Consciousness and Sleep

Did you know? Dolphins, porpoises, and whales sleep with one side of their brain at a time.

1. During sleep your brain rests.• False: While your body rests, your brain doesn’t. An active brain during sleep prepares us for alertness and peak functioning the next day. 2. You can not learn to function normally with one or two fewer hours of sleep a night than you need.

True: Sleep need is biological. While children need more sleep than adults, how much sleep any individual needs is genetically determined. Most adults need 8 to 8 ½ hours of sleep a night. How to determine what you need? Sleep until you wake on your own...without an alarm clock. Feel rested? That's your sleep need. You can teach yourself to sleep less, but not to need less sleep. 3. Boredom makes you feel sleepy, even if you have had enough sleep.

False: Boredom only unmasks sleepiness, but it doesn’t cause it. Boredom doesn’t cause sleepiness,it only unmasks it because when you are bored you are more likely to notice that you are sleepy.

4. Resting in bed with your eyes closed cannot satisfy your body’s need for sleep.True: Sleep is as necessary to health as food and water, and rest is no substitute for sleep. When you don’t get the

sleep you need, your body builds up a sleep debt. Sooner or later, this debt must be paid…with sleep.

5. Snoring is not harmful, as long as it doesn’t disturb others or wake you up.False: Snoring may be a signal for sleep apnea (which can be fatal if untreated).

6. Everyone dreams at night.

True: Every person dreams every night – it’s just that some of us can’t remember much of our dreams. 7. The older you get, the fewer hours of sleep you need.

False: Although we tend to sleep less, our need for sleep doesn’t decrease as we age. Older people may wake more frequently through the night and may sleep less, but their sleep need is no less than during young adulthood. When older people sleep less at night, they tend to sleep more during the day. Sleep difficulties are not a normal part of aging, although they are all too common. If poor sleep habits, pain or health conditions make sleeping difficult, a physician can help.

8. Most people don’t know when they are sleepy.True: We are not very good judges of our biological need for sleep.

9. Raising the volume of your radio will help you stay awake while driving.

False: The only short-term solutions are to pull over and take a nap or to have a caffeinated drink.

10. Sleep disorders are mainly due to worry or psychological problems.False: Sleep apnea is caused by relaxed muscles and narcolepsy appears to be genetic. No one

knows yet what causes restless legs syndrome, in which creepy, crawly feelings arise in the legs and are relieved, momentarily, by motion. 11. The human body never adjusts to night shift work.

True: No matter how long you work a night shift, sleeping during the day remains a challenge because of our circadian rhythms that operate on the light/dark schedule. 12. Most sleep disorders go away, even without treatment.

False: On average, sleep disorders do not disappear without treatment. Treatment includes behavioral (avoiding caffeine before bedtime, losing weight – for sleep apnea), pharmaceutical, surgical, or some combination.

Consciousness• Our awareness of ourselves and our

environment

Bodily Rhythms• Biological Rhythms: periodic physiological fluctuations

– All organs, systems and cells are controlled by exact, cyclic patterns of rest and activity.

– Happiness-producing brain hormone serotonin produced during natural daylight

– Sleep-inducing hormone melatonin secreted in response darkness of night

– Stress hormone adrenaline naturally released during early morning hours to promote physical activity.

Did you know? In 1989, Michael Doucette was named America’s Safest Driving Teen. In 1990, while driving home from college, he fell asleep at the wheel and collided with an oncoming car, killing both himself and the other driver.

Bodily Rhythms• Circadian Rhythms: biological clock that regulates

bodily rhythms on a 24-hour cycle– Influenced by LIGHT causes our pineal gland to

increase or decrease production of melatonin– With age, we shift from night owls to morning birds– What do you think would happen if a person was put into a cave for a long

period of time without any light?

How it works - Technically• Light striking the

retina causes the suprachiasmatic nucleus (a tiny neural center in the hypothalamus) to alter the production of melatonin by the pineal gland.

Sleep Facts• 1/3 of lifetime (25 years) spent

sleeping; 6 of those 25 years dreaming• Need for sleep varies; 13-18 hours for

infants, 8.5-9.25 hours for teenagers• 100,000 dreams over a typical lifetime• Benefits of adequate sleep: better

mood, more efficient work, healthier• Sleep debt drawbacks: accidents

increase, performance decrease, immune system damaged, creativity decreased, retention decrease

“Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” – Ben Franklin, 1757

Sleep Theories• Protection: sleep hides us from harm; animals with

the least ability to hide sleep less – elephants-4 hrs/day, cats-14 hrs/day, chipmunks & bats-

20 hrs/day

Sleep Theories• Recuperation: the brain recovers from stress and

exhaustion; brain tissue restored and repaired– Wound healing has been shown to be affected by sleep.

A study conducted by Gumustekin et al. in 2004 shows sleep deprivation hindering the healing of burns on rats.

Sleep Theories• Making Memories: sleep restores and rebuilds our

fading memories of the day’s experience

Sleep Theories• Creativity: sleep boosts thinking and learning

– **problems are often solved after a night’s sleep

Sleep Theories• Growth Process: pituitary gland releases growth

hormones during sleep

Sleep Disorders

• Insomnia• Narcolepsy• Sleep apnea• Night terrors• Somnambulism

(sleepwalking)