...Five Making Six Stages of Slumbering Activities in Your Brain By: Bill Pak Section: #1762 (I was allowed permission by you to turn in this term paper due to some personal issues with the original term topic) Ever wondered what in blue blazes your brain is doing when you sleep? Well so far, all the research and experiments that have been made to understand and answer this question have resulted with the so called six stages of sleep. The six stages of sleep starts from Stage 0 to Stage 5. Stage 0 is not really considered a stage since it involves the person of interest being awake. Sequentially, Stage 1 is considered to be the beginning of being asleep. Following Stage 1 is Stage 2 which is well known for its sleep spindles and K-complexes (L & F 8). Afterwards, Stage 3 is considered to be a transition phase towards Stage 4 and both stages are collectively often titled as deep sleep (McPhee 20). Lastly, but not the least, Stage 5 is identified as dream sleep and with REM (McPhee). Each stage is not just discerned by its major aspects, but by the activity in the brain in each stage. Although sleep can be described through the various behavioral changes, the different activities in the brain allow the discerning of each stage during sleep. Each stage is distinguished by various electrical activities and patterns across the brain (L & F 7). These electrical activities and patterns consistently change between each stage (McPhee 17). Obviously, each stage has its own unique...
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...Stage 1 This is the beginning of the sleep cycle and is a relatively light stage. This is more of a transition period between wakefulness and sleep. In Stage 1, the brain produces high amplitude theta waves, which are very slow brain waves. This period of sleep lasts only a brief time (around 5-10 minutes). Stage 2 This stage lasts for approximately 20 minutes. The brain will begin to produce bursts of rapid, rhythmic brain wave activity known as sleep spindles. Your body temperature starts to decrease and heart rate begins to slow. Stage 3 This is deep, slow brain waves known as delta waves begin to emerge during stage 3 sleep. Stage 3 is a transitional period between light sleep and a very deep sleep. Stage 4 At this stage, sometimes referred to as delta sleep because of the slow brain waves. This is a deep sleep that last for approximately 30 mins. Dreaming A majority of the dreaming occurs during the stage referred to as REM, or the rapid eye movement stage. This is characterized by eye movement, in which the eyes dart back and forth under the eye lids. Dreaming occurs during this stage because of increased brain activity, voluntary muscles become paralyzed. There are five common beliefs about dreaming. They are: External stimuli are incorporated in to our dreams. Dreams last only an instant. They do not dream. Penile erections indicate sexual content of dreams. Sleep talking/walking can occur. Two common theories that have been considered...
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...You have four stages: 1- Theta waves (high amplitude, slow waves) for 5-10 minutes, transition between awake and asleep 2- Sleep spindles for 20 minutes, body temp goes down and heart slows 3- Delta waves emerge (deep slow brain waves) this is the transition between light and heavy sleep 4- "Delta sleep", you're definitely having delta waves, you're in deep sleep and might sleepwalk, bed wet etc...30 minutes - REM...Rapid eye movement, increased breathing, and increased brain activity...here you'll dream you cycle through these five stages 4-5 times a night like this 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2 THEN REM (where you dream etc.), then back up and down. Common problems include sleep apnea (usually overweight males), sleepwalking, bedwetting, insomnia, chronic fatigue, restless leg syndrome, and narcolepsy Narcolepsy- daytime uncontrollable sleepiness, may fall asleep...caused by dysfunction of the brain mechanism that controls sleeping and waking Sleep apnea- disorder in which you’re breathing temporarily stops throughout the night. Can be caused by being overweight or any kind of blockage of the upper airways Sleepwalking - complex behavior accomplished while asleep, you can talk, even have your eyes open. Have a lot of causes like genetic predisposition or environmental causes like sleep deprivation or stress. Rapid eye movement is the stage in which we dream every night. There are 5 stages of sleep. The first stage is a transition phase called Alpha Theta, eyes roll slightly, only lasts...
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...Stages of sleep Until sleep was accidentally measured researchers had no idea that sleep had different stages, before all they could do was time how long people slept and record their movement to try to interpret whether they are dreaming, etc. There was very limited research in this area until it was discovered that using an electroencephalograph (EEG) which records the average electrical potentials of cells and fibers to record the rise and falls when cells fire in synchrony during sleep. This has shown that there are many different stages that occur during sleep. Loomis, Harvey and Hobart discovered in 1937 that when using EEG at the beginning and also throughout sleep showed clear stages in the change of electrical activity in the brain. This allowed sleep to be measured now as a perpetual process and also showed that sleep appears to be made-up of ‘a complex mosaic of stages or conditions’, (H.W.Agnew,Jr & Webb.B.W, 1973). Humans need approx. eight hours sleep a night, this is different to other animals, however it has been shown that non-human animals also go through similar stages of sleep. During humans’ eight hours of sleep brain activity and eye movement change can be split into different stages. These stages are compared to a state of relaxed wakefulness. Alpha waves are recorded at a frequency of 8 to 12 per second. Alpha waves are present when a human is in a state of relaxed wakefulness. This is known as stage 0, when the human is not quite asleep...
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...REM sleep The story of my search Sleep has been going on for lifetimes on end, but it wasn’t truly discovered until 1920.(“A Brief History of Sleep Research.”) Everybody needs sleep adults, kids, doctors, lawyers. The older you get the less time you spend in the REM stage of sleep. How much sleep do you actually remember your dreams and how much time do you dream in REM sleep? You spend about 20% of your sleep dreaming.(Russo) I started getting interested in REM sleep because I always wondered why we couldn’t remember our dreams. I started checking out books about why we dream and what our dreams mean. I asked my mom questions which she couldn’t answer because she hadn’t researched REM sleep. This first had an impact in 1961 by Nathaniel Kleitman and Eugene Aserinsky.(“A Brief History of Sleep Research.”)Studies have shown that what you eat and drink before you go to bed can affect how much you dream in the REM stage.(Nick)This first...
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...How does sleep deprivation affect college students? 85% of the adult population struggle to get a good night sleep. However, college kids are in the most danger. They stay up all night studying for class, having nightmares or because they just can’t sleep. Every student should get 8-10 hours of sleep because it improves the body, the mind, and overall well-being. Going to sleep early helps brain function and focus. It’s hard to retain information when you have barely slept, it is also equally as important as sleeping well the night after so you can make sure you retain the information. Studying is also very difficult when you can barely keep your eyes open. Students skip on sleep to study all the time, sadly they do not know that it is not only affecting their mental health but also their physical health. There are also certain kinds of medicine that can keep you awake. Certain medicines for ADD, High...
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...Nadira Farha Extra Credit Paper Dr.Adviye Tolunay 11/25/14 “Sleep” Do you ever wonder why you don’t dream when you sleep? The truth is, if you are getting proper amounts of sleep in proper time periods, and not taking medications or using alcohol or illegal substances, you are dreaming. You just don’t remember them unless they wake you. Sleep has been determined like a state optimizes the consolidation of newly acquired information in memory. It depends on the specific conditions of learning and the timing of sleep. Sleep is divided into two states: rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and non-rapid eye movement (NREM), which involves slow wave sleep (SWS, stage 3 and 4) and the others is lighter sleep which occurs on stage 1 and 2. First, stage 1 When we are preparing to drift off, we go though Alpha and Theta, and have periods of dreaminess, almost like daydreaming, except we are beginning to fall asleep. These are interesting states, in that we experience them throughout the day and some people may have more of these waves than others. Those who practice meditation, or deep prayerfulness, often kind of “hang out” in Alpha. It’s a restful place. During this stage, it’s not unusual to experience strange and extremely vivid sensations or a feeling of falling followed by sudden muscle contractions. These are known as hypnogogic hallucinations. You may even feel like you are hearing someone call your...
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...responsible for innumerable bodily functions that are performed during various stages of a day/week/month/year. Examples include bowel movement, digestion, hormone production, menstrual cycle and migration (among birds/animals), to name a few. All these functions follow a particular cyclical pattern. When this process recurs annually, it is known as a circannual rhythm. Similarly, when this process recurs on a daily basis, it is known as a circadian rhythm. The word circadian comes from the Latin words ‘circa diem’, meaning about a day. Circadian rhythms are controlled by a biological clock within our brain. This section of brain is called the 'suprachiasmatic nucleus' (SCN). Signals produced by the SCN travel to different sections of the brain, thus stimulating various functions, such as body temperature, hormone secretion, changes in blood pressure, etc. There are numerous external factors as well, that regulate a circadian rhythm among human beings. These external factors are called zeitgebers (Hawkins & Orlady, 1993). Most common zeitgebers are light and temperature. Others include meal times, various social and physical activities. The most common circadian rhythm known to mankind is the sleep cycle. Sleep is an extremely important physiological phenomenon, during which our body heals and recuperates. Let us begin with understanding what sleep is, and what are the various sleep patterns. Sleep is a revocable state, which is characterized by disconnection and unresponsiveness...
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...occurs. Sleep is truly a wondrous process. During sleep, our brain takes our bodies through five different stages: rapid eye movement and non-rapid eye movement, otherwise known as NREM, which represent four of the five stages. Each stage corresponds differently in length and produces different brain waves as well as dreams. The first stage of sleep is very brief and the sleeper experiences hypnogogic sensations. Stage two is a deep, twenty-minute cycle, and the third is short in length, much like the first. However, it is also the transitional period into stage four, which lasts thirty minutes long. REM sleep ends the course of the sleep cycle, lasting a total of ten minutes or more. Sleep begins in stage one and progresses into stages two, three, and four. After stage four, stage three and then stage two are repeated before entering REM sleep. The total time it takes for a person’s body to go through all five stages is about 90 minutes. Stage one is a very light sleep. The person is not technically asleep yet, for he/she is easily awakened. During this stage, many people may experience hallucinations that are mistaken for dreams and/or falling/floating sensations. David Meyers defines hallucinations as, “[f]alse sensory experiences, such as seeing something in the absence of an external visual stimulus.” (p.94) Many people will recall being pinned to their bed or floating, when in reality it was the normal occurrences of the first stage of sleep. During this stage, the...
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...night sleep. We have tossed and turned and woke up the next morning feeling tired and restless. You may ask yourself if this means that you have a sleeping disorder. What kinds of sleeping disorders exist and what causes them. Some of us have heard terms like, insomnia, narcolepsy, sleep apnea, nightmares, and night terror, but how do these sleep disorders effect an individual? To understand some sleep disorders we must first understand the cycle of sleep. Most of us believe that sleep is what occurs at night when we close our eyes. This is true, but sleep is actually 5 different patterns or stages of activity in the brain. When we first lay down and close our eyes, this is the beginning of stage one sleep. In this stage you are no longer completely aware of your external environment. A slight noise or light touch could wake you. You become relaxed, your breathing becomes regular, and you have disconnected thoughts. After about 10 minutes you enter stage two of sleep. Stage two is a transitional stage, just like stage one, but on an EEG (electroencephalogram), which measures the electrical output of the brain, the brain activity is different. This stage takes a louder noise or heavier touch to wake a person from sleep. It is also at this stage when sudden jerks in your arms or legs cause you to wake suddenly. Stage one and two together usually last about thirty minutes and then you enter stage three sleep. Stage three and four are considered deep sleep. These stages are when...
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...The Effects of Sleep Deprivation Aram Saruni ITT Technical Institute Aram Saruni EN 1320; Composition I Mr. Steven Berndt Research Paper Aguste 11, 2014 The Effects of Sleep Deprivation People today have many problems in their life and sleep deprivation is often a silent stressor. Sleep deprivation can affect any age group of people and getting a few extra hours of sleep on the weekend just it not enough. There is no substitution for sleep. Many people overlook the importance of sleep because they do think that there is a big threat to one’s health. However, this can be very dangerous in the long term. As members of a want it now society, people overlook the importance of sleep due to the fact that people are constantly working. Overlooking the amount people sleep will result in negative health effects, reduced alertness, and the use of pharmaceuticals or other substances. What can be done to prevent and break this silent danger? Sleep deprivation is a problem that with many consequences. There is an alarming lack of awareness about sleep deprivation. To understand how serious sleep deprivation can be, what is the cause or causes it, what are the effects and long term consequences, and one must understand why sleep is important. Sleep is the mental and physical resting state of a person. People go through different stages of sleep and need to go through these stages to get their bodies physically to unwind and mentally rest our brains. Sleep is a necessary...
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...Discuss sleep in terms of the normal sleep cycle. Please be sure to address the stages of sleep and physiological correlates associated with each stage. The normal sleep cycle is in four stages. Alpha waves begin the sleep process, there are highs and lows from 8- to 12-Hz EEG waves considered low-voltage, high-frequency waves of “dozing off”, as we fall asleep, we move in to the stage 1 of sleep. The stage 1 sleep EEG is a type of low-voltage, high-frequency signal with a gradual increase in EEG voltage and a decrease in EEG frequency progressing from stage 1 through stage 4. Stage 1 sleep is where REM sleep takes place. The brain activity during this time increases in various parts of the brain primarily in the cerebrum, with an increase...
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...concept of sleep. Sleep is necessary for not only humans but to all the creatures. Animals, bugs, and all the creatures need to sleep In order to better function. Sleep does not only allow us to rest, sleep is a biological need that help creatures maintain a healthy, balanced life. Half of the human’s life is being asleep because humans sleep at least seven hours a day. Some people sleep for eight hours; some people sleep for 12 hours; basically, it depends on the age. Babes sleep somewhere from sixteen to twenty hours a day which is really a lot compared to teenagers and adults. Sleep is also a psychological need. A lot of people go through a lot of stress during their daily life. Sleep allow us to calm down and wake up with a less stressed mood. Also, sleep allow our body to heal whatever injuries one’s have. It...
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...Week Six Sleeping and Dreaming PSY/240 Sleeping and Dreaming Sleep is considered a natural state in which there is reduced consciousness, reduced sensory activity, and inactivity of all muscles. Sleep is needed for the body to recharge, grow, and is essential for health and well-being. There are three standard psychophysiological measures of sleep and they define the stages of sleep. They are the electroencephalogram (EEG), the electrooculogram (EOG), and the neck electromyogram (EMG). There are four different stages of EEG sleep. Stage 1 EEG is a low-voltage, high-frequency signal slower than being awake. When going from stage to stage the EEG voltage increases and the EEG frequency decreases. Once a person goes from stage 1 to stage 4, the cycles of sleep go back and forth throughout the stages while a person is sleeping. Each cycle is about 90 minutes long. REM sleep is associated with stage 1 EEG while NREM sleep is a combination of all other stages. Stages 3 and 4 are considered slow-wave sleep or SWS due to the delta waves. During REM sleep people have rapid eye movements. Dreaming occurs during the REM stage of sleep. Some people believe that external stimuli can affect their dreams. Some people believe dreams are quick and only last a few minutes, while research suggests they last as long as the person is dreaming. Some people say they do not have any dreams, but more than likely they just do not remember their dreams. Penile erections...
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...Sleep 2015 Gabe Wai Sleep is something that we can always have enough of, for our body to function fine with plenty of energy because our muscle repair, memory consolidation and release of hormones regulating growth and appetite have completed their phase in the body. 117 When you start drifting off your heart rate and breathing slows down. 1 Most children 6- 13 need to sleep from nine to eleven hours each night. a baby needs to obtain around 16 hours of sleep a day but it can be spread out over the course of one day.1 In a day a newborn will sleep throughout the day and will not sleep all the way through the night till about 1 year old because they don't need as much of feeding and are doing more in the day. 1 As people reach 14, they start needing less and less sleep until they are older than 65. 1 Most 26 - 64 need seven or nine hours of sleep. 1 When studying sleep doctors use several different machines but one way is using the EEG, which stands for Electroencephalography and measures Brainwaves on a graph. We have 5 different waves our body goes through at night.20 We have alpha/beta, theta, delta, and REM. 25Alpha and Beta are high frequency and low amplitude.25 Theta is high amplitude and low frequency.25 Delta is high frequency and very low amplitude.25 REM is high frequency and low amplitude.25 The way scientists know our body is sleeping is, they use a machine that uses the body's’ electrical waves given by the brain using polysomnography( detailed...
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