Stages Of Sleep

The entire world runs on a twenty-four hour cycle with roughly ten to fourteen hours of daylight and roughly ten to fourteen hours of nighttime. During the night or even the daytime for some, individuals sleep. This is an action that everyone on this Earth takes part in because people can’t survive without it. If a person does not receive enough sleep, he could suffer from irritability, dizziness, hallucinations, loss of concentration, and much more. Even though everyone knows the consequences of not getting enough sleep, it’s hard to tell why they occur and what happens within our bodies when we reach the perfect amount of slumber. It seems to be an accepted occurrence that we spend a third of our lives snuggled within our own beds without …show more content…
Before one can determine why sleep is a prevalent requirement in every person’s life, we need to learn what takes place while we are in an unconscious state. From the moment you close your eyes to the time you wake up the morning, your mind goes through stages of sleep. The first stage is called “Stage 1 sleep” where your brain exhibits “theta waves” that are “still low amplitude and relatively fast” (Pilcher 15-16). Theoretically, the brain is still wide awake, but your body is telling your mind that it is ready to fall asleep. Afterwards, your mind experiences “sleep spindles,” which is “when the brain activity shows bursts of higher amplitude, fast-frequency waves” (Pilcher 15). This Stage 2 sleep is “associated with a slight decrease in …show more content…
It reimburses our organs and allows our bodies to rest from the hard work they experienced. Studies show that “sleep helps maintain many of the bodily functions that keep us healthy and productive” (Pilcher 15). Also, it “improves our memory formation” by placing thoughts and events into the long term memory, and it “improves immune functioning, … and our organs repair themselves from normal day-to-day wear and tear” (Pilcher 15-16). However, sleep is hard to come by for some people because “sleep-deprived persons show increased mind wandering,” so those who tend to lose focus often and drift away are the ones who struggle to fall asleep (Poh 1312). Not enough sleep can truly affect an individual negatively through “fatigue and difficulty concentrating” during the daytime (Hubbling 3). This problem affects “approximately 10% of adults” (Hubbling 2). The body does not get replenished in the way it does when you get the correct amount of sleep; therefore, sleep deprivation does not allow the body to heal itself in the way that it should. Due to the “degradation of sustained attentiveness” tied to sleep deprivation, “shorter sleep durations and worse sleep quality are associated with worse daytime functioning” (Poh 1312; Dewald-Kaufmann 172). Even though it may seem as though only your mood changes throughout the day from a lack of sleep, it can