Purpose & Impact of Sleep: Restorative Function, REM, Changes & Disorders - Prof. Constanc, Study notes of Psychology

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V. Purpose of Sleep  A. Why do we sleep? o 1. Restorative effect?  Somewhat in the form of repair and restoration, but not as much as we assume b/c body still functions, blood circulates etc  Doesn’t depend on how active you are during the day
 2. Evolutionary idea o keep us out of suspicious situations at night
 B. Sleep Deprivation o 1. Abruptly have less than 4 hours of sleep  irritable, mentally fatigued, lapses in attention, sometimes hand-tremors  feel more depressed, less sociable  next night fall asleep faster than normally do  study at UofF- gradual less sleep until the 4 hr mark  no detectable results in the short run
 some of the more dramatic studies show that people can go up to 265 hours without sleep without lasting damage  sometimes hallucinations occur   C. REM Sleep o 1. Depriving of 2 hrs of REM, start to see bad side effects o 2. REM rebound, will experience more REM than normal o 3. Gradual reduction in overall sleep leads to more and more REM packed into one night sleep

 D. What does REM do? o 1. Helps us with learning, in particular, consolidate new information  when depriving people of deep sleep and REM messes up  Ach is increased during REM (Ach plays a role in storing memories)


VI. Development Changes  A. overall sleep o 1. Newborns 18hrs of sleep daily o 2. Adolescences need more sleep than prepubescent kids o 3. Adults get between 7-9 hrs of sleep o Elderly sleep less than the 7-9 hours  B. REM sleep o 1. Fetuses experience REM according to some studies o 2. Infants o 3. By 1st birthday REM is about 30% of the night o 4. Adulthood is 20-25% of night in REM o as you get older experience less deep sleep, in a lighter sleep in general

VII. Sleep Disorders  A. Night terrors (wake up in a panic, screaming, fighting o Usually go back to sleep quickly, and don’t remember it in the morning o Happens during non REM sleep o Disorder most common in pre-schoolers  B. Insomnia-difficulty staying asleep or going to sleep 10/29/2009
10/29/2009