WHAT IS SLEEP?

Date: 02/08/2008

What is sleep? Most of our information on sleep has come from EEG?s. On the average we spend one-third of our lives sleeping or 8 hours each night. While the amount of sleep required by individuals actually varies considerably, the figure of 8 hours may have come from Sir Thomas Mores Utopia. In a classic bell curve of sleep the range is from 4.5 to 10.5 hours. The length of sleep does not seem to correlate with intelligence or personality. Thomas Edison and Napoleon slept only a few hours, Einstein slept for long periods and Michael Angelo took 15-minute catnaps every hour. Up until age ten, we sleep 25 percent more than the rest of our lives. This is also when most learning takes place. In total we sleep one third of our lives.

Sleep is necessary for learning and consolidation of information. While not fully explained, sleep is thought to be related to brain restoration and consolidation of new learning. The hippocampus seems to be involved in this process and receives increased levels of acetylcholine during sleep. We spend more time in REM sleep when we are learning new things. Interrupted REM sleep causes us to remember less well the next day. There is much controversy on whether we learn as we are falling off to sleep. Apparently, information needs to already be in the system.

What is REM sleep? This is a stage of desynchronized sleep when all muscle tone is lost, where the EEG is firing in a fast manner (much as in wakefulness), rapid eye movement occurs (REM), and sleepers are difficult to wake.

When does dreaming occur? Dreaming occurs during REM sleep. The sleeper is very much in a paralyzed state. If awakened during REM sleep, dream recall is 80 to 95 percent. Those who awake at other times dont recall their dreams.

Normal sleepers go through regular cycles of REM sleep alternating with four levels of non-REM sleep.

The important thing about sleep is regulation. How much may not be as much the issue as regular and enough for us as individuals as being more important an issue. Sleep deprivation studies have shown that without sleep, death will occur within 4-6 weeks. Body weight and temperature are seriously dis-regulated by lack of sleep. Without sleep our thermoregulation goes haywire. Sleep is also an energy and heat conserving response of our being. Studies by J. Kiecolt-Glasser have shown a decreased ability to resist infection with improper, lack-of, or stressful sleep. Sleep is a dramatic condition during which memories are consolidated, restorative hormones released, and neuronal excitability modulated. Regulated sleep is important.

By Rosemary MacGregor RN, MS info@themangotreespa
506 2786 5300


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