SLEEP REFLECTION

Recollection of sleep habituation

Alex Ford
Salt Lake Community College

SLEEP REFLECTION

2
INRODUCITON

After recording five consecutive nights of sleep Ive taken to light some gems of
wisdom Id like to recollect. My sleep depends on what Im anticipating to do the next
day, I tend to be spontaneous when it comes to when Im going to sleep when Im not
sleeping in my bed, and I dont get enough. Sleep is valuable to delivering healing to the
body and mind. It supports our daily needs for energy and feeling complete through the
day. It is a necessity.

ENERGIES DUE TO HOURS

There is an undeniable truth that more hours is more sleep. But, the question
comes to mind: Does more sleep result in being more rested? I wasnt able to conclude
any substantial evidence from this test record. I was merely bringing to light to myself
my sleep patterns and found that I slept a fairly consistent six hours. Therefore, the whole
question of the aforementioned regard is entirely mute. It is known, though, that more
hours may not be healthier and after a certain point may actually counter act the feeling
of being well rested. As tests come to rise from prior experiences of rest on my part I
found that sometimes more rest is not the best way to feel more rested.
My guide tells me that it is inconclusive to state that you get more energy the
amount of time put into sleep. I felt just as tired on certain days of eight hours as I did
with the six hours. These few hours of a difference may not seem substantial but they do
tell you that there wasnt much connection to longevity as they did how deep the rest
actually was.

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DEPRIVATION
The amount of sleep that is recommended for full energy for adults is eight hours.
My average appears to be seven hours and thirty minutes. (No expense for the quick
cellular calculation.) I receive a thirty minutes below the standard and I must say that it
most likely has been that way since I started high school. As soon as an individual starts a
job they can basically say goodbye sleep, since that new part of their life demands
more attention and therefore takes away from all other departments of interest. My
grandfather has survived off of four hours per night for approximately sixty years and his
body just naturally adjusted to this extreme deprivation. Sleep deprivation affects all of us
but some learn to live with it.
During this little test I havent been able to expound on some of my more favorite
activities since the basis of what enlisted me to its cause was a part of what kept me from
many of those activities in the first place. Activity level is a perfect stressor or de-stressor
depending on the amount and what it is spent on. Energy levels can be heightened by the
right activities. My ability to enjoy is not judged by the amount of sleep in this case, it is
judged by what I am spending my due time upon.

AFFECTED SLEEP OUTSIDE OF SLEEP

A plethora of factors come to play in the stormy seas of rest. Not just the way or
place can affect it. External elements must be highlighted before sleep can be judged as
better or worse in foresight. Moods are a unimaginably huge keystone of how a persons
sleep will pivot. Consumption of the right or wrong beverages or foods will affect how

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the brain will signal when sleep is needed. Not that its an easy choice but, we decide
when or how we want to sleep right until we drift off to dreamland.

PATTERNS AND CIRCADIAN RHYTHMS

Everyone owns a clock. Not one that can be bought nor seen. It is found inside
our existing mind. Aside from what appears to be an excerpt from an episode of Brain
Games all of what I said is meant to describe the internal clock. Weve all probably
heard someone say after waking at an odd time my internal clock must be off, as they
proceed to stare off into space in a zombie like daze most likely due to lack of sleep.
Internal clocks tell us when our bodies need to be awake or (in a heavily debated to be
more important case) when we need to sleep. Each natural wake cycle and sleepy bedtime cycle we experience is known as a circadian rhythm.
Each different person has a different rhythm than the next. Some naturally have
more sleep, others less (like my grandfather.) My body has appeared to go from my
summer cycle, when I didnt need to wake up. To a much earlier set wake schedule to
format to college life. For some reason there is an amazing level of plasticity a persons
sleep pattern can attain. I used to wake only after ten in the morning but now it appears
my body naturally wakes me around eight due to lifestyle changes.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
In hindsight these sleep journals appear to have actually been thought provoking
looking glasses to display the importance and depth of sleep analysis. I havent thought
that this would impact my view of the way I rested but education reveals new things to

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me day by day, night by sleepless night, and paper by dreaded paper. After conjugating
these nightly passages to another realm of being I begin to illuminate a greater purpose to
the information and data that runs through my processing mind. Sleep will forever be a
necessary commodity and given the amount of investigation sprouted from this plant of
an essay, I will state that sleep will provide.