Practical Aplication Paper

Practical Application Paper

I have always been interested in psychology but, never did I imagine the number of topics involved in psychology. One of the concepts that interested me the most was about sleep and all the subtopics dealing with it, because my girlfriend is always complaining that I always want to sleep, and rest, and that I am constantly tired but after reading all the disorders and the things that affect your sleep I can see why I am apparently always tired. First I had no clue about the sleep cycles, to me it would be simple to state that we tend to have difficulty falling deeply asleep, but after a few min of sleeping undistracted, one would be completely asleep. To my surprise the sleep cycle lasts about 90 minutes and repeats itself until we finally wake up. Firsts we lay down and for about 40-50 according to our brain waves, during this period we are awake and somewhat alert and have a great chance of waking up to the slightest noise or movement. After that period come the NREM stages 1-4. During these NREM stages the brain activity shortens every time more and more. When we are trying to get some good sleep we want to target the final stage of the sleep cycle, the REM. At the REM stage the brain waves are at its peak, but most voluntary muscles are suppressed leading this to be where dreams are held during sleep. Many times sleepers dreaming in the REM may move back and forth their eyes behind their closed eyelids, have heart rate and blood pressure rise and even sexual arousal may occur during this period. The REM sleep only last from 5-20 minutes on each cycle before starting all over again. Something about sleep that has always caught my attention is the questions most of us have made at one point in life, “How is it that my blankets are on the floor?” After the REM cycle sleeper usually shifts position.

Something about sleep and growing up is that I can remember being in middle school and going through my hormonal change and I would take naps everywhere any time. During the early adulthood teens have about one hour of REM sleep per night, and by the time they become adults only about 20 minutes of REM is achieved per night. As one gets older one starts to have many factors influence our sleep patterns such as stress, malnutrition, fatigue and many other things that will affect our sleep. Some of these effects on our sleep are called sleep disorders and each has different consequences. In order to have a good output in your daily life one must be fully rested but according to the recent Sleep in America Poll, seven out of ten Americans reported to have had problems sleeping. One of the most common sleep disorders among Americans is called insomnia, which is the name given to the prevention of sleep due to not being to fall asleep,