I found the article "Sleep Deprivation: The Great American Myth" on foxnews.com and it was written by Robin Lloyd and posted on March 23rd 2006. It can be found here: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,188924,00.html
This article discusses statistics in regards to sleeping pills, and how getting more sleep does not always have substantial health benefits. For example, the article states that, based on a study those who only get six or seven hours of sleep a night have a lower death rate than those who receive eight. The article claims that "There is really no evidence that the average 8-hour sleeper functions better than the average 6- or 7-hour sleeper", and People who sleep less than average make more money and are more successful." A statistic that I found to be especially surprising from the article was the fact that the risk from taking sleeping pills thirty or more times a month was not much less than that of smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. The article also discusses how the popularity of sleeping pills is relatively recent, starting in the nineties when sleeping pills began being made from less addicting substances.
I really liked this article because I feel like sleep deprivation is an extremely relevant issue in high school. I mean, I'm writing this blog post at midnight. I think it's important for us to realize that, while we do need to sleep, it isn't the end of the world if we don't get a full eight hours. We should strive too, but not sleeping won't kill us. I also think that it is important to see what risks there are when it comes to taking sleeping pills. People tend to just take them without a second thought, and it's important to realize that they are really doing to your body. Before reading this article, I personally had no idea how dangerous they were.
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I really liked this article because this is something I think about alot. Every night I have to stay up late to write a paper or finish a project all Im really doing is calculating how many hours that night I will actually get to sleep. I always believed that 8 hours was the amount you needed to function your best the next day. It is suprising and good to know that getting a little less sleep now and then wont effect me as bad as Ive been told. According to this article it might even make me better off.
ReplyDeleteThis was a great topic to blog about. This is deffinitly an issue people in high school face and deffinitly doesn't end there. In college and especially when you have kids lack of sleep is an issue, but it isn't going to harm you in the long term. You can always catch up on sleep and I don't think sleeping pills is a good solution.
ReplyDeleteGreat article overall. Sleep is such a dramatized thing by the media, often stating that you need the full 8 hours of sleep every night. I feel that sleeping pills is not a healthy way to get to sleep at all, despite the number of people who use them to fall asleep naturally. This blog certainly shouts out to all high school students in need of sleep.
ReplyDeleteI really liked this article, especially since it made me less worried about getting less than the recommended number of hours of sleep each night. I feel like there are hundred of "sleep aids" out there, and their advertisements make them seem so harmless. I was very surprised to find that there are often many risks associated with taking there sleep aids. I was horrified to learn that these same pills that seem so benevolent can be as malevolent as smoking if taken daily!
ReplyDeleteThis article really surprised me because I always thought that getting more sleep was better for you. Now to find out that it is not actually proven to be healthier, is so strange. I agree that taking sleeping pills every night just to get that recommended eight hours of sleep is not good and can lead to serious health issues later on in life.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this article is interesting and directly affects us high school students. It is good to know that if we miss an hour or two it wont have that bad of an impact on us. However that being said, we still should not be staying up too late because that could have a negative effect on us. Pulling an all nighter might get your homework done, but it will have a bad impact on your health. Sleeping pills aren't the best way of getting to sleep, but some people who suffer from insomnia might not be able to get sleep without some outside force helping them out. I don't think sleeping pills are the best thing for everyone , and falling asleep naturally is always better than having to take a pill to help you fall alseep.
ReplyDeleteThis was a very interesting article but I am not sure if I agree with all of it. I believe that more sleep, in most cases, is the healthier way to go. Of course the more successful people don't get as much sleep because they are continuously working, but that doesn't mean that is the best way to go. Like everyone else commented, this is a very relavent issue as high school students. We stay up until all hours of the night working on homework and then we are expected to be in homeroom at 7:30 am with our brains functioning perfectly by 7:39 am. In addition to the homework, many students are involved in many extracurricular activities (clubs and sports that the school encourages us to join) that take up the majority of our afternoons, leaving us no time to get everything done. As a result of all this overworking and lack of sleep, students are run-down and often times become sick.
ReplyDeleteI do agree however, on the issue of sleeping pills. While I did not know prior to reading this how danergous they are, I do not doubt that fact. The healthiest way to go, in my opinion, is to get as close to 8 hours of sleep as possible, but don't use pills to accomplish this.
I enjoyed reading about this topic a lot because like Meagan said it's a big problem in high school. Almost all kids have had to stay up late to finish homework and are forced to be worried about how their next day will go after not having 8 hours of sleep. I agree that everyone person doesn't need exactly 8 hours of sleep every night, but I would also say that it would be better for most people to get them anyway if it's possible. I think that some people choose to sleep for very little time instead of just a little less then 8 hours and that is when it's bad for you. I, like Natalie, didn't know of the dangers of sleeping pills but I am also not surprised. I would also bet that people who use them very often and rely on them are probably unaware of the effects.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Natalie said in response to this very interesting article. I definitely think that sleep is important and there are other studies that have proven that sleeping more increases focus and the things that your memory can retain. It is interesting to learn about the side effects of sleeping pills though and I think it makes a lot of sense that people who sleep less are more successful. When you think about it, the reason they aren't sleeping is probably because they're working on something or trying to get something done. That would be something that would make them successful in the long run. Doctors are some of the most successful people, based purely on monetary gain, and they often sleep only a few hours at a time in the hospital. Paul Farmer is a perfect example of this cycle.
ReplyDeleteI've suffered from insomnia for quite a long time, and am being treated for it with both benzodiazepines and clonodine (a blood pressure medicine being used off label as a sleep agent.) Even still, I tend to get only 6-7 hours of sleep a night, but I generally have enough energy to get through the day and well into the night. The risk involved in sleeping medicines is very real, especially with benzodiazepines, which I have personally experienced severe withdrawal from when the dose has been lowered. Clonodine, on the other hand, is fairly mild in terms of risk, as long as you take it regularly (sudden stopage causes a major blood pressure spike) there are very few negative side effects; though, it does not last through the night like normal hypnotics.
ReplyDeleteI like this article a lot because it is saying the opposite of everything I have been told about sleep. Personally I'm one to fall asleep by 10pm and still manage to take a nap after school most days. It's surprising to me that many people function extremely well off of 6 or 7 hours of sleep per day, because personally I don't think I could ever be capable of sleeping so little.
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