Psychology

“Sleep is such a luxury, which I can’t afford.” (Sikarwar, 1989) Some of us get eight hours, while some of us get six hours, and some individuals are even lucky to get four hours of sleep. How many are you getting? Sleep is important to living and maintaining a happy and healthy lifestyle throughout our lifetime. For the mind and body to function properly sleep is highly recommended. Rest is a fundamental prerequisite for our body to work legitimately. We spend 1/3 of our lives doing it, but most of the time it is not enough. Without rest, the danger of nodding off is at an all-time high. Sometimes it’s not solely based on the measure of rest we are getting, however the nature of those hours. Research proves that nearly forty million Americans suffer from sleep disorders.

Numerous individuals live with rest disorders that are diagnosed or untreated. Sleep disorders such as, Sleep deprivation, insomnia, narcolepsy, sleep apnea and many more. Sleep deprivation is caused by not getting sleep. Being sleep deprived can cause emotional difficulties, poor job performance, obesity and a lowered perception of quality of life. Insomnia is a disorder in which individuals have problems falling and staying asleep. Approximately forty percent of adult’s experience insomnia. 10-15% experience it daily, this disorder is very common in women.

Narcolepsy is a chronic illness which causes sudden attacks of sleep. It is caused by genetic factors and abnormal signaling in a person’s brain. In some of the 200,000 cases in the USA, every year hallucinations and sudden muscle tone loss can occur. Sleep apnea is a sleeping disorder in which you have pauses in breathing. This disorder is very common in males who are overweight and/or have high blood pressure. With disorders like the ones listed above people become less focused, can be distracted easily, become more forgetful, and retain less information. These characteristics are some of the main reasons for accidents such as car wrecks happen. A study in 2013 states that twenty percent of wrecks happen because of sleep deprivation. That is over seventy-two thousand car accidents a year because individuals not getting enough sleep. One big problem is numerous people don’t know that they have sleep disorders; therefore, they cannot get the proper treatment for their disorders. A study showed that only twelve percent of people with a sleep disorder have been diagnosed with their disorder or have received treatment from it.