How Does Sleep Deprivation Affect The Brain

The function of sleep is to promote restoration. The human body accumulates damages due to impact strain and from reactive oxygen species that damage cells and buildup during times of activity (Sleep-wake cycle, 2006). During sleep, most of the body's systems are in an anabolic state, helping to restore the immune, nervous, skeletal, and muscular systems (Sleep-wake cycle, 2006). Most of the body has restorative processes that can supplement the restorative processes that happen during sleep for long periods of time, but the brain is more reliant on regular intervals of sleep for restoration as quiescent restoration is insufficient (Sleep-wake cycle, 2006). When the body does not get enough sleep, most body functions work at diminished capacity. (Brain Basics, 2017). Sleep deprivation is defined as obtaining inadequate sleep to support adequate daytime alertness (Kryger, Roth, & Dement, 2005). The pathological effects of sleep deprivation can lead to undesirable physiologic

It is no secret that, similar to other animals, sleep is one of the most important things for a human being’s overall health. According to Watson and Breedlove, there are four main biological/neurological functions of sleep: energy conservation—the body uses less energy when it is asleep through what is called slow-wave sleep (SWS) by doing things such as reducing body temperature and slowing respiration; niche adaptation—the environmental happenings to which organisms are adapted to; body restoration—it restores materials used during awake hours; and memory consolidation—SWS and REM sleep help the brain consolidate memories from the previous day (2012).

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

Generally, individuals need seven to nine hours of sleep each night to function properly throughout the day; it is thought that over sixty-eight percent of people get less than eight hours of sleep (Hughes & Rogers, 2004). The circadian rhythm is what facilitates our sleep cycles and determines when we go to sleep; there is two types of sleep REM and Non-REM sleep (Plotnik & Kouyoumdjian, 2016). Non-REM sleep is typically the antecedent for REM sleep, here rapid eye movement occurs and this is where dreams occur (Plotnik & Kouyoumdjian, 2016). There are five stages of sleep that each person goes through each time they sleep, in non-REM sleep, there are four stages and REM is the fifth stage (Plotnik & Kouyoumdjian, 2016). Stage one consists of the transition from feeling wake to “falling asleep”, this typically lasts one to seven minutes (Plotnik & Kouyoumdjian, 2016). Here the individual experiences loss of response to stimuli and experience waves of thoughts and images (Plotnik & Kouyoumdjian, 2016). Stage two of non-REM sleep is the

Scientists are trying to figure out what triggers sleep, and how much the brain can remember when you are sleeping. In the Current Biology journal, a recent study states that the brain processes complex stimuli while sleeping and keeps information until the decisions are made when awake. The scientists asked a group a people to categorize sounds, whether the sounds were objects or animals, using the left or right responses, they did this until the group fell asleep, then the scientists choose new words. When the group was awaken, they were tested to see if they knew any of the sounds after they fell asleep. The test results showed that the people could not remember the new sounds that were made after they fell asleep. There was a second experiment done, to find the zones in the brain that trigger sleep. The results concluded that it could be in more places, but right now, sleep is mostly triggered in the frontal cortex, cerebral hemispheres, that send messages from the cerebral cortex. Destruction to the frontal cortex, could cause

Sleep is one of the unavoidable daily-living activities and it is one of the most important factors contributing to a person’s health. A quality sleep is essential for the physical, cognitive and psychological well-being of a person. Learning, memory processing and maintenance of the brain are among the most important functions of sleep. In addition to maintaining the brain, sleep has important roles in controlling the

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.

When people sleep their brain’s activity changes in characteristic ways over the course of one night. These sleep patterns are classified into two main kinds of sleep – rapid-eye movement or REM and non-rapid eye movement or NREM sleep. REM sleep is most often associated with dreaming and it is thought that it assists in brain development especially in the early stages

Sleep is vital to give the cerebral cortex (the brain's "thinking" part) a rest. When we’re in a deep sleep, rapid eye movement (REM) occurs when your eyes move rapidly up for 30 minutes at a time, it continues every 90 minutes. Most of our dreaming happens during REM and our eyes moving forcefully, our bodies are very relaxed and that’s what make us continue to sleep. “One of the most recent and compelling explanations for why we sleep is based on findings that sleep is correlated to changes in the structure and organization of the brain. this phenomenon, known as brain plasticity, is not connection to sleep has several plays a critical implications. it is becoming clear, that sleep plays a critical role in brain development in infants and

In the brain, we form synapses to learn. Synapses are the connections in our brains. Scientists have many different theories as to why we sleep, and Giulio Tononi and Chiara Cirelli, biologists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison believe that during sleep our brains “prune” synapses for improved memory, and they “proposed that synapses grew so exuberantly during the day that our brain circuits got “noisy.” When we sleep, the scientists argued, our brains pare back the connections to lift the signal over the noise.” They also found indirect evidence to support their hypothesis of “Synaptic Homeostasis”. In one study, they found that the synapses in a sleeping mouse’s brain were 18% smaller than an awake mouse. In another study, Graham H.

The chemical blockage is how you’re able to dream about doing things, but you don’t actually move and act it out in your sleep. There are disorders, however, that cause people to sleep differently than what is deemed “normal.” Such a thing would be atopia, where people act out their dreams while sleeping (Stevens, 2011). They can also sleepwalk or wake up from sleeping but not be able to move although your conscious but their body is not yet ready to move.

Eugene was able to determine that brain dos not shut down when one goes to sleep. He was further able to analyze brain wave patterns and discover Rapid Eye Movement Cycles, or REM. Cortisol is a hormone that keeps organisms feeling awake, while melatonin causes organisms to feel tired. Through interpreting alpha waves, Aserinksy labeled the first stage of sleep, in which one might feel as though he/she is falling because of its hypnagogic nature, as NREM-1. Following NREM-1, the second stage, NREM-2 can be characterized by rapid activity as a sleep spindle. NREM-3 is characterized by slow, rolling alpha waves. The final stage of sleep is REM. This last, deepest stage of sleep is that in which vivid visual dreams are experienced, as all muscles in the body are relaxed, with the exception of the brain. From both biological and psychological perspectives, REM is entirely

The human brain is complex and the way the body advances is through sleep. Sleep allows the body to rest, repair and rejuvenate itself. The brain is responsible for wave patterns called alpha and beta waves that through a series of stages, produces what we know as non-rapid eye movement (NREM), and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.

Many people don’t understand how important sleep is. “One aspect of brain health that has been well examined through neuroimaging and cognitive testing is the influence of sleep on the brain. The findings are indeed a wake up call with regard to the impact on focus memory, test performance, mood, and high risk behaviors.”(Willis 1). Throughout

Our sleep cycle is usually five ninety-minute long cycles and consists of four stages of NREM sleep and is followed by REM sleep. Constant disturbances with the sleep cycle may result in sleep deprivation. After being sleep deprived, people tend to develop microsleeps which are episodes of sleep lasting only a few seconds that occur during wakefulness. People who are sleep deprived experience disruptions in mood, mental abilities, reaction time, perceptual skills, and complex motor skills and tend to consume more calories and gain weight. When sleep becomes uninterrupted after being sleep deprived, the person will experience REM rebound. REM rebound is the amount of time spent in REM sleep increases by as much as fifty percent. The brain needs to experience the full range of sleep states, making up for missing sleep components when given the