There is an intriguing article in Scientific American about the consequences of sleep deprivation. When the brain is finally allowed to catch up with sleep, it tries to make-up for the loss of slow-wave sleep, but it also tries to make up for the loss of REM sleep as well - by making it more intense! As a result, the dreams are like scenes from something like "Jumanji" - wild animals running around and other crazy stuff. A very good article about various ideas on the function of sleep and dreams.
- Log in to post comments
More like this
The most exciting thing about this study is that this is, as far as I am aware, the first instance in which it was shown that a circadian clock gene has any effect on sleep apart from timing of it, i.e., on some other quality or quantity of sleep (not just when to fall asleep and wake up, but also…
Molecule Helps Sleep-deprived Rebound Mentally:
Sleep experts know that the mental clarity lost because of a few sleepless nights can often be restored with a good night's rest. Now, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have identified a key molecular mechanism that regulates the brain's…
There are 15 new articles in PLoS ONE today. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. You can now also easily place articles on various social services (CiteULike, Mendeley, Connotea, Stumbleupon, Facebook and Digg) with…
In all animals, vertebrate and invertebrate alike, one of the defining features of sleep is the "rebound", i.e., the making up for sleep debt after an acute sleep deprivation event. However, the problem of modern society is a chronic sleep loss in humans - when you loos a couple of hours of needed…
No wonder my dreams are like action movies on the weekends when I can sleep in.
Exactly the same as Novathecat- and I thought that was a bizarre glitch of mine, go figure...
That's because we need REM sleep as much as slow-wave sleep to de-arouse stress and keep our instincts intact!