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Unit - I BP
Unit - I BP
JET LAG
SHIFT WORK
► Delay in rhythms
MELATONIN
Th e SCN regulates waking and sleeping by controlling activity
levels in other brain areas, including the pineal gland, an endocrine
gland located just posterior to the thalamus
• Somatic (feeling or sensing something that’s not real): They may involve
feeling bodily distortions; feelings of weightlessness, flying or falling; and
sensing the presence of another person in the room.
• Auditory (hearing something that’s not there): They may involve words or
names, people talking, and environmental or animal sounds.
STAGES OF SLEEP
► Sleep – REM (Light sleep, dreams occur ) and NON- REM (Deeper
sleep ,dream free 90% of the time)
► Waking stage- When we are fully awake and alert, our EEG
contains many beta waves (fast) relatively high frequency (14-30
Hz) and low voltage
► Beta waves are replaced by Alpha waves (slow) when we enter a
resting state
► As we begin to fall asleep alpha waves are replaced by even
slower, higher voltage theta waves (4-7 hz)
► When we enter into deep sleep the very low frequency (1-3hz)
delta waves appear.
STAGES OF SLEEP
► A) NREM SLEEP – 4 Stages
► STAGE- 1 : breathing becomes low , muscle tone decreases, body relaxes. Lasts till 5 to 10
minutes
► STAGE-2 : Slight deeper stage, with high frequency waves known as sleep spindles bursts
electrical activity and k complexs. Hard to wakeup after 4 minutes of sleep spindles. Lasts
upto 10-20 minutes
► STAGE- 3: Delta waves are very large and slow, deeper waves resemble the pattern of
EEG of a person in coma. Breathing and pulses slow down, muscles totally relaxed and
hard to arouse.
► STAGE-4: deepest stage of sleep reached after an hour, waves are pure delta.
Bedwetting sleep walking may occur, after 30-40 minutes stage 3,2,1 drift
► We would reach REM sleep after 90 minutes delta waves disappear , beta waves occur
slowly
PARADOXICAL OR REM SLEEP
► In the 1950s, the French scientist Michel Jouvet was trying to test the learning
abilities of cats
► During certain periods of apparent sleep, the cats’ brain activity was
relatively high, but their neck muscles were completely relaxed.
► Jouvet (1960) then recorded the same phenomenon in normal, intact cats
and named it paradoxical sleep because it is deep sleep in some ways and
light in others. (The term paradoxical means “apparently self-contradictory.”)
CONT.
► During paradoxical or REM sleep, the EEG shows irregular, low-voltage fast waves that
indicate increased neuronal activity.
► In this regard, REM sleep is light. However, the postural muscles of the body, such as
the head, are more relaxed during REM than in other stages.
► REM is also associated with erections in males and vaginal moistening in females.
Heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate are more variable in REM than in stages
2 through 4.
► In short, REM sleep combines deep sleep, light sleep, and features that are difficult to
classify as deep or light. Consequently, it is best to avoid the terms deep and light sleep
CONT.
► Most people with depression enter REM quickly after falling asleep, even
when sleeping at their normal time, suggesting that their circadian rhythm is
out of synchrony with clock time
► REM dreams are more likely than NREM dreams to include striking visual
imagery and complicated plots, but not always. Some people continue to
report dreams despite no evidence of REM sleep (Solms, 1997). In short, REM
and dreams usually overlap, but they are not the same thing.
BRAIN MECHANISMS OF
WAKEFULNESS AND AROUSAL
BRAIN STRUCTURES OF AROUSAL AND ATTENTION
I. After a cut through the midbrain separates the forebrain and part of the midbrain
from all the lower structures, an animal enters a prolonged state of sleep for the next
few days.
II. Even after weeks of recovery, the wakeful periods are brief.
III. However, if a researcher cuts each individual tract that enters the medulla and spinal
cord, thus depriving the brain of the sensory input, the animal still has normal periods
of wakefulness and sleep.
IV. Evidently, the midbrain does more than just relay sensory information; it has its own
mechanisms to promote wakefulness
RETICULAR FORMATION
A cut through the midbrain decreases arousal by
damaging the reticular formation, a structure that
extends from the medulla into the forebrain. Some
neurons of the reticular formation have axons
ascending into the brain, and some have axons
descending into the spinal cord.
► As you might guess, they are less active when you are getting ready for sleep and
when you have just awakened in the morning
► Antihistamine drugs, often used for allergies, counteract this transmitter and produce
drowsiness.
► Antihistamines that do not cross the blood-brain barrier avoid that side effect.
OREXIN/HYPOCRETIN
► Another pathway from the hypothalamus, mainly from the lateral
► The axons releasing orexin extend to the basal forebrain and other
► Orexin is not necessary for waking up, but it is for staying awake.
GABA
► Basal forebrain cells provide axons that extend throughout the thalamus and
cerebral cortex
► Almost always, it is small local cells that release GABA, the brain’s main inhibitory
transmitter.
► During a prolonged period of REM deprivation, PGO waves begin to emerge during
sleep stages 2 to 4—when they do not normally occur— and even during
wakefulness, often in association with strange behaviors, as if the animal were
hallucinating.
BRAIN FUNCTIONS IN REM SLEEP
► The pons contribute to REM sleep by sending messages to the spinal cord,
inhibiting the motor neurons that control the body’s large muscles.
► After damage to the floor of the pons, a cat still has REM sleep periods, but its
muscles are not relaxed.
► Evidently, one function of the messages from the pons to the spinal cord is to
prevent action during REM sleep.
FUNCTIONS OF SLEEP
WHAT IS DREAM?