Sleep Journal and Reflection Project

Sleep Journal and Reflection Project

In the past three weeks, I have learned a lot about my body and how I think, sleep, and dream. The most intriguing subject I have learned is about dreams and sleep. This subject has helped me learn about my behavior and why they happen. I could recall one dream I had in the past six days very vividly.  In the dream, I had gone to the park with my dogs for what was another typical day. It turned out weird since I had to run after my dogs across the parking lot and came to a still stand. I could see more hundreds of dogs staring at what looked like a zombie or another creature from the fantasy world I had no idea of. It looked very ugly and scary; however, it did not seem to care about any of us. While I was about to get closer to have a better view, I immediately heard my alarm ringing, and I woke up with a fast racing heart-beat. I, therefore, started investigating what factors affect one’s sleep pattern, their dream, how diet, sleep, stress, and exercise one’s dreams or sleep. I also learned about the physiological and physical health interaction and the best behaviors that can better the physiological and physical health in the future.

Looking at the past 2 two weeks, I did not have a common sleep pattern. I did not have a common sleep time, wake time, and sleeping hours since I always had to attend to chores that disrupted my schedule. However, I was used to sleeping at 10 pm and waking up at 4 am. Disrupting this sleep pattern gave me a hard time and made me toss so made times in the bed. Especially when I had to wake up early, it was very challenging since my body could not easily adjust to the stress, fatigue, and diet (Lim et al., .2018, January). Doing my exercise before bed always gave me a hard time, especially when trying to catch my sleep. I could take more than an hour lying on my bed and tossing around in a bid to catch some sleep. I experienced different sleep patterns. Sometimes I could wake up even three times in the night while other times I could wake up only when my alarm rings. During the reflection time, I found that waking up in the middle of the night was caused by poor habits. Sometimes I woke up because I felt hungry, having consumed very little the previous night. Also, other times it was due to nightmares as a result of watching a scary film the last day.

I realized that my sleep patterns were slightly different depending on multiple factors like physiological condition, physical condition, and energy used. I, therefore, learned that sleep patterns are individual, and the sleep time is different from one person to another. Generally, in days when I slept early, at 10.00 pm, I woke up at 4.00 am feeling fresh. If I was too tired before going to bed, I realized that I could not comfortably wake up at the same time because I was still feeling exhausted. Usually, at such times, I could take a short nap during the day. Sleep deprivation has adverse effects on one’s health. It affects memory, healing, attention, and growth, among others. It can lead to physical disorders like depression, diabetes, psychosis, and in extreme cases, it can lead to hallucinations and death.

My sleep patterns were impacted by several factors, including stress, diet, fatigue, and exercise. First, it is the timing of activity. Exercise indeed has a positive impact on one’s sleep patterns and health; however, to maximize the benefits, I had to follow a given timing for my gym sessions. For instance, having a good work out enabled me to be highly alert, have a better metabolism, and get energized during the day. However, exercising right before bedtime made it difficult to get good sleep. According to experts, it is recommended that one attends gym sessions for the latest three hours before bedtime. This will assure one a good night’s sleep (Tanaka & Furutani 2013).

The second aspect which impacted my sleep patterns is diet. I realized that I was taking more caffeine to compensate for my lack of sleep in some days when I was highly loaded with a lot of work. The cycle turned out that taking more caffeine to suppress fatigue and sleep denied me a good night’s sleep when bedtime came. Also, eating foods with caffeine had a negative impact, and deprived me of good night sleep. Another aspect I learned is lack of enough sleep increased my appetite. Through research, I realized that the leptin hormone that regulates appetite falls due to lack of enough sleep, thus increase appetite.

The third issue is stress and its impact on sleep. Stress is not always a bad thing. A little stress helps in keeping one focused, energetic, and with the capacity to meet deadlines (Tanaka & Furutani 2013). It is what keeps one from making costly mistakes. However, I realized that high-stress levels could negatively impact one’s sleep patterns. Long working hours, ever-increasing demands, feeling drained, and tight deadlines increase one’s stress levels.

Continuing to engage in poor behaviors will significantly impact my sleep and dream patterns in the future. I realized that without enough sleep during the night, one will waste most of their time the following day feeling sleepy. Lack of proper sleep leads to unproductivity in the long run, and therefore, the standard sleep time is between 6 and 8 hours per day for an adult.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I have learned a lot about myself and the habits that I need to change to better my health. The ten-day sleep and dream journal has served as a wake-up call for me and for others who did not realize the role of good sleep and the factors that impact the sleep pattern. Finally, this study has allowed me to do more research on my health to live a better and healthy lifestyle.

References

Lim, C. G., Kim, Z. M. & Choi, H. J. (2018, January). Developing a mobile wellness management system for a healthy lifestyle by analyzing daily living activities. In MEDINFO 2017: Precision Healthcare Through Informatics: Proceedings of the 16th World Congress on Medical and Health Informatics (Vol. 245, p. 146). IOS Press.

Tanaka, H., & Furutani, M. (2013). Sleep management promotes a healthy lifestyle, mental health, QOL, and a healthy brain. In Biomedical Engineering and Cognitive Neuroscience for Healthcare: Interdisciplinary Applications (pp. 211-224). IGI Global.