Hot answers tagged sleep
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A general model of processing stimuli suggests that when information does not provide informational value, then we gradually begin to ignore it. Such a model is consistent with the experience of many people in relation to background traffic noise when moving from a quiet to a noisy neighbourhood. I.e., the frequency with which external traffic noise enters ...
9
Assuming there's not a neurological dysfunction underlying sleep deprivation (which is even more possible with Aspergers as sleep dysfunction is a typical comorbidity) it can simply be a learned behavior. The more you do something (whether you particularly "enjoy" it or not) the more likely you are to build it up as a habit. Procedural memory is always at ...
9
Particulalry short wavelengths (such a UV light) have been shown to suppress melatonin[1], a hormone that regulates sleep. The authors also show that:
All subjects had an elevated cortisol level in the 90 minutes prior to
onset of light exposure compared with the corresponding clock time on
the previous day
So there's a kind daily memory in the ...
8
Not aware of any studies on this topic.
I think this is a tricky question because of the nature of sleeping.
Hypersomnia does not fit in with physiological nor psychological dependence because of the following (from the proposed DSM-V revision, but similar enough to the DSM-IV-TR) symptom:
"The sleep periods are non-restorative (unrefreshing) or so ...
7
"Nor can I see potential for one to become psychologically dependent or addicted to sleep."
I believe someone can become "psychologically dependent on sleep".
I am 47 and have used sleep for 40 years to escape from life. I typically sleep 4-6 hours too much each day. I don't really physically need this sleep, since I then am often awake the next night ...
7
Antonio, Nielsen and Doneri (1998) provide one assessment of self-reported prevalence of smell in dreams. To quote the abstract (my bolding):
Although numerous studies have investigated the content of
laboratory and home dream reports, surprisingly little is known
about the prevalence of various sensory modes in dreams. 49 men and
115 women ...
6
Theoretical perspective:
No. I don't think so. From a cognitive information processing perspective, I would hypothesise that declarative learning of new facts would not occur while sleeping. Of course, learning declarative facts while awake, but in bed (e.g., when going to sleep or when waking up in the morning) is possible, and sleep is important in ...
6
It's obvious that people will move more when awake or doing exercise compared to being asleep or resting, however actigraphy provides a quantitative way to measure that. Therefore actigraphy is useful for studying sleep-wake cycles, activity-rest cycles and circadian rhythms. They have been shown to be reliable in determining when a subject is awake or ...
6
The scientific concept which most closely matches your description of "brain fog" is sleep inertia.
Any theories on why this may happen?
First, a brief detour. Sleep is divided up into 5 stages (stages 1, 2, 3, 4, and REM). Since 2007, NREM sleep has been reclassified into stages N1, N2, N3, with N3 being a combination of the former stages 3 and 4; ...
6
Measures of arousal surely do play a role in subject performance on a wide variety of cognitive tasks. Generally, scientists can safely ignore this factor as it is assumed to introduce random noise between participants. From a hypothesis testing perspective, scientists are much more worried about factors that introduce systematic bias, or factors that skew ...
5
I am not aware of any study that specifically addresses dream recall, but there is a growing literature about "memory reconsolidation" or "post-reactivation plasticity", the idea that memory reactivation (recall) can temporarily return a memory to a state of high fragility and susceptibility to interference, after which a process similar to consolidation ...
4
This study found that REM sleep "enhances the integration of unassociated information for creative problem solving", and to an extent that surpasses the benefits of "quiet rest and non-REM sleep". try a google scholar search for 'psychology sleep incubation '.
Interestingly, the experiment that yielded the first discovery of a neurotransmitter was ...
4
Also, in Oliver Sack's The Man Who Mistook His For His Wife, the author and famous neurologist reports a case about a man who dreamed he had the olfactory powers of a dog; however, when he awoke, he still retained his heightened sense of smell and furthermore could prove it to the nurses.
Any experience that one has in waking life can be recapitulated ...
4
I've used the Zeo (http://www.myzeo.com/sleep/). It seems to work pretty well. It tracks which stage of sleep you are using a very basic EEG. There are some details on how it operates here: http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/10/how-the-zeo-sleep-device-works.html
As I said, I've used it in the past and from what I can tell, it seems to be pretty accurate, ...
3
The gold standard of sleep studies is polysomnography- using multiple sensors together to score sleep stages. It's very expensive and requires a lab. A night in a sleep lab costs about 3000$, last time I checked.
Actigraphy is a cheaper way of monitoring sleep by looking at the users motion. When 19 out of 20 minutes are scored as "no activity", the first ...
3
Free-running circadian periods were estimated to vary from 13 to 65 hours in normal subjects according to a 1979 study by R.A. Wever. This paper was referenced in a more recent article regarding the circadian pacemaker (Czeisler et al., 1999). I could not access the Wever article directly to assess quality. However, the Czeisler article takes issue with the ...
3
Using activity monitors on awake patients is very domain specific. You need to equate them on some activity parameters and then look at how the individuals vary across some domain. For example, you could monitor athletes and correlate the amount of physical activity with performance. Or, you could monitor grade school children and look at something like ...
3
There is quite a lot of research on self-awakening (see this search on Google Scholar for self awakening). Hopefully someone else more familiar with this literature can add a more authoritative answer about the mechanisms of self-awakening. In the interem I briefly extract some relevant points from Ikeda and Hashi (2012). The study does not directly address ...
2
I will take a stab at this question, because lucid dreaming is somewhat of an area of expertise of mine.
The first thing that you will notice as you explore the lucid dreaming is that the phenomenon is poorly recognized by modern sleep science. There are hundreds of articles that use scientific methods to study sleep disorders, like sleep apneas, restless ...
2
Just a starting point.
Jean-Louis et al (2000) provide one sample of population adult sample using objective sleep measures. To quote the abstract
Using Actillumes, we investigated whether self-reported sleep
durations were indicative of a population decline in sleep duration.
We also explored illumination and activity patterns. Methods: San
Diego ...
2
Disclaimer: As you have noted yourself, there aren't very many scientific researches on the topic. The only main points that I can derive are generally of blogs or sketchy speculations. As such, you are supposed to take this answer with a grain of salt.
Interesting Thing of the Day notes that polyphasic sleep may make the person awake and alert but have ...
2
Probably just a part of the story, but the locus coeruleus is known to be implied in the wake-sleep cycle.
Furthermore, an experiment on cats demonstrated that removing this structure cause actual (but nonsensical) behaviors replacing normal REM sleep phases: cats have no more REM sleep and instead hunt non-existing rats (or something else who knows).
...
2
I can't find the exact study you had in mind, but I think that you are referring to Dr. Charles Czeisler's seminal (and long-term) work on circadian rhythms.
In a recent study of his, he considered the effect of the wavelength of light on the extent to which it was able to reset the circadian "clock", which is the cycle you are referring to. He did ...
1
If you are searching specific part of the brain, I think that frontal regions of cortex will be an answer(In particular, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex which was associated with self-focused metacognitive evaluation). But, as it common in real life, becoming aware of dreaming state required coordinated work of different parts of brain.
You can read this ...
1
http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2010/08/02/%E2%80%98recovery-sleep%E2%80%99-can-make-up-for-lost-zzzs/
Everything up to 1:25 of this clip should answer your question. It looks like the general answer to your question is "No".
"[...]says Dr. David F. Dinges, one of the study authors and Chief of the Division of Sleep and Chronobiology at the University of ...
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