Name : Arif Arrahman YUPI Instructor : Duygu GUNTEK

Section : 36th Date of Submission : April 12th, 2010

Let Us Go to Sleep!

Everyday people sleep. No matter whoever they are, wherever they come from,
whatever their native language is, people need sleep. The difference is that one has their own
time, amount and style of sleeping. Being asked how many hours one does sleep, for
example, various answers might be given. Especially from the adult, number less than six
might be collected. However, there is an ideal time, in average, that people need in order to
have a good night’s sleep. It is between six to eight hours. By having enough sleep,
fortunately, one gets some advantages, such as performance improvement and kept in good
health.

Every parent might have told their child to have a good night’s sleep so that the next
day they would be ready for any activity, for instance school. In fact, a profound sleep helps
improving one’s performance. Firstly, it makes people not feel sleepy. There are some
reasons why people do not pay well attention at class or work. One of these reasons is feeling
fatigue due to the lack of sleep. Furthermore, if one drives by himself, it is recommended for
him to sleep well. Feeling sleepy while driving is cause of accident in some cases. Secondly,
a good night’s sleep strengthens the brain. In other word, the stronger brain that someone has,
the more one can memorize. Maas explains that the brain supplies new information to long-
term memory in the Red Eye Movement (REM) phase. The REM phase usually occurs
during the sixth and the eighth hour of sleep. The neurotransmitters, which manage the neural
networks and are necessary for remembrance, learning, performance and problem solving, are
restored by brain during this phase (Greer, 2004, p.60). In addition, people who have a
profound sleep are effective in making decision and risk taking. Indeed, these decisions have
been thoughtfully decided. According to the research conducted by Dr. Timothy Roehrs and
his colleagues, fully alert people are more likely to be accurate in making decision and risk
taking than the sleepy one (Heaner, 2004, para.17)

Apart from performance improvement, people are recommended to have enough sleep
in order to be healthy. By having it, people are kept away from various health problems,
either psychologically or physically. The first one, lack of sleep can cause psychological
problems. People who do not sleep well tend to be impatient and irritable. That is to say, it is
because body and brain need to rest. Once they do not get it, consequently, people will feel
tired resulting in being impatient and irritable. Moreover, being anxious and depressed are
other problems caused by lack of sleep. As a machine, in order to be fresh and fit, brain and
body need to be given a break. Having enough sleep can regenerate broken cells into new
cells in the brain. As a result, people feel fresh and relax, which can reduce the anxiety and
depression. The second one and the most important is that a good night’s sleep can reduce the
possibility of getting physical health problems. When people sleep, more cytokines, cellular
hormones that helps immune system fight various inflections, are produced. On the other
hand, not having enough sleep can decrease the body’s ability to fight any infection and to
give response to the flu vaccine (Kaufman, 2010, para.6). Besides, a profound sleep can
keeps people away from Diabetes type 2 and Heart attack. Dr. Van Couter, a professor of
medicine at the University of Chicago, found that:

metabolic and endocrine changes resulting from a significant sleep debt mimic
many of the hallmarks of aging. We suspect that chronic sleep loss may not only
hasten the onset but could also increase the severity of age-related ailments such as
diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and memory loss (para.47).

Specifically, it stabilizes the amount of insulin produced and the heart rate variability.

In conclusion, it is important to sleep well considering to its advantages, such as the

improvement of performance and being kept away from any diseases. People tend to give low
priority to sleep, nowadays, which means they sleep less than the ideal time. If this situation
is still continued, it cannot be imagined how many percent the increasing of people suffering
from Diabetes, Hypertension, and Memory loss ten years later is. The remaining question is
that “Having learnt the advantages of a good night’s sleep, why would we ignore it?”
 References

Greer, M. (2004, July). Strengthen your brain by resting it. Retrieved March 20, 2010, from American
Psychological Association: http://www.apa.org

Heaner, M. (2004, October 12). Snooze Alarm Takes Its Toll on a Nation. Retrieved March 20, 2010,
from The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com