Why We Sleep- The Pending Mystery

“Why do we sleep?” is a very popular questions that many humans ask today. Sleep is very sufficient to the human body. If it was not important, then God would not have designed for a third of our life to be occupied by sleep. During this time period, many people are interested to know what is a good amount of sleep and what are the harmful effects to not getting enough sleep.

This is a short article written by a collaboration of people by a company named Today’s Science. Their main goal was to describe the pattern of sleep a human goes through during the night. This cycle is called NREM and REM, non-rapid eye movement and rapid eye movement. They mostly describe what happens during sleep because without sleeping you could not dream. Dreaming occurs during the rapid eye movement cyc

Have you ever not gotten enough sleep, or cut your sleep short for a class? Show of hands? Alright, well today I will be speaking with you about a subject that is near and dear to all of our hearts. Today I will be talking about sleep, specifically about REM sleep. First off does anyone know what the initials REM even stand for? REM stands for rapid eye movement, and it is the stage of sleep in which most dreams occur. It gets its name from the way your eyes move back and forth in this stage. Though those movements are slower than how your eye would move when you are awake. During a typical night, you cycle between REM and non-REM sleep, but spend the majority of your time asleep in non-REM.

normal counterparts. These findings have led to a robust exploration in the science of sleep

and cognitive function. These findings have led to a robust exploration in the science of sleep

There are two distinct phases of human sleep. One phase is non-REM sleep, and the other is REM sleep. Non-REM sleep takes place in the first few hours of sleep at night, and REM sleep takes over the remaining hours allowing us to have dreams. Non-REM sleep is normally referred to as the resting state for our brain. Intense studies have discovered that the brain is less active during the phases of non-REM sleep compared to phases of being awake.

Modern Technology has helped make the study of sleep economical and easier due to which various studies have been carried out on sleep. And hence experts call this “the dawn of the golden age of sleep research” and ironically the question arises “If this is sleep research’s golden age, then why are we all so tired?” In addition to this the

is marked by jerky eye motions called rapid eye movement…” (McPhee 22), also known as REM sleep. REM sleep occurs in cycles of about 90-120 minutes throughout the sleepers’ night, and it accounts for up to 20-25% of total sleep time in adult humans (Mastin). Most dreaming occurs during this stage. REM sleep is characterized by eye movement, increasing respiration rate and also increasing the sleepers brain activity. REM sleep is also referred to as paradoxical sleep because, while the brain, other body systems, and parts become more active, the person's muscles become more relaxed, or almost in a paralyzed state. Dreaming occurs because of all the increased brain activity happening in the sleepers brain, but voluntary muscles become paralyzed. Voluntary muscles are those that are needed to move by choice (Mastin). This period of paralyzation is a part of stage five because it is for protective measures to keep the sleeper from harming themselves at night from the dreaming occurring. In stage five is where the most vivid and memorable dreaming is going to occur for the sleeper a in any other stages “You may have images float by in earlier stages, particularly when you are going through Alpha or Theta, but the actual dream state occurs in REM” (Mastin). Therefore this is due

This stage is believed to help people enter deeper stages of sleep (4). Stage 3 sleep consists of 20-50 percent delta activity and stage 4 sleep of more than 50 percents delta activity (4). Stages 3 and 4 are characterized as being slow wave sleep in addition to being the deepest levels of sleep. Approximately 90 minutes after being asleep, people enter rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep (4). REM sleep consists of rapid eye movements, a desynchronized EEG, sensitivity to external stimulation, muscle paralysis and dreaming (4).

As we all know, one third of our life is spent to sleep, but very few people intend to lay bare the secret of that. There would be a question: why do we sleep? According to the video "The Function of Sleep", Tyson states that people are not very clear about the purpose of sleep, but some researchers believe that sleep could enhance memory. MIT researcher Matthew Wilson also illustrates the thoughts of a rat can be read by implanted the electric wire into its brain. According to a special project "rat maze", memory not only affects the rat finds the way with same pattern, but also generates the main part of its dreams. The video also concludes that the function of sleep is learning and memory, and it is not just a

NREM (non-rapid eye movement) sleep is the light and deep stages of sleep “initiated by withdrawal of neurotransmitters from the reticular formation and by the inhibition of arousal mechanisms in the cerebral cortex.” The reticular formation found in the brainstem is primarily responsible for generating REM sleep, and NREM sleep is produced by projections from the reticular formation and other areas of the mesencephalon (midbrain). Normal sleep happens in cycles of NREM and REM sleep. When a person falls asleep, he first enters into a light sleep and then progresses into increasingly deeper stages of sleep (NREM cycle) for about 90 mins, followed by the initial stage of REM sleep, the two cycles alternating throughout the night. For people suffering from narcolepsy, sleep begins immediately with REM sleep and portions of REM happens involuntarily throughout the waking hours. As mentioned earlier, REM sleep is when muscles are paralyzed and when dreams take place, explains the associated symptoms of cataplexy, paralysis and hallucinations (McCance & Huether, 2014; "National Sleep Foundation,"

When we receive proper amounts of sleep, we wake up feeling refreshed and ready for the day’s challenges. Sleep can also affect how we feel and perform the day’s tasks as well as how we look. Sleep was once known as a passive state but is now known to be a highly active process during which the day’s events are processed and energy is restored. The sleep cycle involves two distinct phases that alternate cyclically from light sleep to deep then deeper and deepest sleep throughout the sleep period. There are two main phases of sleep: non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, during which dreaming occurs.

The first four stages are preparing the body for the last stage which is REM. These stages slow down the brain waves and stop the eye movement; stage four and three are known as delta sleep and during this stage the brain produces delta waves. Delta waves are the lowest out of the frequencies and occur during dreamless sleep. They are used to recover unavailable information that people cannot receive when they are awake. This leads to the REM cycle of sleep where all dreaming occurs. In the REM cycle the brain paralyzes our bodies so that people cannot move. When people first figured out what REM was they didn’t know that our bodies were paralyzed during the stage. The National Sleep Foundation has also been discovering more new things within this discovery. After the REM discovery, people recognized that brain activity during REM resembles wakefulness. People are paralyzed and experience no muscle movement(“National Sleep Foundation”). They have concluded that the REM stage indeed does put us through paralyzation during our sleep, but that's not the only thing our bodies do during REM. During the REM stage of sleep breathing become more irregular, more rapid, and shallow. Eyes jerk rapidly in various directions. Our blood pressure rises and heart rate increases. Our bodies are pretty much awake when we are in this stage(“What Are Dreams"). Usually someone wouldn’t expect this during sleep but this proves that our bodies are just as awake when sleeping than when they actually are awake. The brain and heart act the same way and so do our eyes (just not as slow moving). When someone is awoken during this stage they feel as if they had just experienced the dream in real life. They then realize that it was just a dream by remembering impossible things that couldn’t happen on earth. Because of this discovery of REM scientists can use this information to help figure out why we dream. Maybe they can

Rapid eye movement (REM) is a stage of sleep. It is high frequency, waves per second, low amplitude, height of waves, and lots of eye movement. This stage does not happen until four stages of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) occur. During an eight-hour sleep period, people go through five full cycles of the five stages. Each stage lasts about ninety minutes each (Lefton, 195).

 There are five stages of sleep, REM and NREM stages 1, 2, 3, & 4.