Introduction
People have been taking the concept of sleeping as a formality. They believe that after failing to sleep for a couple of days, it is possible to compensate for those days by spending equal number of days sleeping. For me, these assumptions were changed after the experience I went through following a sleepless night. This was after being attacked by thugs. It was around nine o’clock in the evening as I was preparing my evening meals. Suddenly I heard a bang on the door. At first, it did not seem to come from my house so I continued with my cooking. As I was about to serve the food, I heard someone order me to lie down. On turning to see who it was, I felt something heavy land on my head. I fell down unconscious. After duration of approximately half an hour, I regained my consciousness only to find my house almost empty. They had carried roughly everything from my house. As I had been perplexed, I did not take a step of reporting the matter to the police neither did I inform my neighbors. I tried to sleep but I could not. It was hard for me to come in terms with what had happened. Whenever I tried sleeping, I could see this person attacking me and this kept me waking up (Sleepdex, 2009, Par. 3-5).
Main Body
The following day I could barely work or participate in discussions at workplace. I was overwhelmed by sleeping and could find myself occasionally lying on the table for a nap. The whole day my mood was not one of the best. I could get incensed for very trivial reasons. It reached a time when I almost quarrel my boss for asking me to forward the previous day’s work. It is usual for us to hand in previous day’s work as the first thing once we get to the office. On this particular day, I got to the office and forgot to forward my work. The whole day I did not feel motivated to participate in anything in the office. My spirit was very low. It was easy for my contemporaries to notice as my spirit at workplace is always high. I spent the whole day feeling depressed wishing for the working hours to elapse as fast as possible for me to go and sleep. This day, the boss had given us an assignment that required group discussion. I could barely participate in the discussion. It was hard for me to follow what was being presented by colleagues who contributed to the discussion. I was exhausted to an extent that I felt excessively sleepy. I could feel woozy only to wake up and recognize that I had fallen asleep for a couple of minutes. This made me keep on asking them to repeat what they had discussed on as I was not concentrating. It reached to a point that they decided to leave me out of the discussion. No one was willing to answer any question that originated from me. That day my performance and alertness was very poor. This was unusual as my colleagues expected me to contribute most to the discussion. Having noted that I was not contributing, they decided to hear my opinion. They could not believe that the opinions I gave came from me. All that I gave was out of the topic of discussion. As I was restless, I kept walking out of the discussion room. This added to my inability of following the discussion.
Most of the experiences I went through coincides with the ones given in the text. For instance, I felt sleepy the whole of the following day as well as irritated for no reason. I could fall asleep after every few minutes to be wakened by the noise of my colleagues as they discussed. My performance at work also was very poor that particular day. I did not participate in the discussion with most of my time being spent in either sleeping or walking in and out of the discussion room.
Some of the effects of long-term sleep deprivation include suffering from eye problems. The eyes get affected to an degree that one has to ware glasses to be able to drive or read. They regularly blackout for some period which could be dangerous especially when one is driving. One feels as if blood is not circulating around his or her head. One becomes weak such that it is hard to support him or herself when standing. People have to support themselves using walking sticks or walls when standing. Sleep deficiency also affects one’s eating habits. One feels hungry after successive short intervals of time and failure to consume something might make one fall sick. Continued lack of sleep could eventually lead to death. As one continues lacking sleep his or her immune system becomes weakened to an extent that it is hard for it to fight any disease that may strike. The count of white blood cells within one’s body decreases. The remaining white blood cells become weak such that they can not overcome any illness (Ledoux, 2008, Par. 1-5).
Conclusion
One of the common sleeping disorders is insomnia. This is the inability of a person to fall asleep or to remain asleep. This disorder can be prolonged or one that occurs frequently. It may result from stress or change of environment. For temporal insomnia, one does not have to seek medication. If it is being caused by outside factors, the problem ceases the moment these factors are streamlined. For permanent insomnia, there is need for one to seek medical advice. Some of the drugs used include Ambien and Lunesta which help one in getting enough sleep. As insomnia leads to depression, there are some antidepressants drugs such as trazodone which are used to treat nervousness and sleeplessness resulting from depression (Web Md, 2009, Par. 4).
Reference
Ledoux, S. (2008). The Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Brain and Behavior. Web.
Sleepdex. (2009). Sleep deprivation. Web.
Web Md. (2009). Drugs to Treat Insomnia. Web.