Written by P. A. Owens on September 13, 2018
Week 4 DB 1-2
DB1: Hopefully you have begun your Sleep Journal Lab. Please watch the Brain Games video after reading your chapter, to answer the following: 1) What have you noticed thus far? Anything interesting? 2) How can you relate your experience and understanding to the material provided in the text and video?
- If you were to look in my sleep journal lab, I find it interesting that only on the 2 nights that I wore my hoodie to bed did I wake up during the very early hours of the morning due to being too hot. The other 2 nights, I slept through the night without any problems at all. On all 4 nights, I typically slept between 7 and 8 hours throughout the night. Except on the 4th night. I slept a complete extra hour. It could be due to all this hurricane stress, worrying about the governor’s decision about us not having to evacuate; it could be due to the fact that I did several pushups that night at about 8pm. Or it could be the fact that I came down with a cold the day before and I was needing some extra rest. "It's true that many cold and flu symptoms seem to get worse at night, and they can interfere with sleep just at the critical time when your body needs rest the most." (Michael Breus, PhD) I think it would more than likely be the pushups, since I was sore the next morning. But being sick can also play a big role in how much sleep our bodies need. Another thing I found interesting was that I had no dreams on any of the nights. I suppose it could be that I did not go into a deep enough state of sleep throughout the nights, or REM sleep, therefore having no dreams.
- I am typically a light sleeper. I can be woken up by someone simply saying my name or knocking on my door and respond almost immediately. No one in my family is like this at all so I find that a little odd at times. But having read the article on sleep by the American Sleep Association, I could simply just be in stage 2 of sleeping when these instances take place. “It is very difficult to wake someone during stages 3 and 4, which together are called deep sleep.” (sleepassociation.org) While one is in a deep sleep, or stages 3 and 4 or REM sleep, that it when they can be very hard to wake up. Since I can usually be very easy to wake up, I must not have deep sleep very often, or they caught me at a non-deep sleep moment.
DB2: My sons, Spencer and Teddy (Rama and Bear) are 14 and 16. (They are now 15 and 17 but I still use this discussion...) They are athletes and pretty decent students. Spencer skipped 7th grade, is advanced two more grades in math, and plans to be valedictorian. He also plays about five instruments he taught himself and does Parkour, Origami, and such. Bear is a video game fanatic and will play multiple games simultaneously with two or 3 online chess challenges, while listening to music and reading two or three books per week, but does not enjoy studying or worrying about grades. Both feel that because they are functional, respectful young men, they should not have an imposed bedtime or sleep schedule.
As psychologists, what would be your professional observations and recommendations for these young men with respect to sleep requirements, patterns, and effects? Remember to reference your texts and any other appropriate sources. (hint: consider age, circadian rhythm, brain function, senses...this is where you begin to tie information together and show what you have learned about the body-mind connection). Additionally, what you learn about states of consciousness will direct your study with regard to addictions, drugs....disorders, therapy, and such.
Taking into consideration your sons’ ages, “most young adults need about 7-9 hours of sleep each 24-hour period in order to function well. Some people… require more than 9 hours of sleep.” (Ciccarelli & White) But since each of your sons’ sleep needs are different, according to their age difference, athletic differences, and amounts of mental stress each one takes in daily, their sleep amounts would probably need to differ slightly.
Citations:
Michael Breus, PhD (2007) Sleep Better When You’re Sick
American Sleep Association (2016) What is Sleep? Why is it Needed?
Ciccarelli, Saundra K., & J. Noland White. Psychology (REVEL with e-text/access code), 5th Edition. Person 2017. ISBN: 978-0134715305
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