Dragons Essays - Sleep, Sleep Disorders, Health, Neuroscience

Dragons How many times during the night do we toss and turn, check the clock, and find it ticking away and tell ourselves, If I could fall asleep right now I would get at least five hours of sleep? But, sleep doesn't come so we continue to toss and turn. This happens to many people and may suffer from a disorder known as insomnia. People who suffer from this disorder have many complaints, and many have similar symptoms. Symptoms can vary from stress to pain to always feeling tired. Insomnia is a very difficult disease to have to live with. It is hard for both those that suffer from it and their family members. According to Linde and Savaley's, The Sleep Book, (1974), the person who has trouble sleeping is not alone (p. 9). They also claim, An estimated thirty million people suffer from chronic insomnia (p.9). Many non-insomniacs have occasional periods when they wonder if they'd make it through a sleepless night. Many insomniacs can't fall asleep because of pain and discomfort. Those that can fall asleep but can't stay asleep might be caused from depression, or too many things to worry about. In Ernest Hartmann's The Sleeping Pill (1978) some causes of insomnia (p. 113). He states that pain and discomfort do indeed play an important part in the difficulty remaining asleep. For those having difficulty remaining asleep might be because of depression or having too much to worry about. In Linde and Savary's, The Sleep Book (1974), Dr. Dale C. Friend claims, insomnia can be classified by four causes: tension, fatigue, discomfort, and in and out insomnia (p. 100). Tension insomnia occurs mostly in executives or people who worry about their businesses. Tension builds up inside during the day and is still inside at bedtime, it won't come out, so they tend to worry and are not able to go tot sleep. Fatigue insomnia happens when people who get tired during the day and then they take a nap in the early afternoon and as a result they cannot go to sleep at bedtime. People suffering from discomfort insomnia often complain of stomach upsets, such as ulcers, toothaches, or arthritis. This causes them to wake up during the night, which gives them discomfort. In and out insomnia occurs when patients feel that they didn't sleep at all during the night when they really did, but only stayed in the first stages of light sleep and woke up frequently throughout the night. Dr. Allan Rechtschaffen states in Linde and Savary's The Sleep Book, (1974) Insomniacs spend less time in REM sleep than normal sleepers (p. 110). REM sleep, or rapid eye movement sleep is the final stage of sleep reached in a normal sleep cycle. To better understand this cycle of sleep scientists have used an electroencephalogram to measure brain waves during sleep. A normal sleep cycle consists of five distinct stages with paradoxical, or REM stage being the final stage. REM sleep is what is commonly known as deep sleep. There are many other causes of Insomnia such as the many environmental causes said by Ernest Hartmann's The Sleeping Pill (1978). Hartmann states, any loud noise or sounds that can irritate or aggravate can disrupt a persons sleep (p. 116). When trying to sleep, the littlest things can bother someone's sleep whether hearing the bathroom water faucet dripping or even the heater coming on during the night. All these things can keep a person up all night when they are suffering from insomnia. He also claims, there is a condition sometimes called 'habit insomnia' (p. 116). Habit insomnia is when something caused the insomnia in the past so when the sufferer associates it into habit. For example, when the see the bed that they have difficulty sleeping on, they condition themselves to think that they can't sleep because of the bed, therefore they don't sleep. In Mendelson's Human Sleep and It's Disorders, (1977) Incidence of insomnia was found by doing a sampling of 1,645 persons and it was found that 14% of those tested had trouble getting to sleep, (Karacan, et. al., 1973). The results tended to be higher for women than men and as age increased. Tiller, studied 83 healthy

Free Essays on Winter Visitors

As winter approaches, many elderly â€Å"snowbirds† have returned to Florida to enjoy the mild weather. Because of several â€Å"close encounters† with elderly drivers who were driving erratically, the writer wished to discover if those individuals have more accidents than do their younger counterparts. A casual review of the literature shows that older drivers become more crash-prone with age, even though they drive less miles. In addition, because older drivers are more fragile, their fatality rates are 17 times higher than those of 25- to 64-year olds. The problem at hand is the high accident and death rate associated with a large population of elderly drivers. Last year, a woman sitting in the nail salon, enjoying a refreshing manicure looked up to see a bright red Cadillac coming through the shop window, stopping just short of a startled patron. Fortunately, no one was injured. The newspaper report of this incident stated that the 87 year old driver was in a hurry to get to her appointment, and drove into the parking lot at an excessive speed. When she thought she was putting her foot on the brake, she actually stepped on the accelerator and drove through the window. The newspaper also stated that this was not an uncommon cause of similar accidents- thinking that the accelerator pedal was the brake pedal. America is undergoing a major demographic transformation. The â€Å" graying of America† has resulted in an increase in the number of elderly drivers. Drivers over 70 years of age number 18 million today, up from 13 million in 1985. Why do these very experienced drives have such an excessive number of accidents? Although driving seems an easy activity, it actually requires the complex coordination of many different skills. Sometimes, when elderly drivers are the ones behind the wheel, this coordination is hard to accomplish. Older drivers experience physical changes that can affect driving ability such as: changes in v... Free Essays on Winter Visitors Free Essays on Winter Visitors As winter approaches, many elderly â€Å"snowbirds† have returned to Florida to enjoy the mild weather. Because of several â€Å"close encounters† with elderly drivers who were driving erratically, the writer wished to discover if those individuals have more accidents than do their younger counterparts. A casual review of the literature shows that older drivers become more crash-prone with age, even though they drive less miles. In addition, because older drivers are more fragile, their fatality rates are 17 times higher than those of 25- to 64-year olds. The problem at hand is the high accident and death rate associated with a large population of elderly drivers. Last year, a woman sitting in the nail salon, enjoying a refreshing manicure looked up to see a bright red Cadillac coming through the shop window, stopping just short of a startled patron. Fortunately, no one was injured. The newspaper report of this incident stated that the 87 year old driver was in a hurry to get to her appointment, and drove into the parking lot at an excessive speed. When she thought she was putting her foot on the brake, she actually stepped on the accelerator and drove through the window. The newspaper also stated that this was not an uncommon cause of similar accidents- thinking that the accelerator pedal was the brake pedal. America is undergoing a major demographic transformation. The â€Å" graying of America† has resulted in an increase in the number of elderly drivers. Drivers over 70 years of age number 18 million today, up from 13 million in 1985. Why do these very experienced drives have such an excessive number of accidents? Although driving seems an easy activity, it actually requires the complex coordination of many different skills. Sometimes, when elderly drivers are the ones behind the wheel, this coordination is hard to accomplish. Older drivers experience physical changes that can affect driving ability such as: changes in v...

Parenting of adolecents Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Parenting of adolecents - Essay Example Parenting is harder in this current world because many parents do not seem to know when too much fear is too much, or when they are not displaying enough concern. Some parents fear more than they should, which often results in their adolescents being uncertain and scared of the world. Instead of growing up and exploring the world that is available to them, they prefer to remain under the protection of their parents -- something that many parents are more than happy to offer if it means not having to let go of their children. Stepping back enough to let their children grow and move on is perhaps the hardest part of parenting in general. There are parents that do not feel that they have taught their children everything they need to know about growing up and living on their own. Due to this, some parents just increase their overprotection, which can be seen as an unconscious attempt at keeping their children from leaving. Parents seldom know when they have taught their children all that they can to prepare them for the world. Unfortunately, this is when many of the unfounded fears come out. As a result, a parent can either push their child away, or they can make their children have their own unfounded fears.