Reaction/Opinion Paper

How do the stages of sleep and the amount of sleep affect consciousness?  How does the amount of sleep affect you personally in regards to your functionality and consciousness?

When falling asleep, one goes through a number of stages and the more one progresses to deep sleep stages, the intense the sleep gets and the higher the effect of sleep on consciousness. Stage one of sleep is torn between the state of being awake and asleep and this means the body is slightly relaxed but the brain is partially working (Horton, 2017). This is to mean that when one is in early sleep stages, he/she is still consciousness and can easily get interrupted in the case something happens near the person. As one progress to other stages of sleep for instance four and five, the sleep gets intense and consciousness is completely lost which makes the brain to completely relax. This is the time that even one loses conscious of noise and anything else that might happen around the person.

As an individual, sleep has a lot of impact on my functionality and consciousness. When feeling sleepy, I feel worn-out and tired to the point I cannot think straight. This means that high amount of sleep and I am not in a position to sleep automatically compromises my functionality and consciousness. I get less conscious and I feel that I cannot completely concentrate which makes it hard for me to function properly. On the other hand, upon getting ample sleep, I feel relaxed and the brain is able to think and figure out things with ease. The body also gets energized something that boosts my functionality to the point I am able to avoid errors. This is to automatically mean that sleep determines a person’s level of consciousness and functionality (Schredl, 2017). For one to remain active and focus; ample sleep is critical as it determines how the brain and the body would work all through the day.

References

Horton, C. L. (2017). Consciousness across sleep and wake: discontinuity and continuity of memory experiences as a reflection of consolidation processes. Frontiers in psychiatry, 8, 159.

Schredl, M. (2017). Theorizing about the continuity between waking and dreaming: Comment on Domhoff (2017).