Sleep pp

Sleep

The History of Sleep

• All animals have always needed to sleep.1

• People have been fascinated with sleep since the ancient times6

• Gods and Goddesses of sleep are found throughout history and around the globe6

• Freud believed dreams held significant meaning about our personalities and secret desires.1, 4, 5 Hypnos, the Greek god of sleep

Superscripts correspond to the citations at the end of the PowerPoint.

Sleep 101

• Your brain needs sleep in order to process information that it absorbed throughout the day, and also to make repairs to itself and other body tissues. The brain cannot grow or develop without sleep.1,2,3

• There are several stages of sleep.1

– Alpha/Relaxed Wakefulness, Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3/Stage 4, and Stage 5/REN sleep.

• The brain’s activity differs in each stage, so each stage can be seen on an EEG graph.1, 4

– An EEG (Electroencephalogram) scan is a way one can observe the activity of the brain by placing small sensors on a person’s head to sense the electric current in the brain. It is the primary way scientists study the sleeping brain.1


EEG Graph of the Sleeping Brain

1

Stages of Sleep• Alpha/Relaxed Wakefulness1

– Your body is relaxed, your eyes are closed, and you are drifting off to sleep. You become less and less aware of your surroundings. It takes the average adult 15 minutes to fall asleep

• Stage 11

– Falling asleep. Body slows down. Can still be jarred awake easily. Some people, when woken from this stage, think they were still awake.

• Stage 21

– Brain waves slow down, but have bursts of activity called spindles. 50% of time spent asleep is spent in Stage 2, as it transitions between other stages.

• Stage 3/41

– Deep slow-wave sleep. You become less responsive to stimuli and are more difficult to wake.

• Stage 5/REM1, 3, 4, 5

– Body is paralyzed but brain is active.

• Cycle moves up and down the cycle: 1, 2, 3, 4, REM, 4, 3, 2, etc.Superscripts correspond to the citations at the end of the

PowerPoint.

Sleep 101

"Sleep Cycle." The Sleep Cycle. Web. 8 Aug 2011. <http://inceptor.mcs.suffolk.edu/~souza/project/rem.html>.

Two Kinds of Sleep

REM1,2,3,4,5

• Rapid Eye Movement• “Active Brain in a paralyzed

body”• Facilitates learning, improved

memory, and creativity.• Vivid, sometimes unpleasant

dreams• If deprived of REM for too long,

the next normal sleep will hold more REM then a usual night.

• Though often unpleasant, dreams are thought to be an important part of storing memories and preparing the brain for possible future

obstacles.

SWS/nonREM1,2,5

• Slow Wave Sleep• Body can move to readjust

itself.• Some dreaming can

happen, but not as vivid or creative as REM dreaming

• Highly unresponsive to outside stimuli.

• Body uses this time to rest and make repairs.


Sleep in America

• The majority of adults need about 8 hours of sleep.1,2,6

• Sleeping disorders and sleep deprivation is on the rise in America.1,6

• 75% of Americans have sleeping problems.1

• Napping, considered lazy or unproductive in America, can actually be a very healthy thing.1,6

• Many things can contribute to sleeping problems: odd working hours, drug/alcohol use, major diseases, obesity, and stress.1,6


Sleep Deprivation• Complete Sleep Deprivation (>24 hours)1,2,3,6

– Hand/eye coordination suffers and response time suffers, as if being intoxicated

– Causes tension, depression, paranoia, headaches, sometimes hallucinogens, and eventually death.

– Can suffer microsleep or automatic behaviors• Microsleep: sleeping for a few seconds (3-15), even while

performing activities (maybe like this bear!)• Automatic behaviors: “autopilot” – performing tasks but not

being aware or responding to the environment.• Partial Sleep Deprivation (2+ nights of less than 8 hours) 1,2,3,6

– Can suffer irritability, sleepiness, headaches, stomachaches, joint pain, trouble concentrating, and trouble with performing complex tasks.

– Long term consequences to not getting enough sleep is dramatic shortage of life, poorer performance at jobs leading to fewer promotions, major disease, hormonal imbalances, and obesity.

• Don’t worry! If you have been sleep deprived you only need to get an extra hour of sleep or two a day for awhile so your body can get into it’s normal sleep schedule again, and you will feel much better!


A Good Night’s Sleep

There are many benefits!1

• Alertness/improvement in performance• Improved memory & ability to retain information• Better concentration• More creative• Better health• In general, your quality of life is improved!Sleep is a vital bodily function, just like eating and sleeping. Many people over look it –but you shouldn’t! Make it a health choice to get good sleep.1,2


How To Improve Sleeping Habits1,6

• Exercise regularly, no later than 2 hours before bed time. It puts good stress on your body, making it ready to sleep at the end of the day. However, you should not exercise right before bed.

• Eat a healthy, well balanced diet. This will decrease your risk of major diseases and obesity which interfere with sleeping patters, and also keeps your body healthy.

• Don’t drink or smoke excessively. Also avoid the overuse of sleeping medications and other drugs that affect sleep –though all of these things can help you relax and fall asleep, they interfere with the natural sleep cycle and don’t give you a good nights rest.



Condition your brain to know that the bedroom is for sleeping.• Don’t study/do the bills/eat/watch TV in bed. Save it for

sleeping and intimacy, so when you crawl into bed at night your brain knows to expect sleep.

• Minimize noise in the bedroom. Making the bedroom a peaceful place conditions your to relax when you enter it.

• Fill your room with soft lighting, things you like, and relaxing music you enjoy to make your bedroom a pleasant place.

• Don’t put a television in your bedroom. It is confortable to sit in bed and watch TV, but it makes your brain work much harder to fall asleep.

• Hide your clock. Alarm clocks can have an obtrusive glow, and they can stress you out if you are trying to fall asleep while looking at how late it is getting. Turn it away so you aren’t tempted to look.



• Have a consistent pre-sleep routine– Don’t eat heavy/drink caffeine/exercise at least 2 hours before

sleeping– Do any mundane tasks, such as wash the dishes or check your

email, before you start getting ready for bed. That way you have nothing to think about when you are lying in bed.

– Dim the lighting: it relaxes you, and your brain fills your body with sleep-inducing hormone when the room is darker

– Avoid electronics at least 30 minutes. The harsh light emitted from them actually stimulates your brain and makes it harder to start the process of sleeping.

– Have a small snack that includes protein or dairy, or have a warm caffeine-free drink. It will relax you.

– Do anything that relaxes you right before bed: write in a journal, listen to soft music, or just rub your temples.

– Most important: Don’t stress about falling asleep, just let it happen. If you can’t fall asleep, get up and try again later.


Last Note

Sleep is critical to your health! It repairs your body and mind. Listen to

your biological clock and establish healthy sleeping patterns. You’ll find

yourself feeling much better (and performing superior) once you do.1,2,3,5,6

Thank You!


Annotated Bibliography*1Epstein, Lawrence (Author). Harvard Medical School Guide to a Good Night's Sleep.

Blacklick, OH, USA: McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing, 2007. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/spscclibrary/Doc?id=10150066&ppg=15

I learned a lot in this source. The book was easy to understand and gave a good overview of sleep. I learned a lot about how sleep works (the different stages, how people fall asleep/stay asleep, when people dream, the difference between SWS and REM sleep, etc.), the biological clock that keeps humans on a sleep schedule, sleep deprivation and its effects on people, how to keep a healthy sleep schedule, and the benefits of being well rested.

*2Matthew P. Walker, et al. "The Unrested Resting Brain: Sleep Deprivation Alters Activity within the Default-mode Network." Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 22.8 (2010): 1637-1648. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 5 Aug. 2011.

Sleep deprivation seriously affects your cognitive ability. Being awake for an extended period of time actually causes your brain to function in a less-productive way, causing confusion and lack of concentration. Sleep deprivation causes an imbalance between the midline of the brain. Your brain has trouble communicating with the two hemispheres, and it has a very hard time processing memories. In order to absorb, process, and store information properly, you need a good night’s sleep!

*3Rolf Verleger, et al. "Differential Associations of Early- and Late-Night Sleep with Functional Brain States Promoting Insight to Abstract Task Regularity." PLoS ONE 5.2 (2010): 1-14. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 5 Aug. 2011.

Right-hemisphere is associated with insight. Sleep mushes together and organizes memories. Studies have shown that subjects that were allowed to sleep after a specific test, they were more often able to gain insight about the test and perform better on it during future testings than subjects who didn’t sleep after the first test. The conclusion of this experiment is that SWS (slow wave sleep) may aid in gaining insight, as it increases right hemisphere activity.

4Steriade, Mircea (Author). Neuronal Substrates of Sleep States and Brain Paroxysms. West Nyack, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press, 2003. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/spscclibrary/Doc?id=10064303&ppg=105

This source discussed the mechanics of sleep. You can actually “watch” somebody fall asleep by observing their brain wave patters using an EEG. The brain’s electrical patters change when falling asleep, which is thought to be controlled by the thalamus and cerebral cortex. When falling asleep, the thalamocortical cells are inhibited, which causes information from the outside world to be blocked from the cerebral cortex. Multiple factors contribute to sleep: chemicals in the brain, hormones, the environment, genetics, stimulation, and the behaviors of the individual. Once you fall asleep, your thalamic and cortical cells are further inhibited, putting you deeper into sleep and forcing your body to slow down. However, once you reach slow-wave sleep, the brain becomes highly activated and can be seen firing frequently and spontaneously. This could be the brain processing information, dreaming, or both. Brainwaves change again for REM sleep, so scientists can tell what stage of sleep a person is in by an EEG scan.

http://site.ebrary.com/lib/spscclibrary/Doc?id=10064303&ppg=105

http://site.ebrary.com/lib/spscclibrary/Doc?id=10064303&ppg=105

5"What Are Dreams?." Nova. PBS: 7/29/11. Web. 5 Aug 2011. <http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/What_Are_Dreams_Nova/70129639?trkid=2361637>.

In this source, I learned a bit about the history of dream research, and also information about different research that is currently going on in the field of sleep research. I learned about the different stages of sleep, how these stages affect dreaming, REM sleep, sleep disorders, and dream research.

Additional Sources:6Rose, Toni. Phsychology 101 class. South Puget Sound

Community College. Building 24, Olympia, WA. November 2010. Lecture.

Notes from a previous psychology class, including background information on sleep and ways to have a healthier sleeping pattern.

Clip Art from Microsoft Office

Health & Medicine

Sleep pp