Machine can be used to induce full night sleep in a few hours

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-- Machine can be used to induce full night sleep in a few hours

Posted by josh4 on May-07-2007 17:53:

Machine can be used to induce full night sleep in a few hours

quote:
Machine Means End To Sleepless Nights

Updated: 09:50, Sunday May 06, 2007
A new discovery could make it possible to take a "power nap" at the flick of a switch.
Scientists have found a way to turn on deep sleep at will using a machine that magnetically stimulates the brain.

A device worn on the head could in squeeze the benefit of eight hours' sleep into just two or three hours.

Scientists in the US used a technique called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to induce slow waves - indicative of the deepest phase of sleep and essential for learning ability and mood, in a group of sleeping volunteers.

A TMS device sends harmless magnetic signals through the scalp and skull and into the brain, where it activates electrical impulses.

The researchers found that positioning the TMS machine the right way triggered slow waves that travelled throughout the brain.

Slow wave activity occupies 80% of sleeping hours.

During slow wave sleep, waves of electrical impulses wash across the brain at a rate of roughly one a second.

With each magnetic pulse, the volunteers' brains immediately generated slow waves typical of deep sleep.

"Creating slow waves on demand could some day lead to treatments for insomnia," said study leader Prof Giulio Tononi, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"Theoretically, it could also lead to a magnetically stimulated `power nap' which might confer the benefit of eight hours' sleep in just a few hours."

Prof Tononi believes sleep is essential to prevent the brain overloading.

Memory involves strengthening synapses - connections between brain cells formed by learning.

Sleep might allow the connections created during the day to relax at night, according to Prof Tononi.

The research appeared in an early edition of the American journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article...1264358,00.html

when things like this come up it scares me how close we are to reaching the concepts once only possible in science fiction

Posted by Sunsnail on May-08-2007 02:20:

I wonder what long term effects would be

Posted by Fir3start3r on May-08-2007 04:35:

quote:
Originally posted by Sunsnail
I wonder what long term effects would be

Just don't go to the kitchen...you'll have a penchant for hanging around the fridge and dodge flying cutlery coming at you!

Posted by Arbiter on May-08-2007 08:13:

(but you're still hungry...)

Posted by Lilith on May-08-2007 08:34:

quote:
Originally posted by Sunsnail
I wonder what long term effects would be

I'd imagine the Circadian rhythm which people run on is going to end up really messy after a while.

Posted by LazFX on May-08-2007 08:44:

quote:
Originally posted by Lilith
I'd imagine the Circadian rhythm which people run on is going to end up really messy after a while.

Oh Circadian rhythm; I knew you so well.....

Posted by Moongoose on May-08-2007 22:38:

A cure for my insomnia That sounds too wonderful to imagine. Also the fact that one could squeeze 8 hours worth of sleep in 2 or 3 hours appeals to my geek side which wants to spend night working on something. As it is im getting about 5 hours sleep on average and still cant seem to get everything done.