(19) Early Research, Sleep and Exercise

It is common sense to most that sleep, exercise, and nutrition are the building blocks of good health. All three play a crucial role in your body's performance and longevity. But how are the three related? How do they all effect each other? My primary focus is on the inter-relatedness of sleep and exercise, but I felt that nutrition was also a paramount piece of the puzzle that should be included in my later research. 


Max Hirshkowitz, PhD, brought to light in his article that through the analysis of 38 comprehensive, independent studies, "exercise-related [activities] increased total sleep time, increased slow wave sleep time, decreased REM sleep time, and prolonging latency to REM sleep" (2013, para. 3). Hirshkowitz is a firm believer that sleep does positively affect a person's quality and quantity of sleep. 

Now much of an affect chronic exercise habits can have on sleep is something that I haven't figured out yet, but I plan to find out!

Sources: 
Hirshkowitz, M. (2013). How does exercise affect sleep duration and quality? Retrieved from National Sleep Foundation: https://sleepfoundation.org/ask-the-expert/how-does-exercise-affect-sleep-duration-and-quality

(18) Sleeping Without My Roommate

For the past two days and nights my roommate has been out of town with the Wayland volleyball team. I don't know if that is the primary reason, but I have sleep perfectly the last two nights!! It has been amazing after a long hard week to finally sleep two full nights in a row.

The only thing that has changed these last two days is the absence of my night owl roommate. He stays up into the AM nearly every night playing his computer games and watching The View... It is extremely aggravating trying to fall asleep while the room is illuminated by his blaring computer screen coupled with the noise he makes.

All in all, I'm coming to find that I enjoy living along better than having a roommate. His mess and disorganization annoys and stresses me out. His lazy habits lead to me thinking negatively about him. The most concerning factor of having a roommate is how he can directly disrupt my sleep. Although most of the time it is unintentional, the fact remains that I am losing quality sleep by having a roommate.

(17) Research on the Correlation of Sleep and Exercise

For my research topic, I am planning on looking into the positive effects exercise can have on sleep, and how sleep then helps you recover from vigorous activity. This subject really interests me because I am an athlete. I know that sleep is an important part of my athletic performance, but now I want to be able to prove it.

I hope to learn many new things about the physical benefits of sleep. Maybe I will find some best practices for falling asleep and staying asleep. It would also be good to know which supplements are best absorbed at night. I've heard through the grapevine that fish oil should be taken before bed rather than in the morning because it is absorbed better at night. Now, I don't know if it is true or not, but I have blindly accepted it as fact in recent months and it would probably do me some good to find out the truth.

When it's all said and done, my goal is to be able to tell y'all how a workout can improve your sleep habits.

(16) Our Medicated Military

According to William Saletan, "an arms race in pharmaceutical enhancement of combat troops, (para. 1)" is currently running rife throughout the United States military. It is no surprise that troops in combat are pushed beyond their limits physically and mentally. However, some might be surprised to know how the U.S. military combats this fatigue, specifically sleep deprivation.

Because the U.S. military believes that the most vital, "human performance factor in military effectiveness is degradation of performance under stressful conditions, particularly sleep deprivation, (para. 3)" the military has invested millions of dollars and countless hours to ameliorate its effects. The U.S. military started using stimulants to fight the affects of fatigue around the time of WWII. One of the most popular has been amphetamines (speed) which is a controlled substance for civilians. More recently, the military has been studying a new class of drugs called ampakines, which are capable of restoring "performance to levels compaarable to or better than, (para. 18)" those who were well-rested.

My concern with this widespread us of drugs is the effects on soldiers over time, specifically the addiction they could be sent home with. While in combat, these drugs may be a necessary evil in order to save lives (although stimulants have also been accused of leading to friendly fire incidents). When soldiers are discharged, I think the military should have a recovery program in place in order to prepare soldiers for success in the civilian world.



Source:

Saletan, W. (2008). Night of the Living Meds. Retrieved 10 19, 2015, from Slate: http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/human_nature/2008/07/night_of_the_living_meds.html

Picture: 

http://archive.airforcetimes.com/article/20120614/NEWS/206140317/DoD-cracks-down-off-label-drug-use

(15) More Covers Please!

Now that we're well past the autumn equinox passing, winter will soon be setting upon us here in west Texas. With it comes the changing of the leaves, less sunlight, and, unfortunately, cooler weather.

All summer long is slept with very few covers if any at all because of how easily I got hot in my warm house. For a while here at Wayland it was the same story. I was hot almost every night and had to minimize the amount of covers. Now, however, I am facing the opposite: nights that are too cold!

It took me a week or two to figure out what was disrupting my sleep, but I finally found that it was cold weather leaking in through my poorly insulated dorm room window. Because of the lax maintenance it's either too warm or too cool in my room at night. More often now I am having to break out my thick comforter to make it through the night comfortably. I don't mind it so much now because I have fixed this cause of poor sleep by bundling up before falling asleep. Now I'm looking to a warm and cozy winter.

(13) "Manhole 69"

For the first few pages all went well.
However, I was reading at night and occasionally began to dose off.

Overall, I did enjoy reading Manhole 69. It made me think quite a bit about how the loss of sleep could affect the human mentality. I wonder how they chose their three test subjects for the experiment, and how much Dr. Neill paid them.

What happened at 3:15AM really threw me for a loop. I didn't quite understand what was happening at first, but later realized that time was not passing for the test subjects minds. They were effectively trapped in a shrinking room for eternity. If they went crazy in the 10 minutes that Morley was gone, what did they experience in the hours before Lang was "revived"?

I suppose it was meant to end that way, with the author leaving us unanswered questions to make us think and draw our own conclusions.

(14) Do I Need Beauty Sleep?

Beauty sleep is something I've always though of as something "women" worry about. I have never given it much though. However, I do notice the ugly looking bags under my eyes after a few nights of rough sleep. It has been fairly easy to connect those bags and my pale face to my lack of sleep. Maybe I should start considering my beauty sleep if I don't want people to see me as "less healthy and less attractive," than my peers getting their full eight hours of sleep (Laurance, para. 2, 2010).

Since I'm not one for cosmetics, I think sleeping at least eight hours a night is going to be my best bet for looking young and invigorated. I know that after eight hours my body feels better, but I guess that sleep also contributes to my body looking better as well. Laurance also mentions how sleep deprivation can affect the immune system, "increasing the risk of infections, glucose regulation was weakened and blood pressure was raised" (para. 7, 2010).

The way I see it I need to sleep for eight hours a night because that is what allows my body to function at 100%. Beauty sleep is not going to become my main focus for getting eight hours every night, but it is a nice reward for keeping your body healthy.


Sources:
Jeremy Laurance, “It’s true—there is such a thing as beauty sleep,” The Independent, Dec 15, 2010 (http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/its-true-ndash-there-is-such-a-thing-as-beauty-sleep-2160619.html)

(12) Keeping Track of My Waste

On Tuesday I was challenged to collect all of my waste for 24 hours to measure how much I throw away in a typical day. I began collecting my trash yesterday, Wednesday, at 2pm.

 

What I found through this experiment is that I am doing a decent job of reducing my carbon footprint. By no means do I mean I am doing a perfect job reducing my waste, but I am well under the EPA's estimated averages. The EPA estimates that Americans throw away 4.4lbs of trash each day. At the end of 24 hours I only had about 1lbs. of trash collected. I reuse my plastic water bottles and also recycle anything that I can. The two areas I know I can improve upon are the amount of paper I use and the amount of water I send down the drain.

 

It seems that every week I am printing off new PowerPoint notes for class, exam reviews, and articles for research. If I  were to use daily what I happened to use in the past 24 hours. I estimate that I would throw away about 5,000 sheets of paper. One way I can combat this is by leaving my notes in electronic form. As for water... I have such a bad habit of turning on the shower or faucet and then leaving to go do something! Ugh, such a bad routine to be in! I have to start reminding myself of how much water flows out every minute the faucet is on, almost 2 gallons!!

(11) Half a Semester Down

Time has flown in my honors seminar, Sleep-Starved: Science, Faith, and Sleep, this year. It has been enlightening to say the least. In my readings, I've learned about the many different stages of sleep (1 through REM) and how important each can be in the body's recovery process. I've learned about circadian rhythms affects on the human body and mind and its sleep drive. I've also learned a myriad of sleep related vocab words that I cannot think of from the top of my head, but I'd know them if I see them.

As is customary for the middle of a college semester, midterms are beginning on the Wayland campus. I always try to thoroughly prepare for my midterms because of the weight that they can carry depending on the professors preferences. I am sure that I will be prepared for all of my midterms including the Sleep midterm. I think what I enjoy most about studying for the midterm is being able to see all of the new words I have added to my vocabulary. I think an eloquent vocabulary is something that should be commended and respected by others, so I always like adding words to mine.

I haven't put much thought into my Sleep research paper. I would be very interested to explore the effects that exercise can have on a person's sleep patterns.