Psychology sleep and dreams
Sleep
Sleep
there are several theories behind why we sleep
Creatures which stayed still and quiet during night times had an upper hand over other creatures which were active. Due to this, they avoided accidents, being killed by other creatures. This activity somehow evolved into sleep.
One of the most obvious reasons why creatures sleep is to conserve energy, especially at night times where it is hard to find food or times when it doesn’t benefit then from being awake. According to research, energy metabolism is tremendously reduced during sleep. Caloric demand and body temperature is reduced during sleep compared to when you are awake. Such benefits help greatly in their survival. Another great benefit of sleep is that it somehow restores the things we lost when we were awake. Many of the major restorative functions in the body like tissue repair, muscle growth, protein synthesis and growth hormone release occur mostly during sleep. Some experiments show that animals deprived from sleep die within a week due to lose of all immune functions.
We all know through experience what happens when we pull an all-nighter. We can sense that our muscles don’t necessarily need sleep but our brain does. Our brain which controls our actions and
There are four stages of Non-REM sleep. During Stage 1, the eyes are closed. One can be awakened without difficulty; however, if aroused from this stage of sleep, a person may feel as if he or she has not slept. The heart rate slows and the body temperature decreases during Stage 2. At this point, the body prepares to enter deep sleep. Stages 3 and 4 are deep sleep stages, with stage 4 being more intense than Stage 3. These stages are known as slow-wave, or delta, sleep. If aroused from sleep during these stages, a person may feel disoriented for a few minutes. REM sleep is the portion of sleep when there are rapid eye movements. Dreams occur during REM sleep. We typically have 3 to 5 periods...