Haley Dolosic
Mrs. Brooke Clubbs
SC105
5 October 2010
Title: Sleep. Who Needs It?
Purpose: To inform the audience of their sleep needs and ways to achieve these needs.
Introduction:
I. A wise man once said “The amount of sleep required by the average person is about five minutes more.”
A. I believe Max Kauffman spoke the truth; we realize most fully how little sleep we are getting in our first few waking moments.
II. (Thesis) Honestly, the amount, quality, and timing of our sleep affect our waking hours more than many of us could ever be aware of, or recognize the full implications of.
III. Sleep is important: studies by the National Sleep Foundation show that after a 17 hour day (an average day for adults who get seven hours of sleep) our brains are functioning equivalently with having a blood alcohol level of .05.
A. Frighteningly enough, it has been shown that a person after 24 hours without sleep is legally drunk.
B. The consequences aren’t merely for the person affected, but has often made the news as the source of numerous accidents and other tragedies.
IV. (Preview) Today, as time goes by you will learn about how much sleep we need, how many of us are actually getting that sleep, and the nightmarish outcomes of lacking sleep.
V. I’m Haley Dolosic, and I’m here to share the truth about sleep.
(Transition) To begin, although there is no “magic number,” there is a suggested amount of sleep that we should all be getting.
Body
I. Experts now have a good grasp of how much sleep we need.
A. According to the National Sleep Foundation, there is something called the “basal sleep need.”
B. They define it as “the amount of sleep our bodies need on a regular basis for optimal performance.”
C. The trouble is that if you skip out on your basal needs you also acquire what they call “sleep debt.”
1. The interaction between the two is not fully understood, but both have a great impact on the quality of our waking hours.
D. The National Sleep Foundation tells us to avoid accumulating sleep debt because even if you get the necessary amount of sleep, if you have a sleep debt you will remain exhausted.
E. So, what is your basal sleep need?
1. Sleep studies have shown that college students need the generally prescribed eight hours of sleep per night, and adults need between seven and nine hours.
2. When you were younger you needed much more according to the National Sleep Foundation.
a. For instance, preschoolers need eleven to thirteen hours each and every night, and high school students need nine hours and fifteen minutes every night.
F. Consistent sleeping habits are also part of the prescribed pattern.
3. For example, it does not work like a bank account where you can deposit twelve dollars (or hours) one day and then 6 the next day and have eighteen dollars or hours of quality sleep.
4. You must meet the bottom line every day, running in the black—not the red.
G. Another piece of the sleep need puzzle is napping (which some of you may find especially attractive).
5. Despite what many researchers have said in the past, napping is now known to be an excellent tool for people who have sleep that is too short or interrupted frequently—this according to Claudio Stampi, head of the Chronobiology Research Institute in Newton, MA.
6. He says that a short nap of just 10 to 15 minutes is enough for a recharge, and a longer nap can improve performance for longer but requires a longer recovering time to fully awaken.
7. The timing of naps also greatly affects their usefulness.
a. As a species we have naturally wakeful and sleep times which are our “circadian dips.”
b. If you tailor your sleep patterns to nap at, say, two in the afternoon you are more likely to fall asleep easily because it is a time when most people experience a “sleepy time” or a dip.
H. The ideal, though, experts advise, is that we achieve seven to ten hours of uninterrupted sleep, each and every day, in a regular pattern.
(Transition) The reality of it, though, is that very few of us get the ideal amount and type of sleep. Most of us fall short, and run in the red, not the black.
II. A number of factors interfere with us getting the sleep we need.
A. Part of the trouble is that more than half of the American population has a sleep disorder, according to the National Sleep Foundation.
B. Sleep disorders range from mild insomnia to life-threatening conditions.
C. In addition, to sleep disorders mild pains, stress, and a noisy environment cause difficulty for many in finding rest.
1. Dr. Jane Walsleben, quoted recently in People magazine, notes that women tend to have more problems sleeping.
a. She says that women have more restorative sleep, but many biological and emotional factors disrupt it.
b. Women are more likely to have the factors which keep them awake including mild pains, stress, and depression, and they experience many more hormonal changes throughout their lifetime.
2. Another reason many of us aren’t able to get our sleep involves school start times.
a. In high school many of us were up at 6 a.m. for a 7:15 bell.
b. Today 60% of children under age 18 complain of being tired during the school day, according to the National Sleep Foundation, and 15% say they have fallen asleep at school.
c. As previously stated, high school students need more than nine hours of sleep each night; we must add now that the National Sleep Foundation has found that their natural circadian dip is not until 11 p.m., and therefore, they do not fall asleep until 11 and must get up seven hours later.
d. As a result we have a sleep-deprived and caffeine-addicted youth.
e. The trend continues into college with our 8 a.m. classes, although perhaps with less severity. Perhaps.
f. Sleep deprivation continues into adult life where we need less sleep but still seem to get less than is needed due to various factors in our life that demand our time, add to our stress, and so it goes.
3. Altogether this leads to a culture of people who are constantly searching for sleep—or some way to live without it.
(Transition) Problems of inadequate sleep yield yet more problems.
III. Unfortunately, many negative outcomes stem from our inability to obtain adequate sleep.
A. According to the National Sleep Foundation, not getting enough sleep can limit your ability to learn, listen, concentrate, and solve problems.
1. It has been found in recent studies that certain learning processes may be impossible to complete without sleep; specifically “how-to” learning, such as learning to ride a bike, becomes nearly impossible.
a. An article in Nature and Neuroscience reported on experiments, suggesting one of the functions of rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep is to help memory processing. PET scans and brain blood flow measurements were made to assess brain function when people were learning a reaction time task and when they were sleeping. In the experiments, people were trained to press buttons when they saw certain symbols on a computer screen. Performance improved with practice and improved even more after they got a night's sleep.
b. You may have heard that it is a good idea to get a good night's sleep BEFORE a big test. These experiments suggest that it is also important to get a good night's sleep AFTER you study or after you practice a skill.
[internal transition] Cognitive performance is impacted by how much sleep we get or don’t get, and so is our physical wellbeing.
2. According to Timothy Morgenthaler, a sleep specialist with the Mayo Clinic, too little sleep can also compromise your immune system.
a. He shares that without the proper amount of sleep your body is more susceptible to viruses such as the common cold.
b. This is all due to the fact that your body lacks the cells that fight off the infection when it is sleep deprived.
3. More serious health problems also result from getting too little sleep.
a. It has been found that those who were sleep deprived were at increased risk for: diabetes, heart problems, psychiatric conditions, and higher Body Mass Index or BMI.
b. In addition, with a higher BMI you are at a higher risk for diabetes, heart problems, high blood pressure, and cancer.
c. Lacking sleep also leads to an increased risk for depression and substance use, which lead to other serious complications.
4. In addition to these personal problems, there can be societal ones as well.
a. Anything that contributes to America’s obesity epidemic and health care crisis is cause for concern.
b. However, an immediate danger caused by the sleep-deprived is drowsy driving.
1) The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) conservatively estimates that 100,000 police-reported crashes are the direct result of driver fatigue each year, resulting in an estimated 1,500 deaths, 71,000 injuries, and $12.5 billion in monetary losses.
2) These accidents are typically severe because, as the NHTSA states, “a driver who falls asleep may crash head-on into another vehicle, a tree, or a wall, at full driving speed, without making any attempt to avoid the crash by steering or braking.”
- Before I cause you to lose too much sleep over the dangers of losing sleep, I think I will conclude.
Conclusion:
I. Now you know the truth.
II. (Review) I have answered how much sleep we need, how many of us are actually getting that, and the nightmarish possibilities which ensue from lacking sleep.
III. Good luck with using what you’ve learned—hopefully to get a better night’s sleep rather than cheat yourself out of sleep.
IV. When we don’t sleep, we harm ourselves and potentially harm others as well.
V. I’m Haley Dolosic, and I thank you for your time.
Works Cited
“FAQs: Drowsy Driving.” AAA Foundation. 15 Feb.2005. Web. 25 Jan. 2011
Boyce, Nell, Susan Brink, and B. S. "THE SECRETS OF SLEEP." U.S. News & World Report 136.17 (2004): 58-68. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 4 Oct. 2010.
Brown, Phyllida. "Sleep. Who needs it?" New Scientist 184.2472 (2004): 37-39. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 4 Oct. 2010.
Frey, Jennifer. "Sleep deprived?" People 55.16 (2001): 97. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 4 Oct. 2010.
“Just Sleep on It!” Neuroscience for Kids. Washington.edu. Web. 30 Aug. 2000. Web. 25 Jan. 2011
National Sleep Foundation - Information on Sleep Health and Safety | Information on Sleep Health and Safety. 2004. Web. 21 Sept. 2010.
"Sleep." Bloomsbury Thematic Dictionary of Quotations. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Ltd, 1997. Credo Reference. Web. 04 October 2010.
“sleep” World Encyclopedia. Philip’s, 2008. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Southeast Missouri State Universtiy. 21 September 2010