~EZUIN~Sleep deprivation can ruin your health

Sleep deprivation is rampant. Many Singaporeans do not get the sleep they need because their schedules do not allow adequate time for it and they do not know the negative effects lack of sleep can have on their health and functioning. Others are unable to get a good night’s rest due to sleep disorders, chronic pain, medications, hot flashes, stress or health conditions such as heart disease, depression, arthritis or heart disease.

One of such person who suffers from sleep deprivation is myself. I only get 3 to 4 hours of sleep each night although the recommended sleeping hours for teens is eight to nine hours of sleep at night. Do you think this is worst? I don’t think so, to some extent, some students that I know of, sleep for an hour or two per day. Yes! This is true.

So why aren't teens getting enough sleep? For one thing, they are staying up late. A variety of things can contribute to this night-owl tendency among teens, including social life, caffeinated drinks, electronic media such as computers, TVs and cell phones. Other factors include spending too much time on homework, and even depression. Adolescent work schedules are also a concern. Teens who work more than 15 hours a week at a job have less time for sleep.

Lack of sleep affects teens' ability to function at school. As stated in the article, sleep deprivation can affect mood, performance, attention, learning, behaviour and biological functions. In less clinical terms, daytime sleepiness makes it difficult to concentrate and learn, or even stay awake in class. Too little sleep may contribute to mood swings and behavioural problems. And sleepy teens who get behind the wheel may cause serious or even deadly accidents.

My recommendation is to encourage a short nap (30 minutes) after school with the alarm clock set, encourage a regular bedtime routine to help them unwind, dim the lights as bedtime approaches, go to bed and get up at the same time every school day, cut out late-night phone chats. Lastly, prolong your sleeping hours on the weekend, but no more than 3 or 4 hours later than their usual time, or it will disrupt body clock. Apart from all these, I am also cutting down my caffeine intake from 3 cups per day to one cup per week.

Well, the choice is entirely up to us whether we want to stay healthy or ruin your health just like that. Remember to sleep early and have an at least eight hours of sleep!

Sleep deprivation can ruin your health!

Did you ever hear complaints from your peers that 24 hours a day isn't enough for them?

I did hear complains from my peers and personally, I also make complains that there is insufficient time for me to complete my tasks. What will student do when there is insufficient time for them to complete their projects or school works? Most of the students will sacrifice their sleeping hours to complete their workload. Eventually, students will deprive sleeping. In the article, Sleep deprivation can ruin your health, by Amy One mentioned a survey done on students whether they have sufficient hours of sleep. The survey results shown majority of the students are lacking the sufficient hours of sleep.

Sleep deprivation will cause a person to be less effective and efficient in work due to the lack of essential rest and increase of risk of serious diseases like heart diseases, depression, diabetes and even early death. These cause to worry as there is a rising trend of Singaporeans are deprived of sleep.

My recommendation is that the government, Health Promotion Board, must work closely with the school to educate the public and students on the importance of having an essential amount of rest for a body to function healthly. Health Promotion Board may held talks in school to highlight the dangers of sleep deprivation and educate them how to assess themselves if they are sleep deprived. In addition, talks like Time Management may also be held in school or public to educate them on time managing. In my point of view, time management is very important to people like us who are living in a fast-paced society. If you can manage your time, you should not have a problem of finding insufficient time. The media may help to deliver messages on how to assess if they are sleep deprived within the nation-wide will be useful to create awareness of sleep deprivation to a large extent.

Say "No" to sleep deprivation! You have adequate amount of rest of at least 8 hours of sleep a day that provide you an energetic body of the next day. Cheers!

I NEED SLEEP! Please do not disturb... Thank you.

From: Chee How

safeenabanu: sleep deprivation

Safeenabanu: Sleep deprivation

I agree with the article on ‘Sleep deprivation can ruin your health’. As we all know, sleep is a necessity and without it our life cannot go on well or rather smoothly. As the environment around us is getting more and more competitive we tend to end our day later and later. Many people find that sleeping is a waste of time with many works under their belt to complete. So, they find no difference between day and night except for the sun and moon. However, they are completely wrong. The purpose of the existence of night is for human being to sleep. Both our body and mind need to take a break and rejuvenate itself for the new day ahead.

I myself am only able to get 7 or sometimes 6 hours of sleep most nights. This normally happens during school term whereby I have to wake up early to be ready for school. The cause of going to bed late is lack of discipline. For example, procrastinating school work and only start doing them at night. I am sure that this is not just happening to me but also to many students out there. From the article, it is stated that lack of sleep will eventually affect one’s health. Therefore, we need to change our lifestyle as soon as possible before it affects our health. As a saying goes, prevention is better than cure.

For a change, the first most important step is, as mention in the article, learn how to prioritize. Learning how to manage our time well will definitely help in solving our sleep deprivation problem. We need to learn when is the right time to do the right thing. For example, as students, we have to force ourselves to stop doing our school assignment at maybe latest 10 o’clock and go to bed. Whatever is left maybe could be done tomorrow morning when our mind fresh. In this way, we will be able to produce better quality work and obtain better results. For those who love to watch late night programs, its time to sacrifice a little.

Sleep Deprivation: Jia Yan

Sleep Deprivation: Jia Yan
Personally I totally agree that lack of sleeping can cause a lot of health problems. I think the age and gender depending on which environment you are in will too cause health problems. For example, like my grandfather in his 90s, he tends to sleep lighter than compared to younger people. And I think more likely he too like other elderly will experience symptoms of sleep disorder in comparison in our younger age people. Basically, I think that we young people should be more aware of sleeping deprivation/disorder; hence we are able to prevent or to reduce what causes it.
First, going to bed and getting up at the same time everyday despite the busy day would help to develop some consistency in our sleeping patterns.
Second, avoiding exercising within two hours of bed time, if you were too exercising your body’s temperature and heart rate are affected by it. Thus causing your body is trying to recover from a recent workout which results in difficulty when trying to fall asleep.
Third, I personally think most youngsters would do very often or at least one time is playing computer games before sleeping. Before sleeping, you started playing games online would cause your mind to be hyper-active causing you to be unable to sleep for awhile. Constantly doing this can cause insomnia if the person’s mind is prolonging playing games.
Forth, I think most importantly is to avoid heavy meals prior to bedtime, this is the one everyone must be aware of. This is because after disgusting your last meal of the day, your body system digestion is still working and processing the food you just ate. By just going to sleep after meal could cause difficultly to fall asleep right away.
There are still more things that can be done to prevent sleep deprivation; these are just a few I knew of. I believe that by doing these at younger age, you could just prevent sleep deprivation and can even live a longer life compared to those have fluctuating habits of sleeping. In addition, getting plenty of rest is not only essential for your health and mental state, it just simply makes you feel much better and provide the needed energy to get via each day.

Here is an example of a news reporter staying late into the night to video News section. And also about the impact of having sleep deprivation.

Sleep deprivation can ruin your health !!! SAMSON

Sleep deprivation can ruin your health !!! SAMSON

After reading the article I find that sleep deprivation is a very serious issue that
most people do not take notice of. I would like to talk about what are the
cause of sleep deprivation, the adverse effects and what are the solutions to
sleep deprivation.

Causes

Causes of sleep deprivation can be
divided into four broad areas: lifestyle, biological factors, medication side
effects and clinical disorders. The causes of sleep deprivation determine
treatment options. Lifestyle habits that affect sleep can be altered.
Medication that causes sleep deprivation or other sleep-related side effects
may need to be changed upon further investigation.

People experiencing more than
occasional episodes of sleep deprivation should seek medical attention. Individuals,
who snore, choke or appear to stop breathing for brief periods while sleeping
may have sleep apnea, a potentially serious condition. Insomnia causes daytime
sleepiness and should also be reported to a doctor.

Fatigue and sleep deprivation are often
the direct results of lifestyle choices. Drinking caffeine or alcohol in the
hours before bedtime is one of the common causes of sleep deprivation. Working
the third, or night, shift, while unavoidable for many people, can also
negatively affect normal sleep patterns.

Both age and gender affect a person's
risk of sleep deprivation. Potential sleep disorder causes in women may include
pregnancy, hormonal fluctuations and menopause.

Age affects sleep patterns. The elderly
tend to sleep lighter than younger people and are more likely to experience
symptoms of sleep disorders in comparison to younger people. Chronic health
problems that are more common in older adults, such as diabetes and
hypertension, can all affect sleep quality

Adverse effect

Sleep deprivation happens when people continually sleep less
than they need to. Most people need to sleep at least six to nine hours per
night, but busy people may sleep only three to six. This is much less than the
body requires, so it doesn’t have enough time to recuperate for the next day’s
demands. Also, the day before, the body already had enormous demands on it, so
it’s that much worse off.

Sleep deprived people will go from feeling tired to feeling
a heavy sense of exhaustion, as if it’s a chore just to get out of bed in the
morning (and for some, it is). They will have trouble waking up. Those who take
showers in the morning may ‘sleep walk’ through it. Even caffeine may not have
a significant effect, and may actually contribute to sleepiness (when we come
down off of caffeine, we’re more tired than we were to begin with).

The individual’s reactions are slowed, and concentration is
broken. Everything becomes harder for the individual to do. S/he might have
been able to fully concentrate on a project and finish a report with an hour
and a half when fully rested, but need nearly three hours (much of it spent as
refocusing time; a lot also spent on trying to comprehend the information) to
complete it while sleep deprived. The individual can’t think as clearly and may
have trouble understanding things.

When the body is not properly rested, it can’t function in
top shape. Every motion requires extra effort, which tires the body out even
more. This adds to fatigue. Some physical tasks may seem absolutely impossible
to someone who is extremely fatigued. The body’s defenses are lowered because
it has to focus on staying awake and keeping up with the person who refuses to
give in and sleep. This leads the individual to be more susceptible to illness,
and to get sicker and for a longer period of time when an illness is
contracted. The body cannot fight the bacteria or virus until it can stop
focusing so much energy on everyday life processes.

Once sleep deprivation has set in, the lost sleep can never
be made up. Research has also shown that by being chronically sleep deprived,
one is shortening their life. Suggestions are to take naps in the afternoon
(short ones, around fifteen or twenty minutes. Even just taking time to relax
is good) if possible, or consider an earlier bedtime. If nothing is possible,
try to juggle tasks so they are spread more evenly over the week, so more sleep
can be gotten during the week and about the same on the weekend. Regular
bedtimes and wake times will help condition the body to a certain amount of
sleep and will reduce fatigue. Try to get at least six hours of sleep per
night.

So
many people make outrageous demands on their bodies. They are up for eighteen
hours at a stretch, using all the physical and/or mental power they can during
their waking hours. Sleeping for only six hours cannot possibly make the body
completely recover from such a demanding day and prepare for the next one.
Since the effects of sleep deprivation can be quite harmful, one should make an
effort to take care of him or herself.

Solutions

Circadian
Rhythm

We all have a
day-night cycle of about 24 hours called the circadian rhythm. It greatly
influences when we sleep and the quantity and the quality of our sleep. The
more stable and consistent our circadian rhythm is, the better our sleep. This
cycle may be altered by the timing of various factors, including naps, bedtime,
exercise, and especially exposure to light (from traveling across time zones to
staring at that laptop in bed at night).

Aging

Aging also
plays a role in sleep and sleep hygiene. After the age of 40 our sleep patterns
change and we have many more nocturnal awakenings than in our younger years.
These awakenings not only directly affect the quality of our sleep, but they
also interact with any other condition that may cause arousals or awakenings,
like the withdrawal syndrome that occurs after drinking alcohol close to
bedtime. The more awakenings we have at night, the more likely we will awaken
feeling un-refreshed and un-restored.

Psychological
Stressors

Psychological
stressors like deadlines, exams, marital conflict, and job crises may prevent
us from falling asleep or wake us from sleep throughout the night. It takes
time to "turn off" all the noise from the day. No way around it. If
you work right up to the time you turn out the lights, or are reviewing all the
days events and planning tomorrow (sound familiar?), you simply cannot just
"flip a switch" and drop off to a blissful night's sleep.

One must
develop some kind of pre-sleep ritual to break the connection between all the
stress and bedtime. This is perhaps even more important for children. These
rituals can be as short as 10 minutes or as long as an hour. Some find relief
in making a list of all the stressors of the day, along with a plan to deal
with them, as it serves to end the day. Combining this with a period of
relaxation, perhaps by reading something light, meditating, or taking a hot
bath can also help you get better sleep. And don't look at that clock! That
tick-tock will tick you offhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkwE0v2CIww
Link to video

Youth stuck on video games ~EZUIN~

Stuck on video games is an excessive or compulsive use of computer and video games that interferes with daily life. Ask youth/teenagers how they love to spend their spare time, and chances are, you’ll get an earful about video games. But why do they love them so? Is video game addiction real? Well, his article will answer that. Singapore students spend 27 hours a week playing video games like Maple Story and World of Warcraft. The hours spent are extensive as compared than those American youths who spend just 13 hours a week dragon-slaying.

What makes them so addictive? According to some studies in the documentary and few talking shows like’ the Drs’ that I’ve watched, it would appear that the excitement of video games causes the brain to release a chemical that is, in essence, addictive. For any parent who has seen the fervor by which some kids play video games, this news is no surprise.

Youth are very compelling with increasing complexity, so they become more facile, yet very curious which will lead them to wanting to know more and apply new skills. While wanting to improve their game is not a problem in itself, it becomes one if video games are taking a youngster away too much from other activities like (in this article) Lawrence Lee, 16, who claimed that playing for four hours a day 'is nothing'. He will sleep and study only when his parents forced me to and in addition, he even skipped brushing his teeth in the morning occasionally.

Not only that it takes too much hours from daily activities, it also may lead to violence. Youths game addicts will get temperamental easily when we disrupt them when palying their ‘video games’. This is because, they will lose their concentration and might not win the game.

If not too violent, video games can offer some real positive opportunities for puzzle solving, strategic and critical thinking. But it is important that video and computer games are played in moderation.  Parents provide a selection of activities, not just the ones that have the most action or are addictive. Choose some that involve problem solving or good story lines. Also aim for a balance in their child’s life. Sports are important, reading is important too. Just think of computer games as one more component in a child's exploration of what's out there in society.

As for video games addiction? To me, I believes that a parent can prevent youngsters from becoming addicted to too much TV or too many video games by establishing a pattern of selective viewing or by using video game material early in a child's life so that by the time a youngster gets to be an adolescent and there's very little surveillance or control, it's less likely to occur.

To conclude, if a youngster becomes addicted to video games it can be a problem and the parent does need to intervene and provide attractive alternatives.

Youth that play games: Jia Yan

Teenagers that play computer games: Jia Yan
Personally I think that playing computer games is not a wrong thing, but it must be done under moderation. Nowadays, playing Computer games are common in this modern society; however they do not only have bad effect, but comes with good effect too. I think there are two main reasons why teenagers play computer games, its simple because games are fun and help aims to focus on to relieve stress. Take for example, any leveling games like MapleStory, PangyaSEA, etc.. each level gain on the teenager's character would make them have a sense of achievement, which make them continue to play even longer period of time. On the other hand if teenagers tend to play too much or go overboard in playing computer games, it might cause them to feel tired. And also after teenagers come back from school and started to play computer games for hours. They tend to be tired, thus causing them to fall asleep and not doing their homework or assignment that they are suppose to be done for the next day lesson. And playing computer games makes your mind very active in thinking; it causes you to be unable to sleep well because of the excitement of the games, especially games that are of violent impact.

I believe that under moderation and under time management, teenagers would not always feel sleepy or act aggressively after playing games for long hours. With time moderation, games that are played could help re-boot their mind making them active in thinking and solving problems especially in mathematics. For long-term gamers might even cause serious health damage to their body. First factor is bad eye sights caused by prolonged computer used, our eyes are badly affected by how long we stare at the bright screen, for long-term staring could make us stop blinking and thus make our eyes strain and to dry out. Second is bad posture which is number one enemy, long periods of time at the computer while playing games often leads to pain in the lumbar region of the back and even cause our back to slouch. Our hand and wrist ache after playing too long which sometimes lead to the feeling of numbness.

In conclusion, most importantly, parents should play a part in guiding teenagers, giving them time constrain on playing computer games. One way of preventing kids from playing too much computer games is having conversation with their child, talking about the seriousness and the negative impact of playing computer games.

Here is a video about the impact of playing computer games and that if parents should be discussing with their child; they cannot play violent games.