Boy 13, 17 years
Sleep Assignment
How much sleep do we need?
The amount of sleep needed varies from age to gender and it varies individually. A friend of
yours might need 7-8 hours of sleep but you might need 9 hours of sleep to be well rested.
Sleep is individual and you always have to sleep.
Why is sleep important?
Sleeping would be the nature’s ultimate mess-up if it wouldn’t have a purpose. Why would
some animal want to sleep and be a “sitting duck” for the predator? Because studies have
shown that sleep “regenerates” your body and mind. You feel well rested and energized and
you feel ok and you’re not sad for sleeping well. So that’s why we sleep. But then there are
some other very complex reasons and things that happen when we sleep. Studies show that’s
these things happen when you sleep: Wounds heal better, your recent memories are added to
the long term “memory bank” but a theory that failed was the protection theory that sleep
protects you from walking around and being a possible target of a predator, but that didn’t
explain why the lions sleep the most. Sleep is needed for the construction of our bodies.
Dreams occur under sleep, more exactly under REM sleep(Rapid Eye Movement) the Other
sleep is NREM (Non REM sleep) and NREM is the stage where animals and people sleep
“lighter” thus being more aware of what happens around them. In REM we are almost totally
unconscious and are “disconnected“ from the “real” world to the “world of dreams”.
So sleep serves many simple and complex purposes. The loss of sleep would be fatal for
animals and humans alike because the consequences are very bad after just 2-3 days of not
getting a good night’s sleep: 1.Increased BMI due to being hungry for not sleeping enough,
being awake burns a lot more energy than sleeping. 2. Not sleeping enough makes you tired,
and when tired you loose your concentration and you can get easily annoyed and the time to
react is slowed. 3. Learning new information is useless if you’re tired. A good night’s sleep
grants you: 1.Alertness 2.Increased reaction time and 3.A good mental state 4. And you
remember yesterday better (if you were sober).
Sleeping pattern.
Day
Start(evening)*
End(morning, next
Total H. of sleep
day)
1.Mo
22:45
7:37
8
2.Tue
23:55
7:53
7.5
3.We
23:15
6:55
7.5
4.Thu
22:45
6:55
7.5
5.Fri
22:20
8:34
9.5
6.Sa
23:55
8:12
7.5
7.Su
23:10
7:55
8.5
*The Start is estimated from first going to bed and then not waking up in the first fifteen
minutes and then actually sleeping.
Then I found this site http://www.lunesta.com/sleep101/sleep-calculator.html
And I used it to calculate the total H. of sleep.
In my sleeping pattern I have a so called “Sleeping debt” that I “pay off” when I sleep 9.5 h
and 8.5 in my week. But the statistics show that I sleep not enough and I should improve my
sleeping by going earlier to bed and not watching too much TV.
Advices for someone who suffers from sleeping disorders:
Go earlier to bed.
Don’t watch TV before going to sleep.
Don’t really eat a lot before going to bed or any night snacks.
Read a book.
Listen to relaxing music, but remember to turn it off.
Have a light that shifts in relaxing colours but remember to turn it off too.
Don’t do any exercise before going to bed.
Don’t go to the sauna before bed, you still keep sweating after sauna too.
Don’t have a too cold or warm room.
Make cosy.
Sources: Wikipedia, Sleepfoundation
and Lunesta