46. Reading Skills Comprehension: Stress Management

Stress Management

Read the given passages carefully and answer the questions that follow:

1.Getting a good night’s sleep can help you cope with stress more effectively. But not getting enough sleep can cause more stress. Insomniacs have higher concentrations of stress hormones than others.

2. Women are prone to sleep disturbances. Their sleep problems frequently interfere with their daily activities.

3. Experts believe that sleep, especially deep sleep, enables our nervous system to function well. Without it, we lose our ability to concentrate, remember or analyse. Some experts speculate that during deep sleep, cells manufacture more proteins, which are essential for cell growth and repair of damage from things like stress and ultraviolet rays.

4. Scientists believe that activity in the area of the brain that controls emotions and social interactions lessens during sleep and that deep sleep may help people be emotionally and socially adept when awake.

5. Sleep may also help our brain to store a newly learned activity in its memory bank. In a study in Canada, students deprived of sleep after learning a complex logic game showed a 30% learning deficit when tested a week later compared with students not deprived of sleep.

6.The effects of sleep deprivation on other bodily functions are just as alarming. In studies from five medical centres across the country, researchers established that individuals with insomnia were also more likely to have poor health, including chest pain, arthritis and depression, and to have difficulty accomplishing daily tasks. Another breakthrough study revealed that even temporary loss of sleep can affect the body’s ability to break down carbohydrates, interfere with the function of various hormones and worsen the severity of ailments such as diabetes and high blood pressure.

7. So whatever works help you to sleep well, whether its regular exercise earlier in the day, weekly massages, yoga, meditation or a lavender-scented bath, make time for it today.

1. Attempt any eight of the following questions on the basis of the passage y,ou have read:

(i) How can a good night’s sleep help one? What happens when one does not get enough sleep?

(ii) What, according to experts, enables our nervous system to function well?

(iii) How do proteins help us in stress management?

(iv) What, according to scientists, happens during deep sleep?

(v) What did a study in Canada reveal?

(vi) Name the common ailments that can be found in insomniacs.

(vii) How can even temporary loss of sleep affect our body?

(viii) What message does the author convey to the reader?

(ix) Which word in paragraph no. 6 means the same as ‘sleeplessness’.

Answers:-

(i)A good night’s sleep can help one in stress management. When one does not get enough sleep, one becomes the victim of more stress.

(ii) According to experts, deep sleep enables our nervous system to function well. Without it, we lose our ability to concentrate, remember or analyse.

(iii) Proteins are essential for cell growth and repair of damage caused due to stress. Thus, one is able to manage stress more effectively.

(iv) Activity in the area of the brain that controls emotions and social interactions lessens during deep sleep. This helps people to be emotionally and socially adept when awake.

(v) The study in Canada revealed that students deprived of sleep after learning a complex logic game showed a 30% learning deficit when tested a week later compared with students not deprived of sleep.

(vi) The common ailments found in insomniacs are chest pain, arthritis, depression, etc.

(vii) Even temporary loss of sleep can affect our body’s ability to break down carbohydrates, interfere with the function of various hormones and worsens the severity of diabetes and high blood pressure.

(viii) The author suggests the reader sleep well to avoid problems caused by not getting good sleep.

(ix) Insomnia

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