake because we might think that we are okay. There are individuals who are not aware of whom they are in the society which is a reason for sleepwalking through life. In this case, there is a large context of life that people can be part of which should be understood.
It is not easy to tell an individual who is sleepwalking in life because they are just like any one of us. We always sleepwalk because we do not have any clarity in our lives. In the long run, we end up being physical shells that are just there. As earlier noted, sleepwalking can be manifested in different ways and this is as far as people who are not thinking about their future are concerned (Culebras 15). Our life should always be about the bigger picture and when we lack it we are also sleepwalking.
If you can not find enough time to do the things that you want to do in life then you are literally sleepwalking. This is mainly caused by being preoccupied with things that do not matter in life. As a matter of fact, it has been argued that sleepwalkers are always busy and they will wait for another next time to accomplish their goals.
Lack of motivation or ambition has been cited as one of the reasons behind sleepwalking. It should be known that most people are not driven in their lives because of various things which should be evaluated. This is based on the pretext that we are just there to live which is not good at all (Mackay 23).
There is no need to live other people’s expectations because we will not be able to define our direction. People should not be made to stash away their goals and desires which might revolve around sleepwalking. The society has a lot of sleepwalkers because of our preoccupation with making money where we forget what we stand for.
This means that there is something that can be done to stop or reduce sleepwalking in the society (De Bruxelles 9). In this case, this is as far as how we can break out of such a situation is concerned. It is undeniable that everybody has his dream that he/she wishes to accomplish in life and they should be supported for long term sustainability.
This means that there is a solution to everything so long as a good approach is given. To break out of this, we should engage ourselves in value added activities. This should not revolve around filling our lives with random activities but with things that will better our lives. There is no need for a passive approach to life because most people live on a day to day basis.
Conclusion
Because all of us sleepwalk in life, we should pay more attention to time allocation. This will enable us to do things that matter most because it is not good to wait for next time (Charlie 27). In conclusion, we can say that most of us are sleepwalking in life because of our environment and society. This is because we need to be on the move to make money which has been considered as the measure of success. All this activities have made people to be preoccupied with a lot of things that wear them down leading to sleepwalking.
There is a lot of competition in the society today which has complicated everything because there is nobody who wants to be left behind. All in all, there is a lot that can be done to ensure that people are focused in life based on proper identification of goals.
Sleep is a physiological and psychological condition, which animals undergo especially at night. During sleep, animals are unconscious and most part of the nervous system/voluntary muscles is at rest or the sensory nerves are in an inactive state.
Sleep is essential in all living things especial mammals (human beings), who should sleep at least eight hours a day. As an essential body requirement, sleep functions in rejuvenating, repairing, and renewing body tissues or organs especially after a long day’s work. When an animal is under sleep, it subsequently starts dreaming, which is part of the sleep cycle.
Psychologically, sleep and dreams occur concurrently and in different stages. Dreams are mental representation of figures or emotional sensations that occur during sleep. Therefore, sleep and dream are human daily activity or cycle that ensures an animal body is healthy and vibrant.
Sleep and its physiological benefits
According to researchers and health experts, sleep is a physiological necessity that all mammals, especially human beings, need in order to keep fit and function normally. Most of the physiological activities are inactive during sleep and thus a sleeping person is unaware of any activity that happens in his/her immediate environment. During sleep, the brain is at rest while the rest of the body system is in active state.
The sensory nerves become inactive; thus; a person in sleeping state cannot use his or her limbs as it happens during wakefulness .The body cells and tissues are in full activity to repair any form of injuries to the skin, blood tissues and other cells. During sleep, the body’s immune system grows stronger leading to an increase in the number of leucocytes.
Moreover, enough sleep reduces fatigue and prevents the occurrence of diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure (Kalat, 1995, p.25). Therefore, for anybody to be healthy and live a longer life he/she should have enough sleep as a basic requirement for the body. Infants, children, adolescents and adults, each need enough sleep as directed by most health experts.
Psychological role of sleep
As aforementioned, sleep is a psychological necessity that the brain system is unable to function properly incase of deprivation (Plotnik & Kouyoumdjiam, 1993, p.50).
Psychologically, sleep reduces stress, depression, and other forms of mental disorders People, especially adults, who lack sleep of about eight hours a day, are prone to psychological disorders. Subsequently, a person who lacks sleep experiences mood swings especially anger and fatigue, which may lead to drug abuse or alcoholism (Dinges & Kribbs, 1991, p.125).
Psychiatrists recommend sleep to people suffering from psychological disorders as part of medication. Though sleep may lead to psychiatric disorders, anybody who suffers from lack of sleep recovers immediately after sleeping for a sometime.
Impact of sleep deprivation: sleeping disorders
There are various sleeping disorders, which occur due to sleep deprivation. Apart from having a poor immune system, other diseases like cardiac failure, diabetes especially type II, hypertension, and cancer may occur because of sleeping disorders. Loss of sleep not only leads to fatigue due to energy loss, but also may cause strained family/job relationships or automobile/house accidents (Kamerow & Ford, 1989, p.1479).
Insomnia is a common sleeping disorder that affects the sleeping pattern of an individual. The common symptoms are inability to sleep soundly, sleepiness especially during the day, use of sleeping pills and low energy levels during the day (Dinges & Kribbs, 1991, p.100). Fortunately, insomnia occurs due to an individual’s daily habits like eating, sleeping, and working hours. Therefore, a change in daily routine instantly cures insomnia.
Other sleeping disorders include sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, and narcolepsy among others. Sleep apnea is the inability to breathe well during sleep but the disorder is curable with the help of medication (Plotnik, 2011, 15). Restless leg syndrome is the urge to move the leg during sleep while narcolepsy is a brain dysfunction that increases an individual’s urge to sleep even during the day. Fortunately, all the disorders have medications.
Dream and its importance
Dream is an emotional sensation that occurs during sleep cycle. Even though many people dream in their sleep, majority do not remember anything concerning the dream in their wakefulness. Additionally, some people may unknowingly react to what the dream compels them to do like walking, running or shouting.
Sometimes dreams are a reflection of the daily activities and adventures or an individual state of mind before he/she goes to bed. Dream is a brain necessity that ensures the memory is alert and refreshed to start the daily activities. Although the brain shuts during sleep, the ability to dream ensures that an organism has sufficient stimulation when it awakens.
Conclusion
In summary, there is correlation between sleep and dream. Sleeping is a basic need in mammals, which ensures the body systems function properly. During sleep, all body tissues/organs undergo repairing thus prolonging an individual’s life. Lack of sleep may lead to different sleeping disorders, psychological disorders, and physiological disorders.
Thus, to prevent most of the body disorders in human both psychiatrists and health experts recommend sleep. Finally, dream is also a necessity in human body, which ensures the brain does not completely shut down during sleep.
References
Dinges, F., & Kribbs, B. (1991). Performing while sleepy: Effects of experimentally-Induced sleepiness. T.H. Monk, (Ed.). Sleep, Sleepiness and Performance England: Wiley.
Kalat, J. (1995). Biological Psychology. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.
Kamerow, B., & Ford, D. (1989). Epidemiological study of sleep disturbances and Psychiatric disorders: An opportunity for prevention? JAMA, 262(6), 1479-1484.
Plotnik, R., & Kouyoumdjiam, H. (1993). Introduction to Psychology. Wadsworth:cCengage Learning.
Plotnik, R. (2011). Introduction to Psychology. California: Brooks/Cole.
Good sleep is a guarantee of good condition for the whole human body. People who constantly fail to have a good and successful sleep often become irritated, they also reduce the abilities of their memory and attention. Academic performance is reduced as well. Sleep affects logical thinking processes and the ability to make conclusions.
The conducted research should focus on various psychological limitations people are sure to experience if they do not have good sleep at night. Conducting a research devoted to human sleep habits in children and feeling the affect on their confidence as adults, the existing data should be evaluated and the conclusions are to be drawn in the sphere of sleep habits and its impact on human mind activity.
Human confidence is a result of human performance. Depending on the quality of the performed tasks and completed issues, on the personal feelings and the ability to draw conclusions, and on general feelings people may be either confident or not.
Bad sleep habits, short length of sleep, late going to bed, and bad quality of sleep at childhood reduce human confidence and make people uncertain in personal actions in the adult age. Considering this problem, it is important to understand what a notion ‘confidence’ means.
According to Cambridge Dictionary (2011), confidence is defined as “the quality of being certain of your abilities or of having trust in people, plans, or the future.”
Thus, confidence depends on personal feelings in relation to others and to self. The main idea of this paper is to conduct a literature review aimed at considering the research in the sphere of the sleep habits in children that affect them and their confidence as adults.
Wolfson and Carskadon (2003, p. 493). The authors have conducted a research where they tried to test human psychological abilities and their dependency on sleep habits. The researchers paid attention to the quality of sleep and mentioned such characteristics as the time of going to bed and waking up, the duration and quality of sleep.
The research results show that those who went to bed late and got up late, those whose sleep was short and those who could not sleep the whole night being constantly woke up reduced their academic performance. These people were irritated and could not focus on one and the same problem.
They also failed to think logically, perform the easiest tasks at colleges, follow the teacher’s ideas and respond to questions. Bad performance at school reduces students’ self-assurance as they feel personal failures. Moreover, when people fail to present good results at colleges, they understand that they fail to meet the expectations of others and it also affects confidence.
Using this research as the basis for the future hypothesis, it may be stated that affecting students’ academic performance, bad sleep in childhood affects their literacy and as a result the future adult life and having lack in knowledge, people are going to lead worse lives.
Blagrove and Akehurst (2000, p. 72). The research shows that people who have sleep problems also have difficulties in logical thinking and eyewitness memory. The research is rather effective as it helps to conclude that people who have memory problems and those who are unable to complete the logical tasks have lower confidence than others.
In addition, such people are not sure whether all the tasks have been completed and whether everything is delivered. People who have bad sleep habits often forget multiple things and cannot correctly express their point of view. They fail to create connections between ideas.
The speech of such children is confusing and illogical. It is difficult to follow their discussion, they speak by separate sentences and thoughts which are not connected. This creates a number of complexes children experience and they cannot get rid of them easily as being childhood psychological traumas, such issues are difficultly treated.
People with bad memory and absence of the logical thinking abilities cannot gain high goals, and staying at one and the same level of personal development, people cannot feel self-assured.
Having bad memory in childhood, these people are going to have worse memory performance in the future as mind abilities reduce with age. Becoming older, human mind becomes less flexible and it is more difficult to get rid of the problems. Therefore, the effect of bad sleep in childhood becomes higher in adulthood that creates many difficulties.
Baranski (2007, p. 182). The research is devoted to the problem on how sleep deprivation affects confidence. However, being limited just by one sleepless day, (p. 183), the impact of sleep deprivation on confidence cannot be considered effectively. People did not feel serious inconveniences and their confidence remained the same. The result could be predicted.
However, the importance of this research is in the measures used. Judging confidence, the research referred to three tasks such as perceptual comparison, mental addition and general knowledge (p. 184).
To make sure that both objective and subjective visions of the issue have been measured the following methodology was used, meta-cognitive judgments, indicators of confidence-accuracy relation, and accuracy of pre- and post task estimates of performance.
Even though the research has limitations such as the concise duration of depriving from sleep, this method may be used for planning my research. Using the methodology and measures of the confidence discussed in this article, the duration of sleep depriving, reduction of sleep quality and increase of the cases of late going to bad and late waking up lead to the reduction of confidence as people are unable to perform the tasks they used to.
Additionally, this research will expand to children to assess the effects of sleep on their confidence as well and follow the changes in the adult age.
Lund, H. G. Reider, B. D. Whiting, A. B., & Prichard, J. R. (2010, p. 125). The authors have conducted a profound research aimed at considering the relations between sleep, mood, and stress.
Referring to such measures as the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the Subjective Units of Distress Scale (SUDS), the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), the Profile of Mood States (POMS), and the Horne-Ostberg Morningness Eveningness Scale (MES).
Measuring the PSQI, children were asked to respond to the following sleep aspects, “subjective sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep duration, habitual sleep efficiency, sleep disturbances, use of sleep medication, and daytime dysfunction over the past month.” (p. 125). ESS measured the activities which are going to make children asleep. MES referred to the time period of children’s activity, either day or night.
SUDS measured the level of stress after good and poor sleep and POMS measured children’s mood after poor sleep (p. 126). Therefore, the measures conducted in this research help create the general picture of the poor sleep impact on children. The further research may help understand the level of influence of these outcomes on children at the adult age.
Therefore, it may be concluded that much research has been conducted in the sphere of sleep and its impact on human mind. Some of research involves the discussion of confidence, another is not, but all the research connected to human mind may be used as the supportive arguments or contradicting ones, if any. Confidence is a state of mind when people are fully satisfied with their performance.
Bad sleep habits ruin human plans, make those behave differently, and reduce brain activity that leads to the reduction of self-assurance. Poor sleep habits while childhood negatively affect human organism. Therefore, the effect is so strong that becoming adults, people still experience the consequences of bad sleep in childhood.
The research results discussed in this paper may be used as the supportive arguments and the basis for the research devoted to the consideration how the sleep habits in children affects them and their confidence as adults. Being children, people may experience bad sleeping habits that affect their behavior and thinking processes.
Absence of the appropriate treatment changes nothing, therefore the effect on adult life is inevitable. The research conducted on the basis of the results discussed in this literature review should focus on the effects of the consequences of poor sleep of children having become adults. The long-term disorders are going to be identified as the health problems which occur in childhood are sure to transfer to adult age.
References
Baranski, J. V. (2007). Fatigue, sleep loss, and confidence in judgment. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 13(4), 182-196.
Blagrove, M., & Akehurst, L. (2000). Effects of sleep loss on confidence–accuracy relationships for reasoning and eyewitness memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 6(1), pp. 59-73.
Cambridge Dictionary. (2011). Web.
Lund, H. G. Reider, B. D. Whiting, A. B., & Prichard, J. R. (2010). Sleep patterns and predictors of disturbed sleep in a large population of college students. Journal of Adolescent Health, 46, pp. 124–132.
Wolfson, A. R., & Carskadon, M. A. (2003). Understanding adolescents’ sleep patterns and school performance: a critical appraisal. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 7(6), 491-506.
Introduction: Sleeping as an Active Brain Exercise
There is hardly anything as important for a human body as sleeping. Allowing a human body to recover from hard work and putting the information obtained in the course of the day in order, sleep is the organism function that cannot be replaced by any sort of rest. However, the amount of the time which is best to spend for sleep is quite questionable.
While the established norm of sleep length remains eight hours, some people tend to sleep considerably more, stretching their period of organism recovery to more than nine hours, which raises the question whether oversleeping or the lack of sleep have drastic effect on the human body and mind or whether an hour over or under the established norm of sleep can be considered an acceptable deviation.
However, according to certain researches conducted on the issue of sleeping, a nine-hour sleep or even longer periods of rest can have negative effects on people’s health, causing numerous health problems. Although everything that goes below or above the norm does not seem to have good effect, especially when it comes to such issues as human organism, individual specifics of human body should also be taken into account when dealing with the problem of sleep.
Therefore, the individual factor must also be taken into consideration when dealing with the given issue. Whether a nine-hour sleep or even more time spent sleeping can cause harmful effects and lead to drastic effects can be the pivoting point for raising the norm for sleeping from eight to nine hours and more.
Quality Instead of Quantity: Reducing the Sleeping Time
The idea that a man should sleep no more than eight hours has been dominating the field of somnology for a considerably long time; moreover, it is still believed that eight hours are the ultimate decision for those who have decided to lead a healthy lifestyle and get rid of diseases. However, whether the idea has aged well is yet to be seen; the fact that a man needs strictly eight hours of nightly rest could have worn out its welcome already, which is which is required to check the veracity of the eight-hours idea.
However, there are certain obstacles for the eight-hour regime to be considered the ultimate amount of time for healthy sleeping regime. According to the results of the research held by Gangwisch, Malaspina, Boden-Albala, & Heymsfield (2005), the lack of sleep and obesity are related; moreover, sleep deprivation triggers the weight gain, as the researchers claim: “Subjects who got 2 to 4 hours of sleep per night at baseline gained the most weight over the follow-up period, while subjects who got 10 or more hours of sleep gained the least weight” (1295).
However, it can be argued that in the given study, the gap between the group who slept longer and the ones who had a short sleep was great – while the latter had their ten-hour sleep, the amount of hours for the former to sleep was reduced to 2-4 hours.
While reducing the amount of sleeping hours to seven and less can possibly lead to sleep deprivation and the further changes for the worse in a human body, eight hours are no longer the borderline between oversleeping and having a lack of sleep.
As the research shows, the eight hours do not suffice for a healthy lifestyle; moreover, feeling considerable lack of sleep, one is most likely to compensate it with consuming large amounts of food, which will necessarily lead to weight gain or even to obesity. However, the results of oversleeping are yet to be seen and compared to the ones of sleeping full eight hours.
Eight Hours Is an Absolute Minimum: The Counterargument
However, to solve the problem, one must take a look at all of its facets, including the opinions of the opposition. In the given case, the idea of stretching the sleep to nine or more hours can be viewed as an opportunity to help the people who need more time to sleep to adapt to the norms of society.
Much like the results of sleeping eight hours or less, the results of sleeping nine to ten hours are also a slight weight gain and even the development of pneumonia, as Patel, Malhorta, Gao, Hu, Neuman, & Fawzi (2012) explain: “Perceived inadequate sleep was also associated with in-creased pneumonia risk” (98).
As the authors mention, “total of 977 cases of pneumonia were identified over 217,500 person-years of follow up. Short sleep was associated with increased pneumonia risk” (98). Therefore, sleeping less than eight hours can be considered risky and quite unreasonable.
Thus, it can be deduced that repeated oversleeping is rather hazardous for people’s health, which is why stretching the sleeping norm to nine hours does not seem reasonable.
Despite the fact that a nine-hour regime might seem legit for certain type of people and in case of certain health conditions, it is still desirable for most of the population to adapt to the eight-hour sleep. Like any other extreme, the case of sleeping less than demanded cannot have positive results for a human health. As Hamilton, Nelson, Stevens, & Kitsman, (2007) explain, “sleep relates to both positive and negative functioning” (160).
Taking the above-mentioned suggestion into account, one should come to the idea that both the idea of sleeping exactly eight or under eight hours as well as sleeping nine and more hours have their positive and negative aspects which are also influenced by the outside factors, such as the initial state of health of the given person or a group of people, the age, the gender and other characteristics.
To Sleep or not to Sleep? Encouraging the Eight-Hour Routine
Judging by the facts offered above, the amount of hours for sleep can and should be reduced to eight. With all the negative effects that oversleeping does to the human organism, an eight-hour sleep seems the most efficient solution, since it does not cause harm and yet allows to regain a man’s vigor.
According to Venkatraman, Huettel, Chuach, Payne, & Chee’s research (2011), a reasonable sleep deprivation (SD) can have a positive effect: “Considered together, SD appears to create an optimism bias; for example, participants behave as if positive consequences are more likely (or more valuable) and as if negative consequences are less likely (or less harmful)” (3716).
However, the results of the given research can be argued. It is not only the optimistic attitude that was expected from the patients, but also the improved state of health, which can hardly be observed in the given case. It must be admitted that the participants did feel somewhat more energetic and were ready for performing certain work, which means that a short sleep gave them a certain charge of energy. However, the question is whether the given state was an exact state of affairs or merely a case of autosuggestion.
When It Comes to Individual Features: Sleeping All the Way
In addition, according to the researches made comparatively recently, oversleeping can lead to health issues. Since it is extremely hard to draw the line between a mere deviation from the norm and the dangerous negligence of the sleeping standard, it is required that even those who sleep nine hours a day should restrict their daily sleep to eight hours. However, it is worth remembering that the famous eight-hour regime is a model, which, when applied to real life, can be bent.
Taking into account the individual peculiarities of a certain person, one can supposedly stretch the sleeping time to nine hours. As Tamakoshi & Ohno (2004) claim, “The most frequent self-reported sleep duration was 8 hours among men and 7 hours among women, with average respective sleep durations of 7.48 hours and 7.12 hours” (52), which means that the average sleep duration should be reduced.
According to Patel, Malhorta, Gao, Hu, Neuman, & Fawzi (2012), the amount of hours for sleeping can be adjusted to the age for better results; however, the outcomes of their research show that, disregarding the age and the gender, the eight-hour sleep proved to be the most efficient way to sustain a healthy lifestyle.
Of course, the individual specifics of human organism are not to be underestimated; while ones might need eight hours of sleep, for others, seven hours can suffice, and some might demand nine hours according to their own bodily functions and features. Nevertheless,
Conclusion: Individual Body Specifics vs. Common Sense
It goes without saying that only when having enough sleep, a human organism can function well. However, it is also important to keep in mind that oversleeping is just as harmful as having lack of sleep, which is why eight hours has been established as the norm.
Taking into account the evidence offered above, one must mark that the negative effects of the lack of sleep are incredibly threatening for human health. Comparing them with the ones of sleeping eight hours a day, one must admit that the newly suggested 9/10-hour sleep is much safer. While eight hours of sleep is considered a norm and is, in fact, the maximum number of sleeping hours without any possible harmful effect on people, a ten-hour sleep offers a short relief yet can possibly lead to health problems.
If looking at the two alternatives back to back, one must point out that the ten-hour sleep results in a short recovery after a working day and, while it triggers such immediate effects as sleepiness in the morning, it actually does not harm human organism. Meanwhile, eight hours or less spent in bed lead to the feeling of having a good sleep, yet will necessarily result further on in certain diseases, such as a step-by-step weight increase, migraines, etc., which presupposes that ten hours of sleep suffice for good sleep.
Reference List
Gangwisch, J. E., Malaspina, D., Boden-Albala, B., & Heymsfield, S. B. (2005). Inadequate sleep as a risk factor for obesity: analyses of the NHANES I. SLEEP, 28(10), 1289-1296.
Hamilton, N. A., Nelson, C. A., Stevens, N. & Kitsman, H. (2007). Sleep and psychological well-being. Social Indications Research, 82(1), 147-163.
Patel, S. R., Malhorta, A., Gao, X., Hu, F. B., Neuman, M. I., Fawzi, W. W. (2012). A prospective study of sleep duration and pneumonia risk in women. SLEEP, 35(1), 97-101.
Tamakoshi, A., & Ohno, Y. (2004). Self-reported sleep duration as a predictor of all-case mortality: results from the JACC study, Japan. SLEEP, 27(1), 51-54.
Venkatraman, V., Huettel, S. A., Chuach, Y. M. L., Payne, J. W., & Chee, M. W. L. (2011).
Sleep deprivation biased the neural mechanisms underlying economic preferences. The Journal of Neuroscience, 31(10), 3712-3718.
Sleep is an important facet in the lives of human beings and more important for babies as they spend two thirds of their lives in this state. The benefits of sleep cannot be overstated as it is natures remedy for most cures as manifested by patients resting when facing ill health. Despite its importance, research on sleep has never been conclusive and findings after various studies indicate variations in results. The one thing that all researchers and scholars agree is that further understanding on sleep will yield greater results and understanding towards common social and medical problems that we currently face. As social demands increase so does the importance of sleep.
Benefits of Sleep
As we continue to progress both technologically and financially, there is an inherent culture of ignorance to sleep that we cultivate and this is clearly manifested through man’s hunger for more and more with little thought on the effects of his physical and mental health. Man’s ambitions has been achieved but at the expense of our bodies and bodily functions. As evidenced by the presence of alarm clocks in our rooms, many of us lack sleep and the benefits we can derive from it. Our mood is often altered negatively and the way we relate is impacted once our sleep is distorted (Hawkins 25). Sleep impacts on the brain’s activity greatly as findings have shown that the human body can sleep with the eyes open or even in locations with loud music. The quality of life is greatly hampered in all aspects i.e. socially, mentally and physically when we are derived off sleep. It is accompanied by dreams that also exercise the brains muscle and has been shown in some research findings to have some positive psychological effects. Whether we want to elude sleep voluntarily or involuntarily, symptoms such as tiredness of the human body will force the body to sleep in the end.
Characteristics of Sleep
The effects of has been exhibited more greatly in animals through studies and all animals have been shown to sleep in different forms. The quality and quantity of sleep in the animal kingdom greatly differ. Sleep is characterized by brain activity as through electrodes when placed on the head of a human being or animal. Sleep causes inactivity of the body in most animals and ruminants have been shown to chew cud. Posture also varies from all animals as some birds have been shown to sleep with one leg and others have been shown to sleep upside down as demonstrated by bats. Human beings and primates lie when sleeping, however they can also sleep in any position if the need is too great. Many people can sleep in buses and airplanes and this is proof enough that whether standing, lying or sitting the human body cannot escape sleep. Another characteristic of sleep is that all animals go back to the same location when sleeping and this has been attributed to need for security from internal or external threats such as weather effects or prey while in an unresponsive state (Dinges 122).
Although not completely disconnected fro reality, sleep has the ability to make the body relax. This state of relaxation is different from that of a coma or fainting as one can be quickly aroused in times of danger. All animals sleep in times when activities are less critical towards their basic survival. This has been shown by how animals sleep when they have finished feeding, the same as for humans who have been shown to sleep when they have finished their daily activities. Most animals sleep at night as their body temperatures cannot sustain activities in the freezing night cold. Dolphins and other special animals exhibit unihemispheric sleep which allows them to carry out bodily activities while asleep. This has been contributed to their submergence of sleep on one hemisphere of the brain while the other half is very active (Schenck 54). Sleep is swapped between the two hemispheres in intervals thus ensuring vital bodily functions to continue. For example this allows the dolphin to breath while in water and not drowning.
Need For sleep
Man’s craving for education has come at the expense of sleep. While we acknowledge that the basic purpose of education is to exploit human potential, we also need to take into consideration how sleep plays a big part in the achievement of education. Investigations have shown that there has been continued evolution in sleep patterns of learners all around the world due to competition and the rise in globalization. It is common to find students in our learning institutions “pulling all-nighters,” which is to go for about 24 to 48 hours non stop. The case is even worse as students approach exams as this becomes the norm. An effect of this behavior has been demonstrated by student’s poor performance in the exam. Findings have concentrated into common assumptions and the effects of lack of sleep on cognitive and non cognitive functions of the body. Results in the short term varied between sleep deprived and participants who had a good night rest as some of the students queried reported of better performance when they sleep less and study more but there was an overall acceptance on the long term effects of sleep deprivation and this could be seen through the change in behavior by the participants during the period of research (Schenck 76).
Conclusion
Despite the increasing work load, every person should strive to at least get eight hours of sleep which is enough for the body to rest. As stated earlier more research should be conducted in this field in order to get more insight into how man spends one third of his/her life.
Works Cited
Dinges, Ernest. The Nature of Sleepiness: Causes, contexts and consequences in Eating, sleeping and Sex. New York: Erlbaum, 2002.
Hawkins, John. Self-reported Sleep quality in college students: A repeated Measures Approach. London: Oxford Publishers, 2005.
Schenck, Carlos. Sleep: The mysteries, the problems, and the solutions. California: Avery, 2007
Dreams occur in any of the phases of sleep, nonetheless, the most concise, clear, vivid and memorable dreams are observed in the last phase of sleep (known as the rapid eye movement – REM sleep.
Sleep Cycle and the corresponding influence of each cycle to dreams.
Stage 1 (Transition to sleep)
This stage is short lived lasting for about 5 minutes, it is a non-REM sleep in which eyes move slowly, muscle activity diminishes and one can be easily awakened (Smith, 2010, p. 1). Dreams at this stage are phenomenological to falling into a trance.
Stage 2 (Light sleep)
This is the very initial stage of real sleep, lasting for about 20 minutes. It is marked by reduced body temperatures, slow heart rate and the stopping of the eye movement (Stibich, 2009, p. 1). The light sleep stage is also a non-REM sleep, in which one can be awakened without much effort since the body at this stage prepares itself to enter into deep sleep. Dreams at this stage take the same form of falling into a trance as in the first stage of sleep, though there is an increased tendency of falling into the trance at this stage.
Stage 3 (Deep sleep)
This marks the initial phase of deep sleep, in which it is difficult to awaken someone. If one is awakened at this phase he/she would feel mixed up for several minutes. Deep sleep is marked by relaxed muscles, reducing body temperature and the repairing of the cognitive domain by the immune system (Smith, 2010, p. 1). This also is a non-REM sleep and dreams at this stage begin to take a concise and clear shape before the eyes of the dreamer.
Stage 4 (More intense deep sleep)
This is the deepest phase of one’s sleep. Brain activity is greatly reduced and much of the blood flow is directed towards restoring physical strength in the muscles, rather than the brain. It is very difficult to awaken someone at this stage of sleep, deep sleep is responsible for refreshing one after sleep (Stibich, 2009, p. 1). This is also a non-REM sleep and at this stage dreams are clear and vivid.
REM sleep – Rapid eye movement
At this stage many vivid and memorable dreams take place. REM sleep is characterized by fast, shallow and irregular breathing, immobility of muscles and rapid eye movement. Heart activity and blood pressure consequently heighten. REM sleep begins approximately 80 minutes after one falls asleep. With the repetition of the sleep cycles, so easy does it become for the sleeper to get to the REM sleep, thus the prevalence of dreams during the wee hours of the night (Smith, 2010, p. 1).
Stages 2 to REM sleep recur/repeat themselves throughout the night. Sleep cycles repeats itself several times per night, this explain why people have more than one dream in their sleep.
The first sleep cycle is characterized by a very short REM sleep, but toward morning, REM sleep is prolonged explaining the reason as to why most people claim to have had only one dream in a whole night’s sleep, owing to the fact that they can only remember those dreams which did occur closer toward the morning when they were just about to wake up (Stibich, 2009, p. 1).
Thus, inability to call a dream into remembrance should not nullify the occurrence of the dream. Of essence, this clearly indicates that the only phase in which most vivid, clear, concise and memorable dreams occur is the REM sleep.
Reference List
Smith, M. (2010). How much sleep do you need? Web.
Sleep being an essential component of life oscillates through two main categories viz. the rapid eye movement (REM) and the non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep stages. These two major sleep stages are further divided into five stages through which a person drifts in the course of one night.
The study of sleep largely depends on the electrical activities of the brain usually determined by measuring the electrical changes in the brain by using electroencephalograms (EEGS). Furthermore, voltage generated by eye rotation in their sockets and electrical activities of the muscles all help in the study of the cycles of sleep in the course of one night.
Sleep cycles in a health adult person
The recording of brain waves, eye movements, and the muscle tension has led to the categorization of sleep stages into five stages. The non rapid eye movement generates four of the stages while the rapid eye movement constitutes the fifth stage.
According to Ricker a psychologist, “when we first fall to sleep, we are in stage 1, from there we progress through stages 2, 3, and 4, and then, after about an hour enter a stage of rapid eye movement sleep” (2010, p.32). Each of these stages experience specific behavioural and mental activities as well as electrical brain changes.
In stage 1 of sleep, commonly known as the light sleep, a person is in transition between wake state and sleep state. The brain at this stage is characterised by high influx of the beta waves. In addition, at this stage, a person awakes out of mere distraction such as simple noise.
Study shows that when one awakes out of light sleep stage, often s/he does not know that s/he was actually asleep. Ricker also observes that, “the light sleep stage episode lasts for about five minutes and makes approximately 2 to 5% of the total sleep in a night” (2010, p 34). Stage 1 then heralds stage two in the five-stage sequence.
Stage 2 of sleep, also known as the moderately light sleep stage as studied by Maquet , Stickgold and Smith, is characterized by and bears the characteristics of “rapid electrical activities of the brain and large fluctuation of voltage known as the sleep spindles and k-complexes respectively” (2003, p.86).
These electrical activities and changing voltage creates high peaks and deep valleys in the brain waves as created in the electroencephalogram, which shows less active cerebral cortex, and this reduces further as one gets deeper into sleep. The episode of the moderate light sleep lasts for about 10 to 25 minutes and account for relatively 45 to 55% of the total sleep in one night of a health adult person.
Stages 3 and 4 are closely connected but they are distinct with stage 3 acting as a transitional stage lasting for about five minutes. Stage 3 involves an increase of the delta waves to the brain while on the other hand cerebral cortex activity reduces gradually. Ricker observes that, “people become harder to awaken” (2010, p. 34).
The major difference between stages 3 and 4 lies in the amount of the delta waves increase. When delta waves accumulate to about 50% in the brain, the person drifts from stage 3 (transitional sleep) to stage four (deep sleep). Ricker in his study says, “The episode of deep sleep lasts for about 20 to 40 minutes. Both stage 3 and 4 combined make up 2 to 20% of total sleep in one night” (2010, p.36).
From deep sleep, a person drifts to the rapid eye movement sleep characterised by features of an awake person; for instance, beta waves usually seen when a person is awake and alert, blood pressure and heart rate and decreased muscle tone.
Interestingly, at this stage a person starts dreaming. A great percentage of people who wake up at this stage admit having been dreaming. According to Ricker, “when sleeper are awaken from the rapid eye movement sleep, about 89% report that they were just dreaming” (2010, p.36). Electrical activities in the rapid eye movement sleep are faster and random as compared to those in non rapid eye movement sleep stages.
These five stages of sleep occur systematically in a regular format in the course of sleep during every night when one goes to sleep. One complete cycle comprises of the five distinct stages occurring sequentially and a health adult person normally experiences about six cycles in the course of sleep in one night. Each cycle lasts for approximately 90 minutes.
Conclusion
During sleep, a healthy adult person undergoes five stages of sleep cycle with each stage containing distinct characteristics triggered by the brain’s electrical activities. The cycles of sleep comprise the five stages of sleep progressing from stage1 through to stage four and finally one enters the rapid eye movement sleep characterised by dreaming.
Each stage of sleep accounts for a particular percentage of the total sleep and lasts for a specific duration in the course of each cycle. In some stages, a person drifts from sleep to wake state, and therefore easily awakens by slight physical stimulus while on the other hand, in other stages such as deep sleep and the rapid eye movement sleep, it remains hard to awaken an individual.
Reference list
Maquet, P., Smith, C., & Stickgold, R. (2003). Sleep and brain plasticity. New York: Oxford University press.
Ricker, J. (2010). Introduction to psychology. New York: William morrow press.
Past studies have established links between sleep and emotions, but there are limited measurement tools for sleep/sleep specific measures of emotion. The aim of this study was to develop a specific Preliminary Scale Development for sleep/emotion measure. It was hypothesized that there would be a distinct cluster of emotions different from the clusters of emotions that constitute the PA and NA subscales of PANAS-C.
The participants were undergraduate psychology students at Monash University, 245 students (M=22.6 years, SD=5.15 years, 82% females, 18% males) recruited with convenience sampling. Subscale items were based on procedures used in PANAS and PANAS-C. The developed Preliminary Scale Development for sleep/emotion measure provided two clusters of Positive Reaction (PR) and Negative Reaction (NR) not found in PANAS-C. They showed high internal consistency reliability with the Cronbach’s Alpha of.88 for factor 1 and.82 for factor 2. Therefore, it was concluded that the Preliminary Scale Development measure was suitable for sleep/emotion measure.
Introduction
A human being is, however, imperfect and, thus, behaviors portrayed may not reflect expected moral standards. Multiple possible studies have been presented to account for the discrepancy between actual behaviors and behavioral decisions considered as intentional from both moral and non-moral perspectives (Tangney, Stuewig, & Mashek, 2007). Facial expressions readily communicate the affective state and intent of a person. Such affective stimuli need mutual signaling between peripheral-autonomic body systems and central viscerosensory brain regions, resulting in accurate emotional reactions (Goldstein-Piekarski, Greer, Saletin, & Walker, 2015).
Sleep deprivation has been linked to impaired moods (Talbot, McGlinchey, Kaplan, Dahl, & Harvey, 2010). In fact, current literature suggests that sleep deprivation is linked to progressive mood worsening and engagement in negative, unethical behaviors at work the next day (Christian & Ellis, 2011). Studies have also reported enhanced amygdala activity as a reaction to an emotional stimulus linked to sleep-deprived individuals (Goldstein-Piekarski et al., 2015). The enhanced amygdala reactivity is related to low diminished activity in the medial-prefrontal cortex – this section is known for top-down control and function to control emotional reactions based on a given context (Talbot, McGlinchey, Kaplan, Dahl, & Harvey, 2010).
Recent studies have focused on two dominant and comparatively structures of effect, which include positive affect and negative affect. As such, there are multiple mood scales to assess these factors. It is however observed that most available scales do not account for all factors and depict low reliability or poor validity (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988).
The first major theoretical aspect focuses on various emotions, such as anxiety, anger, fear, pride, and guilt while the second approach looks at emotions in terms of higher-order dimensions by focusing on overlapping attributes. From these observations, Watson et al. (1988) developed a scale referred to as the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). This self-reported descriptive tool has two 10-items subscales developed to assess both negative and positive affect. Positive affect items measure alert, active, attentive, excited, inspired, determined, interested, proud, and strong whereas negative affect assesses afraid, distressed, ashamed, hostile, guilty, hostile, irritated, jittery, nervous, scared, and upset (Gaudreau, Sanchez, & Blondin, 2006, p. 240).
High scores on PA are associated with an ideal state of concentration, energy, and pleasurable involvement. Conversely, low scores show fatigue and sadness. NA depicts a common element of subjective anguish, including multiple states, such as anxiety and anger. High scores reflect distress and nasty involvement while low scores are associated with serenity and calmness (Gaudreau et al., 2006).
Given the limitations observed in PANAS, including unusual and inconsistent results (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988), other researchers started to question the factorial structure empirically (Gaudreau et al., 2006). Earlier critics had argued that PANAS was not suitable for children, and this led to the development of specific PANAS-C for children (Laurent et al., 1999).
PANAS was generally applied to evaluate affective states in the present time, today, and past. It could assess mood after months, and traits based on the provided time. Laurent et al. (1999) observed favorable convergent and discriminant validity from Positive Affect (PA) and Negative Affect (NA) scales with data obtained from self-reports of children with depression and anxiety. It was concluded that the PANAS-C works well just like PANAS. PANAS-C was therefore effective for differentiating anxiety from depression in children. Hence, it was effective for addressing the notable limitations of existing tools for assessing childhood depression and anxiety (Hughes & Kendall, 2009).
It has been however noted that there is no known sleep/sleep deprivation a specific measure of emotion (Daniela et al., 2010). This study, therefore, focused on developing a Preliminary Scale Development for this measure. The aims of the study included
determining the types of emotions that are typically experienced when one fails to get the required sleep;
whether these emotions cluster together in any meaningful way;
conceptualizing what a sleep specific measure of emotions might look like;
evaluating whether the discrete emotions measured by an existing measure of emotion/affect (e.g. PANAS-C) correspond with the findings associated with (1) and (2).
Hypothesis
It was hypothesized that there would be a distinct cluster of emotions and they differ from the clusters of emotions that constitute the PA and NA subscales of PANAS-C.
Method
Participants
The participants in this study were undergraduate psychology students at Monash University, 245 students (M=22.6 years, SD =5.15 years, 82% females, 18% males) in Clayton campus. They were recruited with convenience sampling.
Materials
An online questionnaire was used in this research. There were two parts to the online questionnaire. Each part consisted of 100 items. The 100 items in the questionnaire were from PANAS by Watson, Clark & Tellegen (1988), PANAS-C by Lambert, Osborne, and Gathright (1999) and PANAS-X (Watson & Clark, 1994). The test was divided into two parts. The first part of the questionnaire was rating 100 emotions on the degree to which they were associated with ‘not getting the sleep you need’. It was based on the 5 points Likert scale to rate the questions from 1 to 5. The scale included “very slightly/not at all”, “little”, “moderately”, “quite a bit”, and “extremely”. The second part of the test rated the same 100 emotions on how useful they were in understanding emotions associated with ‘not getting the sleep you need’. It used the 3-point classification scale to rate the question, from 1 to 3, which included “essential”, “useful” and “unnecessary”.
An outline developed by Cohen, Swerdlik, and Sturman was used to guide the scale development (Cohen, Swerdlik, & Sturman, 2013).
Procedure
Participants first logged in Monash University‘s Moodle and clicked the questionnaire link. The submission was anonymous, but participants needed to fill in the demographics. There was no timing during the participant’s rating of the questionnaire. For the first part, participants used the scale that was provided in the questionnaire to rate their beliefs about the emotion they experienced during ‘not getting enough sleep’. For the second part, participants rated how useful the emotions were when ‘not getting enough sleep’.
Results
The data were analyzed using the SPSS program to test the content validity in which 50% or more of the participants rated those 100 emotions items. “Unnecessary” items were removed. A principal axis factor analysis was conducted on the remaining 66 items with orthogonal rotation (varimax). The Kaiser- Meyer-Olkin measure was used to verify sampling adequacy for analysis, KMO=.93, indicating that the sample size was adequate for factor analysis. Bartlett’s test of sphericity, 2 (2080) = 11968.2, p <.001 indicated that the correlation between items was sufficiently large for principal-axis factoring.
An initial analysis was run to obtain eigenvalues for each component in the data. Four factors with eigenvalues over 2 combinations explained 48.17% of the variance. However, the screen ploy showed inflection that would justify retaining only factors 1 and 2 (Figure 1). Table 1 shows the factor loadings after rotation. The items loaded on factor 1 represent (positive reaction) and the items loaded on factor 2 represent (negative reaction).
Figure 1 Scree plot shows 2 factors with high eigenvalues.
Table 1 Rotated Factor Matrix from factor 1 to 4.
1
2
3
4
Joy
.857
Enjoyment
.849
Happiness
.805
Pleased
.801
Enthusiastic
.801
Excited
.797
Interested
.782
Optimism
.776
Pleasure
.763
Satisfied
.758
Inspired
.756
Cheerful
.742
Lively
.738
.393
Caring
.732
Attentive
.732
Compassion
.712
Active
.700
.410
Content
.678
Concentrating
.662
.359
At Ease
.651
Delighted
.640
Determined
.631
.368
Strong
.626
Relax
.593
-.414
Serene
.591
Alert
.575
.531
Confident
.574
.341
Energetic
.554
.499
Sympathy
.549
Aroused
.470
Blue
.787
Depressed
.772
Anger
.769
Annoyed
.752
Downhearted
.750
Frustrated
.743
Miserable
.737
Resentment
.732
Gloomy
.720
Sorrow
.712
Irritation
.711
Dismay
.694
Upset
.693
Rage
.679
.318
Disappointment
.668
Melancholy
.654
Distressed
.651
.383
Hostile
.644
Resignation
.643
Alone
.642
.320
Loneliness
.613
-.307
Dread
.598
.354
Wrath
.582
Sadness
.574
.310
Sluggish
-.328
.555
-.355
Tense
.546
.399
Dissatisfied
-.375
.448
Drowsy
.442
-.435
Nervous
.682
Anxiety
.372
.650
Panic
.490
.582
Shaky
.500
.554
Calm
.459
-.503
Jittery
.456
.499
Pain
.383
.388
Cronbach’s Alpha represents the overall reliability of the test in each factor. In factor 1, the Cronbach’s Alpha was.97 and.96 in factor 2, which means both factors had high internal consistency reliability. Any item-total correlation was less than.3 should be removed from the test. Factor 1 was named as Positive Reaction (PR), which captured positive mood states like energetic, cheerful, and content. Factor 2 was named as Negative Reaction (NR), and it reflected negative mood states like Upset, Hostile and Alone. Both factors show changes in sleep deprivation.
Preliminary Scale Development
After the items were removed from factor 1: Positive Reaction (PR) and factor 2: Negative Reaction (NR), a qualitative method was used for further reduction in the test items by using the Cambridge dictionary in both factors. All items that had synonym meaning were grouped together to make sure the Cronbach’s Alpha was still high enough. The items were removed according to Cronbach’s Alpha. Some words remained due to their uniqueness and relation with emotion and sleep. After using the qualitative method, the final subscales of PR and NR were showed in table 2.
Table 2 subscales of PR and NR.
Positive Reaction (PR)
Subscales Items Negative Reaction (NR)
Energetic
Nervous
Sympathy
Pain
Determined
Sadness
Calm
Wrath
Confident
Dissatisfied
Strong
Drowsy
Alert
Sluggish
Aroused
Jittery
Concentrating Enthusiastic Inspired
Shaky Resignation Resentment
After items were removed, 11 items remained in the PR and NR subscales. The new internal consistency reliability of the Cronbach’s Alpha in each subscale was.88 in positive reaction and.82 in a negative reaction.
Discussion
The study aims included determining emotions generally associated with the failure to get adequate sleep, determine whether emotions cluster together, conceptualize asleep specific measure of emotions, and to evaluate whether the discrete emotions measured by existing PANAS-C correspond with the findings noted in the first two objectives in a sample of undergraduate psychology student at Monash University.
It was hypothesized that there would be a distinct cluster of emotions, and they differed from the clusters of emotions that constituted the PA and NA subscales of PANAS-C. The study hypothesis was accepted because new different clusters of emotions were developed for Positive Reaction (PR) and Negative Reaction (NR). PR cluster of emotions included energetic; sympathy; determined, calm; confident; strong; alert; aroused; concentrating; enthusiastic; and inspired. Conversely, the NR cluster of emotions included nervousness; pain; sadness; wrath; dissatisfied; drowsy; sluggish; jittery; shaky; resignation; and resentment.
The finding, therefore, supported the study hypothesis. It is imperative to note that PR only had three items (energetic, calm, and strong) and NR had a similar number of items (nervous, sadness, and jittery) as those found on the 27-item PANAS-C Scales (Laurent et al., 1999). The correlations between items were sufficiently large for principal-axis factoring while the Cronbach’s Alpha represented the overall reliability of the test in each factor. The final Cronbach’s Alpha of.82 for factor 1 and.88 for factor 2 was determined, which implied that both factors had high internal consistency reliability. Any item-total correlation with less than.3 was removed from the test to develop the Preliminary Scale Development.
Two dominant and comparatively related items were developed for the Preliminary Scale Development to measure sleep/sleep deprivation specific measures of emotion. Watson et al. (1988) had earlier used a similar approach to develop a tool using a cluster of emotions to assess PA and NA among adults and adolescents. The later scale developed, PANAS-C focused on children to assist in differentiating depression from anxiety (Laurent et al., 1999). These scales did not, however, measure sleep/sleep deprivation affect.
Talbot et al. (2010) had earlier observed that some items on the scale used to measure mood overlap with those found in sleep assessment, such as fatigue. The Preliminary Scale Development for PR and NR only had a few overlapping items to suggest that the PANAS-C was not suitable as sleep/sleep deprivation a specific measure of emotion. The finding is consistent with Talbot et al. (2010) result, which showed that PANAS could not measure the type of negative affect reflected in sleep-deprived individuals.
The study reinforced the finding that sleep and motions are linked (Kahn, Sheppes, & Sadeh, 2013), and it provided the Preliminary Scale Development for assessment. The Preliminary Scale Development now joins other tools, such as PANAS and the Profile of Mood State (POMS) to help in assessing a various range of mood states for individuals with sleep deprivation conditions (Klumpers et al., 2015), but the Preliminary Scale Development will be used for sleep specific measures.
One major limitation of the Preliminary Scale Development is that it was only based on samples obtained from university students. As such, it may not be effective as sleep/sleep deprivation a specific measure of emotion in children and senior adults.
In conclusion, the results obtained show consistency with other tools used to assess a wide range of mood states, such as PANAS, PANAS-C, and POMS, but the Preliminary Scale Development is specifically developed as a sleep deprivation specific measure of emotion. The Preliminary Scale Development acts as an alternative tool for assessing sleep/emotion association by presenting clusters of PR and NR subscales not previously found in other measurement instruments for the two broad dimensions of mood consisting of Positive Affect and Negative Affect.
Of course, future studies are necessary for the Preliminary Scale Development to provide empirical data and demonstrate the reliability, validity, and utility of this assessment tool based on its Positive Reaction and Negative Reaction. Such studies should also consider other measures of affect beyond PANAS and PANAS-C used in different contexts. Nevertheless, the Preliminary Scale Development is a tool that will be used in research and practical assessment of sleep-deprived individuals to determine their wide range of emotions.
References
Christian, M. S., & Ellis, A. P. (2011). Examining the effects of sleep deprivation on workplace deviance: A self-regulatory perspective. Academy of Management Journal, 54(5), 913-934. Web.
Cohen, R. J., Swerdlik, M. E., & Sturman, E. (2013). Psychological Testing and Assessment: An Introduction to Tests and Measurement (8th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Web.
Daniela, T., Alessandro, C., Giuseppe, C., Fabio, M., Cristina, M., Luigi, D. G., & Michele, F. (2010). Lack of Sleep Affects the Evaluation of Emotional Stimuli. Brain Research Bulletin, 82(1-2), 104–108. Web.
Gaudreau, P., Sanchez, X., & Blondin, J.-P. (2006). Positive and Negative Affective States in a Performance-Related Setting: Testing the Factorial Structure of the PANAS Across Two Samples of French-Canadian Participants. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 22(4), 240–249. Web.
Goldstein-Piekarski, A. N., Greer, S. M., Saletin, J. M., & Walker, M. P. (2015). Sleep Deprivation Impairs the Human Central and Peripheral Nervous System Discrimination of Social Threat. The Journal of Neuroscience, 35(28), 10135-10145. Web.
Hughes, A. A., & Kendall, P. C. (2009). Psychometric Properties of the Positive and Negative Affect Scale for Children (PANAS-C) in Children with Anxiety Disorders. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 40(3), 343-52. Web.
Klumpers, U. M., Veltman, D. J., Tol, M.-J. v., Kloet, R. W., Boellaard, R., Lammertsma, A. A., & Hoogendijk, W. J. (2015). Neurophysiological Effects of Sleep Deprivation in Healthy Adults, a Pilot Study. PLoS ONE, 10(1), e0116906. Web.
Laurent, J., Catanzaro, S. J., Joiner Jr., T. E., Rudolph, K. D., Potter, K. I., Lambert, S.,… Gathright, T. (1999). A Measure of Positive and Negative Affect for Children: Scale Development and Preliminary Validation. Psychological Assessment, 11(3), 326-338. Web.
Talbot, L. S., McGlinchey, E. L., Kaplan, K. A., Dahl, R. E., & Harvey, A. G. (2010). Sleep Deprivation in Adolescents and Adults: Changes in Affect. Emotion, 10(6), 831–841. Web.
Tangney, J. P., Stuewig, J., & Mashek, D. J. (2007). Moral Emotions and Moral Behavior. Annual Review of Psychology, 58, 345–72. Web.
Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and Validation of Brief Measures of Positive and Negative Affect: The PANAS Scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 11(3), 1063-1070. Web.
Sleep is a normal activity very important for our well-being. Numerous theories try and explain why organisms sleep. The Recuperative theory of sleep is based on the premise that humans require sleep to rejuvenate and recoup spent energy during the waking period. The Circadian theory opines that the human wake-sleep cycle is a natural cycle modified by the day and night cycle of nature. While the former try and explain sleep in behavioral terms, the latter has a more neurobiological explanation for the phenomenon of sleep. This essay attempts to compare and contrast both theories in an attempt to explain their validity.
The recuperative theory bases its proof on the logic that any animal which stays awake 24 hours without break would expend a tremendous amount of energy and be weakened over time and thus fall prey to other animals. Milton (1994) states that “animals sleep so that physiological and biochemical repairs can take place”. Thus to survive, the animal must sleep to conserve energy, allow new energy to replace the spent energy, and make conditions suitable for growth.
The recuperative theory opines that during the act of sleeping, some biological processes take place that increase the chances of growth and survival. According to many scientists, during stage 4 sleep, the parasympathetic system controlling the digestive system becomes active and the cardiovascular system slows down. By doing so, energy expenditure is reduced while digestion helps restoration of energy in the body.
REM sleep provides another clue why the recuperative theory could be valid. It has been proven that humans enter a more restive state during REM sleep. During this period, the muscles are completely relaxed which helps conserve energy and the subsequent buildup. Sleep scientists have also pointed out that the restful condition during sleep promotes the secretion of growth hormones which is yet another reason for the validity of the recuperative theory. However, recuperative theorists find it difficult to explain why there is rarely any difference in sleep patterns, even if someone exercises very hard.
As per the Circadian theory, the normal wake-sleep cycle is about 25 hours. According to Levinthal (1990), “The regulation of circadian cycles is accomplished by the Suprachiasmatic Nuclei (SCN) in the anterior portion of the hypothalamus—-.” The SCN receives information regarding the period of the day via special optic pathways from the retina and thalamus. A free-running 25-hour cycle then gets modified to tune in to the 24-hour natural day-night cycle.
The Circadian theory gives a good plausible reason as to why humans get ‘Jet lagged’. As we travel across time zones, the human biological clock, attuned to a particular place’s day-night cycle, is upset by the continually changing day-night durations. This leads to disorientation, tiredness, and lack of concentration. The US Air Force Instruction (2006) requires their aircrews to get a minimum of 8 hours of sleep to cater for circadian conflicts.
The validity of the Circadian theory of sleep is well established. All studies in sleep deprivation point to the circadian theory as the valid explanation for why organisms sleep. The circadian theory has official recognition the world over. The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), and all the Air Forces in the world cite the Circadian theory as a reason for determining mandatory rests periods for aircrews. The Recuperative theory, though compelling in some ways, has not found the kind of acceptance as has the Circadian theory. In my estimation, the Circadian theory definitely holds more water than the Recuperative theory of sleep.
References
Air Force Instruction 11-202, volume 3, 2006. Flying Operations – General Flight Rules. Page 70. Web.
Levinthal, Charles F. (1990). Introduction to Physiological Psychology. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc. Page 312.
Milton, John. (1994). Recent Functional Theories of Sleep and Dreaming. Web.
The pineal gland that is positioned in the brain produces the hormone melatonin (Blask, 2009). Melatonin plays a significant role in the circadian control of sleep as well as in restraining the development of malignant cells. In addition, melatonin improves the performance of the immune system (Blask, 2009). This paper is a patient education material on the role of melatonin in determining the sleep-wake patterns.
Melatonin and Sleep
The human body undergoes regular cycles every twenty-four hours. These cycles, which entail sleep, secretion of certain hormones and regulation of body temperature, are referred to as circadian cycles. The suprachiasmatic nucleus in the hypothalamus contains a rhythm-creating system that regulates the secretion of melatonin (Jarvis, Russell & Gorman, 2004). Melatonin, which works as a night indicator, also controls this system.
As darkness approaches, the pineal gland starts to secrete melatonin. The quantity of melatonin secreted increases as the darkness intensifies. Melatonin then sends a signal to the brain region that is responsible for the control of the sleep-wake cycle. Consequently, the brain responds by causing sleep.
In the morning, the quantity of melatonin in the blood and in the brain reduces significantly thereby causing one to be awake. Contact of the eyes with light also diminishes the concentration of the hormone in the blood.
Regulation of Melatonin
Light and darkness are the key regulators of melatonin levels. Factors such as jet-lag (traveling to different time zones), working late at night and irregular sleep hours affect the secretion of melatonin and subsequently alter the sleep-wake cycle. Although melatonin is secreted naturally, synthetic melatonin is readily and can be used to improve sleep outcomes in people with sleep disorders (Franco, 2008).
Conclusion
The sleep-wake cycle is important as it allows the body to have adequate rest. Therefore, we ought to ensure that we have sufficient hours of sleep to ensure the overall well-being of our bodies.
References
Blask, D. E. (2009). Melatonin, sleep disturbance and cancer risk. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 13(4), 257-264.
Franco, R. (2008). Melatonin. Web.
Jarvis, M., Russell, J., & Gorman, P. (2004). Angles of psychology (2nd ed.). United Kingdom: Nelson Thornes.