Stages of Sleep, Language Acquisition and Development

A. Describe the stages of sleep. Identify the major sleep disorders.

Using an electroencephalogram, researchers noted four distinct stages of NREM sleep and one stage of REM sleep. As we sleep, we cycle through these stages like a circuit at the gym; spending more time on some machines and less time on others. We spend as much as ninety minutes in NREM stages and as little as ten minutes in REM per circuit.

The stages of NREM sleep can be identified by their characteristic wavelengths, based on brain activity, as seen on the EEG. We use the cycles per second (cps) to categorize the stages. In stage 1, the lightest of sleep stages, we see a wave of 3-7 cps, which is down from the 'drowsy' measurement of 8-12 cps. As we fall deeper into NREM sleep, our brain waves move along at a lower rate of cycles per second. In stage 2, we have tiny bursts of electrical energy, called sleep spindles, raising our brain activity to 12-14 cps. Stages 3 and 4 have us lowered into such deep sleep, our brain activity shows as 1/2-2 cps. This is the deepest of sleep and our breathing has slowed and our heart rate has decreased.

As part of the nightly circuit, after we float through the four stages of NREM sleep, we encounter REM sleep. We spend less time, only about 20 percent, in REM sleep than we do in NREM sleep. The REM phase of sleep is the phase in which we are most likely to dream, and it is therefore the best part of sleeping.

For people with sleep disorders, getting ready for bed is akin to getting ready for battle. They know they are laying down to sleep and at the same time, they don't yet know if it's going to happen properly.

Sleep disorders affect all stages of sleep and are manifested in different ways. Insomnia is the chronic...

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...ces, yield any of my privacy, and I certainly wasn't going to be able to sacrifice any of my freedom. (I eventually did all of these things, but much later.)

Erikson's seventh stage is Generativity vs. Stagnation and focuses on the adult midlife phase. This stage is all about giving back...or not. Once we can stop focusing on ourselves and our immediate situation, we can look to our family, our society, and our future generations. Or, we can ignore all of that and just keep on caring about ourselves.

Erikson's final stage is Ego Integrity vs. Despair and focuses on the later adulthood phase. This stage is about looking back at our lives. Did we resolve the previous crisis or did we fail? We try to look back and see how well we did in order to preserve our ego, but if we see that we did horribly or there are things that we could have done much better, we despair.