General Psychology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

General Psychology - Essay Example Focusing on ways to prevent sleep deprivation and moving toward practices of healthy sleep can assist one with mental, physical and emotional activities through daily life. The importance of sleep begins with the stages of sleep which occur as well as how this affects different stages that one goes through with the activities in the mind. The main cause of sleep is based on wave patterns in your mind that balance the sleeping and waking systems. When the wave patterns slow down, it communicates to the mind that the body should also move slower, which leads to sleep. The result is a slower pattern of brain waves which is required for certain periods of time each night. There are four stages of sleep that are a part of the cycle. Stage 1 is a light sleep where the heart rat slows down and breathing is irregular. Relaxation and alpha waves, a slower brainwave, are the two features of stage 1 sleep. Stage 2 leads to a drop of temperature and spindles of brainwave activity. Stage 3 leads to delta waves in the brain which are larger and slower than other brainwaves. Stage 4 is deep sleep and is typically reached after 1 hour. This is a slow wave of delta and can lead to a lack of consciousness from the brain (Coon, Mitterer, 186). The stages associated with sleeping are an indicator of why sleep is needed as well as what occurs when one gets enough sleep. If one doesn’t receive enough of stage 4 sleep, it can become detrimental to health, both physically and mentally. The body requires the brainwaves to move at a slower pace for a given period of time and to begin to change and relax for given periods of time. Learning, memory and functions that are associated with mental capacity aren’t able to function at full capacity if one doesn’t receive enough sleep. The complications occur with neuronal