Captain Psychology

by

Sleep

  • Sleep
    • Don’t know why the body requires sleep
    • Know
      • lack of sleep is linked to higher risk of
        • depression
        • heart disease
        • aggravates mental illness
      • mammals & birds sleep
    • Stages
      • NREM
        • N1
        • N2
        • N3 (delta) = slow wave; deep sleep
      • REM
    • Historically:
      • Alfred Loomis (1887-197
        • Lawyer, inventor,
        • RADAR, microscope centrifuge
        • lab in Tuxedo Park
      • Dement & Kleitman, 1953
        • REM sleep plus 4 NREM
    • Now, 3 stages plus REM
      • combined stages 3 and 4
    • Stages based on EEG, eye movements, respiratory, cardiac, and movement events
    • Cycles
      • N1→N2 →N3 →N2 →REM
    • proportion of REM sleep increases until just before natural awakening
    • In humans (adults), sleep cycle from 90 to 110 min.
      • 60 minutes for newborns
    • Awake
    • Close eyes
      • meditating
      • alpha waves
      • still awake & aware
      • 8-13 HZ
    • Stage N1
      • Somnolence or drowsy sleep
      • Twitches and jerks
      • Hallucinations
      • Lower awareness
      • Theta waves
        • higher amplitude than alpha
        • slower frequency                      6–7 Hz.
      • light sleep
      • 5-10 min\
    • Stage N2
      • About 50% of sleep time
      • Theta waves (same as stage 1)
      • less movement, less awareness
      • body temperature drops
      • heart rate slows
      • Two additions (discovered by Loomis)
        • K complexes
        • Sleep spindles
      • K-Complex
        • Brief high-voltage peaks
        • roughly every minute
        • often followed by bursts: sleep spindles
        • Suppress cortical arousal, except to danger signals
        • Aid memory consolidation
      • Sleep Spindles
        • AKA “sigma bands” or “sigma waves”
        • last half second
        • sudden bursts
        • usually 12-14 Hz
        • less movement, no awareness
    • Stage N3
      • Deep or slow-wave sleep
        • Bed wetting
        • Sleep walking
        • Sleep talking
        • Night terrors
      • Delta waves
      • Lowest frequency waves                       4-7 Hz
      • Highest amplitude
      • Used to be called stages 3 & 4
        • minimum is 20% delta
        • less than 50% delta
        • more than 50% delta
      • Body repairs itself
      • builds bone & bone
      • strengthen immune system
    • REM
      • Rapid eye movement sleep
      • 20–25% of total sleep time
      • rapid low-voltage EEG
      • Combination of
        • alpha waves
        • delta waves
        • desynchronous waves (like beta)
    • As night progresses
      • Less delta waves
      • desynchronous waves (like beta)
      • Heart rate rises
      • Breathing is faster, shallow, irregular
      • Like being awake
      • more acetylcholine
      • But no monoamines
        • dopamine, norepinephrine, etc
        • serotonin, histamine
    • Paralysis
      • If asleep
        • inject acetylcholinesterase inhibitor
        • paradoxical sleep
      • If awake
        • paradoxical sleep only if monoamines depleted
    • GABA (amino acid)
      • promotes wakefulness
      • diminishes during deep sleep
      • increases during REM
    • Glycine (amino acid) increases too
    • Both
      • ionotropic GABA (respond to glycine)
      • metabotropic GABA receptors (respond to GABA)
    • First REM of night
      • ~90 minutes after fall asleep
    • After 1st cycle
      • more as night goes on
    • first                              lasts 10 minutes
    • final                             60+ minutes
    • Relatively little dreaming in NREM
    • Lucid dreams in REM
    • Memorable dream

‘There are two great principles of psychology: people have a tremendous capacity to change, and we usually don’t.”   Ken Tangen