Healthy Sleep Research

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For the longest time, we have always considered sleep a time for your brain to shut down and rest. Thanks to research, we learned this was wrong and now know a lot about sleep. When we sleep, our brain is still active because it has important functions to perform. First, we need to understand what makes us want to sleep. A “substance, called adenosine, builds up in your blood while you’re awake. Then, while you sleep, your body breaks down the adenosine. Levels of this substance in your body may help trigger sleep when needed” (Your Guide To Healthy Sleep 7). When one continues to get the insufficient amount of sleep over several nights, this causes the adenosine to build up, known as sleep debt. So over a long period, your sleep debt will …show more content…
It is part of your internal ‘biological clock,’ which controls when you feel sleepy and your sleep patterns” (Your Guide To Healthy Sleep 7). One major thing that disrupts our biological clock is using media. Using devices such as TVs, smartphones, and laptops late at night “could affect the total amount of sleep, but also that it would adversely affect sleep quality by fostering irregular bedtimes” (Children’s Media Use and Sleep Problems 2). It is becoming more common for teens not getting the optimal amount of sleep. Now that media is easily accessible and in their rooms, there is less parental control on how long they spend using media devices. So by teens staying up late using media and by having to wake up early for school this greatly affects their sleeping habits and health. With our 24/7 society, it demands people to work at night. “Nearly one-quarter of all workers work shifts that are not during the daytime, and more than two-thirds of these workers have problem sleepiness and/or difficulty sleeping” (Your Guide To Healthy Sleep 7). People with night shifts are also at a greater risk of accidents such as car accidents or at the workplace due to drowsiness or not being

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