SLEEP

Brain Science Club

Fun Facts
 We spend almost 1/3 of our lives asleep
 The record for the longest period without sleep is 18 days, 21
hours, 40 minutes during a rocking chair marathon
 The brown bat spends an average of 19.9 hrs sleeping every day,
but the giraffe only spends an average of 1.9 hrs sleeping every day
 If you lose two hours of sleep, you can impair your performance
equal to a .05 blood-alcohol level
Why Do We Sleep?
 Sleep is vital for:
 Concentration and
Response time
 Memory
 Coordination
 Emotional health
 Physical Health
What Happens When We Fall Asleep?

 During the first hour:

 Brain waves slow down
 Muscles and eyes relax
 Heart rate, blood
pressure, and body
temperature decrease
The Stages of Sleep
 Discovered using electroencephalography (EEG) to
examine human brain waves
 Types of sleep: Rapid eye movement (REM) and
non-REM sleep
 Atonia: paralysis of the body’s muscles
 The Stages of Sleep
 5 stages; we progress deeper and deeper into sleep, seen through
brain wave activity
 When we sleep we don’t always progress through stages in sequence
 May go something like: stage 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, REM, 2
 First REM sleep stage occurs around 90 minutes, and time in the
REM phase increases as the night goes on
The Stages of Sleep
Sleep Disorders
 One of the nations most
common health problems,
but one of the least
recognized sources of
disease, disability, and death
 Affect 70 million people,
most of whom are
undiagnosed and untreated
 Costs about $15.9 billion
every year
Sleep Disorders
 Insomnia: inability to fall
asleep or stay asleep
 Excessive daytime
sleepiness
 Obstructive sleep apnea
 REM behavior disorder
 Narcolepsy
How is Sleep Regulated
 Brain structures involved
 Wakefulness
 Upper brainstem connected
with upper brain structures
(forebrain, thalamus)
 Hypothalamus
 Falling asleep
 Hypothalamus
 Ventrolateral preoptic nucleus
suppresses arousal systems
 Neurotransmitters:
 Acetylcholine,
norepinephrine, serotonin,
glutamate, orexin
The Sleep-Wakefulness Cycle
 Why do we get sleepy?
 Circadian System
 How long we have been awake
 Suprachiasmatic nucleus: nerve
cells in the hypothalamus that act as
a master clock
 “clock proteins”
 Receives input from the retina (reset
by light)
 Orexin neurons and activation
The Sleep-Wakefulness Cycle
 Adenosine
 The longer we are awake, the
more adenosine accumulates in
our brains
 Slow down cellular activity and
diminishes arousal
 Eliminated during sleep
 Caffeine blocks adenosine
receptors
 ATP increases while we sleep
Activities
 Sleep Crossword
 Jeopardy!
 https://jeopardylabs.com/play/zzzzzzzzzzz3