The effects of wakefulness and sleep deprivation on health

Sleep and Wakefulness

How Does Wakefulness Influence Sleep

Sleep is one of the most important components of good health, and successful night's sleep can be robbed in many ways. Because the sleep state is a fragile undertaking, events that happen during the day, issues during the night, and physiological actors all play a role. This paper discusses all of the factors related to how wakefulness affects sleep, and therapies that can be used to receive good sleep.

Sleep deprivation

Of course the main way that wakefulness affects sleep is that fact that the person is awake. Sleep deprivation can come through many agencies such as what a person ate or drank right before bed, how agitated they were, what type of work the person did during the day, and the atmosphere they are sleeping in (Ratcliff & Dingen, 2009). However, this section is more about how sleep deprivation affects the sleeper than the causes. Those will be discussed in the following sections.

Sleep deprivation is a major health risk because the body needs a specific amount of time to recharge before starting another day. People who are deprived of sleep are less attentive to their day, they are not as cognitively aware, and they have a much greater potential for having or causing serious accidents (Jensen, 2003). However, the most alarming problems associated with long-term sleep deprivation occur within the body itself.

When the body is in a rested state, the cells of the various bodily processes do not have the time that they need to properly regenerate. This means that organs are affected, the way a person thinks, and how the different processes (such as endocrine function) occur. Long-term sleep deprivation can lead to a much greater danger of heart disease, diabetes and stroke (Borbely & Tontoni, 1998). There is also a possible link to some cancers (Buysse, 2008). These physiological results of wakefulness can be devastating to the person, and if the process of wakefulness occurs for too long these changes can be irreversible. However, most of the time since sleep deprivation is a short-term problem it is easily solved, and the effects can be reversed. The issues can be as simple as where a person lives or works, or what they had to eat that day.

Overthinking

This may not seem to be a cause of sleeplessness and wakefulness, but there is a great deal of research that has concluded that brain activity at the point of sleep has a great deal to do with how restful a person's sleep will be. Erlacher and Schredl (2002) found that when a person is thinking about completing some task they are more likely to be restless and wakeful. This can mean any type of activity. Many times a person is thinking about some stressor such as monetary issues or family problems and they are more mentally agitated (Campbell, 2000). This is something that has been researched a great deal, and the findings are nearly universal. However, there has been much less research conducted with people who have just finished some cognitively involved physical process. This includes constructing something or using the creative process in general (Erlacher & Schredl, 2002). The reason for the wakefulness is that the persons brain was still very awake while they were trying to sleep. The individual was overthinking.

This can also be found when an individual is actually trying to decipher something complex (like a math problem) (Jensen, 2003). Many times people who have a highly technical job, or are engaged in some type intense study (college students) will not get good rest even if they are technically sleeping for the recommended amount of time. When the brain is working on a difficult problem, the individual is basically awake without the physical manifestations being there.

Work

A person's job has a great deal to do with whether they will be able to sleep well at night or not (Humphries, 2009). Two things are at play here: physical and mental difficulty of the job. If the person has to use a lot of brain power for their job, then they will have the problems listed in the above section. However, having a job that is very physical may be even worse.

Physical strain is related to distress in many of the physiological systems (Clark, 1989). The fact that the body needs more time to repair usually does not affect the fact that the individual must go to work and continue to degrade those systems. This results in the individual being more 'sleepy' on the job, and thus many more accidents occur (Clark, 1989). This may be a function of the person not getting enough sleep time, or it may be a function of that individual not getting enough sleep time for the type of job that they perform.

Exercise

The fact is that regular exercise is good for physical and mental health. A person who exercises regularly, and vigorously, can be seen to have improved sleep and restfulness (Dickman, 2002). However, proper exercise, for both level of fitness and age, are important. Anyone can overdo exercise because they want to see quicker results or they become obsessed with the results that they are seeing. But, this can actually lead to greater wakefulness and sleep deprivation (Dickman, 2002). Within certain constraints, exercise is one of the best ways that a person can improve the sleep that they are getting. However, it can be one of the most detrimental things a person can do if they are doing it wrong also (Grotstein, 2009). Because exercise tears the body down, and there must be rest before the body can rebuild itself, too much tearing down has a very negative effect. Also, the timing of the exercise is important for the best rest. A person should not conduct vigorous exercise right before they go to bed or they will be wakeful (Dickman, 2002).

Nutrition

Wakefulness, sleep and nutrition go hand in hand. What a person ingests is very essential to having good rest, and, again, timing of eating is also a big factor (Lavie, 2001). It is true, and research has born it out, that there are types of food which are conducive to good sleep and those which are conducive to wakefulness (Roehrs & Roth, 2001). It must also be realized that ingestion does not have to mean eating, it can also refer to what the person drinks before they go to bed. If a person is consuming a great deal of alcohol before they go to sleep, they will have sleep, but it will not be a restful sleep (Monk, Germain & Buysse, 2009). The alcohol causes an imbalance that the body cannot repair. The fact that the person is at rest actually only complicates the issue (Roehrs & Roth, 2001). The sleep cycle is interrupted by the fact that the person is experiencing a severe shortage of the nutrients that they need and they are most likely dehydrated.

Besides alcohol, people complain that eating foods that are highly spiced during preparation can make them restless during the night (Jensen, 2003). This is because these types of food increase the amount of acid in the person's stomach. This can be quelled with a few simple remedies, such as milk which is a soothing agent, but many people will not heed this advice and have a restless night.

Personality

Most would not think that this is a factor in the way people sleep. But, personality can be a large factor in wakefulness (Norlander, Johansson & Bood, 2005). Many studies have been conducted with, so-called, type A and type B personalities, and it is evident that type B personality types sleep much better than those with type A personalities. This can even be seen in infants. Those that display more type A characteristics, even at a very young age, have a greater difficulty getting to sleep and remaining asleep (Kelmanson, 2004). This is interesting because it further proves the effect of personality on the type of sleep an individual will get.

Circadian rhythms

All of the above issues can be related directly to whether a person is sleep deprived or not, but the circadian rhythms are a major factor in wakefulness and sleep acquisition also. The circadian rhythms are still controversial among some scientific communities because they have never been very well defined (Bokken, 2005). It comes down to evolution for many. An individual who is out on the African savannah, even if they are sleeping in a tree relatively free from predators, can never be completely sure of safety. From these ancestors, some scientists believe that people are evolutionarily programmed to the type of rhythms that they have. That is why the actual sleep cycle is so short. Early people needed to get all of the rest they could in as short a period of time as possible. Therefore, they did not sleep as long. Now people will go through several restorative sleep cycles in the same night (Lavie, 2001).

The rhythms also determine when a person should sleep for the best possible advantage (Espie, 2002). The argument is that if a person does not adhere to their circadian rhythms then they will not be able to get proper rest and rejuvenation for their bodies (Nesca & Koulak, 1994). These rhythms control the entire process of life, and therefore are important to the sleep cycle and wakefulness also.

Sleep Disorders

Of course, one of the major issues people have with wakefulness and its effects on sleep is with physiological issues that cause sleep disruption (Kote & Ogilvie, 1995). Some people have an issue with insomnia and other wrestle with sleep apnea. Insomnia is when a person cannot remain completely asleep during the night (Buysse, 2008). Sleep apnea is when a person goes through tens or hundreds of episodes of sleep cycle disruption throughout the night (Hoch, Reynolds & b Houck, 1987). These two disorders have the fact that the person does not get the amount of sleep they need, due to the fact that they are waking up either entirely or in small increments, continuously. However, they are very different in the way that they present themselves and the therapies needed to make sure that they do not recur. Insomniacs are generally best helped with psychological therapy. It has been found that most insomnia can be related to mental disruptions that have become severe (Lahl & Pietrowsky, 2007). But there are some physical issues that can be contained in the realm of insomnia also. Sleep apnea is known as a physiological issue that can be cured, or at least curtailed with a type of sleep mask that allows air to get to the sleeper (Sabti, de Lugt, & Campbell, 2000).

Therapy

There are many types of therapy that can be tried depending on the reason that a person is experiencing wakefulness. These can also enhance the quality of a person's life when they are awake so that they sleep better. Psychoanalysis has been effective in reducing the issues that people have in falling asleep (Lushington & Lack, 2002). This type of therapy will either teach the individual how to better regulate their sleep state, or give them interventions that they can use to get to a more restful state. This type of therapy can also divulge deeper issues that are the cause of sleep issues (Goldman, 2009).

Other therapies, such as hypnosis, allow the individual to either bring up issues that seem to be haunting there sleep, or allows them to relax. It is much the same method used for people who have other issues such as overeating or smoking. If the problem is not seen to be too deep, then the therapist can just introduce a suggestion that allows the person to have peace when they are trying to sleep. However, there are even simpler methods to find a restful night.

Music

It is said that music calmed the savage beast, and research has shown that it can do the same for the person who is wakeful (Iwaki, Tanaka & Hori, 2003). Music is a calming agent basically because of the rhythm that is introduced. When the mind is in a state of flux, the right music, with the right rhythms can actually calm down the mind and make the person relax. Of course, this means that the person actually has to be relaxed by the type of music (Tan, 2004). If a person does not feel relaxed by the type of muci, then it is discordant with that person's natural rhythms and can cause wakefulness instead.

Reading

Many people find reading restful, but it can also be detrimental to good rest also (Kelly, 2009). When a person reads, their entire range of senses is often engaged. This can actually make the person more restless instead of tired. This sensation can also be mitigated if the person is reading a story that is meant to take away the stress they have been experiencing and put them back into normal rhythms. It basically, like music, comes down to the type of book and the way the person approaches it.