[Last Name] 1

23 February 2016
Russell Foster: Why do we sleep?
While sleep is an activity that takes up a whole third of our lives, yet the scientific
community still are figuring out what happens and why its important. Russell Foster is a
neuroscientist specializing in sleep cycles, and presents a review of the current scientific
understanding of sleep through his TED Talk. He presents several theories for why we may need
sleep such as restoration, energy conservation, and his particular favorite, processing and
memory consolidation.
After commenting on each theory, with energy conservation was particularly struck
down, he goes to offer some statistics and findings on the effects of sleep deprivation. It is clear
that if sleep is something we need, but we do not know why we can just take away sleep and see
what happens next to infer why we need it. Interestingly, a lack of sleep causes you to have poor
memory, poor creativity, increased impulsiveness, and overall poor judgment. And as a reaction
to the natural sedating effects of a lack of sleep we naturally tend to stimulants such as caffeine
and nicotine. However, it becomes a lot harder to get quality sleep after using these stimulants,
thus encouraging the usage of sedatives such as alcohol to counteract the usage of stimulants.
Moving from cognitive and behavioral effects, Foster notes some of the physical effects
of sleep loss. He observes that a lack of sleep is correlated to a fifty percent chance of being
obese and cites a hormone that is ramped up in sleep deprived patients. In addition, chronic stress
caused by sustained lack of sleep is associated with increased rates of type 2 diabetes, cancer,
and higher overall infection rates. He points to two explanations of these health issues. In one the
immunity response is generally reduced. In the second, poor circulation and increased glycogen
levels in the blood disrupts vasculature resulting in a negative feedback response.

[Last Name] 2
Concerning mental health, the areas of the brain relating to normal mental health and
sleep patterns are overlapping. He cites this strong correlation to the observed increased rates of
mental health issues faced by sleep deprived individuals. Scarily, Foster points out that it was
found that a lack of sleep precluded certain types of mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder.
In light of these findings, Foster presents the practice of using sleep as a mental health therapy.
Russel Fosters TED talk on sleep offers substantial insight on the various theories
concerning the value of sleep and how disruption affects mental health. By referencing the
cognitive, behavioral, physical, and psychological effects of sleep deprivation, he builds a
compelling case for its importance. This TED talk drew particular interest from me in light of the
lack of sleep I have been getting lately. In response to Fosters well produced argument, I ought
to get an appropriate amount of sleep at the expense of school work However, findings such as
these often become disjointed from clinical application due to the annoyingly fast paced, anxiety
ridden nature of modern life. Perhaps I should find a nice and boring nine to five job with no
homework. Or maybe find some middle ground.

[Last Name] 3
Works Cited
AuthorLastName, FirstName. Title of the Book Being Referenced. City Name: Name of
Publisher, Year. Type of Medium (e.g. Print).
LastName, First, Middle. "Article Title." Journal Title (Year): Pages From - To. Print.