The Theory of the Function of Sleep

The Theory of the Function of Sleep

One theory of sleep is the Restoration theory proposed by Oswald et al

in 1966, which suggests that the function of sleep, especially REM

sleep is to restore the energy levels and to repair the brain and

body. Restoration can be physical and psychological. Physical

restoration indicates that sleep is necessary to restore biological

processes in the body through REM sleep and Stage 4/NREM sleep. NREM

sleep is when the body's processes are restored such as hormone levels

and REM sleep is when the brains processes are restored, such as

protein synthesis. Psychological restoration says that sleep is a

vital function as it restores psychological functions and helps to

avoid the ill effects that lack of sleep causes.

B) Outline and evaluate one or more studies relating to the theory of

sleep in part A (18 marks)

Restoration theory has been supported by numerous studies and ideas,

which concern both physical and psychological restoration.

In terms of the physical restoration theory Horne (1988) said that the

main function of REM and stage 4 sleeps is to restore brain

functioning, because body repair occurs mainly when the body is a

period of relaxed wakefulness (NREM sleep). This is supported by the

evidence that babies sleep longer than older people, as they need more

REM sleep to assist the development of the control nervous system and

also that 50% of sleep in newborn babies is REM sleep to encourage

rapid brain growth. It has also been found that people who have had

electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) for depression or take an overdose

have an increase in REM sleep 6-8 weeks afterwards as it ta...

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...y and there will have been a certain lack of control. There

also may have been demand characteristics, which meant that Randy

Gardner may have known that the experimenter was expecting a

particular outcome; therefore this may have influenced his behaviour.

In conclusion it can be seen that physical and psychological

restoration are important theories of sleep, because they state that

if we are deprived of sleep we are more likely to suffer from mind and

body ill effects. These ideas have being mainly supported by sleep

deprivation studies on animals and humans. However these studies are

not completely reliable as they have been criticised for lacking

reliability. Therefore more studies will have to be done in order to

provide reliable evidence to suggest that restoration is a good

explanation of why we need to sleep.