Theories on Stages of Sleep

Theories on Stages of SleepPaul Stolt JrIn our textbook it says that, rapid eye movement sleep makes up the stay 20 per penny of your sleep clock. It is pronounced rem and stands for rapid eye movement sleep because your look move rapidly back and forth hindquarters closed lids (P propagatenik Kouyoudmjian, 2014, p. 153). The brain waves that atomic number 18 invest in REM sleep are beta waves, which is the same kind that are present when a person is awake. Also, during this typify, the body is fantastic, but the muscles are paralyzed, thus prohibiting movement during this time. The REM sleep stage is the one that the process of having dreams occurs in. According to our text, a person passes through the REM sleep stage about five or six times a night. The intervals in between these stages are approximately half an minute of arc to an hour and a half long. Most flock are in the REM sleep stage for about half an hour to forty-five minutes, before they participate the NREM, or Non REM, sleep stage. An individuals heart rate and blood pressure are typically higher in REM, indicating a more alert state in this stage than in the non REM stage. Creative thinking processes are more present during REM sleep, probably due to a wish of bodily function in the areas of the brain that are responsible for critical thinking. Students postulate REM sleep in order to transfer the knowledge that they experience stored passim the day in short term memory, into long term memory. This stage helps to promote the encoding process, which is responsible for the transfer. Once the information is encoded during the REM stage, it becomes easier to recall at a later time for tests and exams. There is an indication in the human body of the need for REM sleep, because if someone has not spent enough time in this stage the previous night, the body will compensate by spending more time in REM the following night.The Alpha stage occurs right before people drift off to sleep. Du ring this stage, people start to feel tired and relaxed, often just lying in bed with their eyes closed, and random thoughts, such as activities of the previous day, or the plans that they whitethorn have the following day, present in their thoughts. According to the text book, Alpha waves have a low amplitude and high relative frequency, (8 to 12 cycles per second) (Plotnik Kouyoudmjian, 2014, p. 152). After the of import stage, Non REM Sleep, or NREM for short, occurs. This stage is where most people spend 80 per cent of their time while sleeping. This type of sleep is divided into four stages, each stage being associated with unique brain wave patterns and biological responses (Plotnik Kouyoudmjian, 2014). In the archetypal stage of Non REM sleep, there is a transition that occurs from being wide awake and alert, to drifting off to sleep. This stage usually lasts from about one to cardinal minutes long. The text says that this stage is marked by the front line of theta wa ves, which are lower in amplitude and lower in frequency (4 to 7 cycles per second) than alpha waves (Plotnik Kouyoudmjian, 2014, p. 152). Next, the person passes through the second stage of sleep.In the second stage, there are rapidly occurring periods of what questioners call sleep spindles. In this stage, physiological processes such as breathing, a persons body temperature, and their heart rate slowly decrease, and they become harder to wake up. This stage is what most researchers define as a person being asleep. Next, after about half an hour to forty five minutes of falling asleep, the individual enters stages three and four of Non REM sleep. Delta waves are present in stage three, and these are defined as large, slow brain waves, meaning they have very high amplitude and very low frequency (Plotnik Kouyoudmjian, 2014, p. 152). As the person moves on to stage four in Non REM sleep, they experience a significant increase in the presence of Delta waves. During this stage, bio logical processes such as heart rate, breathing, body temperature, and the flow of blood to the brain are dramatically decreased, and the body secretes a substance called GH, or growth hormone, which is responsible for absolute the metabolic rate in the body, physical growth in the body, and the development of the human brain. After this stage, the individual passes back through the second and third stages of Non REM, and enters into the dreaming, or REM, stage of sleep.The necessity of sleep for a living organism can be explained in two logical ways. The first is that the body repairs and restores itself while it is resting. In one theory, the human brain repairs and restores itself while sleeping. It has besides been proven that chemicals that are harmful to our trunk are flushed out during the sleeping process. Some research has also suggested that the immune system is impaired because of sleep deprivation (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, 2013). The sec ond way that it can be explained is the Conservation theory. This theory suggests that the need to conserve energy at night for the human race promoted the need for sleep. In other words, since it was dark out, and there was little bring down to be fit to see, that time was better spent resting instead of moving about. It would seem that as an individual goes throughout their lifetime, the need for sleep is greatest during the early years, and less as they meet older.When an infant is born, the average time that they spend asleep is about seventeen hours a day, with half of that time spent in REM sleep. Then, when they get a little older, such as approximately around four years old, they sleep about ten hours a day, with about 25 to 30 per cent of that time spent in REM sleep. A little later, around the teenage years, the measure of sleep that is required is about 9 hours per night, with the slide being later bed times, and the teenagers waking up later during the day. A couple years later, at about nineteen to twenty years of age, the measuring of sleep required by the adolescents is about seven to eight hours per night, with twenty per cent of that time spent in REM. As an adult reaches the golden years, the amount of sleep required is six and a half hours per night, with approximately twenty per cent being spent in REM sleep.The text defines the circadian stave as a biological clock that is genetically programmed to regulate physiological responses within a time period of twenty-four hours (Plotnik Kouyoudmjian, 2014, p. 150). The circadian clock is genetically set for about 24 hours 18 minutes. The clock is reset by the retinal cells, which act like sensors that let in sunlight, and send signals to the brain, resetting it by 18 minutes each day. However, there are quite a few problems associated with the circadian clock by individuals who work midnight shifts or have to fly oft for their job, thereby getting a condition known as jet lag. First, l ets discuss individuals that work the midnight shift. These individuals go against the natural instinct of their circadian clocks, resolvinging in decreased performance of their cognitive and motor skills. Also, people who alter shifts a lot, such as working swing shift, cause a lot of physical stress in their bodies and psychological stress in their minds. Secondly, people with jet lag often experience problems with feeling tired all the time, impediment in being able to concentrate on a particular(prenominal) task, and reduced superpower in their mightiness to use logical thinking, reasoning, or remembering. It takes people with jet lag about a day per hour of difference between time zones to recover. However, there is hope. Charles Czeisler developed a new treatment called light therapy in 1994. This treatment uses artificial light to combat fatigue in both people who work the midnight shift, and those with jet lag. Next I would like to mouth about the effects that sleep d eprivation has on individuals.People with sleep deprivation run the risk of having impaired immune systems, with the potential for increased infections and diseases. They also experience increased stress levels, elevated blood pressure, and an increased build-up of plaque in the arteries, with a severe potential for heart attack or stroke. early(a) problems they experience include the risk of obesity and diabetes, difficulty in recognizing words, and doing ordinary math problems. They are more susceptible to increased irritability, and increased difficulty in making logical and rational decisions.Terms and ConceptsPerceptual Threshold -The perceptual threshold is the smallest thing that can be perceived, or recognized, by the human senses. sentience A sensation is a relatively meaningless piece of information, that results when the brain processes electrical signals that come from the sense organs.Stimulus A input signal is any change of energy in the environment, such as light waves, sound waves, mechanical pressure, or chemicals.Structuralists Structuralists are psychologists who relyd that we add together thousands of sensations to form a perception.Gestalt Psychologists Gestalt psychologists are psychologists that believe that our brains follow general rules that specify how individual elements are to be organized into a important pattern, or perception.Depth Perception Depth Perception is the ability of the eye and brain to add a third dimension called depth to all visual perceptions, even though the images being projected might yet be two dimensional in nature.Consciousness Consciousness describes different levels of awareness of ones thoughts and feelings.Biological Clock The biological clock is an internal timing device that is genetically set to regulate various physiological responses for different periods of time.Stages of Sleep Stages of sleep refer to the distinctive changes in the electrical activity of the brain, and accompanying p hysiological responses to the body that occur as someone passes through different phases of sleep.Hypnosis Hypnosis is a procedure in which a researcher, clinician, or hypnotist suggests that a person will experience changes in sensations, perceptions, thoughts, feelings, or expressions.Stimulants Stimulants are chemical substances such as cocaine, amphetamines, caffeine, and nicotine that increase activity of the central nervous system and result in heightened alertness, arousal, euphoria, and decreased appetite.Opiates Opiates are chemical substances such as opium, morphine, and heroin that produce three predominant effects in the central nervous system the reduction of pain, opiate euphoria, a pleasurable state between waking and sleeping and constipation.Hallucinogens Hallucinogens are drugs that affect someones mind or behavior and have the ability to produce changes in perception, thought, emotion, and awareness.Classical Conditioning Classical Conditioning is a kind of learning in which a neutral stimulus acquires the ability to produce a response that was originally produced by a different stimulus.Operant Conditioning Operant Conditioning is a kind of learning in which the consequences that follow some behavior increase or decrease the likelihood of that behaviors occurrence in the future.Cognitive accomplishment Cognitive Learning is a kind of learning that involves mental processes, such as attention and memory, may be learned through observation or imitation and may not involve any external rewards or require the person to perform any observable behaviors.Generalization Generalization is the tendency for a stimulus that is similar to the original conditioned stimulus to elicit a response that is similar to the conditioned response.Discrimination Discrimination occurs when an organism learns to make a particular response to some stimuli but not to others.Extinction Extinction is a procedure in which a conditioned stimulus is repeatedly p resented without the unconditioned stimulus, and, as a result, the conditioned stimulus no longer elicits the conditioned responseThorndike Thorndike was an American psychologist who lived during the 1800s and formulated the law of effect, which stated that if some random actions are followed by a pleasurable consequence, such actions are strengthened and will likely occur in the future.Skinner Skinner was a psychologist who developed a theory known as the operant response during the 1930s, which says that An operant response is a response that can be modified by its consequences and is a meaningful unit of ongoing behavior that can be easily measured (Plotnik Kouyoudmjian, 2014, p. 214).Reinforcers Reinforcers are consequences that occur after a desired behavior and increase the chances that the behavior will occur again (Plotnik Kouyoudmjian, 2014, p. 218).Punishment A punishment is a stimulus that stops or decreases the occurrence of a behavior (Plotnik Kouyoudmjian, 2014, p. 219).Schedules of livelihood Schedules of Reinforcement are programs or rules that determine how and when the occurrence of a response will be followed by a reinforcer (Plotnik Kouyoudmjian, 2014, p. 220).Spontaneous recuperation Spontaneous Recovery refers to either a temporary recovery in the rate of responding in operant conditioning, or the temporary occurrence of the conditioned response in the presence of the conditioned stimulus in classical conditioning (Plotnik Kouyoudmjian, 2014, p. 222).Behavior Modification is a treatment or therapy that changes or modifies problems or undesirable behaviors by use principles of learning based on operant conditioning, classical conditioning, and social cognitive learning (Plotnik Kouyoudmjian, 2014, p. 232).ReferencesNational Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. (2013, December 5). Brain Basics perceptiveness Sleep. Retrieved January 20, 2014, from National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke www.ninds.n ih.govPlotnik, R., Kouyoudmjian, H. (2014). Introduction to Psychology. Belmont, CA, USA Wadsworth Publishing. Retrieved January 13, 2014