Speech on Sleep Deprivation One

¶ … Speech on Sleep Deprivation

One of the greatest threats to public health and safety is also a problem that afflicts millions of people everyday. Though sleep deprivation carries with it a great many consequences to one's physical, emotional and psychological well-being, the condition is all too often ignored or underestimated. The truth is though that many of us do not get enough sleep and that this habitual deprivation can have observable and undesirable results.

Of course, to those of us who are students, there is a tendency to overlook the seriousness of failing to get a sufficient amount of sleep. All too often, the attempt to balance an active social life with a healthy focus on one's studies makes sleep a lower priority. But the larger body of evidence on sleep deprivation suggests that we would all be well-served, especially during the active time in our lives, to leave time in our schedules for regular and full nights of sleep.

A failure to do so can directly impact your studies, your emotional stability and your general health. Individuals who fail to get the sufficient measure of nightly sleep are vulnerable to a loss of focus, memory retention and learning aptitude. Accordingly, a study published in 2000 found that "after 17-19 hours without sleep . . . performance on some tests was equivalent or worse than that at a BAC of 0.05%. Response speeds were up to 50% slower for some tests and accuracy measures were significantly poorer than at this level of alcohol." (Williamson & Feyer, 649)

The study's basic finding was that an individual who lacks proper sleep can exhibit many of the symptoms of cognitive impairment that are also likely to be evident in an individual beyond the legal driving limit in most states for blood-alcohol-content. If these findings are to be trusted, it may be just as rational to come to class drunk as to come to class without getting the proper amount of sleep.

Even beyond meeting the rigorous challenges of being a student, getting the proper amount of sleep will have a direct bearing on your social and personal interactions. Most research on the subject indicates that an individual suffering from sleep deprivation may have more difficulty placing regular events or moments of adversity into proper perspective. An absence of sufficient sleep may make one more quick to anger, to become despondent or to interact with others in hostile or inappropriate ways. (Wikipedia, 1) Individuals lacking the proper sleep may find themselves less in control of their emotions, even to the extent that many studies have attributed bouts with depression and anxiety to sleep deprivation.

And of course, if you are not getting the proper amount of sleep, your body will suffer. Human beings are meant to enter into this resting phase for a sufficient duration every night. Without this regular sleep, important systems such as the body's immune system fail to generate the needed energy to function properly. According to a 2001 study on the subject, "the number of white blood cells within the body decreases, as does the activity of the remaining white blood cells. The body also decreases the amount of growth hormone produced." (Ledoux, 1)