IMPACT OF SLEEP DISORDER ON OVERALL HEALTH
Copy,edit the other student’s paper using copy editing marks or the Track Changes editing function in Microsoft Word.
Provide feedback related to the key problems in scientific writing and relevance as described in Lecture 4.
This assignment uses a grading rubric. Instructors will be using the rubric to grade the assignment; therefore, students should review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the assignment criteria and expectations for successful completion of the assignment.
IMPACT OF SLEEP DISORDER ON OVERALL HEALTH 1
IMPACT OF SLEEP DISORDER ON OVERALL HEALTH 5
Formatting style: Vancouver (Alhola & Polo-Kantola, 2007)
Impact of sleep disorder on overall health
Instructor:
BIO-317V
11/29/19
Abstract
Sleep disorders have several impacts on overall health. With the increase in sleep disorders over the last few years, there is a need to identify some of the most common causes of sleep disorders and if factors such as age, gender, ethnicity and social status may be considered as risk factors. Different studies have been done to determine the impacts of sleep disorders on an individual’s overall health. The central focus of this research is to review some of these studies, and come up with a conclusion that tends to bring out these health impacts that are associated with sleep disorders, particularly, sleep deprivation.
Introduction
Sleep is considered as a biological process and it has regularly been essential for good life and optimal health (Wells & Vaughn, 2012). Sleep has been essential in controlling brain functioning, and even in other biological and systematic processes such as metabolism, regulation of appetite, and improving one’s immunity against a number of diseases, especially in children. Normally, a good sleep is associated by the duration of the sleep, the quality, and regularity among other factors. Although a number of studies, and even media, have covered the health benefits of sleep, more than 70 million individuals in the US are still suffering from sleep-related disorders, and moreover, in Europe, approximately 45 million people are also victims of these disorders. For instance, a study conferred that of all the car accidents that occur in the US, 20% are as a result of lack of enough sleep, or other disorders associated wit either too much sleep or lack of enough sleep (Palma et al., 2013).
There are a number of consequences that may arise as a result of sleep loss and other sleep-related disorders. As conveyed by Ming et al. (2011), the most common consequences that may be related to sleep include judgment errors, which may lead to disastrous events. On the other pedestal, some of the less visible consequences of sleep disorder include increased mortality and morbidity rate, car accidents and injuries, QoL, the well-being of the family, and utilization of healthcare services among the affected persons. Some of these consequences may arise a few minutes after having less hours of sleep, or too much sleep. However, there are some long-term impacts of sleep, for instance, obesity and hypertension. Sleeping for a longer duration enhances the body’s inactivity and this is greatly associated with obesity, which may also give chance to the development of hypertension and other cardiovascular complications. According to Ming et al. (2011), there are approximately 90-100 sleep disorders which may result from factors such as environmental factors, psychosocial issues, and other medical conditions. Although the number of sleep disorders is on an increasing trend, these disorders may be classified into not obtaining the recommended amount of sleep, or having low quality of sleep, which is referred to as sleep deprivation, having disrupted sleep, also known as sleep fragmentation and having difficulties maintaining sleep, middle insomnia and other cases that may arise during sleep including sleep apnea, as well as restless legs syndrome among others (Ming et al., 2011).
Sleep has been considered to be one of the greatest components of a good health. Studies have focused on determining some of the most common disorders that may arise due to either lack of enough sleep, or too much sleep. The average number of hours of sleep that a person should have on a day is 8 hours. However, the increase in the number of individuals, especially in the US, has led to an increase in the rates of unemployment. This has adverse effects on one’s sleeping hours since people have to work for longer hours to make a living, a case that has led to high rates of occurrence of sleep disorders. These sleep disorders cause a number of health problems to the human body, and as a result, there is a need to design strategies that can be implemented to ensure that the rates of sleep disorders is reduced, especially in the US. This study will review some of the impacts of sleep disorders on overall health, as well as the most effective preventive strategies that can be used to ensure that individuals do not have disrupted sleep.
Methodology
This study reviews previous studies that are based on sleep deprivation and its impacts on an individual’s overall health. The researcher sampled past papers using convenience sampling followed by simple random sample in each of the obtained convenience samples. The researcher also used some keywords to search for studies in this specific field. These keywords supported the fact that convenience sampling was used to collect the required information. These studies formed the sample, and the sample consisted of 100 studies. Of these 100 literature reviews, only 65 aligned with this study’s objectives and as a result, n=65. This sample size is large enough, as per the central limit theorem, and as a result, the findings obtained may be used to generalize on the entire population of individuals who may be affected by sleep disorders. Although a larger sample size usually leads to more reliable and valid results, after selecting the 65 research articles, there was a need to specifically look for studies that were based on sleep deprivation and as a result, simple random sampling was used at this stage to select only 10 of these articles. This study is therefore, considered as a review of these 10 sampled articles, although a comparison and findings, also relate with results obtained from other previous studies, in the same field.
Results
According to Shapiro & Dement (1993), there has been an increase in the rates at which sleep disorders affect the health and well-being of the victims. This study found out that one in every seven persons in the US is affected by sleep disorders. The findings from this article portray the fact that some of the sleep disorders that greatly impact human beings’ health and overall well-being include sleep walking, RLS, narcolepsy, sleep terrors and insomnia among others. Another study by Ram et al. (2010) found out that there is a rapid increase in the prevalence and incidence of sleep disorders in the US. As a result, some of the most prevalent sleep disorders include apnea, RLS, and insomnia. According to this study, there are a number of factors that relate to this prevalence of these sleep disorders and some of these include age, gender, and race, and this implies that the susceptibility of sleep disorders differs from one person to the other.
Another significant result that was obtained from this review is that most studies are now focusing on sleep deprivation which is considered as a risk factor for a number of neurological diseases including stroke, multiple sclerosis, AD, and epilepsy among others. However, the study also found out that a number of findings have established that sleep disorder is regarded as a protective measure against the development and progression of Parkinson’s disease. A random survey of around 9003 British adults, children and youths found out that sleep disorder is mainly common among the young, aged 8-34 years, and among the adults who are aged over 65 years. In a similar study, those who had the recommended duration of sleep, 7-9 hours, had lower rates of illnesses, and this may be attributed to the fact that sleep also boosts one’s immune system. Another study by Ram et al. (2010) also found out that sleep disorders was one of the leading causes of road accidents in the US. The results obtained from this study is represented by the graph below.
Figure 1: Rate of traffic accidents that result from sleep disorders
A study done by Alhola & Polo-Kantola (2007) found out that wakefulness is a widespread phenomenon that has been linked with a number of disorders. For instance, wakefulness is considered to be a result of sleep restriction or deprivation. The study found out that there was a significant relationship between partial and total SD on an individual’s cognitive performance. For instance, SD is able to interfere with a person’s working memory, and even decision making capabilities. Similarly, other studies also found a strong positive correlation between sleep disorders and lack of enough sleep. For instance, this study found out a p-value of 0.0003, while trying to depict whether sleeping for less hours is associated with care accidents. It was found out that of all the participants, those who slept for short duration of time were likely to get involved in car accidents. On the other hand, those who slept for more than 6.5-8 hours per day, were less likely to be involved in car accidents, unless if the accident occurs as a result of other causes.
Discussion: Sleep disorders and car accidents
A study done by Cochen et al. (2009) asserted that there exists a strong positive correlation between sleep disorders and an increase in the occurrence of car accidents specifically in the US. Furthermore, in the US alone, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that sleep disorders result into drowsy driving and this is responsible for over 72,000 car crashes, more…
