A newborn child usually sleeps the best part of the day and wakes up mostly to eat and when in somekind of trouble. As his ablities to interact with the surrounding develop the patterns between sleeping and being awake start to form.
The suprachiasmatic nucleus located in the hypothalamus controls the night and day rhythm. It has a so called biological clock which paces the sleeping and the awareness. There are large differences in the effectiveness of sleeping in people. Some people need only 6-8 hours of sleep a night, and some people need as much as 8-11 hours of sleep a night so they don’t feel excess fatigue. A 10-year old child usually sleeps 9-10 hours during the night and an adult needs 7-9 hours of sleep. You get enough of sleep when unusual tiredness does not occure during daytime.
The longer you stay awake continuously, more tired you feel. Even if you sleep during the day you usually start feeling sleepy at night. It is easyest to get rid of abnormal tiredness by going to bed early instead of sleeping till noon. Insomnia or a normal long period of time without sleeping brings out the relevance of a good night sleep. When having trouble sleeping mental performance usually drops significantly. Even after one night of poor sleep you will have trouble maintaining an upright position and keeping your eyes open if no external irritants are present. Bright light and some exercise can help temporarily the discomforts caused by sleeping disorders. The lack of orientation and concentration are the usual symptoms of the lack of quality sleep. If someone has the tendency for psychotic reactions long term insomnia can cause trouble like hallusinations or even delusion
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