Essential Sleep for Optimal Health: 7-9 Hours for Middle-Aged Adults - Essay Sample

Introduction

Just as water and food are essential for survival, sleep is crucial to our daily routine. Good health and improved personal well-being depend on sleep. Life factors such as daily routines e.g., school, daily schedules, and stress, have a significant effect on the quantity and quality of our sleep. Achieving the best sleep period is essential to our health.

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According to the National Sleep Foundation website, " the sleep range for middle-aged individuals between 26-64 years should be 7-9 hours." according to age and other factors, our sleep patterns may vary from one individual to another (Shiers, 2019). Sleep patterns can either be sincere or sleep depending on the age of an individual i.e., and older people require less sleep. Sleep may be categorized as rapid eye movement (REM) or non-rapid eye movement (NREM). Active sleep REM is the last stage of sleep. At the last stage of sleep (REM), most dreams happen, and it may be challenging to wake up. non-REM sleep consists of four major stages (Armitage, 2015). NREM is often referred to as light sleep due to the behavior of the mind to slow down during this stage.

After carrying out some extensive research on sleep, I realized I do not achieve the best sleep period. My sleeping patterns are affected by noise i.e., and I usually wake up anytime there is noise. My sleeping patterns consist of alternating light with few REM times. I tend to sleep for a short period compared to my young age sleep period.

For the last few months, I depended on sleeping pills in order to get enough sleep. Relying on sleeping stimulants makes me realize I lack sleep. I have decided to quit using sleeping pills for the last week. Most of the time, I watch movies to relax my mind and later go to sleep. Once my snoring younger sibling awakens me, I hardly get sleep again. Other times I suddenly wake up at 3 a.m. any time I get insufficient sleep, I experience poor work performance at my workplace. I also find it hard to listen to full lectures, and sometimes I get sleepy during sessions.

Many times I assume sleep can be taken during vacations or even when I am free during the weekend. However, I always postpone because I find it hard to follow my plans. My daily habits constitute to my sleeping deficiency. By getting inadequate sleep, it is challenging to maintain proper mental experience. It becomes hard for the mind to remain alert and concentrate. Our bodies are negatively affected by the lack of enough sleep. the ability of the body to fight immune system hazards is reduced resulting in disease invasion.

An individual who is lacking enough sleep experiences negativity and irritability. Social behaviors are also affected, leading to poor communication skills with other individuals during the day. One may feel the lacking interest in things they love doing or even feel like they do not care. When you lack sufficient sleep, it becomes difficult to accomplish daily activities such as eating, exercising, and studying.

Sometimes, I lay in bed, worrying, and being anxious about daily behaviors instead of sleeping. Stress leads to insomnia, a condition that makes it challenging to stay and fall asleep. Stress harms our daily sleep quality and other undesirable experiences.

Conclusion

In conclusion I have realized in order to achieve maximum sleep period, after working over the day, I watch a movie for two hours then relax on the bed. in order to develop a better sleeping pattern, I have decided to avoid taking sleeping pills such as Pilton. By playing a piece of soft music I have realized my sleeping period has increased to 7 hours. Nowadays, I enjoy good learning hours.

References

Armitage, R. (2015). The Distribution of EEG Frequencies in REM and NREM Sleep Stages in Healthy Young Adults. Sleep, 18(5), 334-341. doi:10.1093/sleep/18.5.334

Shiers, S., Mwirigi, J., Pradhan, G., Kume, M., Black, B., Barragan-Iglesias, P. Price, T. J. (2019). Reversal of peripheral nerve injury-induced neuropathic pain and cognitive dysfunction via genetic and tomivosertib targeting of MNK. Neuropsychopharmacology. doi:10.1038/s41386-019-0537-y