Preview

"Sleep is death without the responsibility," A reflective essay

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1574 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
"Sleep is death without the responsibility," A reflective essay
"Sleep is death without the responsibility," but is sleep death, or at least how near to death is sleep? What is the point in sleep? What have we achieved after lying still for eight hours?

Is it an escape? Does sleep wrap you up in a little cocoon of well being which nothing can penetrate? Or is sleep a little taste of death? Is that why sleep can sometimes be such a terrifying thing? Are dreams in a way our heaven and hell? Some dreams give a sense of happiness and contentment, some just confuse, and some terrify to the point anything seems better than sleep.

But some people find sleep an escape from what is in the world, and escape from the stress and strain of life. This was illustrated when Sir Philip Sidney spoke of sleep as:

"The poor man's wealth, the prisoner's release.

The indifferent judge between the high and low."

It is true that in sleep, as in death, we are all equal. No one can sleep a better or more fulfilling sleep just because he has more money or power; it is needed by everyone alike and no-one can escape its necessity. Just in the same way no one can escape the inevitability of death. Both are something uniting and universal, which everybody has the right to and can benefit from nightly. We can survive a shorter length of time without sleep than without food or water, but thankfully sleep is free and easy to come by, making it a daily escape available to every human.

Without sleep humans cannot function; it is one of the necessities of our existence. If we cannot sleep it can make our life a living hell. Every mother or father woken up nightly by a crying baby will tell you the devastating effect this has on their life. Broken sleep makes us tired, irritable, unmotivated, and unable to function normally. Torturers often use sleep deprivation to break their subjects down, as it is a way of depriving humans of the thing they need most, making them desperate and prepared to do anything. In the long term a lack of sleep has been linked to

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Science has proven that sleep is one of the most essential things needed to keep the average individual healthy and stable. Without the “healing” powers of sleep, our minds and our bodies can be easily affected because of the constant feeling of fatigue. The human body thrives on the energy that sleep ensues in our bodies every night. While the average individual is to sleep approximately eight hours a night, realistically speaking, getting that much sleep on a regular basis is something to strive for. And while the amount of sleep we get per night might waver around the average, sleep deprivation is a far cry from being sluggish the next morning. Sleep deprivation has an extreme affect of the mind and body because of the lack of energy that your body may have stored up. However, the biggest affect it might have on your body is the brain. It has been proven the lack of…

    • 1566 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    ee3031 report draft

    • 316 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Sleep recharges and rejuvenates us, allowing our body to repair damaged tissues. Owing to stress accompanied by our hectic lifestyles, a lack of sleep could result in major health problems as we age.…

    • 316 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    × sleep: most vulnerable, innocent and yet prone to nightmare and hidden desires and fears; the dark, unconscious, unknown, uncontrolled and yet necessary realm of experience…

    • 528 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    On July 6th, 2016, Philando Castile was fatally shot four times by a US officer. His name was the 99th name of black males who were victims of police shootings in 2016. In 2015, 249 black males were shot. Since the start of 2017, 178 black males have been shot. (THE WASHINGTON POST DATABASE).…

    • 1306 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Sleep deprivation is a factor that has also contributed to the high death total every year. While many don’t know it, sleep isn’t just mental, sleep is a factor that is also connected to our immune system. In the book Sleep Thieves, our immune system is proven to be more active while we are asleep and can be disrupted of its normal response pattern with loss of sleep (Coren 171). Also, an experiment conducted in Finland had about 10,778 adult subjects where they were followed for six years, being monitored for their health and sleep times. By the end of these six years, the scientist were able to found out that the poorer sleepers from the group was two and a half times more likely to die during that testing period (Coren 173). This is very significant due to the fact that when we are sick, we are asleep through most of the sickness because it allowed the immune system to become increasingly more active. With less sleep, it puts us at risk for disease or sickness because by losing hours of sleep would result in a decreased immunity to illnesses. In addition, a Doctor named Damien Leger was apart of the US national commision of sleep disorders. He created a report full of findings in 1988 where he obtained information of resulting incidents from sleep deprivation. For example, in Dr. Leger’s findings, there were 24,318 deaths and 2,474,430 disabilities that were caused by sleep deprivation (238). This is…

    • 1042 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Whether it may be the looming deadline of a final paper on the Civil Rights Movement or even simply to party and have fun; now and then, everyone has faced an event which has left them awake an entire night. While many might consider that abstaining from sleep once in awhile may not do much harm, this is far from the actual truth. Abstaining from sleep, regardless of frequency, can take a serious toll on one’s body from decreased learning capacity to anxiety, depression, and even bipolar disorder.…

    • 88 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sleep plays an important role in our lives. From tiny insects to humongus grizzly bears, every living thing needs sleep. We need it to carry out our daily activities and to live a long and healthy life. Many people fail to realize that sleep is as equally important as breathing, and because of this their bodys are not functioning to their full potentials. Not getting the amount of sleep your body needs can lead to mental and physical health problems. Lack of sleep impairs the mind's way of thinking, can cause health issues and affect your judgment and mood. Sleep is a vital part of life.…

    • 567 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Provide Support for Sleep

    • 3327 Words
    • 14 Pages

    Sleep is important for our health and well-being. Extensive research has been done on the effects of sleep. These studies consistently show that sleep plays a vital role in promoting physical health, longevity, and emotional well-being. This explains why, after a good night's sleep, we feel better, our thoughts are clearer, and our emotions are less fragile. Without adequate sleep our judgment, mood, and ability to learn and retain information are weakened.…

    • 3327 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are many things that have been assumed about sleep over thousands of years. There have been many changing ideas on the reasons that we sleep. There have also been many assumptions made about what happens during sleep. Titas Lucretius Carus had a very interesting view on sleep. Lucretius was a poet who wrote on ideas of science topics as well. To understand what Lucretius says in his writing “The Nature of Sleep”, one must understand the time that this was written. This selection came from a book called “On the Nature of Things”, which was written in 50 b.c. Lucretius had some similar viewpoints that people today find true and some that may seem very strange and hard…

    • 1043 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Rem Sleep Research Paper

    • 1471 Words
    • 6 Pages

    What is sleep? Sleep can be described in many different ways, but that does not mean that all of the definitions are correct. Sleep is a periodic, natural loss of consciousness where eyes are closed, nervous system relatively inactive, and muscles are relaxed. One sleep cycle is approximately 90 minutes.There are 4 different stages of sleep. The first 3 stages of sleep are called Non-REM stages. Non-REM stages are the stages where there is no rapid eye movement. Then the last stage is REM sleep where there is a rapid eye movement. There are 5 main reasons of why Psychologists believe that everyone needs sleep. The first reason is that sleep protects what happens because our brain is focused on the things we saw and captured all day instead of capturing new things. The second reason is sleep helps us recuperate. In this case sleep helps repair brain tissues and restore our immune system. This is really important in our lives. The third reason that psychologists believe we need sleep is because sleep helps restore and refine our…

    • 1471 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Drowsy Driving

    • 988 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Many people underestimate the importance of sleep, and the story of my close friend Joey is just one among many other stories that involve people killing either themselves, or someone else while asleep at the wheel. Sleep is essential for a person's health and well-being, and deprivation can carry many detrimental implications. Accumulating research on both people and animals has revealed staggering pysiological and behavioral consequences related to sleep deprivation. Sleep is necessary for the human body to replenish its energy supply, as well as sharpen cognitive functions, and restore memory. However, despite these findings, research has also shown that millions of Americans suffer from lack of sleep/sleep deprivation. ("What is Drowsy…

    • 988 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sacrificing Sleep

    • 1326 Words
    • 6 Pages

    No one really knows exactly why we sleep. We spend most of our day sleeping so it must be important right? There are many theories, and hypothesis for why we sleep. Sleep protects, helps us recuperate, helps us restore, and rebuild fading memories and also brings out our creative thinking. Sleep is a very important essential element to every living thing on earth. Sleep helps with longevity, keeps our bodies strong and healthy, improves our memory, and keeps our emotions positive and balanced.…

    • 1326 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sleep is a vital part of life; it helps with body development, repair, and psychological functions, such as memory processing. However, when we have important tasks to accomplish, it seems that sleep wastes valuable time. At some point, we have all pulled an all-nighter and wished that we did not need to sleep. In Lois Tilton’s “‘Sleep, My Little Ones’”, a procedure was developed that “turned off” the natural need for sleep so that humans could function 24/7. Though I sometimes wish I did not have to sleep, I do not think that such a procedure would be practical or beneficial if ever developed because of the strains it will put on humans both physically and psychologically.…

    • 1023 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sleep Cycle

    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages

    You may be surprised to learn that we still don’t fully understand why people need to sleep and what purpose sleep serves. Doctors and researchers had thought many years ago that sleep was a single state of being that was distinguished from waking. However, we now know that sleep itself is divided into two distinctly different states: REM, or rapid eye movement sleep, and non-REM sleep.…

    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The heads poly-angular combustion chambers combined with the domed pistons it would have been too easy to end the story there, because in true gearhead fashion, nothing can ever be left alone. That’s why the Mustang lost its 460ci big-block in favor of a stroked 504, the larger Baer brakes took over for the stock binders, and the tantalizing 18-inch Borbet Type TDs found their way on the car. Bill claims that the ’71 is finished, but somehow we think there’s more to come from this never-ending story.A car that could easily accept a big-block, and since these cars were offered by the factory with a big-block option, the conversion is simple, headers are readily available, and you don’t have to have fingers that bend backwards in order to change…

    • 442 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays