[spacemanspiff]

What's the purpose of sleep?

The effects of not sleeping are well known. Depending on how long you've gone without sleep they can vary from just being tired, to halucinations, trouble forming memories, to more extreme and eventually fatal things. Experiments with animals and sleep deprivation show that it is pretty much always fatal. And it's not that the animals gets tired and then dies, various systems start to malfunction. the animals eat more, lose weight, and have 'digestive problems' among other things.

it would seem that sleep is needed for the the body's regualtion, you know homeostasis. and not just for resting up.

any thoughts?

[PogoC7]

Sleep is important, but it is also important to have a regular sleep schedule. Normal ---> 9 p.m.- 9:30 a.m.
Me ------> 4:20 a.m. - 8:00 a.m.
I do not believe I have too many problems because of my sleep schedule. Staying awake in class is a problem or whenever I am not active I become very sluggish.
How long would it take for your body to regain normal sleep status? Two nights? I believe one. I've gone a week with only 9 hours of sleep and I was in GOOD shape, only looked somewhat dead.

[DocBill]

Perhaps the question might be:

"Why do we have REM sleep" or "Why do we have low wave sleep" etc. It is a bit like saying why is there life? Too broad. If you can narrow it down, that would help.

Bill

[YoungStrife]

We need sleep in general to regenerate bone and muscle. The reason we seem so stressfull after not sleeping a while is becauswe of the physcial stress. We actually are more active mentally while sleeping than when awake, but just not consciously.

I have no idea as Bill said why we dream. But hopefully the doc can answer that with the help of his attractive female friends (or so he says):D

The healthy amount of sleep is around 6 to 8 hours per day. Too much sleep resaults in depleated muscle mass and lower cognitive ability. Not enough sleep resaults in stress, sore muscles, pain, aching, and tiredness...yay

[Skye]

I was reading that our current fairly normal sleep pattern (6-8 hrs at night, as opposed to naps throughout the day and night) possibly developed culturally. Partly as we became less vulnerable to predators, and could sleep for long periods of time. But also because cognitive abilities seem to reach a peak some time after sleep, so as we became more dependent on our brains it became valuable to stay awake for a long period.

[Dudde]

hmmm....you know they do say 6-8 hours of sleep a night..but I can't get more than 4-5 if I tried:-p
*GASP*
maybe I'm abnormal....
don't say it...

[spacemanspiff]

maybe in order to narrow it down i would ask what's the biological need for sleep.

why have aparently all animals evolved so that for a period of time they voluntarily lose consciousness. it must be for a good reason. you're just sitting there vulnerable for hours. it's more than just resting up. the body is doing something important during sleep. isn't that why total sleep deprivation screws you up so much?

so i was wondering exactly what is going on, and why it couldn't be done at another time? could there be an animal that didn't need sleep?

[Dudde]

it could be...if it were lazy...

sleep is the bodies time for recharging everything it's used up over the day and such like, repairing stuff and things like that, you know^_^

I'll let blike or faf or someone else who knows better explain it..

[DocBill]

Quote

Originally posted by spacemanspiff
maybe in order to narrow it down i would ask what's the biological need for sleep.

why have aparently all animals evolved so that for a period of time they voluntarily lose consciousness. it must be for a good reason. you're just sitting there vulnerable for hours. it's more than just resting up. the body is doing something important during sleep. isn't that why total sleep deprivation screws you up so much?

so i was wondering exactly what is going on, and why it couldn't be done at another time? could there be an animal that didn't need sleep?

Actually it is only REM sleep that he require (I don't know about other species). People in studies who were given meds to reduce or stop REM sleep, even though they "slept" several hours awoke tired, and after just a few days could hardly read, write or do anything.

Is that what you meant?

Bill

[Ryoken]

Is REM sleep the period in which one dreams or is it more like deep sleep? Sorry, it slipped my mind.

[DocBill]

Yes, REM sleep is "mid wave" sleep cycle that runs between 20-40 min. cycles, intermixed with "High" amd "Low" wave sleep. It is a processing period. Here's a trick we shrinks learned when talking to someone (who did not wknow we were DOD, etc.)

Watch a person's eyes as they answer questions. Almost ALL poeple (unless trained not to) will look upwards and left when "inventing" or assembling information, and upwards and right when "recalling" information. What is the significance? Truth or deception.

Durring rem sleep cycles, the eyes are following this same idea, only by closing the yes, the optical stimulation is shut off, and alpha waved begin to decrease rapidly.

Hope that helps.

Bill

PS: is that why the invissible man went bonkers? No REM sleep as he could always "see" something?

[Ryoken]

I C, thanks for the help Doc!

[dethfire]

I sleep around 6-7 hours a nite. I agree sleeping is a waste of time and it sucks that it takes half hour life basicly. Oh well. I always feel tired anyway so whats the use?

[Skye]

Bill, that study doesn't imply we only need REM sleep just that we do need REM sleep. If you deprived them of any form of sleep aside from REM sleep and they functioned normally than you could say we only need REM sleep.

[DocBill]

Quote

Originally posted by Skye
Bill, that study doesn't imply we only need REM sleep just that we do need REM sleep. If you deprived them of any form of sleep aside from REM sleep and they functioned normally than you could say we only need REM sleep.

I meant only to state that, of the 3 levels of sleep. REM seems to have the most bearing on information processing, etc.

[Ryoken]

Has anyone ever studied the sleeping habits of marine animals?

Sharks never stop swimming, even during sleep.

Dolphins being possibly the most inteligent to marine animals probably need sleep in the same ways we do, information processing, but how could they achieve REM sleep if they have to surface ever.... 20 mins or so? assuming they have an equivalent of REM sleep.

[YoungStrife]

I'm sure I replied to this lately...weird.

Well anyyways 6-7 hours of sleep is normal. You shouldn't be feeling tired if you sleep this much. Sleeping takes up an approximate 1/3 of our lives and IS VERY USEFULL. We need sleep to rebuild our bodies.

Go see a doctor if you are constantly tied and yet sleep 7 hours a night...something is wrong boy.

[spacemanspiff]

Quote

Dolphins being possibly the most inteligent to marine animals probably need sleep in the same ways we do, information processing, but how could they achieve REM sleep if they have to surface ever.... 20 mins or so? assuming they have an equivalent of REM sleep.

dolphins are actually a very interesting example. they sleep one hemisphere at a time. so they are never really asleep the way humans are. so dolphins can do things like watch for predators while they are sleeping with half their brain.

[DocBill]

I sleep like that...trouble is..getting the right side to wake up............................where was I. Oh yea..my favorite food has got to be Macaroni and cheese......I have a new car, it's red....................so, anyway, yea..Dolphin's are cool. Did you know that human brains share more traits with Dolphins than with Chimps? Weird eh?...............is there any more of that pie?

[YoungStrife]

Dolphins sleep this way in order to breath every approx. 10 minutes and watch out for predators.

We have a similar thing that helps us watch out for predators. Sleep was designed to be unstable for this reason, think about it. Whenever you are overly calm you fall asleep faster, and when you try to go to sleep too much you create stress, which stops sleep.

When we wake up to a loud new sound we wake up extremely fast and became awake in an instant, but if we get used to this sound (like an alarm clock) the body starts to stop this. We can train ourselves to improve our sleep defence as well. For example, in the army soldiers are trained to pick up a knife the second they wake up in th middle of the night and stab the person after they identify if they're the enemy. (I don't know if this only happens with marines, or is still practiced, but IO read it in a marine's 1973 manual)

By the way Buill...give me your jag....now (ANOUNCEMENT TO THE WORLD: Steal every jaguar in Maine until you find Bill's!)