Sleep deprivation is the condition of not having enough sleep; it can be either chronic or acute. A chronic sleep-restricted state can cause fatigue, daytime sleepiness, clumsiness and weight loss or weight gain. It adversely affects the brain and cognitive function. Few studies have compared the effects of acute total sleep deprivation and chronic partial sleep restriction. Complete absence of sleep over long periods is impossible for humans to achieve (unless they suffer from fatal familial insomnia); brief micro sleeps cannot be avoided. Long-term total sleep deprivation has caused death in lab animals.
Our documentary is going to demonstrate the importance of sleep for everyone, especially for teens/students. We will use a healthy 17 year old to prove the effects and the importance of sleep. The world record for lack of sleep is held by Randy Gardner. He holds the scientifically documented record for the longest period of time a human being has intentionally gone without sleep not using stimulants of any kind. In 1964—as a 17-year-old high school student in San Diego, California—Gardner stayed awake for 264 hours (eleven days). It is often claimed that Gardner's experiment demonstrated that extreme sleep deprivation has little effect, other than the mood changes associated with tiredness. However, Lt. Cmdr. John J. Ross, who monitored his health, reported serious mental and behavioral changes. These included moodiness, problems with concentration and short term memory, paranoia, and hallucinations. On the fourth day he had a delusion that he was Paul Lowe winning the Rose Bowl, and that a street sign was a person. On the eleventh day, when he was asked to subtract seven repeatedly, starting with 100, he stopped at 65. When asked why he had stopped, he replied that he had forgotten what he was doing. After the experiment (and a lengthy sleep), he returned to his normal self with no long term side effects at all.
The amount of sleep you need depends on various factors — especially your age. These are the recommended hours:
· Infants – 14-15 Hours
· Toddlers – 12-14 Hours
· School Age Children – 10-11 Hours
· Adults – 7-9 Hours
Beating the world record would be a great but optimistic achievement. Our aim is to get to 4 days and review how the subject is coping.
These are the top 10 surprising effects of lack of sleep:
1. Sleepiness causes accidents – It has often been recorded that car accidents occur from drivers falling asleep at the wheel. Now there are street signs warning drivers to rest if necessary.
2. Sleep loss dumbs you down - Sleep plays a critical role in thinking and learning. Lack of sleep hurts these cognitive processes in many ways. First, it impairs attention, alertness, concentration, reasoning, and problem solving. This makes it more difficult to learn efficiently.
3. It can cause serious health problems - Heart disease, Heart attack, Heart failure, Irregular heartbeat, High blood pressure, Stroke, Diabetes.
4. Lack of sleep kills the sex drive - Sleep specialists say that sleep-deprived men and women report lower libidos and less interest in sex. Depleted energy, sleepiness, and increased tension may be largely to blame.
5. Sleepiness is depressing - In a 1997 study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, people who slept less than five hours a night for seven nights felt stressed, angry, sad, and mentally exhausted. Over time, lack of sleep and sleep disorders can contribute to the symptoms of depression.
6. Lack of sleep ages your skin - Most people have experienced sallow skin and puffy eyes after a few nights of missed sleep. But it turns out that chronic sleep loss can lead to lacklustre skin, fine lines, and dark circles under the eyes.
7. Sleepiness makes you forgetful - In 2009, American and French researchers determined that brain events called “sharp wave ripples” are responsible for consolidating memory. The ripples also transfer learned information from the hippocampus to the neocortex of the brain, where long-term memories are stored. Sharp wave ripples occur mostly during the deepest levels of sleep.
8. Losing Sleep Can Make You Gain Weight - When it comes to body weight, it may be that if you snooze, you lose. Lack of sleep seems to be related to an increase in hunger and appetite, and possibly to obesity. According to a 2004 study, people who sleep less than six hours a day were almost 30 percent more likely to become obese than those who slept seven to nine hours.
9. Lack of Sleep May Increase Risk of Death - In the “Whitehall II Study,” British researchers looked at how sleep patterns affected the mortality of more than 10,000 British civil servants over two decades. The results, published in 2007, showed that those who had cut their sleep from seven to five hours or fewer a night nearly doubled their risk of death from all causes. In particular, lack of sleep doubled the risk of death from cardiovascular disease.
10. Sleep Loss Impairs Judgment, Especially About Sleep - Lack of sleep can affect our interpretation of events. This hurts our ability to make sound judgments because we may not assess situations accurately and act on them wisely.
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