Boy 7, 17 years

Sleeping assignment

03.04.08

This assignment is about sleeping.

1. How much sleep does a teenager need?

Need of sleep is vey individual but a teenager should have 8.5-10 hours sleep. So we can take an average value and say 9 hours. Sleeping shifts will change during weekend because teenagers tends to stay awake late and then it takes time to get back to normal shift. And if you don’t sleep enough is explained below.

2. Why is sleep important:

- Firtst thing and the most important is that you have to sleep otherwise you will die. There have been some animal testings (with rots) and they died after a month the experiment was done. If we give an opporunity to sleep but wake them up when they are always in the “most flexible” stage rots died in 1.5 months.Also in wakening you up during rem-sleep has serious consequences, you can`t control your heating system and also your resistance skills weak a lot. Experiments haven’t been tested with humans yet because one of the known torture ways is awakening.

- Energy: Brains need energy to work and the cells which keep you awake have to work more than those usually do and the energy is used more. “Fuel” for brains is glycogen and that will be used up and during sleep those “fuel tanks” full again. If you have been in the gym following day, the sleep is really important for muscles because muscles and other things are repaired during deep sleep. Brains produces proteins so you need to have good possibilities to sleep, otherwise those will be disturbed and producing decreases.

- So if you don`t sleep enough it will have always consecuenses and because brains need energy and you don`t have it then enough so even a little daily lack of sleep reduces logical competence and you mood. And you will also notice that thinking comes more difficult and you can`t concentrate so well. Important thing for students is that your motivation will decrease, your working memory will be damaged and you problemsolving skills will dissapear.

- Learning: Everyone of has heard at least once in their life that “sleep until tomorrow and you can do it, or know it and tricky tasks can be solved easier next day”. Different motions need sleep before you learn those and then those will work better, you “know” how to do it again on second time. Brains are like reviewing those experiments which you had during day and because of that those things will go deeper in to the memory

-Sleep is also cleaner in the brains. Sleeping will clean unneeded things and it also arranges memory in to different categories in brains. New things will be connected to old similar things. It works like computers.

-Weight: You can control your weight easier with regular sleeping. Lack of sleep will decrease body working and that will cause chain reaction. For instance If some specific thing can`t be produced infections will come more easily. Second type of diabetes can be involved if you are awake continuously. When you are sick your body needs more sleep . Growth hormones need deep sleep without it, it won`t be produced. Disturb in that will interrupt the producing.

- If you have been awake whole night it’s the same situation as your brains would be in one permille situation. Then you will be more angry and you will be more exposed for accidents. Also reaction times will increase.

3. My sleeping during one week:

mon-tue 23.15-7.00 It was really difficult to wake up. I had to put my 2 alarm clocks to “torkku” time

tue-wed 22.00-7.00 Much more easier and nicer to wake up after good sleep. We were in the gym so I was so exhausted that I just had to go so “early” sleep.

wed-thur 23.30-7.15 Same thing happened than mon-tue.

thur-fri 21.30-7.00 Again gym day and exercising

fri-sat 0.0-10.30 First night to gain back sleep what you should have

sat-sun 0.3-11.30 Same goes for this night.

sun-mon 1.0-8.00 Because the shifts are changed it was difficult to get sleep.

-So I noticed that it was really difficult to wake up after nights when I didn’t have sleep enough. I felt angry and it was difficult to follow things in school for couple of first lessons because I was still sleeping. Then I had 2 gym days which “forced” me to go earlier to sleep, and it was really nice to see that the mood is very different compared to nights when I had just less sleep. I also could concentrate easily during lessons. And because I have those few days when I didn’t have so much sleep I slept during weekend more than usually. It was so horrible to wake up on Monday because I had slept so little. Usually I`ll go sleep later but that week we didn’t have home works so much or lab reports so I went to sleep “quite early”. Home works don´t take so much time but lab reports do so I should start those earlier so I would sleep more. 2 big things have positive influence for my sleeping time, my computer is so slow so I don’t want to play games and we have two tvs but that one which is in my room doesn`t have yet the digibox. Sleeping times would decrease a lot if those 2 things would be different. I could improve my sleeping by doing home works and lab reports earlier and turning off the computer. Sometimes I just watch tv if there comes something really good or interesting so that’s not my biggest problem. I don’t see that I should change my sleeping a lot but I could do some small chances. If ill go to bed ill fall sleep fast and if I have had less than 7 hours sleep I have to sleep during day at least 1 hour.

4.Few tips for someone who suffer from insomnia:

- Don`t watch tv or play computer before you are going to sleep. Keep at least 1-3 hours brake before going to sleep.

- Start some hobby or go for a walk. If you exercise you will spend energy and you will feel more sleepy. Walking makes your head more relaxed. But not too explosion exercises before sleeping

- Don`t eat so much or heavily evening snack take just a little snack.

- Don`t smoke or drink alcohol. Smoking keeps your body and brains working too much.

-I have noticed that its more easier to sleep in cold room than warm. If the room is too warm you will just roll in the bed and take off and on the blanket.

-If you can`t sleep immediately wake up and read for example book. It doesn`t help you just lie on the bed.
Sources: article is from tiede.fi and I think it should be reliable.