The big drug companies have always been known to take advantage of what ever illness was sweeping over America in the past, and this new sleep-depravation epidemic is no exception. There has been all kinds of new sleeping drug, and apparatuses to enhance your sleep. These companies have made millions of dollars on these new schemes, and in this work-aholic society were the less you sleep the more money you can make, there is no lack of customers. The numbers are on the rise, the number of Americans who say they sleep less than six hours a night–16% in 2005, compared with 12% in 1998. Americans are buying into this scheme until we slow down and take our sleep seriously these companies will continue to profit on our sleepless stress filled nights.

Man hole 69 is a fictional story that is very intriguing to me. It talks about a surgery that was performed on three test subjects, that removed the need and the ability to sleep. The subjects were locked in some kind of coma, like a semi death. They were frozen in time. One of the explainations for this incident was that sleep is used as a form of escape from ourselves this got me to thinking about this explainiation and I have expanded it futher. We as people have many different traits, and personailities what if it was almost like there many different people in our heads (in a non-schizophrenic way) and what happens when you put many different people in a small space for an extended period of time? They fight and bicker, we all need time away from people. So sleep is our escape to allow those people room to live in harmony. I promise I don't have multiple personality disorder. At least I think.

We like to think of the US and its armies, as honorable. We see them as noble men and women who would give everything for their country, we think that the government would take notice of this and treat our soldiers with the upmost respect, and dignity. This is not the case, our armies are taking advantage of the sacrifice and service those men and women are making for this country and are trying to stretch them to perform, not just to their best ability, but super soldiers, pushing them beyond the natural limit their bodies take them. The government gives them "go pills" which is basically speed. We are drugging up our soldiers just so that they can push themselves to the absolute limit, we do not know what kind of lasting effects that this could have on them. We would rather drug them up, than allow them to be well rested.

I like to think of sleep abstractly, it not really for our bodies its not so that we can rest and recuperate physically. I like to think its all for our minds, we spend all day receiving information and reacting to it in the moment. Our brains are like sponges absorbing information, and experiences. We need those eight hours just so that we can get through the next day without our head spinning off its axis. We aren't prospering we are just surviving taking it one day at a time, and sometimes even that is too much, so we take naps.

So far in this class I have found out some interesting information , and I find it really intriguing. Especially because it is a thing that we do everyday, but sleep still has a sense of mystery around it, which makes me want to study it more. I really found it interesting about the types of dreams that you have during REM, and NREM and how NREM dreams help you deal with the day and helps you unconsciously categorize your memories. While REM sleep gives you hypothetical problems obstacles and problems so that you can better tackle them in the future. While I have no idea why I would need to rush to save my grandmother who was stuck in the chimney, while being handcuffed to a toddlers walking device, its possible so thanks REM sleep for all the crazy weird dreams I don't know what I would do without you.

I am sure that you all are aware of the epidemic of police brutality, or at least the medias perception of police brutality, I am however not a believer that the police force is all corrupt, and that it racially profiles but that is beside the point. After all of the attention and scrutiny on the police force we all want the best for the men and women who serve our cities around the country, so why is it that a study done on Med Page Today found that around 40% of all police officers screened positive for at least one sleep disorder. Some of the men and women who need to be the most responsible because of all the media attention are not getting an efficient amount of sleep. This lack of sleep can and will cause mistakes in the already criticized department.