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Usmle sleep physiology
Relationship between sleep and the human body
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All About Sleep
Have you ever wondered what goes on in your brain while you're dreaming? When you sleep your body goes through 5 stages that vary in different brain waves and phases. This process is referred to as the sleep cycle. According to the article Stages of Sleep: REM and Non-REM sleep in WebMD.com, most peoples’, dreams are purely a "mental" activity: they occur in the mind while the body is at rest”. For that to happen we must fully go through REM or rapid eye movement. Throughout the sleep cycle NREM or non-rapid eye movement sleep help the body get to REM and really get to deep sleep.
During REM sleep you experience high brain activity which cause you to have vivid dreams and lots of movement while your in the deepest stage of sleep. In NREM sleep you experience a lighter stage of sleep, there is a lot less brain activity and the dreams are not very vivid as in REM which can cause you to be more easily awakened 75- 80 percent of a daily sleep is during the NREM stage.
During the first stage of NREM, you are still awake and very alert. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, “Your brain produces beta waves which are relatively small and fast. You may experience sensations such as hallucinations, a "falling" feeling, or hearing someone call your name.” Its still a very light sleep, the person can be woken up with little effort. This stage is referred to as another part of the NREM stage. If awakened from this stage of sleep, a person may feel as if he or she has not slept at all. It may feel as if you just closed your eyes for a second even though a few minutes have passed by. Stage 1 may last for five to ten minutes.
The second stage begins around 20 minutes after the ...
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... important because of the deep relaxation that our brain and body truly need is only in that stage. There is a certain amount of time we must give ourselves to get there. Infants require 16-18 a day while adults only need 7-9 a day. Even though REM sleep is a much deeper sleep it is not shown to be any better than Non-REM sleep. The reason for this is our body needs both kinds of sleep to be fully rested. Without one the other would never be as effective.
Work Cited
"Brain Basics: Understanding Sleep." : National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). N.p., n.d. Tues. 2 April. 2014.
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/brain_basics/understanding_sleep.htm
“Stages of Sleep: REM and Non-REM sleep Cycles.” WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Wed. 2 Apr. 2014
Have you ever gone to bed and wondered what does sleep do to your physical and mental health? Sleeping has effects on our physical heart as well as our mental health (disorders, etc.)
Before discussing the role of NREM and REM in learning, it is necessary to clarify the identity of and differences between the two. This type of sleep is marked by different stages based on different the different brainwaves exhibited. REM sleep differs from NREM in that most dreams occur during REM sleep although the two activities are not synonymous. REM is also marked by an incre...
Another reason for the difficulty of sleep research is the pace of discovery. The field moves too fast for its own good. As a result, no comprehensive beginner’s text is available in the field of circadian rhythms. By the time...
The Sleep Cycle: There are five stages of sleep. Stage one is where we start to drift off to sleep.
We live our entire life in two states, sleep and awake1. These two states are characterized by two distinct behaviors. For instance, the brain demonstrates a well-defined activity during non-REM sleep (nREM) that is different when we are awake. In the study of sleep by Huber et. al., the authors stated that sleep is in fact a global state2. It is unclear whether this statement means that sleep is a state of global behavioural inactivity or the state of the global nervous system. The notion that sleep is a global state of the nervous system served as basis for sleep researchers to search for a sleep switch. The discovery of the sleep switch, in return, provided evidence and enhanced the notion that sleep is a global state of the nervous system. The switch hypothesis developed from the fact that sleep can be initiated without fatigue and it is reversible1. It was hypothesized that there is something in the brain that has the ability to control the whole brain and initiate sleep. Studies have found a good candidate that demonstrated this ability3. They found a group of neurons in the Ventrolateral Preoptic (VLPO) nucleus. It was a good candidate because it was active during sleep, has neuronal output that can influence the wakefulness pathway, and lesion in the area followed reduce sleep3. The idea that there is something that can control the whole brain and result sleep state supports the idea that sleep is a global state of the nervous system.
(they are more action-packed) and motor behavior (its is more action packed) during REM sleep that correlate with the
The discovery of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep suggested that sleep was not, as it was thought to be, a dormant state but rather a mentally dynamic one. Your brain is, in fact, very active in this state, almost to the level at which it is when a person is awake. Yet during this active stage in which most dreams occur, the movements of the rest of the body are completely stilled. To imagine this paralysis during dreams not occurring is a frightful image, since in many cases dreams are violent and active. When the neurotransmitters that control the movement of the body do not work properly the person develops REM sleep behavioral disorder (RBD).
They say, “It’s not a straight answer. Everyone does it. It naturally comes.” (Morgan, 2012) Dreaming is part of our everyday life. It isn’t something that we have to think of in order for it to happen. It is something that is going to happen either we think about it or not. “We spend one-third of our lives dreaming”, says, (Dell’Amore, 2011). Sleeping is called REM. For adults REM is about every 90 minutes (1hr 30 min). The first cycle is short for 3 minutes but can increase to 55 minutes.” (Dell’Amore, 2011) “Dreams can happen during “Non-REM” too.” (Dell’Amore, 2011) She says that “REM sleep paralyses your muscles for temporary time. It protects our body from our dreams.” This means that some of our dreams can be very powerful and actually cause us to hurt ourselves. We might feel like what we are dreaming is actually real and we would want to act upon it. We can maybe hurt ourselves For example, we have all had that one dream where we feel like are falling and we jump off our beds or we dream that we are fighting against someone or something and we end up punching something that is reals.
Sleeping is something that is an essential part of human nature and is a must in order for one to be a functional human being. Sleep is an idea that is accompanied by many wives’ tales, including the idea that one needs seven to eight hours of sleep each night and alcohol helps one fall asleep and sleep more soundly. One myth about sleep is that during sleep, one is in a state of nothingness. In truth, however, it has been discovered that during sleep the brain is active, variations in heartbeat and breathing occur, and the eyes and ears are active throughout the time of sleep. These activities during a person’s sleep are important because they help that person be more aware, awake, and alert during sleep.
Much of society mistakenly believes that each individual needs eight hours of sleep in order to have a full night’s rest. This is untrue because the amount of sleep you need has a large dependence on the many factors that influence healthy energy. Age is a large indicator of how much sleep is relevant to an individual. Studies done by Milner (2008), “Benefits of napping and an extended duration of recovery sleep on alertness and immune cells after acute sleep restriction” show that an adult needs nine hours a day in order to carry out work productively, feel rejuvenated, and maintain contented moods. In contrast, infants tend to need more time to rest their bodies even though they are less active. A young baby spends 2/3rds of their day
the sleeper will gradually descend deeper into sleep, becoming more and more detached from the outside world and progressively more difficult to awaken. Stage three is the beginning of deep sleep, occurring about thirty to forty five minutes after you first fall asleep. The deepest sleep occurs in Stage four. Stage three and four has the biggest and slowest brain wave. REM sleep, a mentally active period during which dreaming occurs, provided a biological explanation for this phenomenon. Scientists found that brain activity during REM sleep begins in the pons, a structure in the brainstem, and neighboring midbrain regions. The pons sends signals to the thalamus and to the cerebral cortex, which is responsible for most thought processes. There are several myths about sleep. For one, how much sleep a person should get? According to our text book people should sleep for at least eight hours to maintain sound mental and physical health. But every one doesn’t get the chance to sleep for that amount of time. There is no normal amount of time you should sleep. Everyone is not the same. For one I might sleep for five hours and feel refreshed enough to work another shift. Other hand my cousin might need more then eight hours of sleep to feel refreshed.
We experience two phases of sleep which repeat themselves every ninety to one hundred and ten minutes, achieving approximately five complete cycles per night. The phases are non- rapi...
Kelly, W. E., Kelly, K. E., & Clanton, R. C. (2001). The relationship between sleep
The Forum is fortunate to have an expert on the psychophysiology of sleep and dreaming, Hans Van Dongen, as the Topic Director for 2004–2005.... ... middle of paper ... ... "The difference is likely due to an imbalance in brain chemicals, including too much acetylcholine and too little adrenaline," Sutton explains.
The four stages of sleep are REM (rapid eye movement sleep), NREM1 (non-rem), NREM2, and NREM3. During the REM stage “your heart rate rises, your breathing becomes rapid and irregular, and every half-minute or so your eyes dart around in momentary burst of activity behind closed lids” (Myers, 2014, p. 96).