Physical Science: The Effects Of Sleep Deprivation

As long as humans have existed, sleeping (and everything that comes with that) has held a certain fascination with aspects simply too complex to fully comprehend. The interest goes way beyond the conclusions that comes from modern technology. Research is being conducted on a global scale to answer some of the most basic questions about our subconscious. There are topics that stretch from physical science, sleep stages, types of dreams, lucidity, effects of sleep deprivation to ancient theories and relic Egyptian dream books. All of these subjects come with some controversy, since clearly all human beings do not have the same brain.

The brain, being the most delicate and complex organ in the human body, is an extraordinary hard thing to

Sleepers have to go through cyclical stages in order to achieve that deep slumber they so wish for. The first stage is a light sleep, drifting in and out of consciousness, and still easy to be disturbed. During the first stage, the activity of the eyeballs and muscles slow down. Then, at stage two, eyes cease to move and brain waves become slower. Stage three is in full effect when the brain waves become even slower with few faster, dispersed waves. Between stages three and four, the sleeper is finally in deep sleep. While at four the slow delta waves are the only ones produced by the brain. The finally stage, also known as REM (rapid eye movement) , takes over the brains task of producing waves. At this point of the cycle, children may experience bedwetting, sleepwalking, night terrors, etc . This occurs because during the REM period, your body is in a form of temporary paralysis where breathing becomes quick irregular, or shallow, eyes rapidly move and limb muscles become unusable. These five stages that we consistently repeat are vital to obtaining a great night's sleep without any

People whom have studied the different types of dreams, have broken them down into roughly eleven intriguing categories. The first of many, is the ordinary daydream most people experience regularly on a day to day basis. These conscious dreams are classified as a a level somewhere between sleep and waking, where your awareness of surrounding activities decreases and fantasies increase. Then, there are false awakening dreams. These persist of dreams that seem as if you have already woken up, then to again wake up later into actual reality. More interestingly, lucid dreams take place when the dreamer realizes that they are living, for that moment, in their own subconscious. In other words, the dreamer is aware that they are dreaming. Lucid dreams are considered a special skill that takes practice and restraint. Next, there are the common nightmares, where a dreamer feels anxious and frightened when their worst fears temporarily become real. In addition to these “normal” dreams that most people experience, there are also less common dreams. Dreams like the recurring, healing, prophetic, signal, epic, progressive, and mutual. Each one with its own unique characteristics. For example, the recurring owns its name by continuously repeating dreams. Usually, the subconscious has a problem that it is trying to solve and until that issue is resolved, it continues. Then, the healing dream,