The Importance of Sleep 
Essay 3: Human Sleep
Modern life is full of busy things we do, but we all can agree that sleep is one of our
favorite things to do. Almost every person would love to spend a whole day in bed. But
in our time people choose staying up late and wake up early. There are just too many
things to do, appointments, deadlines, and the rest of the world does not go off of our
own schedule. Therefore, the majority of the population of the United States is sleep
deprived. Although the research on human sleep is very complex, experts do seem to
agree on a few basic facts and concerns These include, the feeling of being tired and
needing sleep is a basic drive of nature, like hunger, several sleep disorders are
characterized by very severe and impairing daytime sleepiness, older children never feel
sleepy during the day, and “sleep debt” is defined as a loss of sleep and is like debt
because you have to pay/sleep if back eventually to get back to normal cycle” (Dement
and Vaughan, 334). When it comes to individual sources, William C. Dement and
Christopher Vaughan were primarily concerned with peoples ignorance and unknown
information on Sleep Debt, Alcohol & Sleep Debt, and lastly Driving under the influence
of Sleep Debt. Ultimately, in my view, the most important and most interesting insights
to emerge are
In the article, “Sleep Debt and the Mortgaged Mind,” William C. Dement and
Christopher Vaughan describe how ignorance of sleep deprivation has led to major
accidents and mishaps around the world. Dement and Vaughan call sleep deprivation
“sleep debt.” they also use the metaphor “mortgaged mind” to help convey the central
message that sleep debt is like debt. According to their experiments, accumulated lost
sleep is like a mortgage, it must be paid back, and there is always a lender. They also
refer to sleep debt as “natures loan shark”, just as loan shark could hurt us to get his
money back, sleep deprivation could affect our health if the debt is not paid back on time.
(Dement and Vaughan, 331).
The two authors begin by describing the Exxon Valdez incident and the
Challenger space shuttle accident. Both prime examples of our ignorance of sleep
deprivation. Even to this day, many people still believe that the reason the tanker was
beached is because of alcohol consumption by the captain, when in fact, the cause of the
crude oil spill was from the captain being extremely sleep deprived. Sleep deprivation
also played a crucial role in the Challenger explosion. Although technical complications
were the main reason behind the explosion, the managers at NASA were at fault because
their job requires them to give up sleep. The authors think everyone should act on the
issue of being drowsy before more accidents happen.
Dement and Vaughan criticize educational organizations for not teaching students
about sleep and sleep deprivation issues. They compare sleep to hunger: If you don’t fill
your appetite until your satisfied, you will remain hungry. If you don’t get an adequate
amount of sleep, you will start to rack up sleep debt. If a person tries to ignore sleeping,
the brain will eventually push the body to dive into the sleep state. Supposedly, every
hour of sleep lost has to be paid back eventually. For example, if you lose five hours of
sleep one night, you have to sleep thirteen hours the next night in order to regain those
lost hours of sleep. However, if you sleep a couple extra hours over the average eight
hours needed every night you will become even more tired. Researchers have used the
“Multiple Sleep Latency Test” to measure how long it takes an individual to fall asleep.
Most individuals fell asleep after one to five minutes but had interruptions every ten to
fifteen minutes. All in all people need to recognize how much sleep they are losing. The
authors stress that everyone needs to know the negative outcomes of sleep debt. They use
an example of a friend who was a professor at Stanford University. The friend was in a
bike race, and he did not get much rest for two nights. He felt rested the morning he woke
up to drive home, but he started falling asleep while driving down the mountain. The car
went over a ledge, and he managed to walk away with only some cuts and a paralyzed
arm. Dement and Vaughan conducted a study to test if older children get tired during the
day. The children were not tired, which meant that if someone is tired during the day then
that person has sleep debt. Another research project was conducted to test the links
between alcohol and sleep deprivation while on the road. Sleep debt is an important
aspect of almost every road accident with alcohol involved, the authors want to inform
the readers that everyone could have some sort of sleep debt even if they are unaware.
They suggest going to bed early instead of staying up late. The mind and body would feel
rejuvenated if done so.
Works Cited
Cited:
Modern life is full of busy things we do, but we all can agree that sleep is one of our
favorite things to do. Almost every person would love to spend a whole day in bed. But
in our time people choose staying up late and wake up early. There are just too many
things to do, appointments, deadlines, and the rest of the world does not go off of our
own schedule. Therefore, the majority of the population of the United States is sleep
deprived. Although the research on human sleep is very complex, experts do seem to
agree on a few basic facts and concerns These include, the feeling of being tired and
needing sleep is a basic drive of nature, like hunger, several sleep disorders are
characterized by very severe and impairing daytime sleepiness, older children never feel
sleepy during the day, and “sleep debt” is defined as a loss of sleep and is like debt
because you have to pay/sleep if back eventually to get back to normal cycle” (Dement
and Vaughan, 334). When it comes to individual sources, William C. Dement and
Christopher Vaughan were primarily concerned with peoples ignorance and unknown
information on Sleep Debt, Alcohol & Sleep Debt, and lastly Driving under the influence
of Sleep Debt. Ultimately, in my view, the most important and most interesting insights
to emerge are
In the article, “Sleep Debt and the Mortgaged Mind,” William C. Dement and
Christopher Vaughan describe how ignorance of sleep deprivation has led to major
accidents and mishaps around the world. Dement and Vaughan call sleep deprivation
“sleep debt.” they also use the metaphor “mortgaged mind” to help convey the central
message that sleep debt is like debt. According to their experiments, accumulated lost
sleep is like a mortgage, it must be paid back, and there is always a lender. They also
refer to sleep debt as “natures loan shark”, just as loan shark could hurt us to get his
money back, sleep deprivation could affect our health if the debt is not paid back on time.
(Dement and Vaughan, 331).
The two authors begin by describing the Exxon Valdez incident and the
Challenger space shuttle accident. Both prime examples of our ignorance of sleep
deprivation. Even to this day, many people still believe that the reason the tanker was
beached is because of alcohol consumption by the captain, when in fact, the cause of the
crude oil spill was from the captain being extremely sleep deprived. Sleep deprivation
also played a crucial role in the Challenger explosion. Although technical complications
were the main reason behind the explosion, the managers at NASA were at fault because
their job requires them to give up sleep. The authors think everyone should act on the
issue of being drowsy before more accidents happen.
Dement and Vaughan criticize educational organizations for not teaching students
about sleep and sleep deprivation issues. They compare sleep to hunger: If you don’t fill
your appetite until your satisfied, you will remain hungry. If you don’t get an adequate
amount of sleep, you will start to rack up sleep debt. If a person tries to ignore sleeping,
the brain will eventually push the body to dive into the sleep state. Supposedly, every
hour of sleep lost has to be paid back eventually. For example, if you lose five hours of
sleep one night, you have to sleep thirteen hours the next night in order to regain those
lost hours of sleep. However, if you sleep a couple extra hours over the average eight
hours needed every night you will become even more tired. Researchers have used the
“Multiple Sleep Latency Test” to measure how long it takes an individual to fall asleep.
Most individuals fell asleep after one to five minutes but had interruptions every ten to
fifteen minutes. All in all people need to recognize how much sleep they are losing. The
authors stress that everyone needs to know the negative outcomes of sleep debt. They use
an example of a friend who was a professor at Stanford University. The friend was in a
bike race, and he did not get much rest for two nights. He felt rested the morning he woke
up to drive home, but he started falling asleep while driving down the mountain. The car
went over a ledge, and he managed to walk away with only some cuts and a paralyzed
arm. Dement and Vaughan conducted a study to test if older children get tired during the
day. The children were not tired, which meant that if someone is tired during the day then
that person has sleep debt. Another research project was conducted to test the links
between alcohol and sleep deprivation while on the road. Sleep debt is an important
aspect of almost every road accident with alcohol involved, the authors want to inform
the readers that everyone could have some sort of sleep debt even if they are unaware.
They suggest going to bed early instead of staying up late. The mind and body would feel
rejuvenated if done so.
Works Cited
Cited: