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An Excuse to Sleep. How Sleeping Helps the Brain.


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How many of you have ever been yelled at by a parent for sleeping, instead of working around the house, studying, or being active? I'm assuming most of the people reading this. Well, here's an excuse to use next time this happens: "research shows that morning sleep and afternoon naps aid mental and physical learning."

 

In studies performed at Harvard, scientists investigated the role of sleep in perceptual learning by training subjects to report the direction of colored bars superimposed on other lines on a computer screen. Their performance progressively worsened throughout the day. The subjects were then allowed to nap for 30 minutes, and the deterioration ceased; and when allowed one hour of nap time, scores became as high as when first started.

 

What does this mean?

 

It appears that the brain prevents the absorption of new information in order to allow the data already there to be committed to memory during slumber. Apparently, the deep, slow-wave sleep that occurs in even short naps allows recently learned information to be processed and readies the mind for new knowledge.

 

The intensity of learning new skills and information may drive the brain’s hunger for large amounts of sleep, and in order for an individual to learn new things, they may require a good night’s sleep before the maximum benefit of the time they spend practicing is realized.

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I agree. Serotonin and other chemicals in the brain are key to memory storage and concentration. If you go without the proper amount of sleep these chemicals become depleated and the harder it becomes to concentrate, memorize, etc.

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Well this goes back to the neurotransmitter you mentioned, serotonin. This chemical is essentially what makes you tired. Your Circadian rythms adjust to the time you normally rest for a long period of time, and accordingly that's when your body begins increased serotonin secretion. When you normally wake up, serotonin secretion slows down. The waking up time is more important to keep constant than the going to bed time, although both are important to maximize productivity during the day.

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As was I, I gave up after I had located those though...being a lazy nerd doesn't help my research. Sorry about the dissappointment. If I do happen to come accross a more technical article, I'll be sure to post it immediatly.

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Guest Optimus B

as a side note, hGH is released most when you sleep. can't seem to recall where i read that though....

 

B

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So when i'm studying for long periods of time over hard material and i fall asleep on my books/papers does that mean my bran might be saying "take a nap i need to process and store the information" .. ? so is it a good thing or should i keep myself awake until i am completely finished.

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Actually I believe sleep cycles are regulated by seratonin, melatonin is a precurser to seratonin.

 

Also HGH is released during deep sleep. That's why it is very important for bodybuilders to get enough rest. That's when hormones are released. Many bodybuilder also supplement with melatonin to help them get into that "deep sleep"

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These sleep studies are done mostly in labratories on members of the Simpson and Bunker families and the cas to Cheers. The chemical reactions they see are useful andcommon to us all but have they ever measured a soldier at war. I think some more complex things go on then the artifical stresses measured in the labs. You don't wake quickly from a deep sleep at the snap of a twig. In survival situations sleep goes into a whole different dimension than anybody who has not been there can imagine.

Two hours of light sleep is very refreshing. The closest I can imagine is the way a guard dog sleeps. It's like our minds go back to depend on genes that aren't normally expressed.

Just for thought.

 

God bless our soldiers all over the world

 

Al-kada:flame:

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I must'a been spelling my accent. Not very professional.

I could'a said it takes a while to learn Earth Languages.:cool2:

Maybe I haven't got enough sleep.:uhh:

But the troubles we got now are the only regret I got about gettin old.:toilet:

You guys give em hell cus it might be a civilian assisted war in the future. They might bring it here. Learn to sleep light.

Our true nature is everyone is a scientist and a soldier deep inside. Just my ramblin thoughts.

Just aman

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I found the whole discussion of sleep wonderful. I learned a lot. It seems we are limited in processing power by the speed of basic chemical reactions. It's sad at such an ignorant stage in our developement we already are learning the limitations of our capabilities. We are very finite entities.

We have the potential to understand the slice of pepperoni which we live on but not the pizza.

What if we figure out how to speed up the sleep chemical reactions or the results of them on the brain. I imagine in our brains, the most efficient chemical reactions have evolved. It seems that we need to speed up the reactions or replace them. Is transport of O2, chemicals, and waste the problem? Is that what limits clear thought? Make it more efficient. Careful.

It has some good and nasty potential.

Just aman

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  • 5 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

We sleep like we do because we live in this wonderful place which is safe day to day if we stay aware. We aren't living in an enviroment that forces us to express the contents of our genes. We are equiped to be so much more than we ever imagined and we realize so little.

True recharging sleep :zzz: :zzz: is easy in minutes when you work with you mind and body and not against it. Analyze your goals and when you are going the right direction and feel it, then sleep comes easy and finishes quickly.

Just aman

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  • 4 months later...
Guest Explorerself

Serotoninis a bio-chemical that mainly controls the "joy" effect in the "amegdala" which is the part of the brain which controls emotions and temp..

The use of drugs such as Xtasty raise sertonin levels sky high and also a couple of anti depprasion psych pills..

 

Yea naps are awesome but even more important is living through your biological clock if you sleep all day and learn all night you will get a weaker effect from these naps youll lose all tan and turn into a mindboggled bat like me.. cheers

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