Sleep Deprivation, Disorders, and Drugs - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... It is these two concepts of sleep that explanation and articulation of sleep disorders are based on. There are many different causes of sleep disorders ranging from change of work schedules, psychological disturbances and even medical problems. Common signs of sleep disorders include daytime sleepiness, sleepless nights, and fatigue and sleep disturbances. The eve of the Christmas day was such a horrific one. My friend and I were to cerebrate it in a special way. We were to meet at 10 pm and leave for our party destination. I prepared myself as early as 8pm ready to take off immediately after my friend arrived. Some minutes before 10 pm, I called him and he told me he grabbed a cab and that he was on the way coming. However, I waited till 10 pm, but he didn’t show up. I was a bit worried of what could have happened to him. Half past 10pm, I called his mobile number but I could not reach him, his phone was off. I got a bit nervous. I kept trying till midnight with no avail. Shortly, I saw in the news that there was a cab involved in an accident some eight kilometers from my home. My mind told me that it could be my friend. I could not do anything since it was late in the night. I decided to wait until the following morning to find out what had happened to my friend. I tried to sleep but I couldn’t. My mind was throughout preoccupied with what might have happened to my friend. I tried to sleep but I couldn’t. My mind was throughout preoccupied with what might have happened to my friend. I was anxious the whole night. Early in the morning, I woke up and headed towards the scene of the accident only to find that the casualties had been taken to hospital. As I was thinking of the next step to take, my friend called me. I was so anxious to know what had happened to him. I quickly answered the phone and asked him too many questions ranging from whether he was okay, what had happened, where he was at that time, and so on. I was astonished when he told me that he was okay and that he was sorry he couldn’t make it to my place the previous night because the cab broke down and as they were waiting for the mechanic to come and fix it, some thugs came and robbed them of all their valuables, and that’s why he didn’t call me. I was not used to less sleep and this affected me for over one week before I went back to my normal sleeping time. In my work place, I could not concentrate since I always found myself dosing. Sometimes, I fell asleep in the middle of conversation with my workmates. I realized that for the whole of that one week, I was unproductive since most of my work was incomplete. However, these entire disturbances ended on the weekend that followed when I decided to sleep enough. Effects of long-term sleep reduction It is believed that long term sleep reduction may have adverse effects of sleep loss which may slowly make the brain adapt to the amount of sleep it usually gets – even though this amount of sleep may be far from what it needs (Pinel, 2009). The worst is when there is a sudden reduction in the amount of sleep. However, naps have recuperative capacity to reduce long-term. The drugs that are used to reduce long-term sleep are known as Antihypnotic drugs. These are stimulants which act on REM sleep (Pinel, 2009). However, these drugs are sometimes risky. Most of them are highly addictive and are also accompanied with adverse side effects, with loss of appetite being the most obvious one. Sleep disorders The majority of sleep disorders fall into insomnia and hypersomnia categories. These include all disorders of ...Download file to see next pagesRead More