Okediran Tobi

Carlene Donovan
English 102
February 21, 2012

Explanatory Synthesis

According to Paul Martin a PhD holder in biology from Cambridge university sleep is a
universal human characteristic(Martin ..). in many advanced societies sleep deprivation
entails the partial or near total curtailment of sleep(cite) it has become a norm. in fact it is a
believe that the less sleep an individual gets the more devoted they are to their duties, but many
studies stand to disprove this believe.Most individuals require an average of eight hours of total
sleep time a night(cite) many studies have shown that the lack of sleep detrimental to not only
the deprived individuals but their societies as well. This papper seeks to explore the causes of
sleep deprivation, its effects on adolecents, adults and their society, ways to improve better
sleep and the effect of better sleep on individuals and their society.
Most modern societies are not devoid of techonological device,s and this devices have
contributed in increasing sleep deprivation among teenagers, The National Sleep
Foundation(NSF) discovered through surveys that ninety seven percent of teenagers had at least
one electronic device in their bedroom(Americas Sleep DePrived Teens pg.). the authors
believe that due to the availability of this devices to teenagers many of them use this tools as
mechanisms for delaying their sleep and as such are more likely to miss out on insufficient sleep
at night which could increase the likely hood of falling asleep in school.(cite)

Inaddition depression is another factor that is said to be related with sleep deprivation
according to the nsf in a study of 18,980 people in Europe conducted by Stanford researcher
Maurice Ohayon, MD, PhD people with depression were found to be five time more likely to
suffer from sleep disordered breathing.
The effects of sleep deprivation on individuals cant be under estimated, it is a common
belief that the increase in lack of sleep is directly propotional to as increase in productivity but
analysis, datas and surveys tend to disagree with this belief. According to Mary Carskadan
psychiatary and human behavior professor at Brown university school of Medcine The knowns
consequences of insufficient Sleep are memory lapse, attention deficits, depressed mood, and
slowed reaction time(Carskadon..). most advanced socieities are measured based on the
productivity of their citizens, in a situation where there is a lack of sleep among individuals in
any society productivity diminishes due to lapses in judjement as a result of memory lapse, this
could be dismissed as little error, but this errors have let to profound losses on the parts of the
individuals and their society. According to (cite book author) The U.S economy loses fifty
billion per year is diminished productivity due to sleep deprivation the author is of the opinion
that this colossal loss in capital could have been prevented if only individuals have had a the
appropriate amount of sleep.
Futhermore,irregular sleep patterns include long naps and sleeping in on the weekend
negatively impacts adolocents (Mary Carskadon, phd, chairwoman 2006 poll task force)
Carskadon is of the opinon that everyday pressures and nature could lead to sleep deprivation
causing teens to naturally feel more alert at night and wake up later in the mourning

Incontinuation, (cite) The national Highway Traffic and safety Administration estimates that
sleep-deprived drivers causes 100,000 accidents each year, resulting in 1,500 fatalities and
71,000 injuries accidents are not unknown occurrences in any society but what every society
seeks to eradicate is unnecessary accidents from the earlier stated statistics it is obvious that the
author believes that the lack of sleep has led to driving related accidents, this accidents have
resulted unnecessary and loss of valuable man power in many societies which in turn diminishes
productivity.
Americans spend fifteen billion per year in direct health care cost related to problems with
sleeping(cite) the author is of the opinion that sleep deprivation could increase the cost of health
care for individuals who experience such problems in addition at the university of Chicago
researchers showed that people who fought their , time piece setting changed their level of two
important hormones related to fat metabolism, leptin and ghrelin. Coincidentally, leptin
decreases appetite, and ghrelin increases it.(cite) this two hormones the author believes are
integral for an individual to stay in shape so the less sleep an individual gets the higher the
chances of weight gain.
Although the scientific knowledge has been available for more than two decades, students
are still not acquiring knowledge about sleepiness, sleep debt, and sleep deprivation in any of
our educational institutions (cite) dement and Vaughan implies that ognorance about sleepiness
has led to the decreased valve of sleep they are also of the opinion that to increase the practice of
better sleeping habbits students are to be properly sensitized about relevant information
concerning sleep.

 The starting time of school puts limits on the time available for sleep(Cite) the author
believes that the sleeping time for children should be modified in other to create adequate
sleeping time for students.