DRAFT
“Sleep
is the golden chain that ties health and our bodies together”.
What
is sleep? Sleep can be described as a
natural and periodic state of rest during which consciousness of the world is
suspended according from Princeton University (2001). “Sleep is the golden
chain that ties health and our bodies together”. This famous quote from an actor Thomas
Dekker, really interpret why every people need enough sleep. A good quality of
sleep ensures body, mind and also mood to refresh. Humans must sleep and in fact,
people can survive longer without food than without sleep. And people are not
alone in this basic need since all animals also require sleep. Therefore people
cannot deny the role of sleep in their lives. What will happen if people have
lack of sleep? Are there any serious impacts that might influence one’s life in
the future? Without enough sleep, people will suffer physical, mental and
health problems.
One of the major effects of sleepless is, it can
affect one’s physical condition. A
person physical state will easily cause the people’s face such as poor skin
texture, puffy eye bags, fine lines, dark circles and in long term will result
of aged skin compared to well-rested individuals. It was supported with
statement from DR. Howard (2008), lack of sleep contributes to the continuous
release of cellular water that exposed skin to look older than it should. It
will usually happen to those that keep thinking about their problems in life.
Apart from that, lack of sleep also can lead to obesity. This is due to the increase of body weight
due to over consumption of food. For example, people with lack of sleep will
experience increase in hunger and appetite, and the possibility to get obesity
is high. Based on the research done in 2004, almost 30 per cent of people who
sleeps less than six hours a day are more likely to become obese than those who
sleeps seven to nine hours. In addition, few researchers at the University of
Chicago (2010) mentioned that, both male and female respondents consumed fairly
large amount of calories from snacks and carbohydrates after five and half
hours of sleep compared to eight and half hours mainly due to increase of
ghrelin, a hormone that excites appetite and decreasing of leptin which
indicate repletion.
Furthermore, lack of sleep also can affect the
people’s mental state. People who are not having enough sleep will be less
efficient in thinking and learning. Most of them will pay less attention, not
alert, hard to concentrate and having difficulty to solve problems and lack of
ability to memorize. These problems occurred when people are not aware of their
surroundings due to tiredness. By referring to Siebern (n.d), when people are
drowsy, they often unable to remember information and keep losing things.
Siebern (n.d) also added that, lack of sleep will cause a person to have less
ability to concentrate and it will lessen his or her memory. Moreover, a person
with lack of sleep will feel more depress due to stress and mentally exhausted.
A person also is emotionally disturbed due to lack of sleep. This is supported
by research done by researchers from University of Pennsylvania (1997) that,
the symptoms such as stressed, angry, sad and mentally exhausted happens when a
person has less than five hours of sleep a night for seven consecutive nights.
Other consequence of lack of quality sleep is to
one’s health. Without proper sleep, people will have high tendency to get heart
disease because the body produces more stress hormones than the usual.
Lauderdale (2008) stated that, the risk of Coronary Artery Calcification will
be lower by 33 per cent, only with one extra hour of sleep per night. Coronary
Artery Calcification happened because calcium deposition in the coronary
arteries that later narrowing the blood vessel. Besides that, cancer can happen
when a person is over exposing to light that prevent the release of melatonin
to fight cancer. Researchers from Stanford University (n.d) suggested that, a
cancer can be avoid if a person get a good sleep since citing melatonin is released
during sleep. Moreover, the researchers from Stanford University (n.d) also
added that cortisol production (involved in regulating immune system activity)
act as vital players in recovery also increased during sleep. Dr.Ted
Friedman (2003) said, cortisol is a glucocorticoid, which is the stress
hormone and is involved in weight control, infection fighting, quality of skin
and bones, and heart function. Therefore lack of cortisol might lead to others
health problems such as cancer.
As conclusion, lack of sleep in daily life might
lead to other serious consequences such as negative effect on health. People
might get exposed to heart disease and cancer if they do not have enough
sleep. Moreover, lack of sleep also
associates with mental problems such as less efficient in brainwork and also
increases risk towards depression. Furthermore, without a good of quality
sleep, people tend to have poor skin texture and increase the body weight.
Therefore, it is essential to have a proper and early sleep as to ensure best
performances for the next day. Based on quotes by Karl Kraus “He who sleeps
half a day has won half a life” indicates that person have a happy undisturbed
sleep will always succeeds in everything they do.
