Two More Weeks

One week down two more to go. Thanksgiving is creeping up on us and that means Christmas is next! My sleep debt is increasing every day and the only thing that keeps me going is the approach of the upcoming breaks. I am slowly preparing myself for the long nights that I will be enduring during the last week of school and the week of finals. This semester has to be my worst semester in terms of sleep. I think that the lack of sleep has also taken a toll on my grades. I am way more forgetful of things especially when it comes to tests. I will definitely be taking what I have learned in this class and do a better job of applying it every day starting from the beginning of the semester. Until then I will have to continue to dig myself out of the hole I have put myself into.

Insomnia

This weeks topic of insomnia was very interesting. I have always been interested in sleeping disorders and I even considered writing my research paper on sleep disorders. Insomnia is a freighting disorder to look at because of all of the ways the disorder can harm you or another person. After being forced awake for so long, insomnia can cause serious sleep deprivation that can end up in serious problems. In William Dement's The Promise of Sleep, he recounts a time when an extended family member was undergoing lots of stress. Helen sought help from a clinic but did not receive much but common advice. After several days of sleep deprivation, Helen's body could not take the stress any longer and gave out on her at the worst possible time. Helen got into a car accident after suddenly falling asleep on the wheel. This is just one account of injury induced by insomnia. Insomnia is a rising problem in our society especially with the fact that the later you can stay up working, the better you look as a hard worker. I believe that awareness of insomnia and other sleep disorders should be more prevalent, so that people like Helen are not put in a situation of high danger like she was.

Dement, The Promise of Sleep, part of ch. 6  (pgs. 131-139)

Three Week Countdown

Two weeks following fall break and I have already started thinking about thanksgiving break. We are in the middle of the semester and things are starting to get intense. With essays and big tests that may decide how rough finals week will be coming up, we are on this upward slope of stress build up. Now all I can think about is the next big break, Thanksgiving. As of right now, the only disappointing thing about this break is that I will not be going home for the break, but I have made arrangements with a friend to visit him in Oklahoma instead. I am mostly just looking forward to the nice long break before finals. My sleep is taking a toll and after discussing sleeping pills in class, trying them out again has definitely crossed my mind. I can't convince myself that they will actually help though, so for now I am stuck with the every day yawns and random zone outs from sleep deprivation.

Sleeping Pills

Sleeping pills have always intrigued me. My freshman year I received a free sample of sleeping pills and tried them out. I didn't see much of a difference in falling asleep, but I definitely felt more drowsy when I woke up. In the article titled CDC Details Use of Sleep Meds, John Gever details the usage of sleeping pills throughout the United States. One statistic that really caught my attention was "among individuals reporting 5 hours or less of sleep nightly, 6.0% said they used prescription sleep drugs, whereas 3.2% of those who said they averaged 7 hours nightly used sleep aids" (Gever). What I found so interesting was how high the usage of sleeping pills was for the people who recorded less than five hours of sleep. It makes me think how the usefulness of sleeping pills may differ from person to person. Maybe the reason I did not find the sleeping pills so useful is because of how the usefulness differs from person to person.

John Gever, “CDC Details Use of Sleep Meds,” Medpage, Aug. 30, 2013 (http://www.medpagetoday.com/PrimaryCare/SleepDisorders/41287)

Segmented Sleep

In Ekrich's article, Ekrich links both religion and medical accounts to early sleeping patterns. Ekrich introduces segmented sleep as one of the early sleeping patterns that humans used to prioritize. Ekrich quotes medical books from the 15th century as some of the first accounts of segmented sleep, "for better digestion and more tranquil repose, to lie on their right side during 'the fyrste slepe' and 'after the fyrste slepe turne on the lefte syde'" (366). I found this interesting, because as for myself, I  never wake up on the same side I went to sleep on. This is very far fetched, but what if our body does this subconsciously. Furthermore, Ekrich links early religious practices by monks "[rising] after midnight for the recital of verses and psalms, this like other regulations of the Benedictine order had spread to growing numbers of Frankish and German monasteries." (366). This early religious practice can definitely be compared to today's religious practices of reading our bible or praying before going sleep. Comparing early practices to now, we see some similarities, we have just evolved since these practices first came.

Upcoming Research Paper

The end of the semester is coming up and that means its research paper time. Initially I thought about expanding our discussion on students and sleep, but I think I would like to focus more on athletes and sleep. As an athlete I am constantly worried about sleep. Every night I constantly remind myself of the amount of hours left before I have to wake up before practice. I think it would be interesting to look at research done on the impact sleep, or lack of sleep may have on an athletes performance. I would also like to expand on possible reasons why athletes may need more or less sleep to someone who is more sedentary.

War and Sleep

Before this class I never took into perspective the amount of sleep our military loses due to war. The article I found the most intriguing was Los Angeles Times', Winning, but Really Feeling Beat. This article took statements from two military scientist who have studied sleep in the military. The scientists go over the problems they are constantly seeing in the field. One statement that really put things into perspective was "Fatigue may be a factor in 'friendly fire' deaths, accidents and battlefield errors." To think that some of our very own soldiers have lost their lives due to fatigue is unfathomable.


Melissa Healy, “Winning, but Feeling Really Beat,” Los Angeles Times, April 7, 2003 (http://articles.latimes.com/print/2003/apr/07/news/war-sleep7)