How Sleep Affects Our Productivity

How you can optimize the amount of sleep you get in order to have a more productive day?

Introduction

The intention of this research paper is to talk about and understand what sleep is and why it is important to get the right amount of sleep can promote a more productive day.

What is sleep

Sleep is a vital function in which our body is at rest. During this state of mind our eyes are closed, our muscles and nervous system are relaxed, muscle and tissue heals and our body grows.

When we get the proper amount of sleep, we wake up well rested, alert and ready for our day. But some don’t, get it, you could be what some call a “night owl”(stays up late) or a “early riser” (Gets up early). I myself am a night owl, who gets up early and it is noticeable how much of a different person I am when I miss out on my sleep, I don’t talk my when I am tired and plus I become a grouch, just like when I’m hangry.

Benefits of getting sleep and how long is a good time to sleep for age

No matter what time you stay up to or go to bed at, you should generally try to get the proper amount depending on your age group. There are many reasons why you should sleep the proper amount per night, one being that it helps support a healthy weight, immune system, you have a less chance of getting sick or having health problems such as diabetes and/or heart disease which kills six hundred ten thousand people each year in the united states making that one out of four deaths is death by heart disease.

Get quality help now

Dr. Karlyna PhD

Verified

Proficient in: Distracted Driving

4.7 (235)

“ Amazing writer! I am really satisfied with her work. An excellent price as well. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

Also it helps with your mood and stress levels, so if you’re not a morning person try to get the right amount of sleep so that you can have the energy to be social and pay attention to the tasks at hand. But how much sleep should you get per night? Well according to the national sleep foundation “Newborns that are zero to three months old should get around fourteen to seventeen hours of sleep each day. Infants that are four to eleven months old should sleep to around twelve to fifteen hours a day.

Toddlers that are one to two years of age should get about eleven to fourteen hours of sleep a day. Preschoolers from the ages three to five should get about ten to thirteen hours of sleep per night. School age children from six to thirteen years of age should get around nine to eleven hours of sleep per night. Teenagers that are fourteen to seventeen years of age should get around eight to ten hours of sleep per night. Younger adults ranging from eighteen to twenty five should try to get around seven to nine hours of sleep a night. Adults around twenty six to sixty four years of age should try to get about seven to nine hours of sleep per night. Seniors/Older adults the age of sixty five and up club are suppose to get around seven to eight hours of sleep per night.

Stages of sleep

Our sleep comes in stages, Stage one is when you’re just starting to fall asleep the brain produces what is called “alpha and theta waves” (which is a measurement of brain activity) which causes you to feel relaxed and calm, during this stage you could easily be woken up because you are in a light sleep and still alert. Stage two brain wave activity start to slow down this stage leads you into stage three and four when the brain produces delta waves which are much slower, during this time you are less likely to be woken up because you are no longer alert, eye and muscle movements are to a minimum you are in deep sleep. During this stage is when your body recharges, grows and rebuilds muscle and tissue and energy.

The fifth stage also called Rapid Eye Movement (REM) in this stage you’re brain activity increases as well as you heart rate, blood pressure and eye movement, breathing becomes erratic and unpredictable, in this stage you are more likely to have dreams due to the increase in brain activity. This stage is very important for memory and learning. In REM you’re brain is able to take the things it has learned and make connections and retain information gathered during the day.

The negatives

What if you aren’t getting the right amount of sleep you need? When you don’t get the right amount of sleep you could become drowsy, out of it and unable to focus and be productive throughout the day, which can cause your reaction time to increase, causing you to not react as fast in dangerous situations or when you drive your car, driving drowsy is dangerous, can be deadly and a huge problem for highway motor safety. When you drive drowsy you risk your ability to make proper and sudden decisions. So avoid substances such as night time cold medicine, melatonin and alcohol that might cause you to be drowsy or tired.

Never drink and/or text and/or drive drowsy. It’s extremely dangerous and you risk not only your life but the lives around you. “The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that drowsy driving was responsible for 72,000 crashes, 44,000 injuries, and 800 deaths in 2013. However, these numbers are underestimated and up to 6,000 fatal crashes each year may be caused by drowsy drivers.” So before you get behind the wheel make sure you’re well rested and aren’t driving under the influence of any substance.

Sleeping disorders

Millions of people suffer from sleep disorders and these sleeping disorders can be very dangerous and harmful to your everyday life. One common sleeping disorder is insomnia, Insomnia can affect the amount of sleep you get you to have difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep, it can cause you to wake up early or in the middle of the night.

It can cause you to be drowsy during the day causing you to be less focused and productive. It can cause your mood to change because you don’t feel refreshed when you wake up. Another sleep disorder is restless legs syndrome (RLS) which as it sounds your legs become restless causing the urge to move them making it very difficult to fall asleep. Then there is narcolepsy which can affect when you sleep.

You could fall asleep at anytime of the day and you can’t control when it happens, it can also affect your mood. Parasomnias which can cause sleep walking, sleep paralysis which can cause you to not be able to move and you experience hallucinations and nightmares which can happen at any point in time in the sleep cycle. Sleep paralysis is no joke and can be very frightening to the individual who experiences it.

My experience with sleep paralysis

I myself have had sleep paralysis and it was freakin’ scary, I wasn’t sure when I opened my eyes whether or not what I was seeing was real or if was just simple a dream or nightmare per say because I didn’t know If was even awake yet, I looked around in my dark room but it wasn’t like my room, it was different, changed, I was stuck to my bed like a patient at the hospital is but on my side, I couldn’t move at all. I started to panic, breathing fast, and look around more and more.

Then finally, from the darkest corner of my room, two piercing red glowing eyes on what had appeared to be a person, it was dark so I couldn’t quite see what it was, but at this time I’m there like “what is that light in my closet?” and that’s when I saw it blink then that’s when it started to come slowly out from the darkness and I was freaking out at this point because I couldn’t move and this thing coming out of the darkness. I saw it’s face, it was skeleton-like, almost like a zombie that’s flesh broke down and the bones combined together with other bones to make one scary looking creature. This deathly looking creature lunged at me and disappeared.

I saw red lights like they were behind me, I felt something move up my back. It was cold enough to give you chills, it breathed down my neck, It was warm. That’s when it opened its mouth and bite me on the neck. Then I felt a sharp pain on my neck and then I could move I ran to turn on a light and started feeling my neck to be sure what I was seeing was real or not, I couldn’t keep my head straight because if I straighten it out it would be painful. So I looked around but everything was normal, all but me though, my heart was racing and I was shaking in fear at what I saw and felt. Come to find out I had sleep paralysis and a crick in my neck which is when you strain the muscles in your neck by sleeping on a too large of a pillow you wake up with your head to the opposite side you slept on and if you straighten neck your muscles end up spasming causing your neck to be stiff and in pain.

Electronics and sleep

Everyone’s on their phones and computers nowaday and are too distracted to realize what’s going on around them, anyway the point is that electronics can ruin your sleep. How? At night or whenever you feel sleepy that is when your body produces melatonin through the pineal gland, melatonin which is a hormone helps us fall asleep. If you have issues falling asleep at night go to the store and try out melatonin. First time I had melatonin I was out like a light. Speaking of light, light is something that can bother you when trying to go to sleep, If your room is too bright try covering up the annoying lights so that your room is dark. Unfortunately laptops and phones emit a blue light which can affect your internal clock if you are exposed to it for long periods of time which can affect when you produce melatonin which can be bad for your health. So your choice, either avoid getting on your electronics about two hours before your bedtime or risk not being able to fall asleep.