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NREM Sleep

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NREM Sleep
Humans sleep in order to rest muscles in the body, improve brain function, regulate moods and emotions, maintain immune system function, enhance learning, consolidate memory, and clear the brain of metabolic waste. During the night, the human body cycles though four stages of NREM sleep and REM sleep, each cycle lasting about ninety minutes. Throughout the four stages of NREM sleep, which typically last fifty to seventy minutes, brain activity slows and long delta brain waves increase. The rest of the sleep cycle, five to fifteen minutes, is spent in REM sleep in which the brain becomes more active and dreams occur. Muscle movement is inhibited which keeps sleepers from acting upon their dreams while asleep. Scientists have been studying sleep, …show more content…
According to the Restorative Theory, the body wears itself out during the day and needs sleep to recover. The one to two hours of daily physical activity I get after a long day at school is enough to wear my body out so that I need recovery sleep. I have noticed on days where I don’t have the time to work out, I do not feel as tired at night and I do not feel the need to sleep. Daily physical activity seems to be the most contributing factor to my need for sleep. NREM and REM sleep cycles may be the cause of my repetitive waking between 4:00 and 4:30 am. Around this time, I may be in stage one NREM sleep in which brain waves are the fastest of the four stages of NREM sleep, allowing me to easily awaken. According to the graph on page 143 of the textbook, between 4:00 and 4:30 am, the body is in stage one NREM sleep and possibly entering stage two of NREM. Also, after 4:00 am, the body cycles through stage one and two of NREM sleep and REM sleep most likely due to the decrease in melatonin levels after 3:00 am. Finally, because I try to go to sleep about the same time each night and I wake up the same time each morning, the Suprachiasmatic nucleus, the cluster of neurons governing the body’s cardiac rhythm, could be set at a daily schedule to match my normal sleeping patterns. The suprachiasmatic nucleus could cause my heart rate to slow around 8:00 to 10:00 pm and into the night, making me feel tired and in need of sleep. It could also increase my heart rate around 5:00 to 6:00 am, causing me to wake up. This can explain why it is hard to sleep in far past the usual time I get up if I go to bed around the same
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