sleep
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Mar. 10, 2011 — Scientists have long puzzled over the many hours we spend in light, dreamless slumber. But a new study from the University of California, Berkeley, suggests we're busy recharging our brain's learning capacity during this traditionally undervalued phase of sleep, which can take up half the night. UC Berkeley researchers have found compelling evidence that bursts of brain waves known as "sleep spindles" may be networking between key regions of the brain to clear a path to learning. These electrical impulses help to shift fact-based memories from the brain's hippocampus -- which has limited storage space -- to the prefrontal cortex's "hard drive," thus freeing up the hippocampus to take in fresh data. Spindles are fast pulses of electricity generated during non-REM sleep, and they can occur up to 1,000 times a night.
As we sleep, speedy brain waves boost our ability to learn
Stages of Sleep
Usually sleepers pass through five stages: 1, 2, 3, 4 and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. These stages progress cyclically from 1 through REM then begin again with stage 1. A complete sleep cycle takes an average of 90 to 110 minutes. The first sleep cycles each night have relatively short REM sleeps and long periods of deep sleep but later in the night, REM periods lengthen and deep sleep time decreases. Stage 1 is light sleep where you drift in and out of sleep and can be awakened easily. In this stage, the eyes move slowly and muscle activity slows.
Understanding Sleep: Deep Sleep, REM Sleep, Cycles, Stages, and
The power of sleep Many of us try to sleep as little as possible—or feel like we have should. There are so many things that seem more interesting or important than getting a few more hours of sleep, but just as exercise and nutrition are essential for optimal health and happiness, so is sleep. The quality of your sleep directly affects the quality of your waking life, including your mental sharpness, productivity, emotional balance, creativity, physical vitality, and even your weight.
You probably know how it goes. You've just had lunch and you're back at your desk. 3pm rolls around and home time is still some way off. Then the yawns start and all you can think about is curling up under your desk for a sleep. It's a fairly normal response, and the subject of an abstract at Sleep 2008, the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies. A group of scientists from Loughborough University in the UK presented their work on daytime sleepiness, and whether the best way to combat it was to get up later in the morning, caffeine, or a 20-minute afternoon nap. The study involved 20 healthy adult volunteers, who all averaged around 7.4 hours sleep a night.
Study: naps > coffee, good night's sleep to combat tired
Scientific American: Naps Improve Memory of New Tasks
Mind & Brain :: 60-Second Science :: January 11, 2008 :: Email :: Print A 90-minute nap improved the ability of volunteers to remember a sequence of finger movements better than non-snoozers. --Cynthia Graber reports. If you feel the urge to lay your head down on the desk for an afternoon nap, here’s something to tell your boss: a 90 minute snooze will actually help you remember that new task you just learned. Researchers at the University of Haifa published the results of their nap study in the journal Nature Neuroscience. They tested two groups—each was asked to learn to bring their thumb and finger together in a specific sequence.
If you see a student dozing in the library or a co-worker catching 40 winks in her cubicle, don’t roll your eyes. New research from the University of California, Berkeley, shows that an hour’s nap can dramatically boost and restore your brain power. Indeed, the findings suggest that a biphasic sleep schedule not only refreshes the mind, but can make you smarter. Students who napped (green column) did markedly better in memorizing tests than their no-nap counterparts.
02.22.2010 - An afternoon nap markedly boosts the brain’s learning capacity
It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom. - Aristotle Are morning people born or made? In my case it was definitely made. In my early 20s, I rarely went to bed before midnight, and I’d almost always sleep in late. I usually didn’t start hitting my stride each day until late afternoon.
How to Become an Early Riser
6-7% of adults report delayed sleep phase syndrome and 17% of university students have symptoms that qualify (from a recent study ). My sense is that entrepreneurs, through both cause and correlation, have significantly higher rates of insomnia than the general population. I'll talk a lot more about this relationship in a future post, but the anecdotal evidence of morning-hating entrepreneurs is not difficult to find . If you're like me, you've tried lots of different methods.
Become a morning person. How to end insomnia for $520.99
Good sleep, good learning, good life
Foreword It is everyone's dream to wake up fresh, happy, and ready for action on a daily basis. Sadly, in the modern world, only a small minority lives that dream. Yet the dream is within reach for most healthy people given: a bit of knowledge, and a readiness to make some lifestyle sacrifice. I hope that this article compiles all the basic ingredients of knowledge that are helpful in accomplishing refreshing sleep.How to Sleep More Effectively, Starting Tonight at Personal Development with Ririan Project
“There is a time for many words, and there is also a time for sleep.” - Homer Tired after getting a full nine hours and still feeling exhausted? You sleep the sleep of the innocent – you nod off quickly, don’t have nightmares and have no trouble breathing – and still you can hardly get up in the morning and seldom feel totally awake, no matter how long you slept the previous night. You are suffering from a clear-cut case of ineffective sleep. The good news is that, starting tonight, you can improve the quality of your sleep.
Polyphasic Sleep: Facts and Myths
Contents The law of accelerating returns We live in the times of accelerating acceleration.The Surprising Toll of Sleep Deprivation - Newsweek
How much sleep is enough? Is how sleepy you feel a good judge of whether or not you are getting enough sleep? If you get less sleep than some ideal amount but you feel fine, could you be damaging your health anyway?One Night Of Sleep Not Enough To Make Up Deficit
One Night Of Sleep Not Enough To Make Up Deficit 10 hours of sleep isn't enough to recharge your brain after 5 days of sleep deficit. DARIEN, Ill. – A study in the Aug. 1 issue of the journal Sleep suggests that a dose of extra sleep on the weekend may be good medicine for adults who repeatedly stay up too late or wake up too early during the workweek. However, even a night of 10 hours in bed may not be enough to cure the negative effects of chronic sleep restriction. Results show that neurobehavioral impairments such as increased lapses of attention and delayed reaction times accumulated across a period of five days when sleep was restricted to less than four hours per night.Findings Suggest That A Biphasic Sleep Schedule Not Only Refresh
Main Category: Sleep / Sleep Disorders / Insomnia Also Included In: Neurology / Neuroscience ; Alzheimer's / Dementia Article Date: 22 Feb 2010 - 1:00 PDT Current ratings for: Findings Suggest That A Biphasic Sleep Schedule Not Only Refreshes The Mind, But Can Make You Smarter If you see a student dozing in the library or a co-worker catching 40 winks in her cubicle, don't roll your eyes.I am frequently amazed by my husband's ability to sleep through all kinds of noises that cause me to wake in a flash -- car alarms, smoke detectors that are running low on batteries, and especially kids who have lost track of their favorite blankie in the middle of the night. Thanks to a new study being published in Tuesday's edition of the journal Current Biology, I now know that his brain probably produces more sleep spindles than mine. You see, while we're sleeping, the thalamus -- the part of the brain that receives sensory input like sounds -- tries to relay information to the cortex , where the sounds are actually perceived.