Lack of Sleep Essay - 950 Words

Talking with different people one notices that a lot of them consider they can accomplish more if they could waste less time sleeping. However, they don’t realize they are only hurting their productivity when they lose sleep. I’ve read two articles that deal with the issue of sleep deprivation. The College Student Journal published an article about the grade-point average of college students and sleep length, while U.S. News World Report produced an article dealing with the lack of sleep in America and its effects on performance. The articles show different results from different types of data with different degrees of veracity. In spite of their differences, both articles indicate that lack of sleep is a cause for diminished†¦show more content†¦In the beginning the volunteers spent almost eleven hours sleeping trying to catch up on their accumulated sleep debt, an average of seventeen hours per person. By the end of the experiment the volunteers were averaging an ideal level of eight hours and fifteen minutes of sleep. Another study, conducted by Eva Van Cauter, a sleep researcher at the University of Chicago, published a report in which healthy young people spent three weeks in a sleep lab. The first week they were in bed eight hours, the second week four hours, and the third week twelve hours. During the sleep-deprived second week the patients showed signs of a pre-diabetic state caused by the impaired tolerance of glucose. Also, sleep-deprivation can develop hormonal changes that make young people look much older than they actually are. Older people have lower levels of cortisol as do sleep-deprived young people. Cortisol normally drops to a low level in the evening to help the body prepare for sleeping. The levels gradually rise overnight while peaking just before morning. The rise in the hormone energizes the body for the following day. (Brink 62-72). Another area of comparison is the method of gathering data for each article. The article on college age students based its conclusion on the results of a voluntary survey where as U.S. News based its article on scientific facts and test samples. The voluntary participation of the CollegeShow MoreRelatedThe Lack Of Sleep1049 Words   |  5 Pagesour home. I look to my bedside. 6:02 AM is the time brightly displayed in white analog letters along with some information about weather and the current date. I rub my sore eyes, trying to wipe away the sleeplessness of the night before and the lack of sleep that has resulted. I hop out of bed and step into the cold shower, careful to avoid the short wall separating water from tile. A hot, steamy shower does little to wash away my drowsiness from the insufficiency of rest. 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