WHAT IS SLEEP DEPRIVATION?

The amount of your time you sleep is like putting money in a bank account. If you’re in chronic sleep debt, you’ll never be able to catch up. Also called insufficient sleep or sleeplessness, it’s the condition of not having enough sleep and will not vary widely in severity chronic sleep deprivation can have a lasting effect on a person’s health like obesity, anxiety, and depression. Sleep deprivation can have an impact on children’s health also like poor academic performance and problems with physical growth and development. The most symptoms of sleep deficit are Excessive Sleepiness, Yawning, Irritability and Daytime Fatigue.

 What Are its Causes?

There are various causes of sleep deprivation, which might be voluntary behavior, personal obligations, working schedule or medical problems. A range of environmental factors and lifestyle factors like extreme cold or hot temperatures, bright light, drinking coffee or smoking cigarettes before bedtime, can stimulate the nervous system and delay in the onset of sleep.

 How much sleep does someone need?

Sleep requirements vary between people and reckoning on a person’s age. National Sleep Foundation tells what proportion sleep someone needs. A summary of the new recommendations includes:

• Newborns (0-3 months): Sleep range narrowed to 14-17 hours each day (previously it was 12-18)
• Infants (4-11 months): Sleep range widened two hours to 12-15 hours (previously it was 14-15)
• Toddlers (1-2 years): Sleep range widened by one hour to 11-14 hours (previously it was 12-14)
• Preschoolers (3-5): Sleep range widened by one hour to 10-13 hours (previously it was 11-13)
• School-age children (6-13): Sleep range widened by one hour to 9-11 hours (previously it was 10-11)
• Teenagers (14-17): Sleep range widened by one hour to 8-10 hours (previously it was 8.5-9.5)
• Younger adults (18-25): Sleep range is 7-9 hours (new age category)
• Adults (26-64): Sleep range did not change and remains 7-9 hours
• Older adults (65+): Sleep range is 7-8 hours (new age category) 

  What is Sleep Hygiene?

 The term ‘sleep hygiene’ refers to a series of healthy sleep habits that may improve your ability to go to sleep and stay asleep. There are lifestyle changes that help you in getting good quality sleep is additionally called ‘Behavioral Therapy’.

 1 Make an even sleep schedule. Arise at the identical time daily, even on weekends or during vacations.

 2 Be away from gadgets. Close up all gadgets a minimum of half-hour before sleeping.

 3 Skip the afternoon nap. Attempt to avoid afternoon nap, if you want to limit your snooze session to half-hour, there should be a minimum of four hours gap between the nap and once you commit to moving to the bed.

 4 Have light meals within the evening. If you get hungry at the hours of darkness, snack on foods that won’t disturb your sleep.

 5 Drink enough fluid at the hours of darkness to stay from rousing thirsty.

 6 Don’t move to bed unless you’re sleepy. If you don’t go to sleep after 20 minutes, get out of bed.

 7 Make the bedroom quiet and relaxing. Keep the area at a snug, cool temperature. Irrelevant noise within the bedroom can disrupt your sleep. Just attempt to make sure the noise is consistent like a racket.

Sleep deprivation can be linked to poor job and academic performances. It can substantially lower an individual’s overall quality of life. There is no substitute for restorative sleep. A certain amount of care should be taken to prevent ongoing sleep deprivation in individuals of all ages.

Let’s understand different learning styles:

1. Visual (Spatial)
2. Auditory (Aural)
3. Linguistic (Verbal)
4. Social (Interpersonal
5. Solitary (Intrapersonal)
6. Physical (kinesthetic)

Visual learners are those who prefer to study or collect data through images, pictures, maps and graphics.

Aural or auditory learners are those who can assess information through listening and speaking.  They have nice memory for conversations and enjoy debates and discussions.

Verbal learners are good at collecting information through words. They are excellent in reading, writing, and speaking. They can learn many languages.

Social learner is one who learns through interaction with others. They are good at communication and can read other’s emotion very well.

Intrapersonal learner is one who enjoys his own company and likes to do self study. They are self motivator and self managed people.

Physical learners are totally different from others. They are the one who learn when movements of their body parts are included while learning e.g. walking while reading.

It is not necessary that only one individual will follow only one learning style. They can have more than one learning style like a good verbal learner can be an excellent aural learner too. Thus, it is important for a parent to know learning pattern of their child so that they can help them in capturing opportunities.

A parent can also get to know the learning disabilities and behavior of a child with certain psychometric evaluation techniques, IQ test and learning disabilities test used by clinical psychologist.

The fear, worry and discomfort of an individual in public, social function is a mental health disorder termed as Social Anxiety disorder. A person suffering from social anxiety disorder may feel embarrassment in social situations. He is fearful of being scrutinized by others while meeting them. This is also called as Social phobia.

The symptoms of Social anxiety disorder are many and can be differentiate into behavioral, physical and emotional.

Physical signs include:

Avoiding eye contact

Confused

Nervous

High Heart Beat

Shaking voice and trembling hands

Excessive sweating

Mental tension, walking disturbance, cold hands etc are physical symptoms.

Emotional Signs include:

Fear of talking and sitting with strangers

Extreme concerned about their looks when in society

Try to avoid those conditions where they can be center of attraction

Panic attacks when face hostile situations

Blank mind during communicating with others

Fear of going in a room which is full of people

The people suffering from social anxiety disorder are over sensitive, have low self esteem and generally talk negative about them. The causes of social anxiety can be many like genetic, physical and past experiences and are different in different individuals that can only be diagnosed rightly by the clinical psychologist or psychiatrist. Social anxiety disorder is a lifelong condition. Treatments like psychotherapy and medications can help people control their symptoms and gain confidence.