Escolar Documentos
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University of Phoenix
PSY
240
Jwaundace Belcher
If I were to think back to a time when I was deprived of sleep, it would be last year (at this
time) when I was working at a hotel as the front desk clerk. I was working 12 hour shifts due to a
lot of the employees quitting. I was working from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. Not only was my body trying
to use to not sleeping at night, and trying to sleep during the day, but I went from only working
eight hour shifts to working the twelve hour shifts. I had come home and feel asleep one morning
and because of a snow storm, my husband thought it best that we took my father to Dallas before
he was stuck here for longer. I had only slept about 2 ½ hours and I drove the whole way there in
the stormy weather. I had a 12 hour shift to work that night and the drive was 5 hours one way. I
came home and got about one more good hour of sleep before I had to go to work. I was
exhausted.
My mood was affected because I seemed to be more irritable and cranky. I was in a bad
mood to say in the least. My behavior seemed to be a little off since I was unable to react to
things as quickly as I normally could. My cognitive skills were slower than they usually were
due to the lack of sleep, as well as my motor skills. I could still do all the work required of me
while I was that sleepy, but I was unable to muster the strength to do anything extra. My
experience does coincide with the effects that are described in the text, but since the symptoms
Long-term sleep reduction can cause many different problems. Even if the person is only
getting three to four hours of sleep in a night, they can still suffer the effects of sleep deprivation.
There are three different consistent effects that have been associated with sleep deprivation; first,
people who show signs of sleep deprivation, tend to show an increase in sleepiness. They advise
that are sleepier and tend to fall asleep more quickly (if given the chance). Secondly, people who
suffer from sleep deprivation show disturbances of mood. And thirdly, people who suffer from
sleep deprivation perform poorly in vigilance (like listening, and responding to those tests.)
There are approximately 80 different types of sleep disorders, which about 70 million
Americans suffer from. Many sleeping disorders fall into two complementary categories;
insomnia and hypersomnia. Insomnia includes all disorders of initiating and maintaining sleep.
Hypersomnia includes all those disorders of excessive sleep or sleepiness. There is a third sleep
disorder category which involves all those disorders that are specifically related to REM-sleep
dysfunction.
When it comes to insomnia, there are a few known causes like; iatrogenic (physician-
created), sleep apnea, nocturnal myoclonus, and even restless leg syndrome. I am most familiar
with restless leg syndrome because I was diagnosed with it about three years ago. I was
physician prescribes benzodiazepines, which may help at first, but since the body is known to
build a tolerance to the drugs, and after a little while of taking the drugs, if the patient tries to
stop taking the medications, they will experience with-draw symptoms (which can include
insomnia.) A few types of hypersomnia would include; narcolepsy, cataplexy, sleep paralysis,
There are two different types of drugs that help people with sleep disorders sleep. They fall
into two different classes; hypnotic and anti-hypnotic drugs. Hypnotic drugs like;
benzodiazepines (xanax, valium) are something I am very familiar with. While Xanax can be
prescribed for anxiety disorders (which is why I get them) they can are more often prescribed as
a hypnotic drug to help people sleep better. There are a few problems with prescribing these
medicines as chronic sleep aids because one’s body will build up a tolerance after some time,
they are highly addictive, it can cause insomnia, and it can distort the normal sleep patterns of a
person.
The anti-hypnotic drugs fall into two classes as well; stimulants, and tricyclic
antidepressants. Both are known to increase the activity of catecholamine’s, by either blocking
their reuptake from the synapse, or increasing the release of different catecholamine’s like
norepinephrine, epinephrine, and dopamine. Sometimes both blocking and increasing can happen
Regardless, I have learned that it is a very important part of our cycle. Without sleep, our
motor functions would decrease, along with our motor and cognitive skills. Our moods can
change and without sleep we can become depressed. It is most healthy for an adult to sleep 6 to 8
hours each night. It is easy to see why people who only get 3 to 4 hours of sleep can be so
grumpy.