Sleep Disorder Consequences on the Immune System

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Methodology
References

Introduction

Scientists recommend adequate and uninterrupted sleep for a healthy life. Sleep disorder is an intricate physiological phenomenon that medical professionals and researchers are in the course of looking for its remedy. Espie (2007) alleges, About 40 million people in the United States suffer from chronic long-term sleep disorders each year (p. 217). Sleep disorders are classified into three groups, which are insomnia, narcolepsy, and sleep apnea.

Sleep disorder has no particular remedy. However, it can be controlled once it is correctly diagnosed. According to Roehrs, Zorick, Sicklesteel, Wittig and Roth (2008), insomnia is the most prevalent sleep disorder. Insomnia is common among the elderly and women. Chemical variations in the blood and brain influence the sleeping pattern. Apart from the chemical variations, some drugs and foods also affect the sleeping pattern of individuals.

For instance, caffeine, which is found in tea, coffee and colas, causes insomnia (Bryant, Trinder & Curtis, 2009). Medical professionals do not have a clear explanation on why we require adequate sleep. Nevertheless, research has shown that enough sleep boosts the immune system.

Research Question

Scientists allege that sleep disorders have adverse effects on the immune system. Consequently, the research question for this paper is: what are the consequences of sleep disorder on the immune system?

Hypotheses

Sleep disorders inhibit normal functioning of the immune system and prevent the body from fighting illnesses. Also, sleep disorders hamper the development of the nervous system and cell growth.

Methodology

Data collection

The research will be carried out in a healthcare facility, and it will involve patients suffering from sleep disorders like insomnia and apnea. The researcher will liaise with healthcare providers to obtain permission to interview patients. The study will cover patients from different age groups. The participants will be aged between 10 and 50 years. The research will focus on both male and female patients who have been suffering from sleep disorder for at least six months.

Focusing on different age groups will enable the researcher to come up with a comprehensive and general conclusion of the effects of sleep disorder on the immune system. The researcher will select a sample of 100 participants from a pool of 350 patients. The members will be chosen through stratified random sampling technique.

The patients will be separated into mutually exclusive strata or groups, and the members picked randomly from each cluster. Stratified random sampling will guarantee that all the patients have equal chances of participating in the study. Also, the sampling technique will enable the researcher to arrive at an accurate data for the entire population. The primary objective of using stratified random sampling is to avoid human bias that might compromise the accuracy of the findings.

Measures

The primary goal of the study is to determine the effects of sleep disorder on the immune system. Therefore, the study will treat the immune system as a dependent variable. The health status of all participants will be assessed based on the form of sleep disorder that disturbs them.

The immune system will be treated as the dependent variable because the researchers objective is determine how it responds to varied sleep disorders. On the other hand, the study will treat insomnia, apnea and narcolepsy as the independent variables. These are the variables that influence the immune system of a patient. Their variations have impacts on the immune system of a patient.

References

Bryant, P., Trinder, J., & Curtis, N. (2009). Sick and tired: Does sleep have a vital role in the immune system? Nature Reviews Immunology, 4(1), 457-467.

Espie, C. (2007). Insomnia: Conceptual issues in the development, persistence, and treatment of sleep disorder in adults. Annual Review of Psychology, 53(1), 215-243.

Roehrs, T., Zorick, F., Sicklesteel, J., Wittig, R., & Roth, T. (2008). Age-related sleep-wake disorders at a sleep disorder center. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 31(6), 364-370.

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