| 1900: | Spanish physician Ramon y Cajal identifies neurons as discrete entities and, in the process, helps found the modern study of neuroscience |
| 1900: | Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud publishes The Interpretation of Dreams, concluding that dreams can reveal helpful psychological insights about repressed memories and past traumas, thus founding the field of psychoanalysis |
| 1903: | German scientists synthesize barbital, the first commercial sedative sleeping pill, later much abused |
| 1913: | French psychologist Henri Pieron publishes Le Problème Physiologique du Sommeil, one of the first books to address the physiological characteristics of sleep |
| 1925: | Russian-born American Nathaniel Kleitman opens the world’s first sleep laboratory at the University of Chicago, where he would go on to research circadian rhythms, sleep and wakefulness regulation and sleep deprivation |
| 1929: | Hans Berger develops an electroencephalograph device to record brain waves, and notes differences in brain activity during sleep and wakefulness |
| 1954: | William C. Dement shows that sleep consists of cycles of different stages of sleep, repeated four or five times a night |
| 1958 | Melatonin, later found to have profound implications for sleep medicine, discovered by American dermatologist Aaron Lerner |
Getting enough quality sleep at the right times can help protect your mental health, physical health, quality of life, and safety.
In children and teens, sleep also helps support growth and development. Sleep can harm you over time. For example, ongoing sleep deficiency can raise your risk for some chronic health problems. It also can affect how well you think, react, work, learn, and get along with others. Children and teens who are sleep deficient may have problems getting along with others. They may feel angry and impulsive, have mood swings, feel sad or depressed, or lack motivation. They also may have problems paying attention, and they may get lower grades and feel stressed.
Sleep helps your brain work properly. While you’re sleeping, your brain is preparing for the next day. It’s forming new pathways to help you learn and remember information. Sleep helps enhance your learning and problem-solving skills. Sleep also helps you pay attention, make decisions, and be creative.
Studies also show that sleep deficiency alters activity in some parts of the brain. If you’re sleep deficient, you may have trouble making decisions, solving problems, controlling your emotions and behavior, and coping with change. Sleep deficiency also has been linked to depression, suicide, and risk-taking behavior.
Sleep plays an important role in your physical health. For example, sleep is involved in healing and repair of your heart and blood vessels. Ongoing sleep deficiency is linked to an increased risk of heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and stroke
Sleep helps maintain a healthy balance of the hormones that make you feel hungry (ghrelin) or full (leptin). When you don’t get enough sleep, your level of ghrelin goes up and your level of leptin goes down. This makes you feel hungrier than when you’re well-rested.
Sleep is a big thing in your life even know it doesn’t seem like it. Now some people may like sleep others not so much but sleep plays a big role in your life.
WORK CITED!
“Sleep – Sleep Research Timeline.” Sleep – Sleep Research Timeline. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Sept. 2016.
“Why Is Sleep Important? – NHLBI, NIH.” U.S National Library of Medicine. U.S. National Library of Medicine, n.d. Web. 07 Sept. 2016.