An Exploration of Sleeps Effects on the Brain

Sleep is important for our health and well-being. Extensive research has been done on the effects of sleep. These studies consistently show that sleep plays a vital role in promoting physical health, longevity, and emotional well-being. This explains why, after a good night's sleep, we feel better, our thoughts are clearer, and our emotions are less fragile. Without adequate sleep our judgment, mood, and ability to learn and retain information are weakened.

There have been many experiments performed trying to find the correlation between sleep and memory. One of these experiments has showed that different stages of sleep has different effects on memory for instance, not only has sleep been seen to combine new memory with old long-term memories, but also helps stabilize memory (Born & Rasch, 2013). Using the Memory Interference Test (MIT), Amir conducted an experiment to further confirm the conclusion that the sleep improves a person’s memory. The experiment compared the amount of correctly remembered pictures by a sample people who had eight hours of sleep compared to a sample with only four hours of sleep. The hypothesis is that there is a correlation between the amount of sleep a person

Sleep is needed for the brain, because during sleep, important body functions and brain activity occurs. Unfortunately today, people are forgetting the reasons why sleep is so important. Wondering about it? Here, let me tell you. The reasons are because, naps can’t replace sleeping, the physical and mental part of your body is getting affected, and not getting enough sleep is called sleep debt. This is why sleeping plays an important role in the success of our life.

In the present study we sought to characterize abnormalities in sleep architecture and quality, in a cohort of patients with medically refractory versus and controlled epilepsy, versus normal healthy controls and to study the effect of sleep parameters on cognitive function in these groups. The main observations made were of significantly longer self-reported and polysomnographic TST in patients with refractory epilepsy in comparison to controlled epilepsy and healthy controls. Sleep architecture was also found to be markedly disturbed among epilepsy patients in both groups, with prolonged REM latencies, and frequent arousals and awakenings although these abnormalities were statistically similar between the groups. Our main observation is that higher total sleep time has a negative correlation with memory and executive function performance.

The average human spends about 25 years of their life sleeping. That is equal to one-third of a person’s life. So if sleep is vital and common among every single human, what do you know about it? What happens when we sleep (Attention Grabber)? Before the 1950s, scientists believed that the brain would just “shut off” when we would go to sleep. It wasn’t until the discovery of the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) state that scientists really looked into what happens in the brain while we are asleep. Studies have found that we go through a cycle of stages during sleep, and it is important for our health (Orientation to Topic). Today, I am going to inform you about what really happens when we sleep, and some issues that are found among it (Specific Purpose). In order to really understand this worldwide commonality, you need to know some background on sleep, the stages in the cycle, and some common disorders (Central Idea). I have taken a year long psychology course that went into depth on sleep psychology, and I have done extensive research on the topic to better grasp it (Statement of Credibility). I want to inform you on sleep so you can understand what happens when you close your eyes every night, and so you can detect any irregularities in your sleep pattern (Statement of Goodwill). First, I will give a background of why and how we know to sleep, then I will explain the stages in the sleep cycle, and finally I will tell you about some common disorders (Preview).

After browsing and exploring the helpful link that provided, I found that “The Brain During Sleep” and “Alcohol” informations are interested to me. The reasons that I chose these pieces are because I have seen people’s behavior and ways of thinking when they have less sleeping time and get drunk.

The skirmish between traditional aristocracies and new democracies in Sicily was damaging to the Sicilian people, particularly people who were from conservative family backgrounds. The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa portrays the battle of old vs. new through following the life of an old Sicilian aristocrat, Don Fabrizio, commonly known as The Prince. Giuseppe uses The Prince to highlight the outmoded side of Sicily and the struggle to deal with the Risorgimento (Italian unification). Although many people during this time were accepting change, The Prince tried to ignore the change which is portrayed through the motif of sleep.

In the past few years, cell phones and tablets have begun to take over people’s lives. Cell phones hold our entire lives on them, from what time we wake up in the morning to directions to get everywhere. People spend the majority of their lives on their cell phones, texting, tweeting, or even just playing games. Not only do these devices effect our social lives, but they also affect how we sleep at night and how much sleep we get. Sleep is very important in maintaining homeostasis and proper health, in order to function properly, “healthy adults need between 7-9 hours of sleep each night” (helpguide). If a person does not get the amount of sleep- they need, then they will become groggy and less efficient at work or school.

One of the most fascinating natural occurrences known to science is something everyone's body requires them to do, this strange phenomenon is sleep. Sleep is not fully understood by anyone, there are too many variables and unanswered questions to discover what sleep is for and why the human body stresses sleeping so much. Dreams are just as undiscovered as sleep. There are many observations made about dreams and what parts of the brain are utilized during these inter-sleep hallucinations. But like sleep, there is no official reason or meaning behind it. Sleep and dreams, although strange and without apparent purpose, reveal many things about an individual, his or her habits, and potentially innermost subconscious thoughts.

Sleep is undoubtedly one of the most essential requirements for the human body to function properly. It plays a very important role in ensuring the wellness of the human body both physically as well as mentally. In fact, the importance of sleep is clear from the fact that it helps you in maintaining a good lifestyle throughout our entire lifetime. Not only does it help maintain our physical and mental health; rather it also helps in maintaining a decent and healthy lifestyle along with ensuring safety from a number of fatal diseases. It is usually said that the mood in which you wake up is largely dependent on the type of sleep you have been in. This in itself is a big proof of the importance of sleep in our lives. While sleeping, our body finally gets its share of rest and it also gets ample time in rejuvenating from all the wear and tear that it went through during the entire day. Not only this, the body is in its own working condition when we are sleeping as this is the time when it supports the healthy functioning of the brain as well as physical attributes of our body.

Every day scientists have been performing sleep and dream tests on people for the past decades but could not come up with an exact reasoning to why we sleep or dream. There are many theories to why we dream they may include that it may be a physiological, biological, or psychological functions but that have not to be answered. But that have not stopped many scientists from coming up with speculations. But we do know that our dream cycle is usual most lavish and finest during the rapid eye movement of sleep also known as the REM stage of sleeping. Dream are still to be considered to be a mystery because they have a litter meaning to them and it hard to recall what happened in the dream. Except the fact that many scientists in the scientific

did a study on narcolepsy, described as a poor control of sleep-wake cycle, and found that there is a positive correlation with REM disruptions. They also found that narcoleptic patients have a 90% possibility of destroying neurons in the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is the region of the brain which is part of the sleep-wake cycle. It is connected to the hippocampus through the thalamus, and part of the limbic system (http://www.ninds.nih.gov, 2014). The limbic system is involved with the emotions of everyday life (Mallick, B. 2011). Mallick also found that during REM sleep “P-wave generator” is activated. This is where neurons branch out towards the thalamus, and visual pathway. They found that this generator facilitates hippocampal

We as humans are an incredible species. We continue to evolve and create new inventions as time goes on. However, there are some very important tasks we must do on a daily basis if we are to do these extraordinary things at our best. Is has been proven that we all require sleep to function at our highest. There are many questions revolving around the huge topic of sleep; for instance why do we need it? What does sleep actually do for our brains and bodies? One that has really peaked my interest though, is the question of what is the purpose of dreams when we are asleep? Is there any relevance to them? How do you find out what they mean? To find out my questions and more on this, I am going to be

Have you ever wondered why we have dreams? Dreaming is described in varies ways. Many people in the early days interpreted dreams as a way of communicating with god. Messages were said to be sent through dreams to communicate with the immortals. Sigmund Freud believed that every dream had a meaning behind it. There were also many other psychologists with other perspectives on dreams. Sleep is also a major part of our everyday lives. Without sleep, we would have no energy to do our normal everyday routines. Sleep has many stages and also had REM and NREM sleep. Sleeping is very critical for people. There are also certain hours that a person should sleep or else they will be sleep deprived. The following will discuss the stages of sleeping, sleep deprivation, and will also talk about why we dream, and what it has to do with our everyday lives.

The release of different neurotransmitters in different areas seems to determine which type of sleep should be activated. At the onset of sleep serotonin is secreted and seems to trigger NREM. (4) NREM switches to REM sleep with the release of the chemical, acetylcholine, in the pons, which is located in the base of the brain, and later the re-release of noradrenaline and serotonin seems to switch off REM (5) (7) and reactivate NREM sleep again. The action of the neurotransmitters as triggers of NREM and REM sleep is referred to as the reciprocal interaction/activation synthesis. (5) With the excretion of acetylcholine, signals from the pons are sent to the thalamus, which relays them to the cortex, and also sent to shut off the neurons in the spinal cord, which causes the temporary paralysis of the body.